A Study of Contributory Factors of Happiness

Abstract

The concept of has gained interest only in last few decades. Argyle (2001) presented a tripartite conceptualization of comprising: (1) average level of satisfaction over a specific time period, (2) frequency and degree of positive affect and (3) relative absence of negative affects as depression and anxiety. According to Veenhoven ( 1994) Happiness can be regarded as a trait if it meets three criteria .... (of) temporal stability, cross-situational consistency and inner causation. Seligman (2002) identified three components of happiness: experiencing positive emotion (the pleasant life), being engaged in life activities (the engaged life), and finding a sense ofpurpose ormeaning (the meaningful life).According to Galimberti (2004), happiness is an aim condition which is accessible to every human being independently from wealth, social condition, intellectual capabilities, and health conditions. Researchers have found that gender (Lucas and Gohm, 2000) , income (Diener & Biswas Diener, 2002), education (Argyle, 2001) , socioeconomic status, family income, marital status, or an indicant of religious commitment do not exert much influence on (Lykken & Tellegen, 1996). However happy people tend to share certain personality traits and when it comes to external factors, only thing that appears to matter is strong social support. The present study aims to find out contributors of from factors intrinsic to person and extrinsic to person. From intrinsic factors present study incorporates following variables: attachment patterns, ego functions, emotional intelligence, inner-other directedness, and meaning in life; and from extrinsic factors, study incorporates stressful life events.Attachment pattern is the propensity of human beings to make strong affectional bonds with others (Bowlby, 1977). Children, over time, internalize experiences with caretakers in such a way that early relations came to form a prototype for later relationship (Bowlby, 1980). These images serve as model for all future, close relationship (Bretherton, 19992). Bartholomew and Horowitz (1991) have systematized Bowlby's conception of internal working models. The model of self and model of other can be combined to describe prototypic forms of adult attachment (Bartholomew, 1990). If a person's abstract image of self is dichotomized as positive or negative i.e. self as worthy of love and support or not and if person's abstracted image of other is also dichotomized as positive or negative i.e. other people are seen as trustworthy and available vs. unreliable and rejecting then four combinations can be conceptualized: secured, preoccupied, dismissing and fearful.The ego is defined as agent that coordinates and organizes impulses and wishes in accordance with demands of reality (Fenichel, 1945), thus monitoring amount of perceived stress, and mobilizes available energy to deal with it. It is basically a multifaceted coping system. Ego functions mediate between environmental input and inner processes. Beliak et al. (1973) identified twelve ego functions namely Reality Testing (RT), Judgment (JD), Sense of Reality of world and of self (SR), Regulation and control of drives, affects and impulses (DC), Object (or Interpersonal) Relationship (OR), Thought Process (TP), Adaptive Regression in service of ego, Defensive functioning (DF), Stimulus Barrier (SB), Autonomous functioning (AF), Synthetic Integrative functioning (SF), and Mastery Competence (MC). Empirical relation between ego function and psychiatric morbidity has been suggested by different researchers (Beliak & Goldsmith, 1984). Basu et al., (1997) found that some of ego functions played a significant role in determining overall psychopathology of depression. On other way, it can be assumed that ego functions would have contributory role in development of happiness. …