Psychologists have not located assured causes that lead people to well-being. David G. Myers in his article “The Funds, Friends, and Faith of Happy People” published in the American Psychologist (2000) and Michael Wiederman in “Why It’s So Hard to Be Happy” published in the Scientific American Mind (2007), discuss the reasons which lead people to be happy, and the factors which contribute to unhappiness. Both authors concur that two factors that might escort people to satisfaction are relationships and personality.
Myers mentions that a correlation, such as need to belong, marriage, and a friend, lead people to happiness since humans share their feelings with each other even if it is negative feelings. As a result, they keep the stress out and don’t suffer from loneliness because they facilitate each other to cope with any problem that might face them. Also, he claims that people who have a close relationship are not weak to get sick and to die early. He, in addition, says that married people are happier than those who are not married because they cope together with their spouse if they have a crisis.
Moreover, social support assists them to deal with crisis as one group, so it becomes easier. However, people who don’t have a relationship might be lonely, unhappy, and stressed, for they don’t have the support that satisfied people have. According to Wiederman, personality also may lead to well-being. Psychologists have found that variations of happiness have a correlation with variations in genes. Therefore, everyone has unique genes which he inherits from his parents, and these genes influence happiness of people. If someone has positive personality traits, he will be a friendly, trusted, a person who feels he has control over his life.
He, therefore, will have a strong relationship which makes him happy, and this point which correlates to well-being is supported by Myers. Both authors agree that flow is one of the aspects which predict to well-being. People who have flow usually become fully engaged in their present time which leads to happiness and they forget the past and future to enjoy their present time. On the other hand, people who don’t experience flow are not fully engaged in their present time which leads them to be unhappy and depressed because they are worried about the future, or they are feeling too dreadful about the past.
The result of that is that flow becomes one of the elements that makes people satisfied. However, Myers and Wiederman also consent that wealth, achievement, and one aspect of inheritance, little voice, might be obstacles to achieve happiness. Myers writes that money cannot buy happiness or bring it. Although people in poor countries are less happy than people in rich countries, some rich people are not as satisfied as regular people in the same country, and some of them don’t know happiness, whereas a few of them are happy because they know how to gain it and how to spend it.
Also, he compares people in the past and the present in the U. S. He concludes that Americans in the past seems happier than Americans now though the economy has been increasing, so wealth cannot escort satisfaction. According to Wiederman, accomplishment also may not lead to well-being since people whose goal is money will not be happy. That is because after achieving their goal, they will compare themselves with those who are richer than them. Then despondency will be their feelings.
Moreover, if their goal is not money, and they are strong-linkers, another two situations may occur. He discusses that strong-linkers might reach their goal and achieve happiness, but sooner they will return back to their baseline of happiness and lose their feelings of happiness. During the time to achieve well-being, they might feel nervous, worried, and fanatical. In addition, if they don’t accomplish their goal, they seek another, for they think that well-being is not in this goal. Therefore, their life will be full of stress, worry, and fear.
Wiederman says that satisfaction may lead to success, but success doesn’t lead to well-being, so people who seek achievement are unhappy. Moreover, he explains that a little voice in our minds, which tells us that our well-being is not in our achieved goal leads us to be depressed. Therefore, we will seek another goal, and we will be under pressure, anxious, and worried. Also, happiness will be far away from where we are. In this situation, we might be a strong-linker as mentioned before. According to Myers, faith has a strong correlation with satisfaction since it has three basic elements.
Religious people who have a perfect relationship with God feel more comfortable and their chance of getting depressed is less than people who don’t have this correlation. These people usually are active which leads them to be healthier and happier. Also, he adds that faith contents a social support from people who have the same belief with you. Therefore, all these basics predict people to deal with crisis and problems in their lives because ” For hunting, six hands were better than two,” Myers says. He also mentions that religious people feel happier due to the word of hope .
According to Wiederman, inheritance might lead people to gain happiness depend on our adaptation and observation to things around us. All people have capability to adapt to negative and positive things. People typically are accustomed to negative things that they experience after awhile. In the light of that, we can forget painful things, and we continue our lives. If we don’t have this ability, when we have unhappy situation, we will not be satisfied most of our lives if it is not all, so adaptation one of the reasons that makes people happy.
Also, humans’ ability to noticing harmful aspects of life is leading them to happiness since if you notice something wrong, you can avoid it or solve it immediately. * I tried hard to connect the idea of inheritance with goal achievement and wealth, but I could not because inheritance just has one side that doesn’t lead to happiness which is a little voice and I connected it with them. However, I left the remaining aspects which are adaptation and observation alone because they are opposite. ( I hope that I am right).
