Four Kinds Of Happiness

Veenhoven (2006) elaborated four kinds of satisfaction. Though the word satisfaction has different meanings, he elucidated the word using a simple scheme. Pleasure is the first kind of satisfaction which is common to be sensory such as a glass of cold water, reading a novel, and riding a bike. The idea here is hedonism and happiness is used to denote a particular pleasant experience. Part-satisfaction is the second kind of satisfaction which concerns on the domain of life such as working-life, home-life, and social-life. On the contrary, top-experience, the third kind of satisfaction, pertains to an experience that is described as intense, pervasive, and “oceanic”. This ecstatic form of satisfaction is typically referred to as bliss. It is

Happiness has three dimensions namely the pleasant life, the good life, and the meaningful life. The pleasant life is achieved if an individual learns to appreciate and value the basic pleasures like companionship, the natural environment and bodily needs. The first dimension of Seligman regarding happiness is in contradiction of Veenhoven’s idea. According to Seligman, happiness is not merely pleasure and stimulation of the basic senses. He further argued that an individual can evolve from this initial stage if he or she can experience the good life which is realized through discovering one’s set of values and strengths, and employing them productively to advance lives. Modern theories of self-esteem established the idea of believing one’s abilities and worth or value. It is the extent to which one likes, accepts, and respects oneself (Masters & Wallace, 2011). Likewise, life is only genuinely satisfying if one is able to discover the value within. One of the most superlative ways of discovering this value is through nourishing strengths with the goal of contributing to the happiness of others. The concluding stage which is meaningful life pertains to the deep sense of fulfillment by employing the strengths not only for oneself. The theory reconciles two contradicting views of human happiness between individualistic approach and altruistic

It is not only the possible determinants of happiness that were explored in different fields but also factors that may influence the individual’s happiness. Sustainable Scale Project explained that money or financial wealth is not the most significant determinant of happiness but rather it is the work and dynamics of non-material factors. The support of the family, peers, and community, a meaningful role in life, and basic freedoms were identified to be the genuine determinants of happiness. The findings of Kingdon (2009) supported the article released by SSP which he stated that health, employment status, marriage status, age, religious belief and activity, and trust and honesty determine the happiness of the individual. Weaver and Habivov (2014) have also reported that gender moderately influences happiness and that males have higher level of happiness compared to