What is happiness? That is, what are people intending to point at, when they use this word?
For the last few weeks I’ve been running an app on my phone called mappiness. At random times during the day, it asks you how “happy”, “relaxed”, and “awake” you are on a scale from “Not at all” to “Extremely”, and what you were doing at the time. I find myself at something of a loss in choosing an answer. I mean, I can be pleased or displeased about specific events or longer-lasting situations, but a general concept of “happiness” does not seem to be a part of my experience. I don’t see an actual thing here. (This is not the first time I’ve had occasion to wonder what other people are talking about, when they use certain words to talk about certain aspects of their internal experience.)
What are psychologists asking for, when they ask people to rate their “happiness” on a scale from “Not at all” to “Extremely” or from 0 to 10? In literal terms, they are asking for a point on that scale. But what are they getting? What do those answers mean? If the answers don’t change following some piece of good fortune (the oft-cited “hedonic treadmill”, and footnotes 7 to 18 above), does that mean that the actual “happiness” has not changed, or only that the scale has been recalibrated? How would one tell?
Maybe, somewhere in the above references, these questions are answered. But if not, the issue casts doubt on a lot of the results cited in the article.
What is happiness? That is, what are people intending to point at, when they use this word?
For the last few weeks I’ve been running an app on my phone called mappiness. At random times during the day, it asks you how “happy”, “relaxed”, and “awake” you are on a scale from “Not at all” to “Extremely”, and what you were doing at the time. I find myself at something of a loss in choosing an answer. I mean, I can be pleased or displeased about specific events or longer-lasting situations, but a general concept of “happiness” does not seem to be a part of my experience. I don’t see an actual thing here. (This is not the first time I’ve had occasion to wonder what other people are talking about, when they use certain words to talk about certain aspects of their internal experience.)
What are psychologists asking for, when they ask people to rate their “happiness” on a scale from “Not at all” to “Extremely” or from 0 to 10? In literal terms, they are asking for a point on that scale. But what are they getting? What do those answers mean? If the answers don’t change following some piece of good fortune (the oft-cited “hedonic treadmill”, and footnotes 7 to 18 above), does that mean that the actual “happiness” has not changed, or only that the scale has been recalibrated? How would one tell?
Maybe, somewhere in the above references, these questions are answered. But if not, the issue casts doubt on a lot of the results cited in the article.