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I admire the people who are able to dedicate themselves to researching something which must be frustratingly difficult to objectively measure. I can barely tolerate getting through articles on environmental exposure to toxins or on nutrition without my head spinning from the subjectivity. The thought of researching happiness? Ugh!

I suppose if you believe that those who believe they are happy truly are happy, then you could really measure it by asking them. If a person living in the US says they are happy, then we can say they are, too. If that person then moves to Sweden and discovers that they are even happier, and now feel that earlier they were wrong because they didn't even know what true happiness WAS before moving to Sweden...well, now what?  They believed they were happy then, so we have to believe they were. But you could argue then that you can't measure it by what people say, because maybe they just don't know what happy is. But they must know it for them!  So it's a giant circle of debating whether anyone has a grasp on their own happiness.

One thing I have noticed is that attitudes in the US and Germany are very different.  I think an American would be more likely to think that the RIGHT answer to "Are you happy?" is "Yes" and say that even if they aren't totally convinced themselves, thereby overestimating their happiness. A German would be more likely to underestimate his or her own happiness. But, again....think it and be it. If you say you are, maybe you really are.

Too much for me to think about.

Psychologists must really need something to do to keep busy and spend their precious grants on. At the end all applications will be for commercial purposes that may further disadvantage the consumer and prejudice some sector (I'm not saying all their research amounts to this).

When I was a kid, I was hyperactive and cannot sit in one place. Some classes in school bored me and I was probably happier to play than sit there (either that or I fall asleep) which was of course apparent to my teachers - I got extra projects to do every now and then (). In this generation, I would have been diagnosed with ADHD and force my parents to cough up precious resources to 'correct me'.

That said, there are intangibles that may have to just remain intangible. Our generation is a bit gullible to what 'experts' say research shows and the subliminal message of these results could sometimes fodder unfair assumptions. As according to the article 'SWB was a significant predictor of mental health levels', thank goodness that my country is within the mid-section of the SWB projection. Does that mean I'm happy enough based on the components of the research? I don't know, I don't live there.