is that average levels of happiness in the United States have risen very little if at all over the past 50 years despite substantial growth in per capita incomes.13

Yet psychologists report that those who attach great importance to achieving wealth tend to suffer above-average unhappiness and disappointment.21

the percentages of Americans who declare themselves “very happy,” “pretty happy,” or “not too happy” are almost exactly the same as they were half a century ago.

Another interesting finding is that volunteering or performing acts of kindness contributes significantly to happiness.57

Rather, apart from such basic conditions as how well people feel, how much freedom they enjoy, and whether they possess the necessities and comforts of life, the most important sources of happiness seem to include having close relationships with family and friends, helping others, and being active in community, charitable, and political activities.

People do not always know what will give them lasting satisfaction. They tend to focus too much on their initial response to changes in their daily lives and overlook how soon the pleasure of a new car or a pay raise or a move to warmer climes will disappear and leave them no happier than before. Conversely, they often fail to realize how quickly t

The second discovery of psychologists (including the Nobel Prize-winning Daniel Kahneman) is that people are often surprisingly bad judges of what will make them happy.14

“a person is said to have high [well-being or happiness] if she or he experiences life satisfaction and frequent joy, and only infrequently experiences unpleasant emotions such as

Whatever marriage brings, longitudinal studies suggest that its termination—whether from divorce, separation, or the death of a spouse—leads to a sharp loss of happiness for many people.33