What
Factors do not Predict Happiness?
Research tells us that the
following factors are not strong predictors of happiness.
Money: The correlation between actual
wealth and people’s perceptions of whether they have enough money to meet their
needs is surprisingly modest.
-With persuasive
advertising and escalating material wants – people feel that they cannot afford
what they need and want therefore they feel dissatisfied with their income.
-People are so focused
on financial success that they don’t derive much satisfaction from family life.
-Higher income is
associated with working longer hours leaving less time for leisure pursuits.
Age:
Age and happiness are consistently found to be unrelated. Age accounts for less than 1% of people’s
happiness. There may be a shift in focus as people become older – work becomes
less important and health becomes more important – but people’s average level
of happiness remains relatively constant over a lifetime.
Parenthood: Children can be a great source
of joy and fulfillment, but they can also be a tremendous source of stress.
Compared to childless couples – parents experience more marital problems.
However, the positive and negative aspects of parenthood balance each other
out, because research shows that people who have children are neither more nor
less happy than people without children.
Intelligence and Attractiveness:
Intellect and physical
attractiveness are highly valued by our society. Research has found no
direction correlation between these characteristics and happiness.
What makes you unhappy?
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