What makes us happy?
A UC education professor says community matters
Maybe to some degree. But a new international study suggests the communities we live in matter a whole lot, too. Researchers analyzed responses from 97,220 people across 66 countries and identified five broad factors associated with happier societies.
Yahoo.Life carried a story from Upworthy about the study and quoted Suzie White, an assistant professor in the UC School of Education, who studies student well-being, the neuroscience of social connection and belonging in K-12 school, along with parent and community engagement. She wasn’t an author of the report, but she weighed in on its findings.
Published in The Journal of Positive Psychology, the study examined more than 200 social and psychological variables before narrowing its focus to 56 that were associated with happiness. One of the study's biggest takeaways was that a society's well-being can't be explained simply by adding up the happiness of the people who live there.
Dr. Suzie White
Study researchers grouped their findings into five drivers of happiness: individual emancipation, Enlightenment ideas and institutions, satisfying basic human needs, effective governing and security institutions, and community connectedness, according to the Upworthy story republished in Yahoo Life.
While happiness isn’t a solo journey, it’s often the preferred path because it feels easier to focus on oneself than a community as a whole.
"We live in a consumer society, where brands tell us that our happiness will improve when we buy their product,” White told Upworthy. “We receive messages daily that happiness is within our grasp. It then makes sense that we believe that through self-care, grit, extra effort (and maybe a purchase), we, too, can be happy."
She goes on to suggest, “Investing your time in community is not a distraction from your happiness. It is a pathway to happiness. Consider how large your circle of care is, then widen it."
White teaches the class Happiness in Action at UC, which applies the science of happiness to everyday life. Students learn how to develop action-oriented strategies and implement research-based skills for improving their own happiness.
Read the full Upworthy story carried by Yahoo Life online.
Learn more about Dr. White online.
Featured top image of a family enjoying a fun day is provided by iStock.
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