Happiness Research..

[Gota]

I want to address the OP's Article.
It seems they make conclusions based on what People answer to questionairs etc..How do they know there isn't a difference or even a big difference between The perception of How happy a person is in general or while doing a certain activity and how happy he really is?
Maybe a mother taking care of her kids is happy while doing it but when thinking about it in retrospect thinks its not such a rewarding/fun experience?
An ideal experiment Would observe people without their knowledge and measure physiology when they are involved in all sorts of activities or are a part of some situation like winning the lottery.
Maybe I am just too ignorant and the questionnaires are written in such a way that allows to extract the real opinion or feeling people had about different situations when they were doing them even though the questionnaires are presented at later date...


There is this theory about "the flow".
This is a state in which we are happy,feel motivated and feel we are are taking part in something grander than ourselves.
Every person reaches that state in different ways.
You reach it when the thing u are doing is right at the edge of your ability and you have the right skills to tackle the problem.

Its a combination of being skilled at something and the need to use that skill doing something that is challenging to you but not overwhelming.

In a way the perfect and most easy to talk about example is a well crafted game where you have virtual tasks that require the exact skill set you have when you are asked to engage in those tasks.