A Systematic Review of the Determinants of Happiness (Article)

I found this article (which may possibly already be on the forum in another thread) and thought it might be good to discuss. (Published February 2023)

Excerpt:

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The aim of this study was to review the literature on what constitutes happiness across cultures and countries to advance scholarly knowledge on the happiness construct. A systematic review was conducted to examine the determinants of happiness in samples across cultures and countries. ...

...Myriad determinants of happiness were found that were placed into three broad categories labeled Health, Hope, and Harmony. The predominant happiness determinants were mental, emotional, and physical well-being, a purposeful holistic work–life balance, nurturing social relationships, caring for self and others, and being in harmony with one’s culture, traditions, community, religion, and environment. This study engendered an “Integrated Model of the Determinants of Happiness” to provide a universally applicable conceptualization of the happiness construct. By examining studies on determinants of happiness across the globe in the past 90 years, this review uncovered that happiness constitutes multiple determinants that fall under three major categories: ‘Health’, ‘Hope’, and ‘Harmony’.

Health, Hope, and Harmony: A Systematic Review of the Determinants of Happiness across Cultures and Countries

Health, Hope, and Harmony: A Systematic Review of the Determinants of Happiness across Cultures and Countries - PMC

I would recommend to not let the author's word choice of "hope" be an issue, as for myself I could imagine other labels used such as "anticipations".

It is worth reading for anyone interested in development of happiness, and he both provides a definition and the determinants, however there is also mixed in the scientific methodology so you'll need to read past that to get to the heart of it.

I need to see if there are further summaries or writings based on this. Will post more on this soon.

In the opening paragraph of the Letter to Menoeceus it says:

"We must then meditate on the things that make our happiness, seeing that when that is with us we have all, but when it is absent we do all to win it."

The article on the Determinents of Happinss mentions Aristotle's definition of happiness in the introduction:

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“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim, and the end of human existence.” The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle said these words more than 2000 years ago, and they still ring true today. In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, happiness is described as the human good that we all aim for its sake alone, and Freud emphasized that happiness is something we strive towards, desire to attain, and maintain throughout our lives [1,2,3]. The 1776 U.S. Declaration of Independence states that all men have a right to “the pursuit of happiness,” where the notion of happiness is equated to the attainment of a worthy life [4].

Moreover, the concept of happiness is gaining increasing popularity within and across cultures [5,6,7], so much so that in recent years, there has been a shift in measuring economic production to measuring happiness as an indicator of social development and individual welfare across nations [8].

There is a graph with text which shows the three categories of the article's focus, and sections have a (+) for positive influences and a ( - ) for negative influences.

This link goes to that page:

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Integrated-Model-of-the-Determinants-of-Happiness-Note-Figure-3-depicts-the-three-key_fig3_368527437

As for comparing this to Epicureanism, we can roughly see that there are "goods" which lead toward well-being. Also, Epicurus has his own set of "goods" as compared to Aristotle's goods (though there are overlaps). Perhaps we need a table of comparision on that.

I'll be posting more on this article again.

More from the above article:

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...the three key categories of happiness and their underlying determinants. Health: a complete state of mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Hope: the highest degree of a well-founded expectation of goal achievement, personal, and economic growth. Harmony: a state of being in alignment with aspects of social, familial, cultural, religion, and environmental.

Here is a comparison between the subcategories found in the above article, and Epicurean philosophy -- this is really a for fun and loose comparison, and brings up some interesting food-for-thought.

(Article subcategories on the left, Epicurean textual quotes on the right. Please note, that these textual quotes are not in any way part of the article).

(There may be other textual quotes that could further be added, but these are it for now. Please post any others if you wish).

I'm adding here something further with regard to the introduction of the article on the Determinents of Happiness mentioning Aristotle's definition of happiness ("Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim, and the end of human existence.”- see post 2 above). Most people haven't been educated about Epicurus' take on happiness, (and if they are, their understanding is often over-simplified). Letter to Menoeceus says: "We must then meditate on the things that make our happiness, seeing that when that is with us we have all, but when it is absent we do all to win it." Perhaps Epicurus had other succinct definitions (perhaps in his book "On Life Courses" which is lost to us). But we do have the Cicero's Torquatus section and the Wall of Diogenes of Oinoanda.

There are a number of threads discussing what is happiness, such as this one as well as whole sub-forums. These may all need to be sorted and refreshed, and then I'll add more links so that we can all clearly reference Epicurus' take on happiness.