Pursuing happiness in everyday life: The characteristics and behaviors of online happiness seekers.

Abstract

Although the last decade has witnessed mounting research on the development and evaluation of positive interventions, investigators still know little about the target population of such interventions: happiness seekers. The present research asked three questions about happiness seekers: (1) What are their general characteristics?, (2) What do they purposefully do to become happier?, and (3) How do they make use of self-help resources? In Study 1, we identified two distinct clusters of online happiness seekers. In Study 2, we asked happiness seekers to report on their use of 14 types of happiness-seeking behaviors. In Study 3, we tracked happiness seekers' usage of an iPhone application that offered access to eight different happiness-increasing activities, and assessed their resulting happiness and mood improvements. Together, these studies provide a preliminary portrait of happiness seekers' characteristics and naturalistic behaviors.

Assessing the efficacy and effectiveness of a Positive Psychology-based self-help book

“…This suggests, as Parks et al (2012) and others have found, that participants do not necessarily know best when it comes to choosing self-help activities.…”

“…Schueller & Parks, 2012) and smartphone-based (e.g. Parks et al, 2012) selfhelp programs using positive psychology content.…”

Exploring Filipino adolescents’ conception of happiness

“…That hypothesis was similar to the findings of Heady & Veehoven (as cited in Primasari & Yuniarti, 2010) which capitalized on the influence of happiness to the feeling of satisfaction. What remained constant across different studies is the formulation that happiness is an antecedent, correlate and predictor of positive psychological outcomes (Parks, Della Porta, Pierce, Zilca, & Lyubomirsky, 2012;Lyubomirsky, Diener, & King, 2005). To better understand the dynamics of one's subjective state of well-being, empirical studies were created using quantitative designs (Malkoc, 2011;Toner, Haslam, Robinson & Williams, 2012;Parks, Della Porta, Pierce, Zilca, & Lyubomirsky, 2012;Tkach & Lyubomirsky, 2006;Ganesan & Reyes, 2011) and qualitative designs (Chiu, Hsieh, Yeh, Kuo, Lee, & Yu, 2010;Lu & Gilmour, 2004).…”

“…Several studies have investigated happiness using quantitative research designs (Malkoc, 2011;Toner, Haslam, Robinson & Williams, 2012;Parks, Della Porta, Pierce, Zilca, & Lyubomirsky, 2012;Tkach & Lyubomirsky, 2006;Ganesan & Reyes, 2011). As early as 1960's, happiness was being explored through the use of different survey forms (Argyle as cited in Primasari & Yuniarti, 2010).…”

Psicología clínica positiva y tecnologías positivas

“…En el último ejercicio centrado en el optimismo, se le pide que piense en el mejor escenario futuro que pueda imaginar y que escriba sobre dicho escenario imaginado. Esta aplicación para móviles ha sido sometida a prueba y ha demostrado que mejora el bienestar de los usuarios (Parks, Della Porta, Pierce, Zilca y Lyubomirsky, 2012).…”