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What Events Make Us Really Happy?

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Y:        What are you smiling about, Don?

D:        I just got a promotion!

Y:        Congratulations! I hate to say it, but your happiness won’t last very long.

D:        What do you mean?

Y:        A research team did a study on how major life events affect our wellbeing, using a sample of 14,000 Australians who had participated in a survey that examines households’ economic and personal well-being, labor market dynamics and family life. They specifically looked at data surrounding 18 major life events.

D:        So which events make us the happiest?

Y:        Marriage, childbirth, and a major financial gain—but they don’t make us happy for as long as you may think. Generally, the positive effects of the events wore off after two years.

D:        And what events have the worst impact on our wellbeing?

Y:        Unsurprisingly, it was the death of a partner or child, a separation, a large financial loss, or a health shock. The good news is that people generally recovered to their original levels of wellbeing after about 4 years. Another interesting part of the study was the gap between affective wellbeing, which is the frequency and intensity of positive or negative emotions, and cognitive wellbeing, which is a more goal-oriented evaluation of life satisfaction. The event that had the biggest gap between the two was childbirth: while affective wellbeing, or what we might call “feeling happy” decreased during the first year after having a baby, cognitive wellbeing, or what we might call “life satisfaction” was pretty high.

D:        Well, even if my happiness about my promotion is fleeting, I want to celebrate. Want to join me?

Y:        Absolutely.

(wikimedia Commons)

A research team did a study on how major life events affect our wellbeing, using a sample of 14,000 Australians who had participated in a survey that examines households’ economic and personal well-being, labor market dynamics and family life. They specifically looked at data surrounding 18 major life events.

The happiest events were marriage, childbirth, and any major financial gain, although none of these make us happy for as long as you may think. Generally, the positive effects of the events wore off after two years.

The events that had the worst impact on our wellbeing were things like the death of a partner of child, a separation, a large financial loss, or a health shock.

The good news is that people generally recovered to their original levels of wellbeing after about 4 years. Another interesting part of the study was the gap between affective wellbeing, which is the frequency and intensity of positive or negative emotions, and cognitive wellbeing, which is a more goal-oriented evaluation of life satisfaction. The event that had the biggest gap between the two was childbirth: while affective wellbeing, or what we might call “feeling happy” decreased during the first year after having a baby, cognitive wellbeing, or what we might call “life satisfaction” was pretty high.

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