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What happiness is · Lesson 1 of 11

What Happiness Means and How Researchers Measure It

Learn what researchers mean by happiness, how the 0 to 10 ladder question measures it, and what a short course can honestly do for you.

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In this first lesson you will see what researchers mean by happiness, how they measure it and what a short course like this can and can’t do for you. A clear definition matters because it tells you what you are actually trying to improve.

Two kinds of happiness

Researchers split happiness into two parts. The first is how you feel through the day: calm, cheerful, stressed or sad. The second is how you rate your life as a whole, when you step back and think about it.

A good day and a good life are related, but they are not the same thing. You can have a calm, pleasant Tuesday and still feel your life is not going where you want. You can also have a stressful week and still rate your life highly.

Two cards side by side. The left card, How you feel day to day, shows four mood faces from morning to evening. The right card, How you rate your life, shows a person looking at a framed picture. A label below says Related, not the same.(opens the full-size picture)
Feelings through the day and a rating of your whole life are two different measures.

The ladder question

To measure the second part, world surveys use one simple question. Imagine a ladder with steps from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top is the best possible life for you, and the bottom is the worst. Which step are you on right now?

More than 100,000 people in over 140 countries answer this question every year, so it gives researchers a common yardstick. You will use it yourself in the exercise below.

A ladder with numbered steps from 0 to 10. The top step is labeled Best possible life and the bottom Worst possible life, and a small person stands on step 6. Beside it, a big number says 100,000+ people answer it every year, with a chip that says 140+ countries.(opens the full-size picture)
One question, a ladder from 0 to 10, asked of people all over the world.

Five ingredients of wellbeing

One well-known model lists five ingredients of wellbeing: good feelings, getting absorbed in what you do, relationships, meaning and a sense of accomplishment. In one survey, scores on the five mostly moved together with plain overall happiness.

That makes the list useful as a map of where good days can come from. If one ingredient feels thin lately, you know where to look. It is not a proven recipe, though, and nobody has shown that raising one ingredient will lift the rest.

Five cards in a row: a smiling face labeled Good feelings, a person absorbed at a desk labeled Getting absorbed, two people labeled Relationships, a compass labeled Meaning, and a flag on a hill labeled Accomplishment. A chip below says A map, not a recipe.(opens the full-size picture)
Five places good days can come from, used as a map and not a recipe.

Happy does not mean always cheerful

Being happier does not mean feeling good all the time. Sad, angry or worried days are part of a normal life, even a happy one. Hard feelings often carry useful information, so switching them off is not the goal.

The aim of this course is smaller and more realistic: to tilt your days a little more toward the good.

A red-crossed card reading Happy means always cheerful. Below it, a week of seven mood faces, mostly smiling with one neutral and one frowning. Beside them a balance tips gently toward a sun, with the words A little more toward the good.(opens the full-size picture)
Hard days are part of a happy life too.

An honest note about size

Most ideas in this course have small effects in studies, not life-changing ones. Small effects can still add up over weeks, which is why the course asks you to try things, not just read about them.

This course is not a treatment

If low mood fills most of your days for more than two weeks, talk to a doctor. In a crisis, call your local emergency number.

Three short green bars of similar size labeled Gratitude, Strengths and Savoring, under the heading Small effects in studies, with a chip that says Small, but they add up. On the right, a doctor card reads Low mood most days for 2+ weeks: see a doctor, and a phone card reads Crisis: call your local emergency number.(opens the full-size picture)
Small effects, and clear signs that it is time to get help.

The road ahead

The course starts with why we guess wrong about what will make us happy, and what money can and can’t do. Then it covers relationships, gratitude, kindness, savoring and your strengths. After that come flow, comparison and social media. Finally, you plan your own happiness experiments.

A row of ten numbered stops with small drawings: a crystal ball for Guessing wrong, a coin for Money, two people for People, a calendar for Gratitude, a gift for Kindness, a picture frame for Savoring, a star for Strengths, a person absorbed at a desk for Flow, a phone for Compare, and a clipboard for Your plan.(opens the full-size picture)
Ten stops, from guessing wrong to your own plan.

YOUR TURN

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Read the full lesson script

Welcome to The Science of Happiness. In this first lesson, you'll see what researchers mean by happiness, how they measure it, and what a short course like this can and can't do for you.

Researchers split happiness into two parts. The first is how you feel through the day: calm, cheerful, stressed or sad. The second is how you rate your life as a whole, when you step back and think about it. A good day and a good life are related, but they're not the same thing.

To measure the second part, world surveys use one simple question. Imagine a ladder with steps from zero at the bottom to ten at the top. The top is the best possible life for you, and the bottom is the worst. Which step are you on right now? More than a hundred thousand people in over a hundred and forty countries answer it every year.

One well-known model lists five ingredients of wellbeing: good feelings, getting absorbed in what you do, relationships, meaning, and a sense of accomplishment. In one survey, scores on the five mostly moved together with plain overall happiness. So treat them as a map of where good days come from, not a proven recipe.

Being happier doesn't mean feeling good all the time. Sad, angry or worried days are part of a normal life, even a happy one. The aim of this course is to tilt your days a little more toward the good, not to switch off the hard feelings.

Here's an honest note. Most ideas in this course have small effects in studies, not life-changing ones. Small effects can still add up over weeks. And this course isn't a treatment. If low mood fills most of your days for more than two weeks, talk to a doctor. In a crisis, call your local emergency number.

Here's the course. You'll see why we guess wrong about what makes us happy, and what money can and can't do. Then relationships, gratitude, kindness, savoring and your strengths. After that, flow, comparison and social media. Finally, you'll plan your own happiness experiments.

So remember: happiness has two parts, how you feel and how you rate your life. Five ingredients point to where good days come from. And the effects are small, but they add up. Before the next lesson, rate your life today on the zero to ten ladder, and write down one thing that pulls your number up. Next, you'll see why we so often guess wrong about what will make us happy.