Last Updated on March 16, 2023 by Mike Robinson
The types of happiness according to the famous psychologist Seligman are pleasurable life, compromised life, relationships, meaningful living and sense of accomplishment.
We could understand happiness as a state of fulfillment where life has positive value If we are happy, we love life, achieve our goals, and enjoy it by not perceiving errors as frustrations but in a constructive and positive way.
Types of Happiness in Psychology
A person who is happy is one who smiles in its entire splendor and enjoys the life it has permanently. Depending on how you understand life, each person will find happiness in one way or another.. Here are the different types of happiness, according to Seligman:
What Types of Happiness Are There?
Although there is some discrepancy in the classifications of types of happiness, we have decided to use it to explain it as being clearer than the others, the one made by Seligman (2002, 2011).
He begins by distinguishing between three distinct forms of happiness and then adds two more that are fundamental to his definition.
Level 1: Positive emotions or pleasurable life
This type of happiness would be one of the most basic and would focus solely on being happy because the person only wants to experience emotions that are not negative but positive. That is, external circumstances govern sensory and emotional pleasures, which may only last for a short while or disappear altogether.
Some examples of this kind of happiness would be: to try a delicious meal; to take a hot shower; to be in the company of people that we like. As we can see, people who are ruled by good feelings can be swayed by outside events and the fleeting and changing pleasures they get from the outside world.
Level 2: Commitment or committed life.
We could say that this type of happiness incorporates the first, the “pleasant life”. In this case, the person would not only focus on enjoying the pleasures that are given to him from the outside, but also his inner being would be involved with all his strength in that activity that is being performed, paying attention to their internal attitudes and not basing them solely on the external circumstances.
So, it is the result of using personal strengths to obtain numerous gratifications in the main areas of existence. People who are at this stage of life could find happiness by putting their inner lives on display and remembering that what happens isn’t as important as how you understand and deal with it.
Some examples would be: to practice sport; to read a book; to play a musical instrument; to paint a picture; to teach something to another person…
Level 3: Relationships
If we are able to enjoy outer pleasures and, in addition, develop our personal strengths, we can situate ourselves on level three of this scale of happiness. There are people who just feel happy when they share their time with others, either by helping them or doing any other activity.
Maintaining relationships in a positive way with the people around us is another requirement for achieving happiness. All human beings need to participate in community life and feel loved and supported to be happy, so we have to devote our time to it.
Level 4: Meaning or Meaningful Life
In this type of happiness, the person uses his virtues and strengths in the service of something outside of him that gives meaning to his life.. Therefore, depending on each person and their characteristics, they will perform some activities or others.
Some, for example, find their level of extreme happiness when they find meaning in their lives by establishing a series of goals such as: helping to make this world more just; facilitating education for disadvantaged people; volunteering for an organization…
Related article. How to Tell Are You Living or Existing
Level 5: Success and sense of achievement
And finally, we reach the fifth type of happiness, according to Seligman. If we have surpassed the previous ones, we can reach the fullness of happiness. As we already know, we need to feel competent and autonomous in our lives. For this, we usually set goals with which we can develop and pursue our successes.
These goals help us to continue to grow as individuals and also at a professional level. Trust will be indispensable to achieving this type of happiness because it is the one that makes us feel competent in what we do.
On the other hand, everything we do in our lives must be accompanied by motivation. This will give meaning to our lives and allow us to make plans and feel fulfilled to reach the last level of happiness.
Happiness in life is made up of factors.
Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, and Shade (2005) have synthesized the three most important factors that determine happiness:
- Reference value. The reference values are those biological type characteristics that we have inherited genetically and that determine our temperament.
According to some investigations involving twins, both univitelinos and bivitelinos, there are 50% of factors that have to do with the genetic inheritance that you cannot modify and that therefore determine our temperament and, therefore, our way of reacting before the events.
- Circumstances. In addition to the previous cause, we also find that the circumstances in which we can live in certain moments can also condition our happiness by 10%.
They are not usually as determinant as they seem, although it is true that they can limit our well-being and, consequently, our happiness. Usually they are, for example, what we believe, our economic income, health…
- The last of the factors that cause happiness refers to our deliberate activity. That is to say, with a value of 40%, the causes of our happiness depend on ourselves, “of what we do in our daily lives and our way of thinking” (Lyubomirsky, 2008).
Therefore, there are three factors that determine our happiness: the biological, the social circumstances, and our ego, “another way of referring to the reference value, the circumstances, and the deliberate activity, respectively” (Lyubomirsky, 2008).
However, although 50% of us are genetically predisposed to and limited in our happiness, the other 40% is still ours. Therefore, we have to be aware of this since being more or less happy depends on ourselves at 40% over 100.
CONCLUSIONS
As we have seen throughout the article, for Seligman, there are five types of happiness or five ways to achieve it. We cannot understand them as something separate since it is difficult to conceive of them in this way since some activities can correspond with each and every one of them depending on their level of complexity or on how we understand them.
Although it is true that they are in a staggered way, people are growing and developing so that different types of happiness can be given simultaneously, one more than the others.
Finding happiness is quite complicated because it depends on many factors: circumstances, reference value, and our deliberate activity, but as we have been able to verify, 40% depends on ourselves, and I would even dare say that the other 10% is intended for the circumstances too.
Therefore, we have to be aware that our happiness depends on ourselves and that if we want to be happy, a good way to do it is to begin to internalize the types of happiness that exist and to climb until reaching the fifth level.
