Psychology

Each individual is unique, thus each person possesses different personality traits which determines personal psychological well being. In the real world perception some people are found to be happy while others are sad. The article seeks to evaluate the underlying reasons why some people tend to be happy and others are always sad with the support of psychological theories. The main concern of positive psychology on this article is based on the happiness. Happiness is an emotion in which each individual longs to feel and experience on daily basis. It is defined as feeling of joy, satisfaction and contentment.  In contrary people are responsible for deciding what makes one happy, it is strictly a personal choice to be happy or unhappy(Smithe).  The psychological study of well-being and happiness is relatively still a new field. However, the field has already delivered some powerful insights and advice on positive psychology. The article also discusses the need for happiness among individuals and its benefits.

Psychology Why some People are Happier than Others
Happiness is a state of well being characterized by pleasing experiences which is perceived to be part of positive psychology. Positive psychology is characterized by positive emotions and personality traits.  It is evident that the gaining of happinessis not journeytraveledto,owned,earned,wonorconsumed but it is a spiritualexperience through livingeachminutewithlove,graceandgratitude (Howell, 2009)

Genetic is the largest determinant which contributes to happiness. People are often pre-disposed to certain degree of happiness which is determined by characteristics inherited from parents (Montier, 2004).  The genetic determinant accounts to 50 of individual happiness. Other component of happiness is circumstances. Stable marriage, well paying job, security, good health, high standard of living  and religious believes contributes to personal happiness. The philosophical essence of a person live is that his happiness should depend on external things as little as possible (Howell, 2009). Financial status is equated to happiness. However, some research state that happiness is not equated to wealth and possession of finances since those who valued love more than money were reported to achieve high satisfaction than people who focused on monetary materials (Montier, 2004) and  (Hsee, Xu and Tang, 2008). It is evident that happiness is positively correlated with individual income within a given country at a particular period of time. Rich people are reported to have grater happiness compared to the poor at a particular time. However, increase in happiness as associated with income within nation tends to get smaller and smaller at given period of time as the income rise (Johns and Ormerod, 2007).

It is evident that ranked position of an individuals  is as a result of income which predicts general life satisfaction though absolute income and reference income have no effect on personal satisfaction, Income is not directly linked with individual satisfaction and happiness ( HYPERLINK httppss.sagepub.comsearchauthor1ChristopherJ.BoycesortspecdatesubmitSubmit Boyce,  HYPERLINK httppss.sagepub.comsearchauthor1GordonD.A.BrownsortspecdatesubmitSubmit Brown and  HYPERLINK httppss.sagepub.comsearchauthor1SimonC.MooresortspecdatesubmitSubmit  Moore, 2010).

Changing life circumstances also contributes to increasing level of happiness. People are very good at quick assimilation to current positions. Quick gain of happiness becomes a norm but changing circumstances results to temporary improvement of individuals happiness which only last to specific period of time. This explains a remarkable constant state of happiness, despite a massive growth of income generation which could increase the level of happiness (Montier, 2004). The research on hedonic factors, adaptation and heritage showed that the adaptation of people to circumstances contributed positive changes in the real world and people return to baseline levels of happiness after a certain period of time (Seligman, Steen, Park and Peterson, 2005).

Experienceshave great impact on personal happinessormiserydependsonindividual dispositionsandnotthecircumstances (Howell, 2009). In contrary, raising wealth cannot increase happiness. Happiness is neither always relative nor absolute, it depends on the nature of the consumption experience and use of wealth for personal satisfaction (Hsee, Xu and Tang, 2008). The research done based on psychological perspective showed that conservatives are much happier than liberals, due to difference on demographic background, income, age, education, sex, religion and marital status.  However, demographic factors dint have much effect as compared to religion (Napier and Jost, 2008). Liberals enjoyed thinking in terms of cognitive factors while conservatives preferred simple, unambiguous answers to present circumstances. Liberals dint find satisfaction from current situations. Across North America and Europe, religions people were reported to have high levels of satisfaction and happiness since the group of religious individual tends to be less vulnerable to stress (Myers and Diener, 1995). From the research done it is revealed that major live events such as being married and starting a new relationship contributes to highest positive effect on happiness which closely followed by employment gains (Ballas and Dorling, 2007).

State of happiness make normal life fulfilling and one find satisfaction on the activities they engage on. It is asserted that very happy people have high satisfaction on relationships and friendship, romantic partners and the family members as compared to less happy groups. Positive events and emotions are evident among the happy people daily lives.  It is further suggested that happy people individuals are more extraverted, agreeable and less neurotic. Positive psychology study on happiness shows that subjective happiness is a key factor in subjective well being and overall satisfaction of an individual (Otake, Shimai, Tanaka-Matsumi, Otsui and Fredrickson, 2007).  An important human strength which contributes to subjective happiness is being gratitude, it is evident that most grateful individuals are appreciative and they greatly contribute to the happiness of others. These results to reciprocal relationships among gratitude are subjective happiness and satisfied social relationships (Otake, Shimai, Tanaka-Matsumi, Otsui and Fredrickson, 2007). Importantly, individual daily life is dependent on responsiveness of others to personal needs. A person becomes more happy and grateful when he receives kindness from others and is motivated to practice kindness (Fisher, 2009).

Despite the presence of stress and trauma experiences some individual still display happiness. Happy and unhappy individuals differ systematically depending on cognitive and motivational strategies applied on their emotions (Lyubomirsky, 2008). Happy individuals take events occurring on their lives and daily situations in positive ways which seems to influence their happiness positively, while the unhappy individuals interpret life experiences negatively in ways that seem to reinforce unhappiness. Importantly, research shows that happy people react to events, experiences and circumstances in comparatively optimistic and adaptive ways which increases level of happiness. Several investigations that have been made revealed that unhappy individuals are more likely to reside on negative events and experiences. Such dwelling may drain cognitive resources and thus exposing individuals to various negative pressures, which further reinforces unhappiness on individuals (Lyubomirsky, 2008).

The analyzed research done showed that satisfaction with climate and culture opportunities accounted for the high life satisfaction for Californians. People from California are perceived to be happy and satisfied by their climate compared to Midwesterners (Schkade and Kahneman, 1998).

Psychological Theories in support of Why some People are Happier than Others
Contractual Theory on Happiness
The approach is established to enable understanding on why some people are found to be happy while others are unhappy (Lyubomirsky, 2001). The understanding of the theory is based on cognitive and motivation process which maintains and enhances the happiness. Positive and negative consequences on happiness have potential relevance on individuals endurance towards achievement of happiness. Happiness and unhappiness depends on systematic states of individual temperament. Happy individuals pursues natural life events and situations with aim of  promoting their happiness while unhappy people pursue experiences which has negative effect and reinforces unhappiness on individuals. Most people are found to be relatively happy when they choose to pursue success rather than avoiding failures and are highly committed to achievement of their goals by making progress towards the achievements. Cognitive responses on life events are characterized by positive strategies in response to life victories and defeats (Lyubomirsky, 2001).

Hedonic Theory on Happiness
Approach states that happiness is a matter of raw subjective feelings whereby happy life maximizes the feelings of pleasure and the pain is minimized. The judgment of happiness often differs greatly from the number of happy experiences (Seligman and Royzman, 2003).  Hedonic adaptation is achieved through assimilation to current position in aim of achieving happiness. Hedonic adaptation has severe limitation on ability of changing life circumstances to improve long run happiness. Life circumstances seem not to hold creation of sustainable increases in happiness.

Desire Theory on Happiness
Desire approach suggests happiness is a matter of achieving what one wants.  Individuals desire the best things that are pleasing and will subject individual to little or no pain. The ability to fulfill desire and achieve what is wanted contributes to ones happiness despite the degree of pleasure or pain desire brings. Each individual has a choice to be happy since the desire to earn pleasures and achievements are dependent on the personal will. Positive psychology is often developed since the desire for achievement may result to right action and good character leading to individual satisfaction. Despite the satisfaction from one desire and achievements, value of happy life does not change much (Seligman and Royzman, 2003).    

Conclusion
From the reviews made in the article it is evident that kindness and happiness are closely associated in everyday life. Kind people experiences more happiness, gratitude and good memories since kindness is an important humanity strength that has great influence in subjective well being. Happiness has benefit not only on individuals but also on families, communities and the wider society. The benefits includes high income, high quality work performance, kindness, gratitude, social support, rich social interactions, creativity, charity, self-confident, self-control and good social relationships. Happy people display traits such as self esteem, personal control, optimism and extraversion. It is evident that happiness has three distinct types namely pleasant life, good life and meaningful life
It is evident from the article that the things that make individuals happy are family social relationships, friendship, financial situation, satisfying work, community, personal freedom and personal values, on inner self, attitudes, principles and philosophy of life.