Happiness as an emotional and cognitive perfomative process

Abstract

Happiness is a universal human aspiration. Its nature is subjective and its character emotional, hence the difficulties to understand and measure it. Happiness is a body and identity constructing emotional and cognitive process where happiness is, in turn, constructed; in this sense, is an inter-relational performative emotion fused in the body, merged with the mind and the spirit and synchronized with the action. The present research aims at understanding the composition of the happy experiences and the relation between the activities that characterize us and the resulting happy experiences. To answer the essential questions, what is happiness?, how do we measure it?, which are its main components?, and what determines how happy we are?, we have used data from WVS (2010-2014) and ESS (2014).