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Happiness is a state we all want to achieve, but what exactly is happiness and how to be in that state is very subjective and depends upon person to person. The present study was aimed to explore the meaning and conception of happiness among College students. Total 48 college students (ages range 18 to 24 year old) were selected from private universities of Greater Noida. The study employed qualitative-descriptive research design. Findings showed that happiness is a multifaceted construct as: Self orientation, Enjoyment, Other oriented, Positive Thoughts, Achievements, Work Life Balance, Purpose in Life, satisfaction, Determination, Spend time with love ones. Self orientation as components of happiness was found difference on the level of age. The findings of the research conclude the several of happiness and provide further research suggestions in the psychology of happiness.
Keywords: happiness, qualitative research, college students
Happiness is the cherished goal of every person in every phase of life, but what constitute happiness is very subjective. According to Veenhoven (1991), the interest in happiness and well-being dates back to Greek philosophers. Dating back to Aristotle's (384322 BCE) who gave the notion of eudemonia according to which happiness is a lifetime of virtuous activity (excellence) made possible by the opportunity of leisure, leisure being the condition of freedom from the need to labour as well as freedom for the noble exercise of a person's highest capacities, as quoted by (Sylvester, 2005). Further more, according to Aristuppus (435366 BCE), who tried to explain happiness with Hedonism i.e., happiness is a matter of raw subjective feelings maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. Combining the two views Eysenck and Eysenck (1990) states that happiness is equal to satisfaction plus hedonic level, hedonic level is the degree to which pleasant emotions overweight unpleasant emotions.
In the recent times Myers and Diener did lot of research on happiness and concluded that happiness is primarily a subjective phenomenon "for which the final judge is whoever lives inside a person's skin" (Myers & Diener, 1950). According to Lyubomirsky (2001), happiness is relative to our past experience as also to our comparisons with others, Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adult to children and by children to adults...