Happiness

"In a 2002 study of college undergraduates published in the journal Psychological Science, Dr. Diener and Dr. Seligman identified 22 students who scored in the top 10 percent on various measures of happiness. They then compared them with 60 others who scored average in happiness, and 24 others who measured as very unhappy.
The happiest students were more social; spent less time alone; had strong relationships with friends, family and lovers; and almost never thought of suicide. Dr. Diener and Dr. Seligman found, though, that a rich social life did not guarantee happiness. Some of the most unhappy students said that they had good relationships.
Dr. Diener said that even the happiest students had bad days and could be moody, which showed that their emotional systems were working properly.

Dr. Diener developed several ways to measure well-being. One of them, the Satisfaction With Life Scale, consists of five statements that were posed to respondents, in small and large studies, like “In most ways my life is close to my ideal” and “The conditions of my life are excellent.” The respondents were asked to answer each on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).
Another, the Flourishing Scale, asks people to rank, also from 1 to 7, statements like “I lead a purposeful and meaningful life” and “My social relationships are supportive and rewarding.”

Dr. Diener believed that governments needed metrics to guide policies that would improve society.
“I argue that we need a Dow Jones of Happiness that tells us how our nation is doing in terms of engagement at work, trust in our neighbors, life satisfaction and positive emotions,” he wrote in his autobiographical essay."