Measurement of Happiness: Refined Approaches to the Evaluation of Happiness as a Complex Emotion

Abstract

Happiness as a sophisticated human emotion has been perplexing the psychological community due to the numerous challenges that stand in the way of achieving accurate objective measurements. Unlike conditions such as depression, where the field of psychiatry has found approaches of measurement through the widely studied neurological system with anatomical structures and neurotransmitters, the indicators of happiness remained unclear for an extended period of time in the psychological field. Hence, the common approaches to measuring happiness in the present day highly depend on self-reports through the form of questionnaires, leading to potential biases and inaccuracies. This paper consists of an overview of the barriers that constitute hardships of measurement, and reviews of literature studies that suggest novel ways of making the measurement of happiness subjective and concrete. With the advancement in the understanding of the neurological, behavioral, physiological, as well as alternative approaches, the measurement of happiness could potentially see a surge in accuracy. It is only with continuous development and sparks of advanced ideas that the concept of happiness can be assured with finer understanding.