Judging your own happiness might lead to negative effects on life satisfaction and psychological health, according to recent studies.
Assessing your level of happiness could lead to setbacks and adversely affect your life satisfaction and mental well-being, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.
In a series of three experiments with over 1,800 participants, researchers discovered that concerns or evaluations regarding personal happiness were linked to decreased well-being, largely due to increased negativity and disappointment surrounding positive experiences.
This study appeared in the journal Emotion.
Overthinking your own happiness may arise from worries about not measuring up or not being as happy as others, explained lead researcher Felicia Zerwas, PhD. At the time of the research, she was pursuing her doctorate at the University of California-Berkeley and is now a postdoctoral researcher at New York University.
“In the United States, societal pressures often promote the mistaken belief that one must feel happy constantly to enhance overall well-being,” she noted. “Overall, embracing your emotions—whether they are positive or negative—without judgment can be a valuable strategy for seeking happiness and improving well-being.”
Unlike some earlier studies, this research indicated that the pursuit of happiness or emphasizing happiness as a primary goal did not harm well-being. However, evaluating one’s happiness level did. The study involved diverse participant samples, including students from Yale University, community members from Denver and Berkeley, California, and online participants from both the United States and Canada.
The participants responded to questions about their happiness beliefs, as well as their psychological well-being and depressive symptoms. Worrying about personal happiness was connected to lower life satisfaction and psychological well-being, alongside an increase in depressive symptoms.
The study also indicated that being preoccupied with personal happiness was linked to a more negative outlook on positive experiences.
“Holding high expectations for one’s happiness can be counterproductive because it hampers our ability to attain the level of happiness we anticipate from a positive event,” Zerwas remarked.
