Have they done any studies into why some people always seem to be happy, or at least content, even when life gets rough?

Yes, Dr. Donald O. Clifton conducted an extensive study on the effects of Positivity in conjunction with The Gallup Organization.

You might enjoy reading Clifton’s book, How Full is Your Bucket? The book includes a code that allows the owner to take an assessment to learn what their Top Five Strengths are. The book and the assessment results are fascinating. (Just make sure to buy the book new and not used, as the previous owner probably already used the code.)

There is a guy I work with who is always happy. He works 12 hour shifts every day, never gets a chance to sit down, but some how, is always happy and friendly and polite.

I happened to get a glance of his pay check the other day, I’m now guessing that earning what 8 men earn in a month in just 1 month goes a long way towards helping people be happy.

I have seen various studies on happiness, and I’m sure a bit of Googling will point you to some specifics. While I certainly don’t mean to be flippant in my response, depression (at least in the clinical sense) is an imbalance in brain chemistry.

I do think that you’ll find some common traits running through people who generally consider themselves to be happy: resiliency (the ability to hold up to and overcome stress); a view of the world that is broad rather than narrow (the ability to see past the immediate hurdles); an innate sense of survival. I’m putting my words and my interpretations to my recollection of the various studies I’ve seen, and I’m certainly not a psychologist.

Cool @Pied_Pfeffer! I like the way they phrased it….“Do studies on what’s right with people!”

There appears to be an optimistic gene.

Cool @zen

Here is a video link describing Strengths Finder – Positivity. Positivity is one of 34 Strengths that the Gallup Organization discovered during their 50 years of research..

A friend of mine would laugh if her arse was on fire :-/ I’m very fortunate to have her as a friend, she’s been there for me more times than she would admit…. I’d be rich if I could bottle her resolve………
I just don’t know how she does it?????? :-/

I think it’s inherited brain chemicals. But some of those happy people like the guy who worked outside in 100 degrees on our porch six hours a day have tempers. He smiled and joked with sweat dripping off the towel on his head but he had some kind of temper.

Chemical imbalance—in the other direction. Chemically well-balanced people feel both happy and sad.

I’d have to do some googlage, but I’d imagine it’d be related to their dopamine and/or seratonin levels and their respective inhibitors.

(I know this doesn’t directly answer the question, but most of the studies on “happy people” seem to find behaviors that I would guess would be a result of people being happy and not the cause of their happiness)

All of the “happy” people I know well enough are also some of the ones that have been through the most. Some have a history, or family history (and the possible genetic disposition) for depression. Some have addictive personalities. None have lived a scar-free life.

They just decide not to let it define them.

When it’s bad, they wake up and decide to make it through. Someone always has it worse. When it’s good, they’re more thankful than most and that’s what they remember, that’s what they talk about, that’s what they focus on.

Goldie Hawn has been very interested in happiness and happy people and talked about it on Oprah. There were experts on the show who have studied happiness. Here is a link that has a happiness quiz, and lower on the page are links to happiest cities, happiest jobs, and more.

Yes, plenty. Here are some excellent researchers and authors: Martin Seligman, Caroline Adams Miller, Ed Diener, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Daniel Goleman, Karen Armstrong, David Myers, Kim Cameron, Barry Schwartz, Liz Hoggard, Richard Stevens, John Gottman, Matt Ridley.

About 50% of our happiness is determined by our genes and 10% by our life circumstances. The rest is up to us. The research to determine the numbers is based on identical twin studies.

If you like I can email you some material I’ve compiled. Increasing happiness is a skill that can be learned.

Well, I’m glad I got the happy gene!

My sister has had a lot happen to her and she’s just compartmentalized it in a weird way. She lives in a strange make believe kind of world where nothing bad has happened.

Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt.

@tranquilsea That isn’t what I’m referring to.

Hi @Dutchess_III a current affairs programe we have hear called Compass had an episode on last night about a one-year program about positive education. The idea was to build optimism and resilience in the young people. Given you are an educator, this might be of interest to you. The program hasn’t been uploaded yet but will be available to watch on this link shortly I would say. link

Certainly, there has been research into happiness, what results in happiness and whether we can be trained to be happy. There was another documentary on here about a year ago on this very topic. It was called “Making Australia Happy”. Here is a link to the website and this program. link

I personally think we can train ourselves to be happier. I think we all have our own natural tendency to be either more negative or optimistic and this is undoubtedly influenced by genetics. However, I think our happiness and resilience is also affected by our environment. Therefore, if we can change our environment and the way we manage our responses, we can learn to be more positive. I can’t remember the details, but I know there have also been studies into the way different people manage stress and conflict in their lives. People may go through the same types of conflict but respond totally differently. It is all about that resilience factor I think and the way we view our own ability to control and manipulate our lives. Whether we see things as being done to us and we have no control or not.

Hope these programs are of interested anyway.

lol I just noticed I typed hear instead of here. Far out…

My sister was/is an extreme case. I was very happy go lucky after a lifetime of crap for a while because I had just stuffed it away. Some people are able to this for a lifetime, others for a long period of time and still others not at all. With me, I got to a point where I just couldn’t ignore it anymore and I crashed. I’ve talked to other people who eventually crashed at 40…or 50 or 60.

I guess it just depends on who you are and what you’ve been through but most importantly what kind of support system you have as you deal with your “issues”.

I don’t know @tranquilsea….I had virtually NO support system through the hardest times of my life. I’ve never stuffed anything away, or ignored anything. I dealt with everything head on. I’ve never crashed.

I think there are people who are just content and level most of the time and they can’t help it.