What I really want is to be happy. Will values make me happy?

Questions about values and happiness need to begin by understanding what we mean by happiness. When psychological researchers study this topic they often use a concept called subjective well-being (SWB).  In the SWB way of understanding happiness, I am happy if I have positive feelings – I just feel good.  These feelings can be small or big so that I can be happy because I see a lovely sunset or I can be happy that science is making progress in the fight against breast cancer.  When researchers want to measure this kind of happiness, they calculate whether I have more happy or unhappy moments.  The more feel good moments – the happier I am.  Another way of approaching the idea of happiness is by looking at my life satisfaction – going beyond momentary feelings and having a meaningful or values-driven life.

Recently, researchers have studied the differences between a happy and a meaningful life (Baumeister et al., 2013) surveying a group of adults at three points over a month and asking questions about happiness and meaningfulness. They found that happiness and meaningfulness substantially overlapped.  For example feeling connected to others, feeling productive, and not being alone or bored were part of both meaningfulness and happiness.  But there were also differences.  Getting what you want increased happiness but not meaning.  Happiness was linked to being a taker but meaningfulness went with being a giver. Being concerned with personal identity and expression contributed to meaning but not happiness. In general, meaningfulness was linked to doing things to express yourself and in particular to doing positive things for others. Probably if I want to be happy, I need some happy moments with glorious sunsets but I also need follow a road that leads toward the things that I value. 

Reference

Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., Aaker, J. L., & Garbinsky, E. N. (2013). Some key differences between a happy life and a meaningful life. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 8(6), 505-516. doi:10.1080/17439760.2013.830764