Happiness research studies: Can’t we be happy about them?

How can we not be happy about happiness research studies? This research finds all sorts of benefits from happiness and other positive emotion strategies. Not to mention the encouraging finding that we can actually boost our own happiness by engaging in certain behaviors. But is happiness research all it’s cracked up to be? 

It won’t make you too happy to hear that a lot of happiness research has shown a number of issues that call validity into question. Together, many happiness studies show mixed results. Some studies find that certain strategies are very effective to induce or prime happiness. Whereas others find those same strategies do not bring about happiness. For example, some studies show that producing smiles leads to feeling happy inside, whereas other studies do not. 

This brings up the point that many happiness studies have been difficult to replicate. Replication difficulties also call the validity of any findings into question. If a study’s results cannot be replicated in later studies, it is difficult to know why the initial study truly found what it did. However, researchers have frequently replicated some findings on happiness. For example, increasing one’s sociability leads to increased positive mood and decreased negative mood.

Second, many researchers studying happiness did not use standard methods to help ensure they measured what they intended to study (e.g., validity). For example, some studies do not measure important variables that may otherwise account for what researchers find in those studies. Other studies may not use control groups when testing the effects of a strategy.

Some researchers are investigating happiness and other positive emotions in more rigorous ways. Sonya Lyubomirsky and her colleagues have tested the best conditions to make positive emotion strategies work. In particular, they found that the timing and frequency of a strategy matters (i.e., “dose effects”). For instance, they found that gratitude journaling about five things to be grateful for approximately once per week was more effective than gratitude journaling everyday. 

Charlie Taylor and his colleagues pulled together a range of positive emotion strategies and implemented them into a novel therapy approach. Randomized control trials they conducted find this therapy effectively boosts positive emotion and minimizes negative emotions. It also successfully treats depression and anxiety disorders! 

Although some happiness research shows mixed results or is difficult to interpret, other rigorous research finds benefits. Now that’s something to be happy about for now. Otherwise, therapists should vet any claims about positive emotions to ensure they’re providing valid and efficacious strategies to clients.