What Do We Measure When We Measure Happiness? Methodological Challenges in Happiness Research

In the contemporary psychological literature, the importance of happiness has been recognized for most aspects of life, and, as a consequence, the topic has attracted interest from many fields of psychology, so there is an increasing number of papers devoted to examining what makes a good life, as well as examining the characteristics of happy people and the determinants of life satisfaction and quality of life. Papers typically consider various issues related to the conceptual definition of happiness, the relationship between happiness and various psychological processes and the effects of happiness in different areas of functioning of the individual. Given that happiness is a complex construct, it is often defined, measured and interpreted in different ways, so sometimes we can find vague terminology, and various methodological difficulties in the literature on happiness. In this paper first we give a clear definition of the concept of happiness, and then take on a detailed critical look at the different methodological approaches to happiness, in which we consider global, direct and alternative measures of happiness.