Content area
Full Text
This study uses data from the European Social Survey, which is funded through the European Commission’s Framework Programmes, the European Science Foundation, and national funding bodies in each country. The data are available without restrictions for not-for-profit purposes.
Studies of happiness levels across the life span have found support for two rival hypotheses. The positivity effect states that as people get older, they increasingly attend to positive information, which implies that happiness remains stable or increases with age, whereas the
Across the social sciences, research on happiness tends to focus on either the hedonic or eudaimonic form (Delle Fave, Brdar, Freire, Vella-Brodrick, & Wissing, 2011). Hedonic happiness is defined as the subjective experience of pleasure and satisfaction, as well as the absence of pain or negative feelings (Deci & Ryan, 2008). In contrast, eudaimonic happiness is concerned with optimal experience, positive relationships, a sense of...