Now here’s a reason for optimism: the number of academic studies on the subject of happiness is catching up to the number of studies on depression. Between 1980 and 1985, just 2,125 articles were published on the subject of happiness, compared with 10,553 on depression. From 2000 to 2005, the number of articles on happiness increased sixteenfold to 35,069, while articles on depression increased only eightfold to 80,161. From 2006 to mid 2008, 27,335 articles on happiness were published, more than half the 53,092 found on depression.
Credit the new study of Happiness Science, kickstarted in 2000 by Martin Seligman, then-president of the American Psychological Association., who started the positive psychology movement. His concepts sparked the media, which resulted in even more interest and research by others.
Now a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Positive Psychology Center, Seligman says, “Popular interest in happiness is only one driver. The books are coming out because the science is coming out.”
The field of happiness also now has its own publications – the Journal of Positive Psychology and the Journal of Happiness Studies – and its own professional organization, which Diener started last year. The International Positive Psychology Association. for academics and scholars already has 3,500 members.
Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at UC Riverside and author of “The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want,” adds that the trend shows no signs of slowing because happiness is now so sought after. “People around the world want it. If you ask people what they want for their children, they’ll say for them to be happy. It’s in our Declaration of Independence. It matters and affects everyone.”
More focus on happiness. That’s positive.
Source: LA Times