Vocabulary

Active-constructive responding: Demonstrating sincere interest and enthusiasm for the good news of another person.
Adaptation: The fact that after people first react to good or bad events, sometimes in a strong way, their feelings and reactions tend to dampen down over time and they return toward their original level of subjective well-being.
“Bottom-up” or external causes of happiness: Situational factors outside the person that influence his or her subjective well-being, such as good and bad events and circumstances such as health and wealth.
Capitalization: Seeking out someone else with whom to share your good news.
Character strength: A positive trait or quality deemed to be morally good and is valued for itself as well as for promoting individual and collective well-being.
Confidante: A trusted person with whom secrets and vulnerabilities can be shared.
Correlation: A measure of the association between two variables, or how they go together.
Emotion: An experiential, physiological, and behavioral response to a personally meaningful stimulus.
Emotion coherence: The degree to which emotional responses (subjective experience, behavior, physiology, etc.) converge with one another.
Emotion fluctuation: The degree to which emotions vary or change in intensity over time.
Flourishing: To live optimally psychologically, relationally, and spiritually.
Forgiveness: The letting go of negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors toward an offender.
Functional distance: The frequency with which we cross paths with others.
Gratitude: A feeling of appreciation or thankfulness in response to receiving a benefit.
Happiness: A state of well-being characterized by relative permanence, by dominantly agreeable emotion ranging in value from mere contentment to deep and intense joy in living, and by a natural desire for its continuation.
Happiness: The popular word for subjective well-being. Scientists sometimes avoid using this term because it can refer to different things, such as feeling good, being satisfied, or even the causes of high subjective well-being.
Health: The complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being—not just the absence of disease or infirmity.
Health behaviors: Behaviors that are associated with better health. Examples include exercising, not smoking, and wearing a seat belt while in a vehicle.
Humility: Having an accurate view of self—not too high or low—and a realistic appraisal of one’s strengths and weaknesses, especially in relation to other people.
Life domains: Various domains of life, such as finances and job.
Life satisfaction: The degree to which one is satisfied with one’s life overall.
Life satisfaction: A person reflects on their life and judges to what degree it is going well, by whatever standards that person thinks are most important for a good life.
Machiavellianism: Being cunning, strategic, or exploitative in one’s relationships. Named after Machiavelli, who outlined this way of relating in his book, The Prince.
Mere-exposure effect: The notion that people like people/places/things merely because they are familiar with them.
Narcissism: A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), a need for admiration, and lack of empathy.
Negative feelings: Undesirable and unpleasant feelings that people tend to avoid if they can. Moods and emotions such as depression, anger, and worry are examples.
Objective social variables: Targets of research interest that are factual and not subject to personal opinions or feelings.
Operationalization: The process of defining a concept so that it can be measured. In psychology, this often happens by identifying related concepts or behaviors that can be more easily measured.
Optimal level: The level that is the most favorable for an outcome.
Ostracism: Being excluded and ignored by others.
Perceived social support: A person’s perception that others are there to help them in times of need.
Positive feelings: Desirable and pleasant feelings. Moods and emotions such as enjoyment and love are examples.
Positive psychology: The science of human flourishing. Positive Psychology is an applied science with an emphasis on real world intervention.
Pro-social: Thoughts, actions, and feelings that are directed towards others and which are positive in nature.
Proximity: Physical nearness.
Psychopathy: A pattern of antisocial behavior characterized by an inability to empathize, egocentricity, and a desire to use relationships as tools for personal gain.
Received social support: The actual act of receiving support (e.g., informational, functional).
Relationship bank account: An account you hold with every person in which a positive deposit or a negative withdrawal can be made during every interaction you have with the person.
Self-expansion model: Seeking to increase one’s capacity often through an intimate relationship.
Shunning: The act of avoiding or ignoring a person, and withholding all social interaction for a period of time. Shunning generally occurs as a punishment and is temporary.
Social integration: Active engagement and participation in a broad range of social relationships.
Social support: A social network’s provision of psychological and material resources that benefit an individual.
Subjective social variables: Targets of research interest that are not necessarily factual but are related to personal opinions or feelings
Subjective well-being: The name that scientists give to happiness—thinking and feeling that our lives are going very well.
Subjective well-being: The scientific term used to describe how people experience the quality of their lives in terms of life satisfaction and emotional judgments of positive and negative affect.
Subjective well-being scales: Self-report surveys or questionnaires in which participants indicate their levels of subjective well-being, by responding to items with a number that indicates how well off they feel.
Support support network: The people who care about and support a person.
“Top-down” or internal causes of happiness: The person’s outlook and habitual response tendencies that influence their happiness—for example, their temperament or optimistic outlook on life.
Well-being: The experience of mental and physical health and the absence of disorder.