How happy are you? [Archive]

Joxstrap

04-23-2008, 03:05 PM

I believe happiness is a choice, if one doesn't consider themselves happy because they feel they are missing something, and they think they will be happy when they get it, this is not true, in the long term, that material thing or achievement will not make you any happier. While it is great to have goals, as they give you something to strive for, people should also look back and see all teh goals they have already attained. I love my life, but no i don't have everything that i want. If i had everything i wanted i don't think i would be happy. If i had no challenges, no goals, that would kill me, i enjoy striving for my goals.

And i see i am the only one who has voted 10 so far....remember, happiness is a choice, once you start to believe that, that is when you will really be truly happy.

vkut79

04-23-2008, 03:09 PM

I would go with the 7 as well, on average.

vkut79 added to this post, 3 minutes and 45 seconds later...

I believe happiness is a choice, if one doesn't consider themselves happy because they feel they are missing something, and they think they will be happy when they get it, this is not true, in the long term, that material thing or achievement will not make you any happier. While it is great to have goals, as they give you something to strive for, people should also look back and see all teh goals they have already attained. I love my life, but no i don't have everything that i want. If i had everything i wanted i don't think i would be happy. If i had no challenges, no goals, that would kill me, i enjoy striving for my goals.

And i see i am the only one who has voted 10 so far....remember, happiness is a choice, once you start to believe that, that is when you will really be truly happy.

I agree with you mostly on that... but not completely. Its hard to actually control your happiness even once you've made the key realizations. Happiness is a physiological state, and while you can take steps towards raising it overall, I don't think you can ever come close to maximizing it just by adjusting your mindset. In my personal experience, that only makes me happy up to a seven or so, and any increase after that is temporary, achievement-excitement based happiness. "Convincing" myself that I have a happiness of 10 just doesn't work at all.

Joxstrap

04-23-2008, 04:59 PM

That's what i love about being an NT, i feel like i have control over virtually every aspect of my life, and if i focus on something long enough, it will come true. While obviously i get sad sometimes, and happier other times, i think that in the long term, i would rate my happiness as a ten. There are times when i am really happy, and i can't always be like that, i think for that to happen i would have to have a chemical imbalance in my brain or something, but in terms of on average, i don't think i could really get any happier, and thus am as happy as i could possibly be.

MCR

04-23-2008, 06:21 PM

I gave myself an 8. I wouldn't consider my life to be perfect by any means, but I believe there is a lot of good in it. Whenever I get a little jaded because I'm having a string of bad days, etc. I will take a look at some other people I know and what their lives are like. I can usually find several people who have it much worse than I do. I certainly don't take pleasure in their misfortune(s), but this type of thought always makes me appreciate and be thankful that I am me and not them. :)

I too believe that happiness is a choice. Circumstance may not be, but what you do with your circumstances makes all the difference. I used to be a somewhat negative person...always finding the bad element of any situation right away, always assuming the worst, etc. It became a sort of self flagellation for me - there was no way that anything could turn out well for me because it never did, blah blah blah. Finally I made the conscious decision to stop doing that, because there was nothing good coming from it. It took a long time to break out of that habit, but once I did, I really started to see a lot of things in a different light.

And so now, I don't go around passing out flowers or singing "Shiny Happy People" at the top of my lungs, but I do consistently try to find something positive to do to remedy those "bad days" or to stop negativity from consuming me. It really works for me...and I feel a lot more mentally healthy.

(Apologies to those who may now be humming that song...)

sriv

04-23-2008, 09:11 PM

I went with 6 because schoolwork is overloading me. I feel pretty good about my existence, but I have high hopes on who I can become.

True Rune

04-23-2008, 09:45 PM

I voted 6. I have some things to work out, but usually I'm ok.

Moriarty

04-23-2008, 10:50 PM

I voted 8. There have been and will be plenty more bad days, and sometimes the whole thing seems futile. I made the decision to accept the futility of my own existence and just have a good time while I'm here, and that attitude adjustment has made a great deal of difference in my life.

zibber

04-23-2008, 10:59 PM

Hah, seven. Me, I'm very content with the specific circumstances of my life, but not so much with the big picture of today's world. (It's quite contradictory, since the two are related.) I have a good relationship, running water, no real danger of becoming homeless or jobless, I'm capable of pursuing any interest/hobby I have, I'm not a total ogre looks-wise and my intelligence is above average. What bums me out is having to tolerate, first off, a large mass of hysterical idiots constantly surrounding me, and secondly, this industrialized, commercialized era of consumerism and mass-everything we live in. A city dweller like me could easily go his whole life living on bio-industry microwave cheeseburgers and never seeing a shred of nature beyond the carefully planned parks and gardens splashed around town. Having been "blessed" with an ethical consciousness, though, I have to think about the moral implications of every little god damned thing I do and constantly consciously shield myself from the manipulative pull of mass culture and consumption, while having to make sure not to look too different in order to avoid trouble. It's exhausting!

ElstonGunn

04-23-2008, 11:11 PM

I voted 3, because I'm in my early/mid 20s, and that part of life sucks to no end. But mine are temporary problems (I hope), so ask me again in a few years, and I might be up to a five or six by then.

Vivid

04-24-2008, 01:19 AM

I've never been higher than a five for over a week, I would say. Although it doesn't show as much as one would expected, I'm not a very happy person. O.o I'm trying, though.

Mozzes

04-24-2008, 08:49 AM

I'm pretty happy, probably and 8 or 9 (just stating for the purposes of conversation, I didn't respond to the poll in order to comply with the wishes of the OP). I am pretty stressed out at the moment because of final exams for the semester though it's a good type of stress almost as if it's energizing me even if in another week I'll feel extremely run down.

I would be curious, however, if there were any significant differences between MBTI types and tendency towards depression. Does anybody know if any type of research has been done on that topic?

notoppings

04-24-2008, 08:57 AM

8 I feel content most of the time, but can usually be a bear in the morning. I need more challenges in order to get happier.

DrEast

04-24-2008, 09:32 AM

mental drift

04-24-2008, 09:55 AM

Wow, happiness in a bell curve. There is a theory that people adapt to their current level of happiness, and thus only changes in happiness level register, leaving a "contentedness" when the state is unchanging, no matter what your actual circumstances.

I would think it more correct to say changes in happiness can help you see where your normal state is, but one can still look at the overall picture and see where they are at the majority of time, or at least a happy median. I would say I'm a 7 out of ten on the 'oh joy joy' meter. Pretty much happy with everything, but I do see more potential in my abilities than where I am currently at.

Antares

04-24-2008, 10:34 AM

7. I may feel very down some of the time, but life's been good to me. I'm enjoying school (someone phone the News Agency!) and my social life. I have many friends and I actually care for some of them. My academic and intellectual life is soaring. I have a lot to look forward to (like tomorrow's Discovery and Animal Planet program, the latest issue from Time or my updates from CNN), simply put.

Alpha Prime

04-24-2008, 11:02 AM

I`d like this thread to be representative for INTJs, so if you`re not an INTJ, please don`t vote on this one :).

In that case, subtract one vote, from the 9's. :P

sriv

04-24-2008, 05:00 PM

Happiness is a certain perception of life. If a person was raised against that perception, they would not consider themselves happy, however happy they actually are. I hate WORDS. If only we could communicate thought-language.

lordrrr

04-24-2008, 09:03 PM

I'm a 10. When I'm low I can be around a 4 or 5, sometimes even a three. Right now though I'm very happy with my life, so I'll give myself a 10.

Depression usually hits me when I'm not successful, because then I start to console myself by saying it has no point in life, then I realize there IS no point to life, then I become even more depressed and hate life, then I start to feel better after I get over it.

Chainsaw Dundee

04-24-2008, 09:06 PM

Well, I put my brain next to an EEG machine, and it is putting off waves of about 12.4Hz at a magnitude of 21 amps, which would put my happiness at about a 8.7 on this scale.

ssrprotege

04-24-2008, 10:28 PM

I was thinking of putting a 4 because of my getting too stressed over the IB exams, but I am going for a 6. That's the average. Don't think I can choose a 10 or 9 until self-actualization happens.

INTJCanuck

04-24-2008, 10:47 PM

I voted 9. I believe that my life could not be going much better right now. I'm going to a good school, my family is healthy, I'm healthy, I've got a bunch of great friends... there is absolutely nothing for me to complain about.

errrzarrr

04-25-2008, 08:46 PM

I voted 6. Kind of predicteble for a unconformist optimistic INTJ. Well, even if i voted 6, I am somewhere between 6 and 7. but, nearer to 6.

Wow, happiness in a bell curve. There is a theory that people adapt to their current level of happiness, and thus only changes in happiness level register, leaving a "contentedness" when the state is unchanging, no matter what your actual circumstances.

I noted that too, at first sight. Amazing!

[...]Does anybody know if any type of research has been done on that topic?[...]
Very Interisting! I encourage you, and every non-INTJ, to do the same poll on their own Personality-type-Forum and Share the results!
I bet us INTJ are on the middle or slow-middle on the "Personalities happiness poll"
Can't wait to see the results!

Heironymous

04-25-2008, 10:52 PM

I believe happiness is a choice, if one doesn't consider themselves happy because they feel they are missing something, and they think they will be happy when they get it, this is not true, in the long term, that material thing or achievement will not make you any happier

I disagree...while we can choose to try and be happy in life rather than dwell on what is missing, ultimately if you are missing something major (money, love, health etc.) then you just won't be a happy person. Many studies have shown that people who are more affluent and successful genuinely are happier people...there was just an article in the NYtimes about this I believe

yondyr

04-26-2008, 03:43 AM

Add a million dollars and I'll boost my 8 to a 10.

Cuivienen

04-26-2008, 05:49 AM

Wow, that is interesting, the 64 who voted up to this point voted an average of 6,375 (TBH that is higher than I had expected), so the average INTJ-poster seems to be pretty contented most of the time.
I`d also be interested in how the other *types* compare, but I figured that making a non-type-specific thread on this forum wouldn`t get very exact results do to the comparatively small number of non-INTJs here. Maybe the MBTI-Central would be a good place to make a poll (I don`t have an account there)?

For the record, I feel I`m 7-8 and voted 8, esp. in the last year or so I`ve been happy or at least contented for the most part.

errrzarrr

04-26-2008, 07:36 PM

that bell is so smooth, so pretty!

sriv

04-26-2008, 07:45 PM

Blendy

04-27-2008, 11:41 PM

I'd give myself a 5.

I believe there's a strong genetic component to happiness level, and I don't think I happen to have a very high "happiness set point". I'm lucky to have a great life in many ways and am not overly pessimistic, depressed or necessarily an unhappy person, just not a particularly happy one, and never have been.

ElstonGunn

04-28-2008, 11:07 AM

But it is centered at 7, not 5. That means most INTJs are happier than normal. This is probably because people that have internet access have a somewhat good quality of living. Quality of living has a strong correlation with happiness.

Good point. I definitely don't disagree with it.

I think part of it might also be that being unhappy is vaguely thought of as a bad trait. Happy people must be good people, and unhappy people are, at best, deserving of sympathy, or at worst, idiots who can't successfully run their own lives. So in a sense, the question is kind of asking, "How good of a person are you?" Not directly, of course, but my guess is that this plays into it.

Going one step beyond that, I'd wager that most people want to think of themselves as average, or slightly to moderately above average. On a scale of 0 to 10, it's generally assumed that 5 will be average. Going too much above average can imply dishonesty or arrogance ("can imply," not "absolutely denotes").

Notice that no one said 0 or 1, but a fair amount of people have said 9 and 10.

As for other types' levels of happiness, I'll bet anyone fifty bucks that NTs' and SJs' happiness levels would be pretty stable, and SPs and NFs would want to drastically change their answers every five minutes.

DrEast

04-28-2008, 01:39 PM

But it is centered at 7, not 5. That means most INTJs are happier than normal. This is probably because people that have internet access have a somewhat good quality of living. Quality of living has a strong correlation with happiness.

Well, not exactly. It means that most INTJ's perceive themselves happier than a "neutral" happiness state of about 5. Given that an ongoing "neutral" state of happiness could be perceived as clinical depression, what this means is that most INTJ's consider themselves at about 1 or 2 points of contentedness... after all, a 4 or lower would indicate a state of unhappiness or high stress, wouldn't it?

I would argue that most people in the world would rate themselves at 6 or 7, assuming they live in a manner such that "tomorrow will be pretty much like today, which was pretty much like yesterday." It doesn't matter exactly WHAT tomorrow and today hold... the contentedness would arise from natural adaptation of happiness. It would take specific events in life to raise that number higher or lower it, and the effects of those events would gradually diminish over time as the happiness level returned to baseline.

Thus, while asking war refugees from Iraq about their happiness would probably result in a lower overall baseline, asking a lower class washerwoman from a New York ghetto might well NOT. Of course, this is all hypothesis... it would take (fairly simple) experimentation to prove it.

So, who wants to research a sociology thesis dealing with happiness levels under various conditions? I'm afraid it's not my field, but adaptation is a useful phenomenon in the field that would probably be worthy of a doctorate if handled correctly. Maybe it already has been. Anyone up-to-date on the research?

errrzarrr

04-28-2008, 02:56 PM

Good point. I definitely don't disagree with it.

I think part of it might also be that being unhappy is vaguely thought of as a bad trait. Happy people must be good people, and unhappy people are, at best, deserving of sympathy, or at worst, idiots who can't successfully run their own lives. So in a sense, the question is kind of asking, "How good of a person are you?" Not directly, of course, but my guess is that this plays into it.

Going one step beyond that, I'd wager that most people want to think of themselves as average, or slightly to moderately above average. On a scale of 0 to 10, it's generally assumed that 5 will be average. Going too much above average can imply dishonesty or arrogance ("can imply," not "absolutely denotes").

Notice that no one said 0 or 1, but a fair amount of people have said 9 and 10.

As for other types' levels of happiness, I'll bet anyone fifty bucks that NTs' and SJs' happiness levels would be pretty stable, and SPs and NFs would want to drastically change their answers every five minutes. 0-happines and 1-happiness people are the suicided ones and those do not vote, do they?:cool:

@sriv
being centered at 7 does not means we are happier than normal, just means we are more happy than neutral or unhappy. There's a lot of poor people that have access to internet too, and rich unhappy people too.

sriv

04-28-2008, 02:58 PM

0-happines and 1-happiness people are the suicided ones and those do not vote, do they?

True. This is a J dominated forum so people are going to make decisions based on their transient emotional state.

errrzarrr

04-28-2008, 03:11 PM

True. This is a J dominated forum so people are going to make decisions based on their transient emotional state.

uh? I do not get it. Does J-factor implies we make decisions on our temporal emotional state, or what you mean?

btw, I just calculated that we score, overall, 6.2817 points of happyness.:stunned:

sriv

04-28-2008, 03:24 PM

uh? I do not get it. Does J-factor implies we make decisions on our temporal emotional state, or what you mean?

btw, I just calculated that we score, overall, 6.2817 points of happyness.:stunned:

An out of control J may lead one to make the decision or care more about the decision to commit suicide. Extreme J begets impatience.

There must be an interpretation issue. Is 5 the state we are neutral at compared to the rest of our life, or the state we are at compared to the rest of the world (goddamn happy Norwegians, unhappy people in Sudan)?

ElstonGunn

04-28-2008, 03:59 PM

0-happines and 1-happiness people are the suicided ones and those do not vote, do they?:cool:

Is that what 0 and 1 mean? If that's the case then I would have to assume that someone at a 9 or a 10 has absolutely no reason to complain about anything. And if they don't, then I'll have to assume that their brains aren't working correctly.

alone

04-28-2008, 04:45 PM

I am about a 3 most of the time. Life is absurd and then we die. I am prevented from achieving anything of note by practical impediments I have no control over. I am surrounded by morons and liars.

Things are pretty sucky, but every once in a while a glimmer of happines or even better comes into my life, so I have decided to stick around. That's about the best I can say for my happiness most of the time. At the worst of times I am looking for someone to beat the **** out of. At the best of times, I have enough love for every living thing on the planet. I average about 2 or 3 out of 10 though, I think.

bubbles

04-28-2008, 09:02 PM

I voted four. I would probably average 5.5 most of the time. Life is absurd and then we die, but we might as well at least try to enjoy it while we are still living. I always look forward to the future, which is supposed to be better, but that is unhealthy. I try to focus on the present and make the most out of it. Nice bell curve, by the way. I haven't seen such a nice bell curve on unscientific polls in quite a while.

Elfrun

05-31-2008, 05:00 AM

Wow, this is kinda negative.

I choose 10, I'm completely happy (except when I'm sad)

Malotis

05-31-2008, 06:15 AM

Yeah, can't say I'm the biggest fan of the whole life thing. I tend to dislike people in general; I feel like I see the worst in everybody. People are self deceiving liars and hypocrites obsessed with more than trivial matters. I'm always bored and view life as more or less pointless. I can do many different things with my life and then I'll die. If I had it my way I'd be in blissful solitude for the vast majority of my time. Unfortunately, work and school make this difficult. I happen to hate both my work and school along with my family and friends/ acquaintances. To me they are all but unwanted burdens serving as an obstacle to my precious solitude.

I find it interesting when people claim unhappiness is the sole result of a bad attitude. I personally think to dismiss an individual’s misery solely as a result of pessimism or character flaw is to ignore the larger picture for the sake of maintaining a more convenient view of both humanity and the world.

I also find it very hard to believe that the people who voted 10s on the poll don't have anything they'd want to change about their lives. I think it's a "if I pretend to be living a perfectly happy life for long enough then eventually it will be true" sorta deal. Did I mention anything about self deceiving?

Elfrun

05-31-2008, 07:02 AM

Eric86

05-31-2008, 10:08 AM

I'm 9, for the most part.

sriv

05-31-2008, 10:17 AM

TheLastMohican

05-31-2008, 11:08 AM

Why don't you kill yourself? (serious question)

Now why didn't I think of that? :idea:

*goes to kill self on Sriv's brilliant suggestion*

Double Victory

05-31-2008, 11:19 AM

I voted 9. I was hesitant to bring it up to a 10, because even though I'm happier now than I have ever been in my entire life, I'm sure it's possible to be even happier. Really the only things that are preventing me from saying my life is absolutely perfect are my slight uncertainties about the future. However, due to recent life decisions and happenings, I've gone up from about a 5 or 6 two years ago, which is up from about a 3 from two years previous to that.

I usually have maybe one or two days a week where I'm a little down, but I kind of view emotions as a balancing thing. I usually find that on my absolute peak days where I feel like everything is perfect, that usually not very long after I'll feel a little down. Still, during those times I recognize that it's just my "down" time, and that life is still incredible, so I don't really count that as any sort of unhappiness.

saakeli

05-31-2008, 11:35 AM

how happy am I, I'd say 6 or 7. Life isn't hell but it's not complete hoy either. If I'd be happy to wake up in monday-morning, then it would be 9-10.

On the other hand, pursuing that 9 - 10 state of mind makes things so much more interesting. Or frustrating, depending on the day.

Motor Jax

05-31-2008, 11:38 AM

maybe i'm the only one not getting it. is it numbered like:

0 - this side of putting a bullet in the head, pretty bad depressive
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 - jollier than St. Nick himself

or:

0 - same St. Nick
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 - another bullet to the head

i seen the question and that was the first thing that hit me was that there wasn't a scale, just numbers

but after reading some posts, i figured 9 was like the cannabis happy high

so, i would say my answer would be at least 8.7963

i'm pretty cherry

AutisticCuckoo

05-31-2008, 12:10 PM

I chose 7. I'm fairly content, enjoy good health, have food on my table, and live in a politically stable country without major natural disasters, dangerous predators or poisonous creatures. I feel a bit lonely sometimes, though. That's the reason I didn't go all the way up to 10.

MsUnderstood

05-31-2008, 04:16 PM

Today I chose 8 - because I'm pleased as punch, to have found this site today.

However, I could easily find myself on either side of the scale, waking up each morning can be like rolling an emotional pentagonal trapezohedra dice.

Malotis

05-31-2008, 04:18 PM

Why don't you kill yourself? (serious question)

I guess a serious question deserves a serious response.

As much as I'd have no qualms if I happened to die, going out of my way to provoke suicide simply requires too much initiative. Also, all the common methods (firearm, garage, OD, hanging, jumping etc) for suicide I find sorta unappealing/ unattractive, and no one is offering me enough morphine to kill an elephant. I guess I'm sorta counting on the people who say life is short and that it will be over before I know it, and in the meantime I'll try to make the best of things.

vkut79

05-31-2008, 04:22 PM

Subjective reports of happiness level mean little. People want to be happy, perhaps they would lie to themselves to try to convince themselves that they are happy. I would not be surprised if the supposedly high level of happiness reported here is due to some unspecified report bias.

sriv

05-31-2008, 04:24 PM

I guess a serious question deserves a serious response.

As much as I'd have no qualms if I happened to die, going out of my way to provoke suicide simply requires too much initiative. Also, all the common methods (firearm, garage, OD, hanging, jumping etc) for suicide I find sorta unappealing/ unattractive, and no one is offering me enough morphine to kill an elephant. I guess I'm sorta counting on the people who say life is short and that it will be over before I know it, and in the meantime I'll try to make the best of things.

Interesting. Do you put up any self-defense when in danger? (Still serious)

Malotis

05-31-2008, 04:34 PM

Interesting. Do you put up any self-defense when in danger? (Still serious)

Can't tell you firsthand, though I've always assumed that a dangerous situation would instill a certain fear into the equation (fear of unknown that a new/ unwanted situation presents). This fear would temporarily supersede my apathy for my life or death, and my attempts at self defense/ ridding myself of this unwanted situation would quickly follow suite.

Of course, I'm sure the above scenario is case depedent. If the dangerous/ unwanted situation was present long enough (I.E. put into a concentration camp) then I'm sure the mind set of, "fuck it this isn't worth it" would eventually kick in.

vkut79

05-31-2008, 04:34 PM

Interesting. Do you put up any self-defense when in danger? (Still serious)

He's probably not that depressed. You have to be really, really depressed in order to override your self-preservation instinct. I imagine that there would need to be incessant and unbearable pain in your life in order to get that far, not just sadness.

Malotis

05-31-2008, 04:51 PM

That's a sad but common outlook PsychadelicPowe, with that opinion noone could be happy.

Certainly things happen in my life that challenge me, but how I react and feel about them is up to me, if I believed the world sucked then I’d only ever see the negative, that’s pretty miserable. I make a choice to see the good all situations, with that perspective I find it easy to be happy, there's no pretending involved. And no I don't hangout at airports in an orange robe.

You can hold fast that there are challenges in ones life and it all boils down to optimism, feelings and reactions all you'd like.

However, I still I find it hard to believe that rational people can honestly claim perfect happiness (I.E. to catagorize oneself as a 10/10 on the happy scale). It implies that absolutely nothing could be added to their lives to make them happier because they're already at the maximum level of happiness. And well, if you can't think of anything in your life that would make you happier then I stand strong next to my self delusional theory.

Mercury

05-31-2008, 05:04 PM

I rated myself as a 9 for happiness. I am very happy, very little to complain about. I have love, and health. I have an incredible husband and healthy, intelligent, interesting children. Both my parents are living and in decent health. I work at what I love. I have good friends. I could use more money but that is on it's way. Life is good! :)

Mercury added to this post, 2 minutes and 34 seconds later...

I think INTJs are probably happier overall than other personality types because we tend to rely on our inner sense of living more so than others. So we are more likely to find happiness within ourselves and enjoy the goodness in life.

sriv

05-31-2008, 06:40 PM

I think INTJs are probably happier overall than other personality types because we tend to rely on our inner sense of living more so than others. So we are more likely to find happiness within ourselves and enjoy the goodness in life.

I thought exactly the opposite (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.)at one time.

anul

05-31-2008, 07:40 PM

I would say I'm around 4. I suppose I'm going through a bit of a rough patch.

fonmaneal

05-31-2008, 07:45 PM

I put down 5.
I'm normal happy for me.
This poll is so subjective that I dont think it can be very useful.

nonentropic

05-31-2008, 09:22 PM

i'd say i'm currently around about a 6.5 but, i'll put down a 6 for the poll. there's certainly room for improvement and i'm focussed on improving them. i tend to prefer to stay within a rather narrow range of emotions...neither too high nor too low. i'll just try to shift the my entire life-satifaction range up a notch or two or the next couple of years.

Double Victory

06-01-2008, 01:38 AM

I put down 5.
I'm normal happy for me.
This poll is so subjective that I dont think it can be very useful.

Isn't happiness subjective? If you think you're happy, then aren't you? I suppose it's possible that there are people out there thinking, "Oh, I'm really a 4, but I want to ruin this poll and put down a 10! Ha ha! I'm so important!" but if I had to take a guess, I would think that people were rating themselves as accurately as they knew how. This poll is useful because it states what people think of themselves, or at the very least, what they want other people to think of them. It gives everyone on this forum a general idea of the happiness of of this INTJ Forum as a whole.

And to PsychadelicPowe--I understand your point about how you think no one can be a 10, but it's possible. While there are varying degrees of happiness, once you reach a certain level where you're at least content almost all of the time, then you would be a 10. Things could get even better in your life--maybe you win the lottery or something--but you were so happy in the first place to begin with that even simple things, like seeing a trail of ducks crossing the road could invoke the same feelings from you. On rare moments I've experienced happiness like that--where you are completely and totally filled inside, and life just seems like bliss. At times like it kind of seems that it's impossible to get any happier than that, even if you found your missing dog, or your brother came back from Iraq, without having some sort of negative physical side effects. To use a cliché, it just feels like if you get any happier, your heart will explode.

Max T

06-01-2008, 04:30 AM

A very happy 8 due to:
- working on long term plans that will almost inevitably make the future a better place than the present (can't beat having the future to look forward to!) and

- having slightly adjusted downwards my ambitions so they're better calibrated with reality.

A proven variant to this 0-10 scale is "how much money would you need in order to be happy". $low amount = very happy / $high amount = unhappy.
Measured as such, this kind of sticks two fingers up at capitalism and our consumerism culture (he says, with an avatar featuring the most corporate logos)!

Should be a strong correlation between this happiness scale and Maslow's heirarchy of needs.

PHS Philip

06-01-2008, 06:45 AM

I voted 5. I haven't really had anything to engage my mind for the last few months, and my mind has to be engaged or I start to feel a sort of negative apathy (whereas normal apathy is neutral, negative apathy is the same outlook, but feels terrible);

mkay

06-01-2008, 07:01 AM

I'd say I'm about 9 on the scale. I have a great husband, family and friends. I'm healthy. I'm in good financial shape even though I've never been ambitious about money or career. I had a good first career that let me do what I wanted, taught me lots, let me experience a lot of the world and introduced me to amazing people. Now I'm working on launching a second and third career, which I'm excited about. I'm rarely in a bad mood, and when I am, I can easily figure out the cause and work on it. I take pleasure in lots of small things, like the comfort of my book room, seeing the sun rise and set over the mountains out my window or just rereading an old book or something new online. Life is an adventure that has surprised me by getting better and better. So I leave room to be pleasantly surprised some more.

ElstonGunn

06-01-2008, 08:38 AM

Isn't happiness subjective? If you think you're happy, then aren't you?

That's why is so difficult to get anything out of this in terms of general comparisons. Each respondent has to define for himself what each number on the scale means. I might say that a 10 means that there isn't anything that could happen to make me any happier. You might say that it means that you don't have any major complaints with your life right now. If you have one or two big problems in your life, do you put yourself at a 4 or at a 7? They're big problems, but there's only one or two of them.

dandylion

06-01-2008, 10:31 AM

I voted a 6. But then again I just haven't been content with the recent string of events. Most of the time I'm a pretty content person, or I pretend everything's okay until I feel that way.

mkay

06-01-2008, 01:42 PM

That's why is so difficult to get anything out of this in terms of general comparisons. Each respondent has to define for himself what each number on the scale means. I might say that a 10 means that there isn't anything that could happen to make me any happier. You might say that it means that you don't have any major complaints with your life right now. If you have one or two big problems in your life, do you put yourself at a 4 or at a 7? They're big problems, but there's only one or two of them.

According to what I've read in the past, people who are optimistic vs. pessimistic continue to show the same traits even after trauma. For instance, they were writing about war vets who'd been badly maimed, left paralyzed and such in wheelchairs. They said after about six months, the time it takes to get over the initial shock and do some adapting, the optimistic vets bounced back to their optimistic state. Sure, they weren't thrilled about being paralyzed or such, but they adapted mentally and focused on good things in life. The ones who were pessimistic even before their injuries stayed pessimistic. ... I think that's a rather extreme example of happiness / optimism being a part of each person's wiring. (I don't know how malleable that wiring is at birth or in childhood, but it seems pretty grounded at a certain point.)

I think personality / the potential for happiness / resilience are all part of brain chemistry and/or brain structure. Some people are wired to be happy-go-lucky, some not, and so on. So if you have two people experience the same traumatic or joyful event, each will have a different degree of emotional response.

These are my observations from life and reading. I'm not saying I have a grand theory that I can debate.

Ultimately, it makes no sense to compare my happiness to anyone else's. I can only experience happiness or unhappiness through myself. ... But it's fun to hear what other people think and feel.

ElstonGunn

06-01-2008, 07:50 PM

How big is a big something? Is nine inches big? For an ant, that's pretty big. For a house, it's very small. That's all I'm saying, here.

Even if you quantify bigness or happiness, it doesn't necessarily tell you anything. People's explanations of their answers tell you way more than the numbers they choose tell you.

Myrak

06-02-2008, 12:13 AM

I put myself an 8. There's no major dramas in my life right now, I'm able to do things I enjoy, etc; but at the same time there's small niggling stuff that sometime in the future I can be rid of (hopefully next year, once I'm out of school). I feel pretty damn positive right now, but I can see my life getting a whole lot better. Also, I'm pretty lacking on being given any sort of independence or personal space right now, so I'm really looking forward to branching out when I can catch a break.

cRyPT

06-02-2008, 07:59 PM

Right now I would consider myself roughly a 4. If I had friends (Right now I have no friends and I have not had any since my E morphed into an I [over a year ago]. I just don't have the social skills and I fail to properly conduct small talk :() I would bump myself up two points. If my hidden agenda were to be fulfilled, I would be a 10. Right now that fulfillment is bothering me particularly, perhaps out of a lapse of social contact...

Metaphor

06-03-2008, 04:12 PM

I went with 6 because schoolwork is overloading me. I feel pretty good about my existence, but I have high hopes on who I can become.

Same here, except with a 5.

Evalind

06-03-2008, 09:02 PM

Maybe I'm odd, but, sometimes happiness seems a little overrated. I'm more interested in contentment and satisfaction than happiness. Thus, I rate my happiness at 6. I'd rate my contentment at more like 7.5 or so.

sriv

06-04-2008, 09:40 AM

Maybe I'm odd, but, sometimes happiness seems a little overrated. I'm more interested in contentment and satisfaction than happiness.

I feel similarly. Too much happiness, in my perspective, is a high and highs are as destructive as depression.

zief

06-04-2008, 04:06 PM

I voted 3 because right now im going through a hard time with making friends and deciding exactly what i want to do in life.

jadefalcon

06-04-2008, 09:00 PM

I've got some crap going on in my life right now- so about a 6 or a 7. My future is changing though for the better- so I'm not entirely depressed about things. Since I am on anti-depressants I am extremely apathetic, so off my meds I would probably vote lower.

I am content with my life right now in terms of being alive- there is a lot to live for and a lot to do. The "crap" I mentioned is a family crisis/trouble that seems to be boiling down right now. School is also stressful. I have no doubts to my abilities or of myself, I found myself a little while ago (years back) and I love myself- I have no reason to hate myself.

"Content", but I'd rather "be someplace else then I am now". I can't find a job, and I want to be elsewhere starting my future.

robin.

06-04-2008, 09:23 PM

I put 8, but now that I'm reading this thread I'd say 10.

There are some things I haven't done yet that I'd love to do, but my life is pretty stress-free right now, and there's very little I'd change.

volk

08-26-2008, 07:18 AM

I've heard somewhere that if you ask a person to pick a number between one and ten, they would most likely pick seven..

ScurvyRose

08-26-2008, 09:03 AM

I vote seven. My current existence is a good one, but I do have much bigger ambitions.

I did the same. I still have a number of things that are needed to be in place. I do not however believe that a 10 is truely possible, or sustainable.

ScurvyRose added to this post, 2 minutes and 33 seconds later...

I've heard somewhere that if you ask a person to pick a number between one and ten, they would most likely pick seven..

I just found this:

Pick a Number between Zero and Infinity...
David J. Chalmers

From: To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. (David Chalmers)
Newsgroups: sci.math,sci.math.num-analysis
Subject: Re: call for votes: most & least boring numbers
Date: 17 Jan 90 20:40:02 GMT

In article <To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.> To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. writes:

Reminds me of a friend of mine who claims that the number 17 is "the most random" number. His proof ran as follows: pick a number. It's not really as good a random number as 17, is it? (Invariable Answer: "Umm, well, no...")

This reminds me of a little experiment I did a couple of years ago. I stood on a busy street-corner in Oxford, and asked passers-by to "name a random number between zero and infinity." I was wondering what this "random" distribution would look like.

The results: (most common numbers first, out of about 150 responses in all):

3 (11 people)
7 (9 people)
5 (8 people)
12 (6 people)
1, 4, 10, 77 (5 people each)
2, 47, infinity-1 (4 people each)
15, 17, 20, 27 (3 people each)
18, 23, 26, 30, 42, 99 (2 people each)
6, 13, 14, 19, 21, 22, 25, thirteen more 2-digit numbers, twenty 3-digit numbers, twelve 4-digit numbers, one 5-digit number, one 6-digit number, four 7-digit numbers, one 8-digit number, one non-integer (328.39), one huge number (9.265.10^10^10). (1 person each)
Of course a uniform distribution is a priori impossible so I couldn't have expected that :-). Even a logarithmic distribution is impossible (it has infinite integral). Interestingly enough, this distribution, taken coarsely, was quite close to logarithmic up to 1000 or so. There were roughly the same number of 2-digit responses as 1-digit responses, and a few less 3-digit reponses. Then things fell off sharply, however.

Other interesting features:

17 wasn't quite as "random" as might have been predicted.
Extreme frequency of the digit "7" all round.
Especially notable are the good performances of 77 and 47.
Poor performance of digit "8", also "6" and "9".
Both "very prime" (e.g. 17) and "very composite" (e.g. 12) numbers did well.
Then I could tell you about the "random word" experiment I did on Sydney harbour...perhaps another time.

NephilimAzrael

08-26-2008, 11:14 AM

9 at the moment, but I usually remain optimistic because I strategise so much and feel confident in my contingency planning.

Scorne

08-26-2008, 04:25 PM

Averaging around 3-5 currently, not very happy with myself in general.

cRyPT

08-26-2008, 04:47 PM

About a 5 right now.

Bit annoyed that PayPal 'refuses' to set up an account for me (long story) so I cannot buy some items over the internet I have been meaning to.

Will probably drop to a 3 as school draws closer.

Dave C C

08-26-2008, 09:51 PM

8, A lot of people seem to see me as not happy, but I am usually in a good mood. I do like to complain alot, that makes me even more happy.

aok

08-26-2008, 10:27 PM

I give it an 8...feelin fairly great

Caucus

08-27-2008, 01:21 AM

7. I'm not a happy-clappy, the-sun-is-always-shining type of person. I'm content with my life and how things are shaping out. I could only vote 10, after I accomplish my goals..but there is always something else to achieve in life.

Colette

08-27-2008, 01:57 AM

I've got some crap going on in my life right now- so about a 6 or a 7. My future is changing though for the better- so I'm not entirely depressed about things.

That's where I'm at too on the scale I think. A huge (and worrying) health issue to deal with this year has taken the gloss off what would otherwise have been a pretty good year. 'Happiness' to me does partly depend on externals, but 'peace' is a state that with enough determination, I can maintain through good times or bad.

I like to think of bad things that happen in my life as transitory - a phase, rather than an intractable state of affairs. That's how I deal with things.