Lottery winners are no happier than anyone else a year after their big win. Similarly, people who have experienced serious physical injuries seem to "get over it" fairly well across time and return to their pre-injury level of happiness. These findings are consistent with research on:
the hedonic treadmill.
personal affective indices.
emotional intelligence (EQ).
the broaden-and-build theory.
Research on the link between happiness and health demonstrates that:
there is actually a weak link here, though it appears that health drives happiness (rather than happiness driving health)
there is a strong link here, and it appears that health drives happiness (rather than happiness driving health).
there is a strong link here, although it is not clear what causes what.
there is actually a weak link here, and it is not clear what causes what.
Scores on the AIM instrument tell us:
how intense emotional experience is for a person.
the source of emotional experience in individuals.
the relative balance of good versus bad emotion in one's life.
how precise emotional experiences are for people.