Week Two -- Post Two

Happiness is proven to be powered through social connection. One of the most basic and widely replicated findings from the science of happiness is that connections with other people are instrumental to happiness. Ed Diener and Martin Seligman, two researchers who are pioneers in the field of happiness science, have found that healthy social relationships might be a necessary condition for high amounts of happiness. The happiest people tend to have rich and satisfying relationships, spend little time alone, and have more friends compared to people with only an average amount of happiness. In fact, loneliness has all kinds of negative impacts on health and well being, measured both physiologically and through questionnaires in survey methods. These social connections are the most likely to be healthy if they are formed in childhood and adolescence years. Longitudinal studies have been done to prove that being more socially connected as a child is more significant than academic success in predicting later happiness. The need for social connections has been wired into us through evolution and our ancestors. Humans are made to gravitate to conditions of equality and to forgive. There are three different systems that help humans attach and form connections in family. Secure Attachment Style is characterized by warmth, love, and trust. Anxious Attachment Style is filled with worry, intrusiveness, and the likelihood that the person has experienced divorce, abuse, or death of a parent. Avoidant Attachment Style is cold, aloof, and dismissive. These three attachment styles help explain the way bonds are formed at such young ages and how they came to be.

Meaningful lives are characterized by sincerity and quality. Social connections play a big role in balancing happiness and meaningfulness. Meaningfulness is derived from giving to to other people, which can be friends, family, or strangers. It all comes down to the ability to be able to make and foster connections. If one is able to make healthy, trusting, loving relationships in life, they will most likely lead not only a happy life, but also a meaningful one.