What makes people Happy?

OVERALL RESEARCH QUESTION

What makes people happy?

THESIS

Many people can tell anyone what would make them happy, such as, money, love, or an object, but behind all of that you have to ask why is that? And the every person’s happiness depends on their relationships with others, what they want in life, and most importantly what their values are.

SYNTHESIS PARAGRAPH

    Happiness is the main goal in life for everyone, and according to Pathway to Happiness is that we not only want to be loved, but everyone has a fear of not being loved. Some may have more of a desire to be desired more than others, but everyone deep down has a yearning for it. From the website lifehacker.com I got a good idea why humans have such a desire for materialistic things. According to this website when an image flashes in front of our eyes and essentially the pleasure center kicks in, and dopamine is released, and we realize that this object makes us happy, so we want it. This website also points out that actually the thought about buying something is actually the same thing as buying it because the dopamine is still released. When you buy something you often experience after a while the object does not give you as much happiness as you thought because it is not new and you have become comfortable with it, unlike the desire of something you can not have. Probably the most important reason we have so much happiness has to do with our values. Values have to do with goals, and what you care about, and if we value you something more than something else than if we get it or accomplish that valued goal that you feel accomplished, which leads to happiness. The website Theimportanceofvalues.com explains that values are important because they form goals for that person to accomplish. This applies to a any job, shopping at the store, or even in a relationship of any kind. When you compare two things you want at the store you have to choose which one has more value you to you, which does not always mean which is more expensive, but which will serve you the biggest benefit. Lastly, there are many people that go through a period of time in their life when they are not at their best, and have trouble finding happiness, and that is called depression. There are many types, and of course some are more severe than others.  The website Action for Happiness gives tips about how to get out of depression and things you can do to get your dopamine levels up and get back to your happy-self back. This is a very helpful website because it does help you find ways to get you active, and happy again because in life is full of ups and downs and the ups are great, but sometimes the downs can be hard to overcome. This website states that to overcome depression