The State of Research on the Happiness Indicator by Foreign Scientists

Abstract

The notion of happiness is regarded as one of the most philosophical issues related to morals. Although the issue of happiness is known for thousands of years, scientific investigation in this sphere has just recently begun. Interest in this object increased since the end of the 19th century when scientists developed apparatus for the empirical measurement of the happiness indicator. Unfortunately, these attempts were not successful. Some researchers gave up and tried to substitute the happiness optimization process. However, the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century are distinguished for the considerable intensification of the scientific research of happiness. Just the last 15 years have witnessed serious results on the given research direction in various areas: psychology, economy, sociology, management, etc. If the number of works devoted to different modifications of research in happiness starts to be accounted, we will be surprised considering the significance of this course. Thus, in our work we should only make an attempt to systematize approaches to the research of this old question and fill different scientific disciplines.