The funds, friends, and faith of happy people

New studies are revealing predictors of subjective well-being, often assessed as self-reported happiness and life satisfaction. Worldwide, most people report being at least moderately happy, regardless of age and gender. As part of their scientific pursuit of happiness, researchers have ex-amined possible associations between happiness and (a) economic growth and personal income, (b) close relation-ships, and (c) religious faith. W ho is happy? Is happiness howered on those of a particular age, gender, or income level'? Does it come with certain genetically predis-posed traits? With supportive close relationships? With a spiritual perspective? Such questions not only went unanswered during most of psychology's first century, they went largely unasked as psychologists focused on illness more than health, on fear more than courage, on aggression more than love. A