The psychology of happiness: interventions Influencing happiness

The thesis deals with the topic of happiness and happiness increasing intervention strategies. The theoretical chapters discuss different approaches to defining the term and they are inclined to the view that the term reflects the subjective satisfaction with life of an individual. The thesis further deals with a number of major theories of happiness, analyzes its relationship to other variables, such as heredity, health, money or work and it gives an overview of the best known intervention strategies affecting experiencing happiness in the end of the theoretical part of it. Empirical research is aimed at testing the effectiveness of the chosen strategy - attentivenes - on the changes in experiencing happiness. Although the statistical analysis does not confirm the validity of the hypothesis of an increase in subjective levels of happiness after applying the intervention, the results tend to indicate the effectiveness of the method. Keywords: positive psychology, happiness, satisfaction, attentiveness