Abstract

VELASCO MATUS, Pedro Wolfgang; VILLANUEVA OROZCO, Gerardo Benjamín Tonatiuh; RIVERA ARAGON, Sofía  and  DIAZ LOVING, Rolando. Revisiting happiness: Frequency versus intensity. Acta de investigación psicol [online]. 2016, vol.6, n.3, pp.2527-2533. ISSN 2007-4719.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aipprr.2016.07.002.

Mexico is consistently portrayed as a happy country. Research endeavors, both national and international, show that Mexico's levels of happiness are favorable, although little has been done regarding specific measurement underpinnings. There is a constant debate on whether happiness should be measured in terms of frequency or intensity of positive affect over negative affect (Diener, Sandvik, & Pavot, 2009), although some consensus points toward frequency's superiority over intensity of emotions. Some authors insist that frequency can me more easily and accurately measured than intensity, allowing for cross-person metric comparisons. This research put to test the frequency-intensity debate by providing several conceptual frameworsk that accentuated one over the other, allowing people to decide how they defined their own happiness. Two independent samples (n 1 = 158, n 2 = 583) of Mexican men and women provided insights on whether happiness in Mexico is defined in terms of frequency or intensity. Once it was defined, happiness levels were compared between two groups showing that those who define happiness as “frequency” present higher levels of joy. This research supports the premise that happiness could be defined as the sum of frequent events, congruent with bottom-up approaches to happiness and wellbeing.

Keywords : Happiness; Wellbeing; Frequency; Intensity; Bottom-up.