The Happiness Index tool was developed by Dr. Jayakaran and Dr. VanValin to measure happiness. It is carried out using the Ten Seed Technique, assessing the five important aspects of happiness.
Run the Happiness Index yourself
An interactive Ten Seed version you can work through in your browser — place the seeds, and take away a PDF of your result.
Open the tool1. Positive emotion
Happiness and life satisfaction define this well-being component: feeling good, joyous, blessed, satisfied, content, calm, and peaceful. These emotions are often contextually dependent. One day things go well and a person feels happy; then a loss is experienced and the person feels sad.
2. Engagement
Engagement is the experience of being totally focused on one thing. It is about flow. The more engaged we are, the less we attend to things around us, and the easier it is to lose ourselves in what we are doing. Multitasking is stressful, while engagement is calming.
3. Relationships
Being with people you love is the greatest buffer against the negative effects of chronic stress, and helping other people is the fastest way to feel better in almost any situation. Simply being around people is insufficient; this element requires reciprocal relationships. The more truly intimate relationships one has, the more secure and happier one is overall.
4. Meaning and purpose
Meaning is defined by Dr. Seligman as belonging to and serving something that you believe is bigger than the self. Viktor Frankl, in Man's Search for Meaning, described how people in concentration camps would either lose their sense of identity, or sustain themselves by helping others.
5. Accomplishment
Accomplishment refers to completing or making progress in something of value. This component is high for people who feel they are achieving goals and expect future accomplishments, whether recognized by others or very private.
Scoring
The final index is the total of the seeds in the inner intersect divided by 50, the maximum total possible. The index can be tracked on a graph at periodic intervals.
Run the Happiness Index yourself
An interactive Ten Seed version you can work through in your browser, with a PDF of your result at the end.
Open the tool