Effects of Happiness on Mental Health

The concept of mental health comprised to the health conditions of people without suffering any mental or psychological problem such as stress, depression, anxiety and other form of psychic disorders. In this regard it can be said that no one is free from and psychological, psychophysical and psycho-social disorders from which we can derive that no one mentally healthy. But the concept of mental health defined free from the disorders those are prolonged and panic in nature. As the concept of mental health is subjective in nature, it varies from person to person. Besides free from the disorders, a person should pose some of the other positive characteristics to deal with the society effectively. Marry (1958) stated that, a person can be considered mentally healthy with the following characteristics such as (a) Positive attitudes toward himself/herself; (b) Realization of own potentialities through action; (c); Unification of in personality; (d) Degree of independence of social influences; (e) observations of the world around; and (f) Positive adapts to everyday life. Briefly, it can be said that positive mental health of the person make able to an individual to stand on his own two feet without making undue demands or impositions of others. In this regard the role of happiness in day to day life can make the individual more skilled to fight with different mental disorders. The present article is intended to find out the effects of happiness in day to day life in a social situation to deal with different mental disorders to make the individual mentally healthy and prosperous in life.

The concept of positive psychology stands on the concept different mental process especially for human. It stated that most of the people first think positive or think more positive and less negative. The positive domains of human psychology were earlier dominated by the domains of negative concept and psychology initially started with the concept of different mental problems and disorders. During the initial time of clinical psychology, and its role in dealing different problem of human life started searching to find out the negative causes related to life those are also responsible for disruptive behavior or maladjusted behavior. In this regard, very recently the contribution of Martin Seligman and his colleagues started to search the effects of positive attributes of human behavior which can make the people more positive, healthy, peaceful and long-lived.
The works of (Watson, 1930;Wilson, 1967;and Diener 1984) explored the role of various types and dimensions of close relationships and its relation to happiness. Similarly Argyle, (2001);Diener & Biswas Diener, (2008) stated that happiness can be predicted from the point of attachment security, social support, and overall relationship quality. These findings have been observed across samples, age groups, research methods, and cultures. Secondly, although close relationships are consistent correlates with happiness, research shows that the qualitya pattern replicated across age and cultural groups. In their views they also stated that personality type and happiness have close relationship therefore some people are happy with relationship where as other are contradictory.

Happiness and Freedom:
The relationship of freedom and happiness is qyite positive in nature. Freedom may be defined as the action; people do according to their own wish. But it is important to say that, freedom leads to more happiness when it is followed by the social norms and regulations. In some of the cases it is seen that a wise choice leads to great happiness than to taking any decision following the physical and short term pleasure. Therefore it can be said that, a wise freedom can ensure long-term happiness and is thus far more valuable than a short-term comfort such as safety. In this regard Benjamin Franklin (1818), one of the great proponents of freedom, stated that -They, who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety‖. From the statement of Benjamin Franklin, it can be said that taking the original meaning of freedom and liberty can give more pleasure and happiness to the individual in society.

Positive Emotions and its Relation to Happiness:
According to attachment theory of Bowlbt (1973), it can be stated that person who are more interactive and have the strong feelings of attachment with the person effectively in the society leads to happiness than to In this regard the there is a strong association between attachment patterns and the experience of positive emotions. It is believed that by imparting a sense of safety and security, interactions with available and supportive attachment figures alleviate distress and evoke positive emotions such as relief, love and gratitude. With repeated positive interactions, the sense of attachment security gradually becomes associated in a person's mind with memories of positive experiences and emotions. As a result, the evocation of mental representations of attachment security by either external or internal stimuli for example the presence of a supportive other, visualizing the face of an attachment figure automatically causes a person to feel more relaxed, relieved, loved, and happy (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007a) Further using well-validated priming techniques, Mikulincer, Hirschberger, Nachmias, and Gillath (2001) provided experimental evidence for the hypothesized link between attachment security and positive emotion. Measures of attachment anxiety and avoidance have also been correlated with measures of positive affect (e.g., Gilbert er al ., 2008;Shiota, Keltner, & John, 2006). For example several studies have used the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), finding that attachment anxiety and avoidance are associated with lower positive affect scores. Similar associations have been observed in studies examining positive emotions during daily social interactions tracked over one or more weeks. Positive emotion and its relation to different types of attachment have found in many studies. For example, Sonnby-Borgstrom and Jonsson (2003) exposed people to pictures of happy and angry faces, assessed the activity of the participants' smile and frown muscles, and found that attachment-anxious individuals had more active -frown‖ muscles when viewing either happy or angry faces.

Attachment patterns and the psychological consequences of positive emotions:
The psychological consequences of positive emotions are moderated by attachment orientations and are more likely to be found among people who score high on attachment security i.e. low on anxiety and avoidance. Attachment patterns are systematically related to general psychological well-being, positive emotions in the context of close relationships, emotional reactions and the consequences of positive emotions. Moreover, the effects of attachment patterns are consistent across samples and research methods and can be generalized across cultures (Shaver et at., 2010).

Negative emotions vs positive emotions and its relation to Happiness:
Negative emotions are more noticeable. Although for every negative emotion we may find a corresponding positive emotion, negative emotions are more differentiated than positive emotions. It is common to say that, there are many ways to describe negative emotions but very few ways are ther through which the positive emotions can be described. Even in many culture and societies, it is quite difficult to define positive emotion but it is very easty to define negative emotions. The the traditional psychological concept focused more in negative attributes and less to the positive attributes. But we can deny that positive emotions have more intensive effect on human life than to negative emotions. Still, there is little doubt then that love is both more noticeable and powerful in our everyday life. The risks of responding inappropriately to negative events are greater than the risks of responding inappropriately to positive events, since negative events can kill us while positive events will merely enhance our well-being. In this regard it can be said that in most of the cases it is observed that there is a negative relationship exist between negative emotions and the happiness. In other words it can be said that people having negative emotions are less happy than to the people having positive emotions.
People having positive emotions are typically considered themselves to be happy. The majority of people see themselves as above-average as far as most of their qualities are concerned and they rate their happiness as more than one-third above the middle of the scale. This means that our baseline is above average in the positive realm. A major advantage of such a rating is that it has motivational value, which is important in coping with our surroundings and which produces a strong immune response to infections. While sad and pessimistic people can better perceive and understand their environment, happy and optimistic people can better cope with their environment. In this regard Nico Frijda has suggested what he calls -The law of Hedonic Asymmetry‖ which states that pleasure is always contingent on change and disappears with continuous satisfaction, whereas pain may persist under persisting adverse conditions. Frijda further explains that emotions exist in order to signal situations in the world that require a response. Since in his view positive circumstances do not need a specific response, the emotional signaling system can be switched off. The more noticeable nature of negative emotions does not imply that their impact on our life is greater. This issue is connected to our general view of human beings, and there are conflicting views on this matter. Thus, Spionoza argues: -A desire that arises from joy is stronger, other things being equal, than one that arises from sadness. -Spinoza connects this contention to his assumption that the very essence of a person is a striving to persevere in his being. Similarly, while Adam Ferguson claims that -pain, by its intenseness, its duration, or frequency, is greatly predominant‖. He thinks that -love and compassion are the most powerful principles in the human breast. -Ferguson believes that positive emotions are more compatible with our basic positive disposition toward others. Descartes' view is different: -Sadness is in some way primary and more necessary than joy, and hatred more necessary than love.‖ While an empirical investigation might determine whether negative emotions are more noticeable, it is more difficult to verify empirically which type of emotion has a greater impact on our life. However, in this issue I tend to agree with Spinoza and Ferguson. To sum up, negative emotions are more noticeable than positive ones since attending to negative events is more important for our survival than attending to positive events. This does not necessarily imply that negative emotions have a more important role in our lives. The emotions that are more frequent and obvious are not obvious are not always the more significant. In any case, love in all its forms, seems to be one of the most significant and powerful emotion in our lives.