Why Happiness Isn’t Always Good: Asians vs. Americans

TIME:

Among journalists — and less so among psychologists — the subset of mental-health research called “positive psychology” has become powerfully influential. Positive psychology, which was more or less founded by a University of Pennsylvania professor named Martin Seligman, focuses not on ordinary or pathological behavior — the two subjects that most psychologists study — but on how we can cultivate positive emotions to build resilience and well-being.

Many research psychologists, either out of academic rigor or academic jealousy, have questioned Seligman’s work. And now a growing body of research challenges whether most humans even see “positive” emotions as better than ordinary ones — whether feeling happy actually leads, in the end, to a good life.