Alegria em uma perspectiva de saúde

Abstract

The term happiness carries many meanings and each of these meanings is described by different words. To the understanding the concept of happiness and its determinants the present work had as objective to make a general review of empirical studies and a literature review and verify the correlation between happiness and health. The main determinants are described such as wealth, coping styles and adaptation, age, sex, education, intelligence, culture, social comparison, health, goals of life, personality, genetics, and marriage. The responses about the importance of these determinants are not conclusive Joy, happiness, and subjective well-being were used as synonymous according it was defined in this review. This work established relations between happiness and health. The relationships were established from the factors that influence joy and contribute to health. It consists of meeting were one of these factors has the power to increase or diminish the power of the other. In order to measure happiness and health the Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI) and, the Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), were completed by 109 subjects. Descriptive statistics related the interrelations of the variables. The results showed predict positive correlation for happiness with health. Negative correlations between happiness and factors measured by GHQ (psychological stress, sleep disturbance, psychosomatic disturbance, distrust in self-efficacy, death wish and, general factor) were reported. Females reported psychological stress more significantly than males. No differences were found to variables gender and age. These results support previous research. Mind and body are intimately linked, and, thus, the reichian approach was used to understand the interrelations between happiness and its components. The basis of Reich s theory is the passions and its social repression. He worried about the vital needs of human being and its inhibitions, anxiety and obstacles that interdict each one to live its own forces and happiness. Reich believed to be possible to educate the children in a healthy way, to guide then to life in order to build a better world. The antique philosophers and modern researches agree with him: it is possible to teach happiness; one of the ways is the virtues