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Wiley InterScience | |||||||||||||
  Psychological ScienceVolume 19 Issue 4, Pages 371 - 377 Published Online: 7 Apr 2008 © 2009 Association for Psychological Science A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science (previously the American Psychological Society)
Abstract | References | Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 133K) | Related Articles | Citation Tracking  Research Article Is Happiness Having What You Want, Wanting What You Have, or Both? Copyright Copyright © 2008 Association for Psychological Science ABSTRACTABSTRACT—Rabbi Hyman Schachtel (1954) proposed that "happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have" (p. 37). In two studies, we tested Schachtel's maxim by asking participants whether or not they had and the extent to which they wanted each of 52 material items. To quantify how much people wanted what they had, we identified what they had and the extent to which they wanted those things. To quantify how much people had what they wanted, we identified how much they wanted and whether or not they had each item. Both variables accounted for unique variance in happiness. Moreover, the extent to which people wanted what they had partially mediated effects of gratitude and maximization on happiness, and the extent to which they had what they wanted partially mediated the effect of maximization. Results indicate that happiness is both wanting what you have and having what you want. (Received 6/20/07; Revision accepted 9/24/07) | 
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