section_path: Definitions
section_name: Definitions
paragraph_text: Definitions
  
  "Happiness" is subject to debate on usage and meaning, and on possible differences in understanding by culture.
  
  The word is mostly used in relation to two factors:
  
  Some usages can include both of these factors. Subjective well-being (swb) includes measures of current experience (emotions, moods, and feelings) and of life satisfaction. For instance Sonja Lyubomirsky has described happiness as " the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one's life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile. " Eudaimonia, is a Greek term variously translated as happiness, welfare, flourishing, and blessedness. Xavier Landes has proposed that happiness include measures of subjective wellbeing, mood and eudaimonia.
  
  These differing uses can give different results. Whereas Nordic countries often score highest on swb surveys, South American countries score higher on affect-based surveys of current positive life experiencing.
  
  The implied meaning of the word may vary depending on context, qualifying happiness as a polyseme and a fuzzy concept.
  
  A further issue is when measurement is made; appraisal of a level of happiness at the time of the experience may be different from appraisal via memory at a later date.
  
  Some users accept these issues, but continue to use the word because of its convening power.