The summary of happiness research is good, and the links are good. But one or two parts, mostly the 1st paragraph, seem cliched and preachy.
How, exactly, do I avoid this pitfall of seeking happiness? Should I deliberately take a boring job instead of a fun one? Spend money on things I don't want rather than things I do? The end of the article seems to rephrase this as "seek happiness from eudaimonic pursuits instead of hedonic pursuits, because you get more of it that way", which I would be more on board with.
One thing that bothers me about some happiness research is the very muddled definition of happiness; it seems to switch from "pure pleasure" through various emotions all the way to "utility" at times. In fact, the whole happiness-utility relationship is one I've never seen fully clarified (though this thread makes a really good start). Talking about how much better it is to "live life in accordance with your desires and values" could mean that people should care about utility more than happiness, that utility is equivalent to some kind of happiness, or that increasing utility automatically leads to increasing happiness.
Thanks for the critique. You're definitely right about the first paragraph - rereading made me cringe a little bit. And overall, the level of analysis is fairly weak, something I probably prevented myself from seeing before because I was tired of writing the damn thing. I probably bit off more than I could chew trying to analyze an entire field of psychology in a 1000 word essay, but at least I learned not to do that for next time.
Whenever the topic of happiness is mentioned, it's always discussed like it's the most important thing in the world. People talk about it like they would a hidden treasure or a rare beast - you have to seek it, hunt it, ensnare it and hold it tight, or it'll slip through your fingers. Perhaps it's just the contrarian in me, but this seems misguided - happiness shouldn't be searched for like the holy grail. Not that I don't want to be happy, but is that really the purpose of my life - to have my neurons stimulated in a way that feels good, and try to keep that up until I die? Why don't I just slip myself into a Soma-coma then? Of course, anything I do boils down to a particular stimulation of neurons, but that doesn't mean there's not something better to aspire to. To pursue happiness as an end itself I think, is backwards. It wasn't built into our brains because evolution was being nice - it's there because it increases our fitness. Happiness is designed to get us somewhere, not to be a destination in itself.