Happiness in Relation to Social Skills and Self-Esteem among Youths

The concept of Happiness has long interested philosophers and psychologists. Happiness can be defined in terms of the average level of satisfaction over a specific period, the frequency and degree of positive affect manifestations, and the relative absence of negative affect (Argyle, Martin & Cross land, 1989). Happiness is emotional component of subjective well-being (SWB) that is a reflection of positive thoughts and feelings about one's life, consisting of three components: frequent positive affect, infrequent negative affect, and a global sense of satisfaction with life (Diener, 1984). According to Waterman (1993), it "may be expected to be felt whenever pleasant affect accompanies the satisfaction of needs, whether physically, intellectually, or socially based". This is the notion of hedonism. Standing in contrast to hedonism is the second approach to subjective well-being / happiness. It can be traced to Aristotle's (384322 BCE) notion of eudemonia being true to one's inner self (Peterson et al., 2005). According to this view, true happiness entails identifying one's virtues, cultivating them, and living in accordance with them (Aristotle, 2000). Riggio (1986) social skills refer to a cluster of skills used in decoding, sending and regulating non-verbal and verbal information in order to facilitate positive and adaptive social interactions. In Lewinsohn's behavioral theory of depression, social skill is defined as the ability to enact behaviors that are either positively or negatively reinforced and to not emit behaviors that are punished by others (Libet & Lewinsohn, 1973). Others have defined social skills as "the ability to express both positive and negative feelings in the interpersonal context without suffering loss of social reinforcement" (Hersen & Bellack, 1977). Kwan, Bond and Singelis (1997) have confirmed the additive effect of harmonious interpersonal relationships to self-esteem in explaining life satisfaction among both American and Hong Kong college students. Diener and Seligman (2002) examined the characteristics of the happiest 10% of a college student sample. They compared the upper 10% of consistently very happy people to average and very unhappy people. The very happy people were highly social, with strong romantic and other close social relationships, compared to less happy groups. They concluded that good social relations were necessary for happiness. Lyubomirsky, king and Diener (2005) showed that happy people are successful in many life domains and that this success is at least partly due to their happiness. Happy people are more social, altruistic, and active, like themselves and other more, have strong bodies and immune systems, and have better conflict resolution skills. Chen et al. (2006) examined three fundamental components contributing to life satisfaction among Chinese college students. It was found that the personality variables tapping interpersonal relationship and social axioms tapping perceptions of social contexts were significantly related to life satisfaction over and above its relationship to self-esteem. Lyubomiosky et al. (2006) found that mood and temperamental traits, social relationships, purpose in life, and global life satisfaction are the best predictors of happiness.In psychology, self-esteem reflects a person's overall selfappraisal of their own worth. The original definition James (1890) presents self-esteem as a ratio found by dividing one's successes in areas of life of importance to a given individual by the failures in them or one's "success / pretensions". Another defines self-esteem as:". the evaluation the individual makes and customarily maintains with regard to himself. and indicates the extent to which the individual believes himself capable, significant, successful and worthy. " (Coopersmith, 1967). The first indicator is self-esteem, defined as self-acceptance and a basic feeling of self-worth (Rosenberg, 1965). The second is the ability to shape one's own environment (Ryff, 1989). …