Pursue The Relationship Between Positive Emotions And Happiness: The Role Of Self-construction

As a positive emotion,Happiness is an essential element of well-being.However,there is an argument both in the field of philosophy and empirical psychology.It is about whether the pursuit of positive emotion or the pursuit of happiness could bring well-being.This paper takes college students and graduate students as subjects to study the relationship between the pursuit of positive emotion and well-being in the context of Chinese culture,and further to discuss the internal mechanism and its influencing factors in the relationship.Besides,the sudy is intended to provide some paths for college students and graduate students to well-being.This study draws lessons from Mauss' s research paradigm and uses questionnaire method and experimental method to study the question.In the questionnaire study,in order to explore the relationship between the variables,557 subjects receive all the four questionnaires at the same time,including the pursuit of positive emotion questionnaire,happiness tendency behavior questionnaire,self-construal scale and comprehensive well-being questionnaire.The three-factor completely random experiment design of 2×2×2 is used to study how the different types of positive emotion and different types of self-construal affect individual's well-being in the condition of pursuing happiness.The questionnaire method uses the Process program developed by Hayes to fit the relationship model between the four variables,and the experimental method uses the traditional three-factor analysis of variance to examine the main effect and interaction effect of the three variables.The questionnaire study's results are presented as:(1)There was a significant positive correlation between pursuing positive emotion and well-being.(2)Self-construal plays a moderating role in the pursuit of positive emotion and well-being.In terms of dependent self-construal individuals,the level of the pursuit of positive emotion can significantly and positively predict well-being,but in terms of independent self-construal individuals,individual's well-being has nothing to do with the level of pursuing positive emotion.(3)Happy tendency behavior plays a mediating role in the relationship,which can be fitted into a medi-moderating model together with the pursuit of positive emotion,self-construal and comprehensive well-being.The experimental study's results are presented as:(1)The main effect of pursuing positive emotion on well-being is significant.The score of the group of pursuing happiness was significantly higher than that of the control group.(2)There was a significant interaction between the initiation of self-construal and positive emotion type on well-being.In the condition of eudaimonic positive emotion,the independentself-construal individuals' well-being are significantly higher than that of hedonic type,while the dependent self-construal individuals' well-being have no significant difference under different positive emotion types.In the basis of the two studies,the advice are summarized as:(1)Dependent self-construal individuals should consciously pursue,experience and create positive emotions,and when creating positive emotions,they should take into account the eudaimonic positive emotions,as well as the hedonic positive emotions.(2)Independent self-construal individuals should adjust the motivational level of pursuing positive emotions according to their actual situation,avoid the negative effect of excessive motivation on happiness,and create positive emotions mainly by eudaimonic positive emotions,especially avoid hedonic adaptation caused by hedonic positive emotions.