Happiness is a state of mind or feeling characterized by  contentment, love, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy.[1]  A variety of biological, psychological,  religious,  and philosophical approaches have striven to define  happiness and identify its sources.
While direct measurement of happiness presents challenges, tools such  as The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire  have been developed by researchers. Positive psychology researchers use  theoretical models that include describing happiness as consisting of  positive emotions and positive activities, or that describe three kinds  of happiness: pleasure, engagement, and meaning.
Research has identified a number of attributes that correlate with  happiness: relationships and social interaction, extraversion, marital status, employment,  health, democratic freedom, optimism, religious involvement, income and  proximity to other happy people.
Philosophers and religious thinkers often define happiness in terms  of living a good life, or flourishing, rather than simply  as an emotion. Happiness in this older sense was used to  translate the Greek Eudaimonia, and is still used in virtue  ethics.
 


