Valuing Happiness is Not a Good Way of Pursuing Happiness, but Prioritizing Positivity is: A Replication Study.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Cross-sectional observational survey
PubMed 34824861 · doi:10.5334/pb.1036
What was done
In a cross-sectional replication study of 683 participants (75% female), subjects completed the prioritizing positivity scale (PPS), valuing happiness scale (VHS), Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Psychological Well-Being Scales (PWB), and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Associations were evaluated using regression analyses.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical effect sizes or regression coefficients. It states that prioritizing positivity was positively associated with subjective happiness, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being, and negatively linked to depression, whereas valuing happiness showed partly opposite results.
Why it matters
This replication underscores that actively organizing daily life to experience positive emotions correlates with better mental health, whereas placing excessive value on happiness itself may have counterproductive links to well-being.
Limits
The study is cross-sectional and cannot determine causality or temporal precedence. Findings rely exclusively on self-report questionnaires in a sample that was 75% female, and the abstract omits quantitative effect estimates, confidence intervals, and p-values.