Effect of Personal Beliefs on Happiness: A Systematic Review

Personal beliefs are the beliefs in oneself about personal opinions and personal qualities related to self rather than to other people. Personal beliefs are directly associated with happiness. “Happiness refers to a general feeling and experience of contentment and joy” (Baumgardner & Crothers, 2012). Happiness is also defined as a cognitive phenomenon. Ryan and Deci (2001) define happiness as manifestation of positive emotions and lack of negative ones. Individuals' judgement about their quality of life is highly influenced by their personal characteristics. Our perceptions about the world clearly depend on our beliefs about the world (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977). To understand the view of people about the world, it is necessary to recognize how views of people are composed by their personal beliefs. The implicit theories about mindset are determined by schematic knowledge structures which include beliefs in the stability of attributes and it also determine how people assign meaning to events (Ross, 1989). Growth mindset provides an optimistic assessment of the likelihood of future success. Briki (2017) found that self-control is one of the key determinants of subjective well-being. Many research studies have also revealed that greater level of self-efficacy is found in happy people as compared to unhappy ones. People with high self-esteem have low anxiety and depressive symptoms and are better at health. The present paper explore how personal beliefs and happiness are related and review of related researches revealed that personal beliefs are significantly related to happiness.