Sonja Lyubomirsky (russian: Соня Любомирская, born December 14, 1966) is a Russian-born American professor in the Department of Psychology at the

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban dist ...

and author of the ''The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want''.

Education

Lyubomirsky received her B.A. from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

and her Ph.D. in

Social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

Personality Psychology Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that examines personality and its variation among individuals. It aims to show how people are individually different due to psychological forces. Its areas of focus include: * construction of a ...

from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

Awards

Lyubomirsky has received a John Templeton Foundation grant, a Science of Generosity grant, a Templeton Positive Psychology Prize, and a million-dollar grant (with Ken Sheldon) from the National Institute of Mental Health. In 2021, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Basel.

''The How of Happiness''

''The How of Happiness'' was published in 2008 by

Penguin Press Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initiall ...

. The book has been translated into 22 languages. The premise of ''The How of Happiness'' is that 50 percent of a given human's long-term happiness level is genetically determined, 10 percent is affected by life circumstances and situation, and a remaining 40 percent of happiness is subject to

self control Self-control, an aspect of inhibitory control, is the ability to regulate one's emotions, thoughts, and behavior in the face of temptations and impulses. As an executive function, it is a cognitive process that is necessary for regulating one' ...

. ''The'' ''How of Happiness'' led to an iPhone application called Live Happy, produced by Signal Patterns. Lyubomirsky is on the company's scientific advisory board. ''The'' ''How of Happiness'' has also led to a song, ''The How of Happiness'' Book Tune, a

mnemonic A mnemonic ( ) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory for better understanding. Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and image ...

to remember the content within the book.

''The Myths of Happiness''

''The Myths of Happiness'', published by Penguin Press, claims why major life events that should make a person happy don’t, and that what shouldn’t make us happy often does.

References

External links

* Lyubomirsky'
webpage
about ''The How of Happiness''
20/20 video segment
covering Lyubomirsky and ''The How of Happiness'' * Video o
Good Morning America interview
with Lyubomirsky about ''The How of Happiness'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Lyubomirsky, Sonja Living people 1966 births University of California, Riverside faculty Positive psychologists 21st-century American women writers American psychologists Harvard University alumni Stanford University alumni Academic journal editors