The science of happiness state of the art and the local development

Abstract: This article aims to present the science of happiness history and transformations, from antiquity to the present day. The aim is, albeit succinctly, to make some considerations about the study of happiness, weaving correlations with local development, as local development is a complex concept, which starts from the reinterpretation of a series of discussions and issues about what is meant by development. Works published in indexing sources with the greatest impact, at national and international levels, were used, in order to allow greater targeting of studies related to this concept. The systematic literature review using the SciELO index was used as a method, by consulting the keywords: “science of happiness”, “antiquity”, “contemporaneity”, “local development”, “21st century”. Next, articles from the specific period dated from 1960 onwards, when happiness began to be treated as a science, were researched. In today’s world, happiness can be understood as a basic emotion characterized by a positive emotional state with a feeling of well-being and pleasure, associated with the perception of success and a coherent understanding of the world. However, most people understand that happiness is more than a tangle of intense, positive feelings. It can be understood as a full feeling of “peace” and contentment, as it all depends on how much our interpretation of reality changes our experience of that reality.