FAQ > About Subjective Well-Being (Happiness and Life Satisfaction), by Dr. Diener > Q: Is it good to be emotionally intense?
A: Randy Larsen and I have studied people varying in emotional intensity, and this individual difference seems to have little relation to SWB. Some intense people are high in SWB, and some nonintense people are high in SWB.
There appear to be costs and benefits to emotional intensity. If an individual thinks that things are all very important and reacts intensely to good events, it is more likely that she or he will also react strongly when things go wrong. Thus, the intense person may be happier when things are going well, but unhappier when things are going badly. Overall, the intense and nonintense persons might on average be equally happy, but the intense person will experience stronger ups and downs. Thus, these two types of individuals experience their happiness in qualitatively different ways.
Last updated on September 14, 2007 by Dr. Walt