ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some stories which looks primarily at social relationships but also focuses on romantic relationships as the processes for selecting, building, and maintaining such relationships have many similarities. Both research findings and real life experience show that people who have meaningful, positive relationships with others are happier than those who do not. Learning positive relationship skills is healthy, both emotionally and physically, as it improves immune system functioning and lowers rates of cancer, cholesterol, and premature death. Studies examining 'very happy people'-the top 10" of people who rated themselves as happy-reveal that relationships again stand out as a core happiness factor. The majority of the happiest people have five or more good friends. They are social people who joined social groups, experienced quality relationships, and built social support networks. People are social beings, they need to relate with other people and they need to relate with other people well for their own quality of life.
