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Why people are happiest at weekends

Research looking at the psychology behind that mood boost that men and women alike feel better from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon.

The feeling is boosted emotionally and physically, regardless of their age, education, salary, marital status or how many hours they work, says the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.

Researchers financed by the Sage Foundation and the Human Motivation research program at Rochester USA used pagers with 74 adults, ages 18 to 62, who worked at least 30 hours a week. Over three weeks, participants were randomly paged three times a day and rated on their activity and how they felt when beeped. They also said how close they felt to others present and whether they felt competent and autonomous.

Feelings of autonomy, relatedness and competency are key to satisfying psychological needs, says Ryan Howell, an assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University who was not involved in this study.

The research also found that participants felt greater competency on weekends.

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