There will always be something worth living for while there are individuals to love in your life. When it comes to happiness experiences while with the family tends to be average, not as good as with friends, not as bad as when alone. However, this average is also the result of wide swings; one can get extremely aggravated at home one moment and be thoroughly ecstatic the next. On the job, adults tend to have greater concertation and cognitive involvement, but they are more motivated when at home, and are happier there. The same holds true for children in school compared to home. Family members often experience their interactions differently from each other. For instance, when fathers are with their children, they typically report experiencing being in a better mood. So do their children up to age ten, depending on the child.  After age ten, some children report increasingly negative moods when with their fathers up to age 13. That is probably because they are discovering themselves and getting used to freedom. However, when children reach their adult years, they tend to appreciate their father’s more because they have had a chance to experience independent life and are happy to know someone genuinely loves them.  

The strong effects of companionship on the quality of experience suggest that investing psychic energy in relationships is a good way to improve life. Even the passive, superficial conversations at a neighborhood bar can stave off depression. However, for real growth, it is necessary to find people whose opinions are interesting and whose conversation is stimulating. A more difficult, but in the long run even more useful, skill to acquire is the ability to tolerate solitude, and to even enjoy it. Everyday life unfolds in various locations—the home, the car, the office, streets, and restaurants. In addition to activities and companionships, locations also have an effect on the quality of experience. Teenagers, for instance, usually feel best when away from adult supervision, such as in a public park. They usually feel the most constrained in schools, churches, and other places where their behavior must conform to others’ expectations. Adults also prefer public places, where they are likely to be with their friends, and involved in voluntary leisure activities. This is especially true for women, for whom being out of the house often means a relief from drudgery, whereas for men being in public is more often related to work and other responsibilities. There is no moral truth, the weight of which can be felt without experience. 

For many people, driving a car gives the most consistent sense of freedom and control; some call it their ultimate driving machine because while they are driving, they can concentrate on life without interruptions, and resolve enjoy emotional peace in the protective sensory rejuvenation chamber of their individual vehicle. For many families, the car has also become the location for togetherness. At home parents and children are often dispersed in different rooms, doing different things when on an outing in the car, they talk, sing, or play games together. Different rooms of the house also have their peculiar emotional profile, in large part because each is a setting for a different kind of activity. For instance, men report good moods when they are in the basement, whereas women do not; probably because men to the basement to relax or work on hobbies, whereas wives are more likely to go there to do laundry. Women report some of their best moods in the house when they are in the library, whereas they are relatively free from the demands of the family, and in the kitchen, where they are in control and involved in cooking, which is an activity that is relatively pleasant. (Men actually enjoy cooking much more than women, no doubt because they do it less than one-tenth as often, on average, and thus can choose to do it when they feel like it.) A well-built house requires but little repairs.