Are you happy? It's not such a silly question. Given the mountains of bad news around us, feeling down seems like a natural reaction, even if our own lives haven't been directly affected.

If you aren't sure, try the Authentic Happiness Inventory Questionnaire, at www .authentichappiness.org.

But can a quiz measure happiness, and can you do anything if you aren't feeling very happy?

Yes and yes, say two psychologists.

Nicole Klaus, an assistant professor at the University of Kansas medical school, says lots of research has been done on various ways of measuring happiness. The quiz is part of research by the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. It's a field that Klaus finds "really, really interesting."

When something bad happens, she says, people typically overestimate how long they're going to feel sad. So "keeping things in perspective can be really useful" in bad times.

Darcy Buehler, of Affiliated Family Counselors, says happiness is "less a matter of getting what you want than wanting what you have. We are all blessed in so many ways ... but we are all focused more on things we don't have."

Our culture, she says, tends to equate happiness with financial success, even though research shows that "once you've met your basic needs, wealth doesn't really predict your lasting happiness."

Both say that maintaining balance in life — making sure to include activities that bring you pleasure — is key to not feeling overwhelmed by bad news.

"It's not the events in their life that creates their unhappiness," Buehler says. "It's the way they think about them."