People's view of what makes them happy has significantly changed over the last seven decades, a new study suggests.

UK psychology researcher, Sandie McHugh, recreated a happiness study that had been originally carried out in Bolton in 1938. At that time, 226 people answered the question ‘what is happiness?' by rating 10 categories in order of importance.

These categories included leisure, beauty, economic security and religion.

The 1938 study revealed that the three most important things to make people happy were security, knowledge and religion.

However by 2014, when the follow-up study was carried out, religion came in at the bottom of the list (10th). While security was still there, in third place, good humour and leisure were now in first and second place.

Meanwhile in 2014, when asked if happiness was directly linked to material possessions and wealth, 77% said it was not.

One participant in 2014 commented that happiness was ‘knowing that my rent is paid and I can afford to eat healthily'.

"The overall impression from the correspondence in 1938 is that happiness factors were rooted in everyday lives at home and within the community. In 2014, many comments value family and friends, with good humour and leisure time also ranked highly," commented Ms McHugh.

Details of her findings were presented at the Annual Conference of the British Psychological Society in Liverpool.