The cognitive component of happiness is best understood as a reporting or evaluative process.

“I think when the psychologists are thinking about it they really think about it as the reporting part right and and this gets tricky right because you know I see folks having their nice glass of wine on the beach and I'm thinking like that's coming with lots of positive emotion like I bet if I tested them and could have a direct look at their sensory experience and probably be pretty positive it's only when they reflect on their life and they're asking well how's it going that they say oh you know I don't know my stocks went down”