I think anything can be used. The trick is to use Quality and to match up stuff to their Likes. Don't forget you can smooth and engrave the floors and walls (usually).
If you want to put a hurt on a Tantrum Spiral you either need to remove the Disgruntled Springs (The dwarves that are going to start the tantrum) or if its too far gone for that try and get something big and fancy setup like a nice statue garden and an awesome dining hall with lots of tables. Think of it like a big scale. Happy Thoughts are small marbles. Unhappy Thoughts are like heavy blocks. You wanna pile a lot of happy thoughts onto all your dwarves' scales to outweigh the occsional unhappy thought.
Its 4am here so if this doesn't make entirely good sense slap on a Sleep Deprivation Filter and re-read it
My dwarves' thoughts generally read like this:
"Has slept in a good/great/awesome/royal bed lately. Has ate in a Legendary Dining Hall lately. Has had a decent/nice/great meal lately.Has had a good/awesome drink lately.Has been disappointed by the lack of tables lately. (Damn dwarves! Don't take your breaks all at once! hehe) Has admired one or three nice pieces of construction lately (I have a good quality drawbridge and they like that XD).
So you can work on your problem in both broad and targeted ways depending on what your current situation is.