Comparing Well-being Across Nations: Conceptual and Empirical Issues

Culture and Subjective Well-Being

“…Approximately 70% of the historical data on happiness and life satisfaction is based on European and North American respondents (Tov & Au, 2013) -two regions that represent only 16% of the world population. However, over the past two decades, crossnational studies like the World Values Survey and the Gallup World Poll have now surveyed samples representing 80−95 % of the world population.…”

A Comparative Study of Social Comparison, Materialism, and Subjective Well-Being in the U. S., China, Croatia, and India

“…In this study, we propose and test a multiple-step mediator model to explicitly examine the indirect mediating effect of materialism and material satisfaction between social comparison embedded in TV programming and life satisfaction. Studies show that societal levels of well-being are meaningfully related to macro-level social and economic conditions (Tov & Au, 2013). While research conducted in the U. S. generally confirms the path between social comparison, materialism, and life satisfaction, we try to answer the question as to whether these relationships converge under the assimilation of material life or diverge due to cross-cultural differences.…”

“…Research on subjective well-being has traditionally been conducted in the Western developed world with data primarily from Western European and North American nations. Despite the rise of research interest in developing countries in recent years, we know far less about the well-being of people from the Asian and other developing nations due to the underrepresentation of data from these regions (Tov & Au, 2013). As such, more cross-national studies in those representative samples are desirable.…”

“…As such, more cross-national studies in those representative samples are desirable. The pursuit of such studies will help scholars and practitioners reduce the discrepancies among macro-regions in our existing knowledge of well-being (Tov & Au, 2013).…”

Felicidade: utopia, pluralidade e política. A delimitação da felicidade enquanto objeto para a ciência

“…Ainda assim, mesmo deixadas de lado pelo mainstream da Psicologia Positiva, algumas pesquisas foram realizadas no sentido de identificar possíveis diferenças culturais em relação à felicidade e ao bem-estar. Como resultado, pode-se dizer que significativa diferença tem sido identificada, sobretudo na comparação entre países ocidentais e orientais(Tov & Au, 2012).…”