Happiness Around the World

Zwolinski, Jennifer

doi:10.1002/9781119519348.ch26

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…On the other hand, Joshanloo & Dan [123] highlighted that individuals across nations might not value happiness equally. Hence, Zwolinski [215] suggested that academicians and researchers should not assume happiness to be a "supreme universal good" unless there is a specific concept of happiness that every culture or individual can relate to.…”

Section: Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can I Sustain My Happiness? A Review, Critique and Research Agenda for Economics of Happiness

Jain

Sharma

Mahendru³

2019

Sustainability

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Human beings want to live in a state of happiness and prosperity, but happiness is important not just for the well-being of individuals but for the well-being of society. To ensure the maximization of happiness, it is necessary to consider more than just money, and rather include the right understanding of happiness at the individual level, the family level, the society level, and the environmental (nature) level. This paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge by consolidating the findings of the literature; grouping those into major themes and sub-themes; describing the mechanisms based on the empirical papers by highlighting the independent, dependent, control, and moderating variables, to study the causal relationships between variables under study; proposing an agenda for future research; and informing the policymakers about decisions influencing the human happiness level through legislative rules and regulations. Our results suggest prioritizing the conceptualization of happiness while computing the happiness level at the individual or collective levels. Furthermore, the study recommends governments to establish the conditions enabling individuals to report happiness independently from the political pressure to answer strategically for impressive happiness level figures at the macro level.

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Section: Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can I Sustain My Happiness? A Review, Critique and Research Agenda for Economics of Happiness

Jain

Sharma

Mahendru³

2019

Sustainability

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“…For example, perceived social support has been shown to be positively related to overall well-being in collectivist countries ( Diener et al, 1995 ), where increasing individualism would decrease the social support perceived in those countries ( Xin and Xin, 2016 ). Collectivists, who prioritize harmony between the individual and the surrounding environment ( Zwolinski, 2019 ), believe that the collective is the most important thing and focus on achieving common goals ( Diener et al, 1995 ), resulting in a stronger need for social support and emotional attachment. When these factors decrease, individuals’ loneliness increases, which leads to mental health problems and lower levels of well-being.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The contribution of cultural identity to subjective well-being in collectivist countries: a study in the context of contemporary Chinese culture

et al. 2023

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IntroductionThough the important effect of cultural identity on subjective well-being is widely acknowledged, the details of how different cultures’ unique features influence well-being remain to be revealed. To address this issue in the context of Chinese culture, the present study investigates whether and how the prominent features of Chinese culture—collectivism and red culture—shape Chinese people’s subjective well-being.MethodsThe Red Cultural Identity Scale, Subjective Well-Being Scale, Collectivism Scale, and Perspective-Taking Scale were used to assess 1,045 Chinese residents.ResultsThe results showed that red cultural identity positively predicted participants’ subjective well-being through the mediated role of collectivism. Furthermore, perspective-taking was found to moderate the mediating effect of collectivism.DiscussionThese results demonstrate that the way cultural identity predicts subjective well-being is highly correlated to specific cultural features, e.g., the opinion of values, which was significant in practice with a cross-cultural background.

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“…In the case of the present study, the crucial point is that the qualitative inquiry on lay conceptualizations of happiness allows participants to define happiness in their own words without researchers imposing their definition on respondents (Zwolinski, 2019). This is certainly useful to grasp in greater detail the often manifold and complex perceptions of what happiness is and means to people.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Varieties of Happiness: Mapping Lay Conceptualizations of Happiness in a Spanish Sample

Cabanas

González-Lamas

2022

Psychol Rep

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Research on lay conceptions of happiness is essential to determine what is investigated in happiness studies. Whereas psychological investigation has traditionally emphasized the importance of studying people’s everyday conceptions and their relation to cultural and social factors to advance psychological theory, this line of research is still largely overlooked in the field. The Spanish context has also received very limited attention in the area. To fill these gaps, this paper examined 547 lay definitions of happiness in a sample of Spanish participants. The aims of the study were threefold. First, to map and classify the definitions elicited through an open-ended question using a bottom-up approach. Second, to analyze the relationship of happiness definitions with different sociodemographic factors. Third, to explore the relationship between happiness conceptualizations and two different happiness measures. The final classification yielded 39 codes, 15 categories, and 3 overarching types of definitions. Three main findings resulted from the study. First, happiness emerged as a highly heterogeneous concept characterized by diverse social, psychological, and theoretical descriptions. Social types of definitions stood out in the sample. Second, most definitions varied significantly with sociodemographic factors. Third, happiness scores tended to show no significant association with happiness definitions. Implications derived from these results were discussed. Altogether, the paper highlights the value of exploring lay conceptions of happiness to advance toward a more comprehensive and fine-grained understanding of what happiness means for —and, to a certain extent, of how it is experienced by— people of different cultural backgrounds and social settings.

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Happiness Around the World

Cited by 7 publications

References 37 publications

Can I Sustain My Happiness? A Review, Critique and Research Agenda for Economics of Happiness

Can I Sustain My Happiness? A Review, Critique and Research Agenda for Economics of Happiness

The contribution of cultural identity to subjective well-being in collectivist countries: a study in the context of contemporary Chinese culture

Varieties of Happiness: Mapping Lay Conceptualizations of Happiness in a Spanish Sample

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