What determines happiness? Income or attitude: Evidence from the U.S. longitudinal data.

Abstract

Using the data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a longitudinal data set from the United States, this study demonstrates that the covariates of happiness differ to some extent between matured adults and young-adults and that the relationship of personal happiness with positive attitude is stronger than that with any other covariate of happiness known in the literature including income. These results remain robust to changes in estimation techniques in response to varying assumptions on the attitude variable. Assuming endogeneity of the attitude variable, the study estimates happiness and positive attitude equations simultaneously by a two-stage procedure and obtains interesting new results. These results indicate that positive attitude is not only a covariate of happiness, but also a determinant of happiness, especially in the sample of matured adults. To increase the personal happiness therefore the study recommends policies designed to help individuals not only increase their incomes, but also improve their attitudes.

Role of psychological variables in the determination of the worker's wage: Further evidence from the United States

“…In both samples, coefficients of all predicted instruments except one are statistically insignificant. A positive and statistically significant coefficient of Posatdhat in the 1987 self‐satisfaction equation of Table along with a positive and statistically significant coefficient of Selfsathat in the 1987 positive attitude equation of Table simply confirms the earlier finding that positive attitude and self‐satisfaction are related not only positively, but also simultaneously (Mohanty, , , ). This finding, however, is true for young‐adults only.…”

“…The other interesting finding in this table that supports the earlier literature is the statistical significance of positive attitude (Posatdhat). It confirms that the worker's wage is positively related to his/her positive attitude, regardless of whether he/she is younger or older (Mohanty, , ; Nollen & Gaertner, ; Waddell, ). The traditional 2SLS estimates reported in third and fourth columns of this table provide further support to our two‐stage estimation results.…”

“…An increase in wage as a result of higher levels of self‐satisfaction or job satisfaction as demonstrated in this study, therefore, is not surprising. In the same manner, one can argue that improvement in attitude enhances the worker's productivity either directly (Mohanty, ) or indirectly through happiness (Mohanty, , ), and thus may augment his/her earnings. The evidence of an increase in wage as a result of an improvement in the worker's attitude, therefore, is quite reasonable.…”

“…In fact, Judge and Watanabe () have recently shown that job satisfaction and life satisfaction are reciprocally and positively related. Several other studies demonstrate that the worker's positive attitude has positive influences on not only job satisfaction (Mohanty, ; Rauf, ; Saari & Judge, ), but also happiness or life satisfaction (Mohanty, , , ). These life satisfaction studies further demonstrate that positive attitude is influenced significantly by the worker's happiness.…”

Identificación con los trabajadores mayores y absentismo: moderación de la Selección, Optimización y Compensación

“…Por otra, los orientadores, psicólogos profesionales y gestores de RRHH pueden diseñar actividades de asesoramiento y guía para mostrar a los empleados mayores cómo optimizar y compensar su funcionamiento, a fin de reducir los efectos indeseables del deterioro asociado a la edad en los resultados). Por último, los propios trabajadores pueden activamente buscar y poner a prueba diversos mecanismos que les ayuden a reducir tales efectos del deterioro en sus conductas laborales (Mohanty, 2014). En este sentido, la planificación a medio y largo plazo de la propia carrera laboral puede ser una herramienta útil que permita anticipar los cambios que afectarán a la persona y adaptarse a ellos de manera más eficaz.…”