Happiness and Subjective Well-being

Across Nations
Module 3 - Part 1

Introduction
Good day! We are now about to begin with our third lesson: Happiness and Subjective Wellbeing Across
Nations.

This Module will help you gain awareness of what is happiness in the context of hedonic concept. You
will be introduced to some tools that measure life satisfaction and wellbeing. Likewise, you will be
walked through several research findings concerning factors that contribute to happiness and wellbeing
of people across nations. Towards the end of the module, different theories proposed to explain
wellbeing will also be presented to help you attain a deeper understanding of the said concept.
Hopefully, as you read through this Module you will achieve a realization of what things in life make
you happy and satisfied. Most importantly, it is my hope that after the lesson you will develop a strong
desire to work towards enhancing your wellbeing.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the module, you are expected to:

1. define happiness and subjective well being;

2. identify components of subjective wellbeing;

3. enumerate highlights of global happiness researches; and

4. explain different theories of subjective wellbeing.

Gospel Reflection

Let us remember that we are in the holy presence of God. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Galatians 5:16-17

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.•

17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit,and the desires of the Spirit are againts the flesh,
for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing things you want to do.

The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you O Lord Jesus Christ.

Reflection Points
As Christians, we are called to live life the way Jesus did. This means walking in the Spirit and always
honoring God. But because we are human, our sinful desires make it impossible to consistently please
God. Instead we follow our selfish desires. But God provided a way for us to be like Christ through the
Holy Spirit. We can be like Christ when we walk, are led, and live by the Holy Spirit.
The scripture promises that when we walk by the Spirit, we will not gratify, or give in to, the desires of
the flesh. Walking by the Spirit means the Holy Spirit helps us to do the will of God intad of choosing
what makes us happy or what pleases us.

• How has the Holy Spirit kept you from giving into your selfish desires?

• Do you have struggles with the desires of the flesh?

Lesson Introduction

In the past lesson, you must have learned so much about emotions in general and in particular positive
emotions. You learned that our brain has so much to do with our experience of positive emotions and
the influence these have on our personality and in our behavior. You also obtained knowledge on how
to regulste your emotions. This module on the other hand, will assist you towards an understanding of
positive emotions, happiness in particular. Here, you might be surprise that what you think will make
you happy does not make you happy at all.

Enabling Activity 1

Let us begin by answering the following questions. Reflect about your answers before reading the
lesson. Check if your own definition of happiness relates to what it is as described in the succeeding
sections of this module.

•What is happiness for you?

•How do you know when you’ve found it?

•When you’ve lost it?

Discussion

What is Happiness?
• Happiness here will be described according to the hedonic concept (pleasure -seeking).

Happiness refers to the attainment of subjective wellbeing (SWB). Subjective Wellbeing encompasses
how people evaluate their own lives in terms of both affective (how we feel) and cognitive components
(what we think) of well-being (Diener et al., 1999) and can be represented in the following way:

SWB = satisfaction with life + high positive affect + low negative affect

While life satisfaction encompasses the cognitive component of happiness which is how individuals rate
the way their life turned out to be.

• Diener on the other hand argues that happiness refers to discrepancy between the present
situation and what is thought to be the ideal or deserved standard. He further mentioned
that one is satisfied when there is little or no discrepancy between the present and what is
thought to be an ideal or deserved situation. On the other hand, dissatisfaction is a result of a
substantial discrepancy between present conditions and the ideal standard. Dissatisfaction
can also be a result of comparing oneself with others (Boniwell & Tunariu, 2019).

• While affect, refers to the emotional side of wellbeing, including moods and emotions
associated with experiencing momentary events (Diener et al., 1999a).

• Furthermore, people with higher levels of SWB tend to demonstrate higher levels of creativity,
increased task persistence, multitasking, being systematic, optimism, attending to relevant
negative information; longevity, less vulnerability to illness, sociability, trust, helpfulness, and
less hostility and less self-centeredness (Boniwell & Tunariu, 2019).

• One of the criticisms of SWB is that it fixates too heavily on the experience of pleasure and
positive affect, rather than what is meaningful.

Measuring Subjective Well-being

• Subjective wellbeing encompasses how people evaluate their own lives in terms of affective
and cognitive components (Diener, 2000)

• SWB can be measured using the following scales:

 - Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) (Diener et al., 1985) and Positive and Negative
Activation Schedule (PANAS)

- Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky and Lepper, 1999; Lyubomirsky, 2008).3

• The scales are claimed to have very high levels of validity and reliability (good internal
consistency) and are sensitive to change in life circumstances. Furthe rmore, the tools are said
to converge with mood reports, expert ratings, experience sampling measures, reports of family
and friends and smiling (Diener et al., 2002).

• Other methods of research into SWL and SWB include:

- comparing in-person interviews with anonymous questionnaires in order to contain

impression management (Diener, 2000).

- Experience Sampling Methods (ESM) has been employed in order to reduce memory
biases.

Major Global and National Studies

Several studies about happiness and wellbeing have been conducted across nations. Let us explore
them…..

1. Gallup World Poll. - The most widely known global wellbeing poll, which boasts data from over
98 per cent of the world’s population, by using Wellbeing Finder instrument concluded that five
elements were essential for overall wellbeing: career wellbeing - this represents where you
spend most of your time during the day, social wellbeing - this represents your relationships
and experiences of love, financial wellbeing - represents how well you can manage your
financial situation, physical wellbeing - represents your ability to have good health and energy,
and community wellbeing - represents your role and participation within the community you
live in.

- Daily experience tracker - Their research concluded that a good day includes ten
circumstances, which are to be ranked on a scale of 1–10: Try to ask yourself, what is
your rank for each? Do you oftentimes experience a good day?

- feeling well rested; physical pain

- being treated with respect worry

- smiling or laughing sadness

- learning or interested distress

- enjoyment anger

2. Foresight Report - It indicates that there are five ways to wellbeing, such as:

Connect. When we build connections with people around us, we experience higher levels of wellbeing
as well as stronger resilience in the face of adversity. The report suggests identifying the influential and
important people in your life and investing time and energy into building those relationships.
Be active. As discussed in more detail within Chapter 9, an important part of wellbeing is taking care of
the body as well as the mind. The NEF found that activity is an important part of enhancing wellbeing.
Simply moving the body can have a massive effect on your mood and cognitive functioning.

Take notice. Following from the exciting research on savouring, this element refers to research that
demonstrates that ‘stopping to smell the roses’ actually can enhance our wellbeing.

Keep learning. By engaging the brain and challenging yourself to keep learning, you can enhance levels
of wellbeing.

Give. As seen in results from random acts of kindness research, people experience high levels of
wellbeing when they give something or their time to others.

3. In relation to which country has the highest and lowest wellbeing, (refer to table1 and table 2)
research indicates that the majority of the happiest countries are situated in the northern part of the
hemisphere where there is not a lot of sun and there is limited light. This is interesting as research has
shown that, when comparisons are made, people who live in colder climates also tend to have a higher
suicide rate than those in warmer climates. They offered several explanations regarding the data, as an
example, they noted that people in colder climates may be more diligent and open in reporting suicides.
Another explanation they gave is that of the “sun bonus”. They mentioned that the lack of sunshine
can result in lower levels of vitamin D, which is directly related to serotonin.. When people do not see
light or sun for long periods of time they can experience seasonal affective disorder (SAD) or
depression from the lack of sunlight. This may explain the correlation with suicide, as well as the
findings that people who experience higher levels of sunshine and daylight hours experience a boost of
happiness through their proximity to the equator.
WHAT MAKES US HAPPY

Let us review more studies about correlates and causes of happiness from the recent work polls (Gallup -
Healthways Well-being Index and World Values Survey).

Income and SWB

• More research by Gallup World Poll reveals that in 1301 nations, which was a representative
sample of 96 per cent of the globe’s population, there were striking disparities in health and
consequences of income (Kesebir and Diener, 2008).

• Income may influence wellbeing because wealthier nations appear to have…equality, human
rights, democracy, literacy, and people live a longer life.

• On the contrary, countries with higher income tend to have more competitiveness, more
materialism and less time for socializing and leisure. (Kesebir and Diener, 2008). A review of
the GDP of 132 countries indicates that individuals who live in countries with high GDP such as
Norway and the USA on average score higher on wellbeing measures than those living in
countries with low GDP such as Togo and Bulgaria (Deaton, 2008).

• More research revealed that income is correlated with happiness in men, not in women
(Adelmann, 1987), and low personal income is related to depression for husbands, not for
wives (Ross and Huber, 1985).

• Low income is related to depression for single but not married women (Keith and Schafer,
1982) and people with high income are perceived as more intelligent and successful but also as
more unfriendly and cold (see Diener and Biswas– Diener, 2008).Relationships and SWB

• Gallup-Healthways Wellbeing Index poll recently found that people need to spend six to seven
hours per day in social settings, and up to nine if your job is stressful, to enhance or maintain
wellbeing

• Happiness is contagious, people who interact on a daily basis with happy people, in small, large,
direct or indirect networks, are happier (Fowler and Christakis, 2008).

• It was concluded that social relationships are greatest predictors and facilitators of SWB.
Interesting to note is that Bhutan, a tiny country in Asia, has rejected the concept of gross national
product (GNP) as the measurement of its country’s success, and introduced gross national
happiness (GNH).

Do you think this is a better way to measure country’s wealth?

Marriage and SWB

• Longitudinal research has recently shown, that after the initial one year ‘honeymoon phase’,
individuals return to their previous levels of SWB. One caveat is that couples who cohabit tend
to report less satisfaction than couples who are married.

• The relationship between children and marital satisfaction appears to be curvilinear, with high
levels of life satisfaction at the marriage ceremony, dropping significantly at the birth of the first
child, followed by a continued drop throughout childhood and adolescence, where it hits bottom,
and then returning to higher levels after the children have left.

Work/employment and SWB

 • The Gallup International Labor Organization (ILO) Report: Towards a Better Future for Women
and Work (Ray et al., 2017) shows that in 2016, 58 per cent of women who were not in
employment would like to hold jobs that involved paid work; and 41 per cent would like to be
able to both hold a paid job and care for their families. Moreover, while a top challenge for both
men and women employees is striking a good balance between work and rest, and work and
family time, women are more likely to also encounter challenges related to opportunities for fair
pay and/ or access to ‘decent work’.

• The findings point to the fact that work can have a tremendous effect on our overall well-
being.

• Research by Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2008 in Boniwell & Tunariu (2019) has shown that how we
perceive our job and our career orientation can further influence our happiness levels. It was
found that people who have a job orientation view their job in terms of a means to an end. The
job equals money and is not important to their overall life.

• While perceiving the job they are in as a way to progress forward, and they are focused on the
extrinsic rewards that can come with progressing in their career is calle d “career
orientation”.Fina lly, a calling orientation is when a worker is immersed healthily in what they
do. They do the job not for the money or the fame, but because they believe it is worthy in its
own right.

Health and SWB

• There are three health categories: ‘a) the likelihood a person will contract a specific illness; b)
how long a person lives after contracting a life threatening illness and c) how long a person ’s
lifespan is.’

• Within the first category, longitudinal research has shown that people who experience higher
levels of positive emotions are protected from various illnesses including heart disease.

• When someone has balanced levels of positive emotions and optimism, their health can be
positively influenced. Research shows, quite simply, that happier people live longer
(Rasmussen and Pressman, 2009).

Watch also the video of Martin Seligman’s Conversation with Richard Layard to know more about
recent studies relating COVID 19 to positive
emotions.https://www.facebook.com/actionforhappiness/videos/883602805501735
Religion and SWB

• People who report themselves as being spiritual or religious tend to report slightly higher levels
of well-being, in addition to higher scores on hope and optimism (Ciarrocchi et al., 2008). But
questions are, “Do all religions make us equally happy, and what elements of religion? There
may be a lot of factors to consider but researchers proposed that for a religion to enhance
wellbeing, there are elements needed (Diener & Biswas-Diener,2008) such as:

• Comforting beliefs in what awaits us on the ‘other side’.

- Social support from a community.

- Connecting to something permanent and important that can give comfort, meaning
and a sense of identity.

- Growing up religiously, which may influence a solid upbringing with a clear set of values
and morals to abide by.

- Experience of rituals that excite, amaze and involve the congregation and its followers
Theories of Well-being
1. Dynamic Equilibrium Theory

• There appears to be a strong genetic influence on an individual’s well-being. Furthermore,

there is evidence indicating predictive variability in life satisfaction according to personality
traits (Magnus et al., 1993).

• The theory states that personality determines baseline levels of emotional responses; events
may affect us in the short term, however over time we eventually revert to our genetic set
point (Headey and Wearing, 1989). Furthermore, people who are happy in their home life tend
to be happy at work, thus displaying consistency across situations (work/leisure) (Diener and
Larsen, 1984).

• According to Sonja Lyubomirsky the determining factors of happiness is in these

proportions : 10% caused by environment, 40 % caused by things that you do and 50 % caused
by genetics.

• Epigenetics is the area of biological research that looks at the causal interactions between genes
and the environment (Curley and Keverne, 2009: 347).

• Environment can have an influence on gene expression and behavior, especially in the
mother–infant relationship during key developmental phases, thereby influencing ‘brain
development, behavior as well as risk and resilience to health and disease.’
2. Adaptation theory

Think about it…..

Recall a time in your life when you were expecting an exciting event or bought a new item.

• How did you feel when this happened?

• How did you feel a week later? A month later?

• Reflect on the impact that moment has on you right now.

• Is your feeling now the same as how you felt when the experience was still fresh?

• Researchers have suggested that humans tend to have a natural happiness ‘set point’, which,
following good and/or bad news/events, we tend to revert back to after approximately 3
months.

• This evolutionary adaptation process, hedonic adaptation theory (otherwise known as the
‘hedonic treadmill’) (Lykken and Tellegen, 1996) is linked to ‘zero-sum theory’, which posits
that happy periods in our life are inevitably followed by negative periods, which cancel each
other out, and thus any attempt to increase happiness will be unsuccessful. Have you
encountered people telling you when you were so happy, “Huwag kang magpakasaya ngayon,
baka mamaya may mangyayari na malulungkot ka”.

• The proposed antidote to this adaptation however, is variety (engage in different things that
can make you feel satisfied, don’t just stick to one) hence individuals must continually change
their approach and happiness interventions in order to counteract any adaptation mechanisms
(Tkach and Lyubomirsky, 2006).
 • Furthermore, it is mentioned that humans synthesize happiness. Natural happiness is what we
feel when we get what we want; however, synthetic happiness is what we make when we don’t
get what we want. Anyway, it is just as real and beneficial as the other type of happiness.

• The reason we developed this evolutionary ability to synthesize happiness is argued to be due to
the belief that we need to keep going and get what we want, otherwise we’d give up if we knew
we would be just as happy as if we didn’t. (Gilbert 2007)

3. Discrepancy Theories

Relative Standards Model

• This model tells us that subjective wellbeing is primarily a function of comparison processes
(social comparison, with past self, with internalized standards).

• With social comparison, we can compare our situation, attractiveness and wealth to others
either in an upward or downward spiral. Social comparison is only detrimental if you use it to
negatively evaluate yourself (downward) with others.

• Status anxiety and materialism have been linked to increased instances of depression and
lowered SWB.

• Diener and Oishi (2000) found that placing high importance on money correlates inversely with
life satisfaction (20.53) whereas placing high value on love correlates positively with life
satisfaction.

• However, an argument against the detrimental effects of materialism is that materialism is only
bad if you can’t afford it. Thus, those who report being higher on materialism with higher
incomes report higher wellbeing (Crawford et al., 2002).

• As long as one lives within her means and can afford what she likes without the financial
strain, materialism isn’t as detrimental as previously believed.

Linked to discrepancy theory is the paradox of choice (Schwartz and Ward, 2004). It is cited that as
nations become richer and consumers become more demanding, our world is packed with choice,
alternatives and variations to most everything for sale.
 • Freedom of choice has now been replaced with the ‘tyranny of freedom’, where more choice
isn’t necessarily a good thing (Schwartz, 2000; Schwartz et al., 2002).

• An abundance of choice has led to three leading problems for consumers and citizens of
Western societies. These include: information problems since we cannot possibly gather all we
need to know in order to make an educated choice; error problems we are likely to make more
errors of judgement due a lot of choices available; and psychological problems like feeling stress
and anxious caused by excess choice.

• When it comes to decision-making, Schwartz has separated individuals into two categories:
satisficers versus maximizers. Satisficers are individuals who are able to choose items that
meet their minimum criteria and go for ‘what’s good enough’ while maximizers, on are
individuals who fixate on searching for all the possible options and look for the best p ossible
choice.

• There are pitfalls associated with being a maximizer including:

Regret at not getting the best choice or anticipating regret in the future;

Opportunity costs since when we choose one thing, we automatically reject the other. Each
choice has a cost in itself;

Escalation of expectations. Which means that as the choices available to us rise, so do

our expectations;

Self-blame since we have so much choice available to us, we believe it is our own fault if things go
wrong; and

Time the hours that we spend sifting through the multitude of choice takes away from the time
spent on more

worthwhile pursuits.

4. Goal theories

The theory explains that when we are committed to a set of goals, it provides us a sense of personal
agency and a sense of structure and meaning to daily life’ (Diener et al., 1999: 284). Moreover, it is
noted that we experience happiness as a direct result of attaining valued and self -congruent goals and
the quality of the goals that we choose to pursue influences our wellbeing.

In achieving our goal we tend to use the AIM Approach where:

A- ttention

Refers to our ability to look at the entire picture when going through daily life – both the good and the
bad. It is said that people who attend to only the negative will shut out the positives in life and live in
what Diener and Biswas-Diener (2008: 188) term ‘an ugly world’.

I- nterpretation

Refers to our tendency to put together a story when all the facts are not yet presented.

There are six main destructive thinking patterns that we tend to default to when interpreting events:

• Awfulizing. Exaggerating a negative event or person beyond what is objectively true.

• Distress intolerance. A perception that individuals adopt that tells them that they will not be
able to recover or withstand potentially traumatic events.

• Learned helplessness. this is when people adopt a mentality that they have no control over their
negative situations and give up.

• Perfectionism. Individuals who use this tend to fixate on the minute details and only accept
excellence.

• Negative self-fulfilling expectancies. The phenomenon of eliciting negative responses from

others via a person’s previous communications with others.

• Rejection goggles. This is when people identify and fixate on rejection, even when it may not
exist in the situation. (Adapted from Diener and Biswas-Diener, 2008)

M- emory

• Relates to the large body of research showing that recalling and savouring past positive events
and experiences leads to enhanced wellbeing.

• When we attend to positive things around us using clear rather than negatively biased
interpretations of events and interactions, as well as engaging in positive reminiscence, we can
set ourselves up to create a more positive attitude and happier existence.
Congratulations!

Reflecting on the learning objectives you can now define happiness and subjective wellbeing as well as,
identify the components of wellbeing as revealed in different researches. More so, you now recognize
the factors that correlate with wellbeing as discussed in different theories presented here.
References

Boniwell, I. & Tunariu, A.D. (2019). Positive Psychology: Theory, research and applications. 2nd ed.
McGraw-Hill Education. Kindle Edition.

Lopez, S., Pedrotti, J., & Snyder, C.R. (2019). Positive psychology: The scientific and practical explorations
of humans strengths. 4th ed. https://b-ok.asia/book/5022875/1147f9

Martin Seligman’s Conversation with Richard Layard

https://www.facebook.com/actionforhappiness/videos/883602805501735