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Subjective well-being (SWB) has over the past 30 years made great progress in research. However, over the years, research has suggested that the concept of happiness, which according to this and that is one of the things that part of SBT can vary across cultures. Additionally, it has been shown that SBT is influenced by for example, personality (Diener & Lucas, 1999), culture ((Diener & Suh, 1999), and self-esteem (Diener & Diener, 1995).
The definition of subjective well-being is distinguished in two components. The first one is the affective component, which is a person’s perceived or actual hedonic balance (the balance between an unpleasant and pleasant affect).
The second component is the cognitive one, which is a person’s life satisfaction (the individual's subjective evaluations of his or her life) (Dzokoto, Oishi, Radhakrishnan & Ulrich, 2002).
The views of what is considered to be a good life has been argued for a long time by different philosophers, and the conclusion of these debates is the role of happiness, which meaning could vary depending on the philosopher.
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Happiness is however not seen as sufficient for an society, but that we rarely imagine an ideal one without it. However, a society that has high SWB might miss other aspects seen as important, such as fairness, that hence would decrease the quality of life in the particular society (Diener et al., 2003). Based on the philosophical belief on the importance of happiness in life, Diener & Suh (1998) suggests SWB to be one out of three ways to appraise quality of life, the other two being socially and economically.
Since Neuroticism and Extraversion has previously been shown to be a consistent predictor of subjective well-being in various countries, for example, the United States, Australia and England, personality research on SWB has suggested that ‘happiness is a thing called extraversion’ (Francis, 1999, p. 6).
In 2002, Schimack, Diener and Oishi proposed that extraversion and neuroticism has an impact on the amount an individual experience unpleasant and pleasant affect (hedonic balance) and therefore indirectly influence life satisfaction.
Additionally, just as mentioned in the first paragraph, previous studies have shown that SWB is influenced by culture and individualism and collectivism is one cultural dimension shown to be related to SWB. In individualistic cultures, the independence of the individual is emphasized, while the interdependence of individuals and their close others is emphasized in collectivistic cultures (Markus & Kitayama, 1991. Individualistic cultures accentuate the rights, freedom of choice and the individuals’ needs, while the accentuation in collectivistic cultures is put on others' needs, duties and the acceptance of one’s destiny. A study conducted by Oishi, Diener, Lucas and Suh (1999) was consistent with these suggestions, as the results showed that freedom was a weaker predictor of life satisfaction in collectivistic cultures than individualistic cultures.
As studies have shown that emotions contribute with direct evaluation about the fit between an individual’s needs and goals and the actual state, emotions provide sufficient information about one's life satisfaction for people living in an individualistic culture. The more pleasant emotions an individual experience, the more it demonstrates that one’s needs and goals are satisfied and therefore, life becomes good Schimmack & Diener, 1997. However, in a collectivistic culture, it is more meaningful to follow cultural norms than to boost pleasure and they, therefore, pay less attention to the emotional outcome of an event and emotions play a less crucial role in their life-satisfaction judgments. As a result, hedonic balance is a more uncertain predictor of life satisfaction in collectivistic cultures than individualistic cultures Suh et. al (1998).
Since it is suggested that the influence personality has on life satisfaction is mediated by hedonic balance and the relationship between hedonic balance and life satisfaction is moderated by culture, a study conducted lala proposed that culture is also a moderator of the influence personality has on life satisfaction. The study, conducted on participants from United States and Germany (Individualistic cultures) and Japan, Mexico and Ghana (collectivistic cultures) showed, just as predicted, that there was a stronger correlation between hedonic balance and life satisfaction in the individualistic cultures. The study additionally showed that extraversion and neuroticism was more strongly correlated with life satisfaction in individualistic countries than collectivistic ones.
In a study conducted by Lu and Gilmour on the concept of happiness, 202 undergraduate American and Chinese students were asked to write an essay on the topic ”What is happiness?”. The researchers did summon the definitions in seven themes, where some definitions touching more than one theme, however, no definition touched all of them. The first definition were ”Happiness as a Mental State of Satisfaction and contentment” where many students mentioned happiness to be a state of these two concepts. Both the American and Chinese students answered similar on this particular view, although the Chinese students wrote more about acceptance and thankfulness to one’s fate. The second theme were ”Happiness as positive feelings/emotions” where the students described happiness as the experience of different positive emotions, for instance satisfaction/contentment. Happiness experienced as joy and hedonistic pleasure were described by both groups, however, the Chinese sample mentioned happy emotions as ”being ordinary”, which were not mentioned by anyone in the American sample. The third theme were ”Happiness as Achievement and Control” where the students defined two characterizing aspects of happiness to be achievement and accomplishment.
The Chinese group however viewed hope and faith to be greater than concrete accomplishment. The fourth theme ”Happiness as Self-Autonomy” where the students emphasized the one’s own responsibility of happiness. The groups however differed in some aspects that the American sample focused on both being in charge over one’s own life but also influence other individuals and events, while the Chinese sample emphasized moral principles, and than an individual’s personal striving should be ruled by these. The fifth theme were ”Happiness as freedom from Ill-being”, where both groups mentioned happiness as the absence of something bad. The sixth theme ”Happiness as Relating to People” the American students did frequently mention their important social relationships, mainly friends and family when defining happiness. The Chinese students often described experiences of love and being taken care of by important individuals in their environment, mainly family, friends and romantic partner. Lu and Shih (1997) even suggests that social relationships in the Chinese culture may be the greatest ingredient of happiness. The last theme were ”Happiness as the Ultimate level of life”, where Americans described happiness to be the major goal or the greatest value in life. The Chinese sample did not describe happiness with such strong statements (Lu & Gilmore, 2004).
Culture seem to play a great role in how individuals experience happiness. Self-esteem is what researchers has believed to be the most important factor of happiness (Diener, Oishi & Lucas, 2003). But would would self-esteem be of similar importance for SWB across cultures? Self-esteem was shown to be highly correlated with SWB in individualistic cultures but not as strongly in collectivistic ones (Diener & Diener, 1995; Kwan, Bond, & Singelis, 1997). In fact the term self-esteem do not even exist in some languages of collectivistic cultures, such as Japanese, Chinese and Korean (Diener, Oishi & Lucas, 2003).
In individualistic cultures, there are a great emphasis on the importance of having a consistent self-identity in order to perceive inner meaning and guidance and maximize mental health. In collectivistic cultures on the other hand the emphasizes interpersonal harmony, and the self needs to be more flexible in order to meet the needs and expectations of others. In a study conducted by Suh (2002) examining American and Korean students self-views and SWB, it was found that the Korean students were more flexible in social situations in comparison to the American students. The study also showed that the relation between SWB and the degree of consistency in self-view were stronger among the American students.
Research conducted by Sheldon and Kasser (1998) on motivation in the USA found that individuals experienced more happiness long term when pursuing their goals because of fun and enjoyment compared to individuals who achieved their goals in order to satisfy others. In contrast to another study conducted by Oisher and Diener (2001), Asian americans and Japanese experienced more happiness long term when they perceived their goals to satisfy others rather than for personal happiness and enjoyment.
Subjective Well-Being in Radhakrishnan Research. (2021, Dec 21). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/subjective-well-being-in-radhakrishnan-research-essay
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