Seong-lae ChoAbstract
- lay-cultural beliefs of happiness
- excessive concerns of social-evaluation in East Asian cultures
by ecological and biological
Keywords: subjective well-being, culture, self, emotion
Culture
Which life is prioritized, preferred state of happiness (low - high arousal)
- being aware of its omnipresent influence on our mind is usually difficult.
- play critical role of shape every aspect of happiness - conceptualized
Objective Conditions - National Wealth
Non-Directed Effect
National affluence raises happiness only through its effect on freedom, individualism, or democracy
- evenly distributed - why progressive taxation is good for SWB
- economic indices might shadow the effects of various positive-social qualities on happiness that correlate with national wealth
Directed View
No difference after certain point, Some types (ex. national income, public resources) effect to cognitive evaluations
- positive feelings - psycho-social factors (ex. social support, respect, and autonomy)
- Negative feelings - societal and personal factors - in more richer country
Cognitive Evaluation - Think - social conditions Emotional well being - Feel
Lay Beliefs (+desire) of Happiness
- different between culture by culture (Collectivism / individualism) ex. definition - social level condition or fortune / personal level feeling
But these questionnaire studies which describe definition results theory-confirming rather than novel insights
Desire
how positively people thought about a happy person ∝ actual happiness level of each nation
- Ambivalent about being overly happy, because happiness is believed to be followed by unhappiness at the end
- Inalienable right and a product of an individual’s action in western → make some degree of pressure to be happy, aversion to non-Western
non-Western negative emotions are believed to have important functional value
Why different?
happiness has high social active social interaction → infection
- Ambivalent high pathogen reinforced to de-value traits or emotions
- Inalienable low pathogen reinforced to value traits or emotions
fixed-amount theorists : less happy
Emotion
Valence(pole) and arousal dimension type
- HAP : high activation positive affect - ex. excitement, elation activation
- LAP : Low activation positive affect - ex. calmness and serenity activation
Cultural variation in ideal positive affect causes a difference in the link between positive emotion and happiness
discrepancies between ideal and actual LAP ← ideal positive affect is LAP in east → motivation to pursue happiness predict high : means social way has more possibility
discrepancies between ideal and actual HAP ← ideal positive affect is HAP in west → motivation to pursue happiness predict high
Relate differently with another pole of positive emotion
east: centered more on socially engaged (feelings of closeness to others, friendly feelings)
west: rely more on socially disengaged (pride and feelings of superiority) emotion
Dialectic view
feeling bad and good at the same time
east - emotion regulation, such as the dampening or savoring of positive emotions
west - maximize positive emotion and minimize negative emotion more
Cultural Use in judgement (also in self-view)
“affect-as-information” theory
momentary mood as a heuristic cue for making satisfaction evaluative judgement
- more occur interdependent person > independent being
interdependent → other's evaluation important
Importance of the Self
High Esteem, Consistency, and Clarity
positive belief about one’s overall self seems to matter more for the happiness of individualist than collectivist cultural members
→ self-esteem is a stronger predictor of happiness in Western than Asian cultures
→ the relational tone between the self and other significant selves (e.g., family) seem to be more salient for the well-being of collectivist cultural members (relationship harmony)
inner-self is more pivotal anchor of psychological experience in individualistic → sum depends more to individualism country
Might matter more for collectivists
→ overlap between satisfaction with national satisfaction and personal satisfaction becomes larger in collectivist nations
Concern for Social Approval and Conflict
inner state of the self - how the world subjectively appears to her : WEST
→ extends to various realms of life, and creates several cultural variations in link to happiness -meeting one’s inner potential
external layer : EAST
→ concrete and practical factors which are visible is easy to be acknowledged (money)
key difference is the “focus of concerns”
objective social status associated with happiness more in EAST
trusted their own judgments in WEST
contingency of self-worth - self-judgments of happiness could be more prone to fluctuations in EAST, depending on the tone of social feedback
contingency of self-worth (CSW) # 변동성
excessive concern of other’s view might be a key psychological reason in EAST of happiness
more concerned about potential damages to their social image
→ promotive social gestures that benefit happiness are less pursued, in fear that they may instigate negative reactions
Detrimental for happiness a) being more focused on external, materialistic aspects of happiness, b) Not being able to create and use idiosyncratic standards for self-judgment (self-enhancing view) c) being oriented more towards preventive than promotive decisions in everyday life
Culture-Person Fit Issue
culture- person fit(matching) hypothesis
- framework employed in explaining happiness across cultures
key idea of frame work
if other things equal → person is happier(esp. relational well being) when her personal characteristics (personality, value, emotion) resembles the dominant (practices or values of the residing) culture.
But can make cultural relativism and give up personal autonomy to fit strategy is bad for happiness
even valued autonomy and enjoyed typical individualistic were happier especially among fluent group
Extraverts prevalent, culture boosted the positive effect on happiness + religious, virtue has similar pattern
Newcomers: Ecological and Biological Factors
dichotomous individualism and collectivism paper - so why culture select these factors?
by ecological and biological factors
these give fundamental insight about the origins of cultural variation, and how SWB is related to such non-psychological factors
prevalence of pathogens
- That leads to the emergence of individualism and collectivism to inhibit the transmission of pathogens
- less positively in high pathogen regions → behavioral features associated with happiness (e.g., risk-taking, novelty seeking) increase the spread of disease.
resource scarcity (+climate harsh) leads to a more negative perception
- complacent and optimistic acceptable when the environment is safe and resource is abundant
demanding climates predict ill-being in poor nations but not in wealthy nations,because resources buffer the negative effects of climate
evolutionary angle (adaptive functions)
- population density is negatively correlated with life satisfaction - more stressful
- gene - 1→ short allele of the 5-HTTLPR → prevalence of affective disorders → collectivism
high positive affect were correlated with the national prevalence of THERS 324420 A allele in the FAAH gene
Conclusion
Even in collectivist cultures where inner emotions seem to play a less defining role in happiness, the correlation direction same.
Hence, appreciating the cultural variance in happiness is important, but not to the extent of obscuring the universal aspects of human well-being.
They are all likely headed toward a common destination—securing essential needs for survival and reproduction (social respect, belonging, resource)