Pursuit of Happiness Antoinette Rosemin PSY/220 February 24, 2013 Axia College of the University of Phoenix Pursuit of Happiness Individual all over the world have their own meaning of Happiness. Every culture has there on meaning and way of what happiness means to them. Happiness all depends on a person’s traditions, religions, and ways of living. For some, happiness could be waking up every morning spending time with family and friends and for others it could mean being loyal to their country, making money, and having nice things. Each and every person has their own perspective on happiness.
It’s important to realize and note that the way of happiness is portrayed its difference. People normally portray happiness with the perfect family setting, having a good job, and being wealthy and no one has any problems and everyone looks happy. This is what you would call a stereotype of what happiness looks like. Studies have shown that when you asks an American what is happiness or what makes you happy, people normally response is finishing school, finding and getting a job, providing and making sure their family is good, getting married, and or being successful.
This would conclude that in American culture, it is more self-determination, looking out for their wellbeing, getting to know them and reaching for their own goals, positive self. The factors were the main target of what happiness means to each different people. According to Steve R. Baumgardner and Marie K. Crothers (2009), 27% of people want to help others, those that are in need, serving their country, the other 47% said simply being happy no matter what they did make them happy because of to them happiness is there to be shared with others, as well as their own selves, and the material things are just a small part of their happiness.
The Essay on Happiness Happy People Time
According to Webster dictionary the word Happiness in defined as Enjoying, showing, or marked by pleasure, satisfaction, or joy. People when they think of happiness, they think about them having to good feeling inside. There are many types of happiness out there, which are expressed in many ways. Happiness is something that you can't just get it comes form your soul. Happiness is can be changed ...
Being happy, having a positive attitude, and feeling good about the self are central values in American culture. The pursuit of happiness is described in the Declaration of Independence as an inalienable right. In a society that offers abundant opportunities and considerable individual freedom, people are encouraged to make life choices based on what makes them happy and satisfied. What makes Americans happy is heavily influenced by their culture’s individualistic model of self. Consistent with the SWB conception, happiness in America is an individual’s subjective judgment about his or her own life.
Happiness is both subjective and individualized, in that the basis of judgment reflects the person’s unique personal makeup and his or her own idiosyncratic criteria. As an American, I take it for granted that what makes me happy may not make you happy, because happiness is highly individualized. In America’s individualistic culture, individual happiness is an important cultural value and ideal. Children are encouraged to be emotionally expressive, to take pride in their achievements, stand out from others, and to take a positive and self enhancing view of themselves.
This can be contrasted with Asian cultures, in which happiness has less importance as a cultural ideal and children are encouraged to moderate their emotions, fit in with others, take pride in the achievement of their groups, and to adopt a self-critical and self-effacing attitude toward themselves. Within East Asian societies, happiness appears less important as a culturally prescribed goal, and life satisfaction is based more on external and normative expectations than on individualized criteria.
The Essay on The Role of Money & Happiness In our Life
Why is it important to be happy? Well, for one thing, by word meaning itself, we feel better. Happiness does not just make us enjoy life more; it actually affects how successful we are in both our personal and professional life. Happiness makes people more sociable and altruistic, it increases how much they like themselves and others, and it strengthens their immune systems. Most of the people ...
A large-scale international survey with over 62,000 respondents representing 61 nations supported the greater importance of cultural norms in the judgments of life satisfaction among collectivists compared to individualistic cultures (Suh, Diener, Oishi, & Triandis, 1998).
Suh (2000) points out that in contrast to North American cultures, East Asian cultural traditions do not emphasize happiness, life satisfaction, or the experience of positive emotions as central life concerns. Several studies support the general conclusion concerning the differential importance of SWB in American and Asian cultures.
For example, Diener (2000) reported that compared to Americans, East Asians rate happiness and life satisfaction as less important and think less frequently about whether their lives are happy or satisfying. Another study asked Americans and Koreans to make life satisfaction ratings for a culturally ideal person (Diener, Suh, Smith, & Shao, 1995).
The level of satisfaction, based on a cultural ideal, was significantly lower for Koreans than for Americans. Rather than pursuing and cultivating the experience of happiness, Asian cultures tend to regard happiness and other emotions as temporary states that come and go.
For Americans, positive feelings are more strongly related to individual achievements that produce feelings of pride in individual accomplishment (like getting the highest score on an exam in a college class).
Achievement of goals that enhance independence is an important basis of happiness in individualistic cultures. Good feelings for Asians more often result from soc ial relationships, in which pleasing others and fulfilling social expectations lead to feelings of friendliness, closeness, and mutual respect.
Achievement of goals that enhance interdependence is important to happiness in collectivist cultures. Interestingly, Oishi and Diener (2001) found that the motive behind pursuit of goals was quite similar for Asian and American college students. When asked whether they pursued their goals for their own satisfaction or to make family and friends happy, both cultural groups identified personal satisfaction much more frequently than a desire to please others. However, among Asians, only the pursuit of goals related to others was associated with increases in SWB.
The Essay on Asian-Americans And Concentration Camps In Wwii
In the early 1940’s, there was evidence of Japanese-American loyalty and innocence, but the information was not always well known. This, coupled with the factors of war hysteria led to the legal upholding of concentration camps in Korematsu v. U.S. (1944). The injustice was clouded, most immediately by the war, and indirectly by racism at home. The sneak attack on Pearl Harbor left a permanent ...
This finding may result from the fact that Western ideas of independence and self-determination are becoming more popular among Japanese youths, and are expressed as reasons for the pursuit of goals. But satisfaction with goal achievement may be more dependent on the intimate connection between self and others in Japanese culture. That is, only goals that would also please one’s family and friends lead to increased satisfaction. References Steve R. Baumgardner and Marie K (2009).
Money, Happiness, and Culture. . Retrieved from eBook Collection database.
