Humanities and contemporary issues: cheerfulness, wealth, and the material World
More research work has been done in the recent past to ascertain whether more money results in more happiness. This question has been an omnipresent one throughout the timeline of human history; however, not satisfactory answer is yet to be arrived. Societal researchers have unearthed a connection between wealth and happiness; specifically national wealth and the overall happiness of a nation's inhabitants; such nations-nations of greater wealth, such as Japan and the US, reported better subjective well-being(Freud, Gay, and Hitchens 2010). Questions, however, still linger, specifically with regards to how individual's well-being is connected or is related to money and material wealth. This paper, therefore, will attempt to answer this question, and indeed clarify how money, and happiness and well-being are connected.
Individual well-being or happiness is a rather more general idea with a myriad of distinct facets. It is thus, important that this analysis and discussion by first demystifying this complex phenomenon of happiness or well-being. Then, it will be prudent to also establish the type of relationship that exists between various facets of happiness/well-being and money or material wealth. Well-being or happiness simply refers to the general human satisfaction with life, and positive feeling including enjoyment.
[...] Humanities and contemporary issues: cheerfulness, wealth, and the material World More research work has been done in the recent past to ascertain whether more money results in more happiness. This question has been an omnipresent one throughout the timeline of human history; however, not satisfactory answer is yet to be arrived. Societal researchers have unearthed a connection between wealth and happiness; specifically national wealth and the overall happiness of a nation's inhabitants; such nations- nations of greater wealth, such as Japan and the US, reported better subjective well-being(Freud, Gay, and Hitchens 2010). [...]
[...] http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/07/the-measure-of- human-happiness/241368/. Douglass, Frederick The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. New York: Cricket House Books LLC. [...]
[...] It reported that there was indeed a connection between money and happiness, irrespective of the factor that was being considered. However, the relationship between income and enjoyment or experience of positive feelings, was rather a meager one. Of particular importance was the finding that indicated that the level of positive or negative feelings that people experience was dependent on the level in which they fulfilled their social psychological needs-their psychological prosperity. Crook (2011) in his report also seem to support the finding by Diener, Ng, Harter, &Arora (2010); he asserts that general life satisfaction, which is a facet of happiness and well-being, is rather more of a reflection of the people's confidence with their ability to satisfy their desire for luxuries and their living standards. [...]
[...] Improvements in happiness as this analysis suggests seems to occur in the presence of increase in both national income and personal income. This implies that only when there is enhancement of an individual's psychological prosperity such as improvement in freedom of action, availability of opportunities for personal development, availability of social amenities (e.g. leisure facilities, health and education facilities), and existence of good social relationships, only then would a substantial subjective improvement in a individuals happiness and mood will be witnessed. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
