Cultural Influences on Subjective Well-Being

Why are there differences in mean levels of SWB between nations?

•Diener, E. (2000). Subjective Well-being – The Science of Happiness and a Proposal for a National Index

•Diener, E., Oishi, S., and Lucas, S. (2003) Personality, Culture, and Subjective Well-being: Emotional and Cognitive Evaluations of Life.

•Helliwell, J.F., and Putnam, R.D. (2004) The social context of well-being.

Diener, E. (2000). Subjective Well-being-The Science of Happiness and a Proposal for a National Index. American Psychologist, 55,

34-43.

• Subjective Well-being – how desirable it is to people themselves that they are living the good life.

• Inglehart (1990) reported that happiness and life satisfaction were very important and were thought about often by people in all socieites.

• One factor affecting SWB has been found to be the wealth of the country that people live in.

• Wealthier nations may be happier as they are more likely to fulfil basic human needs

• Some countries were unexpectedly high or low in life satisfaction even after income was controlled

• Different Cultures value happiness differently.• Individualistic vs. Collectivist Nations. (Diener et al

(1995) as cited by Diener (2000) found that self-esteem correlated more strongly with life satisfaction in individualistic than in collectivist societies) WHY?

• Importance of congruence (acting consistently across different situations) to SWB?

• Reliance on feelings when making life satisfaction judgments differs

in cultures.• SWB affected by social support?

Diener, E., Oishi, S, and Lucas, S. (2003) Personality, Culture, and Subjective well-being: Emotional and Cognitive Evaluations of

Life. Annual Review Psychology, 54, 403–25.

• Cultural variables explain difference in mean levels of SWB and appear to be due to objective factors such as:

» Wealth

» Norms dictating appropriate feelings

» How important SWB is considered to be

» Relative approach versus avoidance tendencies of societies

•Income most strongly related to SWB at low levels of money

• Reasons why higher SWB is reported in wealthy nations is unclear, although the finding itself has been replicated many times.

• Self-Serving biases vary in different cultures.

• Cultural Differences in Approach versus Avoidance orientation. (Lee et al, 2000).

• “The Willingness to sacrifice immediate happiness for the sake of achieving other goals that are valued in their culture” (413).

Helliwell, J.F, and Putnam, R.D. (2004) The social context of well-being. Phil. Trans. R. Soc, 359, 1435-1446.

“Social capital is strongly linked to subjective well-being through many independent channels and in several different forms.”

• An Example of social capital affecting SWB:– Faith and the Church:

“ church attendance creates community level social capital (whether bridging or bonding depends on the divide under consideration), while belief in God provides alternative types of support for an individual’s well-being”

Conclusions

• Higher ratings of SWB linked with wealthier nations that are better able to meet people’s basic needs

• The goals and values of people from different cultures affects SWB

• Cultural influence affects SWB e.g. variations in optimism and positivity, social support, coping patterns, and the degree of regualtion of individual desires.

• Problems with measuring SWB– Schwartz and Strack (1999) – global measures of life

satisfaction can be influenced by mood– Diener (1999) – people may respond in socially desirable ways