What makes you happy?: A comparison of self reported criteria of happiness between two cultures.

Dong Yul Lee, Sung Hee Park, Max R. Uhlemann, Philip Patsula

 

 

Introduction

The authors found out that most prior studies about happiness so far had been done by studying pre determined domains of happiness or satisfaction. They questioned whether the criteria for happiness varied in different cultures, and sought to find out whether criteria for  determining happiness were different in a ‘collectivist’ that in an ‘individualistic’ socicety. They hypothesized that the criteria for happiness would likely vary depending on culture, personal values and goals.

Methods

Participants:They enrolled 403 university students from teacher-training programs from a Canadian and a Korean university each (203 Canadian and 200 Korean). 15 students were eliminated, data from 388 students was used for the results. The median age of Canadian students was  23.4, and that of Korean students was 22.7. The two cities from which the subjects were chosen had similar populations and hence they assumed similar socio-political characteristics . ( population of the Canadian city, London, was 350,000;and the Korean city,Chung-joo , was 400,000).

Measures:The Happiness Questionnaire (HQ), and Life Goal Survey (LGS) was administered. their responses were read by a pair of graduate judges in each country, who had received 10 hours of training.

Results

Canadian students showed a higher score on the happiness scale and the percent time participants felt happy. However the 2 groups applied the same standard in ranking categories for the HQ and LGS. For both groups, the two most important categories were health and goal/mission in life, while the two least important categories were stress-free life and financial/materialistic wealth.

Conclusions

The researchers found that even though the respondents from the two countries differ in their overall perception of happiness, they applied the same criteria as determinants of their happiness. This result was contrary to what they had hypothesized. There was also another unexpected finding; ‘family’ was the most frequently mentioned criteria in the Canadian sample, as opposed to the Korean sample. The authors admitted to their weakness-that chosing the sample from teacher-trainees could have led to selection bias; they did not control for the definition of ‘family’ in the Korean sample given the understanding that the definition is undergoing in a change; the LGS was constructed only based on responses from the Canadian students (not the current sample).

Personal comments

I chose this study because I thought it could provide me insight into whether there is a cultural difference to the importance given to components of  the ‘formula’ to happiness? This study compared the criteria in 2 very different cultures and the researchers hypothesized that the their criteria would be different. Their assumption was that Korea being a so-called ‘collectivist’ society would probably measure happiness by a different set of criteria than an ‘individualistic’ society like Canada. Contrary to the author’s beliefs the criteria used by the subjects in the 2 studies were similar. The results of this study make one wonder whether the results of this study are because of the recent change in definition of family that they acknowledge that Korea is going through? Are traditionally ‘collectivistic’ societies now undergoing  a change in their values because of modernization aka westernization? I think a follow up study where the subjects are an older demographic might help answer some of these questions.

 

Reference

Dong Yul, L., & Sung Hee, P, Uhlemann, M.R., Patsula, P. (2000). What makes you happy?: A comparison of self reported criteria of happiness between two cultures. Social Indicators Research, 50(3), 351.