1. Happiness in Adolescents: Does Culture Matter?
Jonathan Zajonc
Why Study Happiness?
What leads to a feeling of happiness and life satisfaction in the U.S. may not be the same for the rest of the world’s peoples.
It is important to understand the cultural effects on happiness because of increased interaction between the world’s cultures in an increasingly interconnected world society.
Types of Cultures
Culture – The ideas, institutions, and interactions that tell individuals how to think, feel, and act.
Independent cultures – Cultures that emphasize the importance of the individual.
Interdependent cultures – Cultures that emphasize the importance of relationships Problem Statement Most studies on happiness ignore cultural differences.
Most ignore happiness among teens.
Most only examine how a single factor relates to happiness.
Hypothesis
For all cultures, happiness requires a combination of
positive independent and interdependent factors.
For independent cultures happiness requires feelings
about self esteem to dominate, while for interdependent
cultures happiness requires feelings about community and
positive social relations to dominate.
Methodology
High school students were surveyed in:
El Portillo, Nicaragua
Ivujivik, Quebec
Nyack, New York
A questionnaire was designed to collect data on measures of
life satisfaction.
The questionnaire also collected data on measures of
independence and interdependence
Discussion/Conclusion In the cultures studied overall, happiness depends on a combination of independent and interdependent factors, which is consistent with the first hypothesis.
Ivujivik teens required more interdependence to
be happy, whereas, American teens required
more independence to be happy.
The results for Nicaraguans were inconclusive.
Overall, the results suggest:
In cultures that emphasize independence, feelings
of independence -- self-esteem and self-efficacy --
are particularly important to happiness.
While in cultures that emphasize interdependence,
feelings of interdependence – relationships with
others and community -- are particularly important
to happiness.
Further Studies
Culture does matter for happiness in adolescents.
One limitation of the study is it relied on small
samples.
Further research is needed with larger and more
representative samples to provide further support
for this conclusion
References
1. Biswas-Diener, Robert, Joar Vitterso, and Ed Diener. "Most People are Pretty Happy, but there is Cultural Variation: the Inughuit, the Amish, and the Maasai." Journal of Happiness Studies 6 (Spring 2005): Print
2. Diener, Ed, and Martin E.P. Seligman. "Very Happy People." Psychological Science 13.1 (2002): Print.
3. Kitayama, Shinobu, et al. "Perceiving an Object and its Context in Different Cultures: A Cultural Look at New Look." Psychological Science 14.3 (2003): Print.
4. Markus, Hazel Rose, et al. "Going for the Gold; Models of Agency in Japanese and American Contexts." Psychological Science 17.2 (2006): Print.
Demographics
Results
Correlations between independence and interdependence with Life Satisfaction (LS)
A combination of some interdependence (Community and Positive Social Relations) Reverse Coded, and mostly independence (Self-Esteem) are required to predict Life Satisfaction across All Locations (N=104)
A combination of mostly interdependence (Community and Positive Social Relations) Reverse Coded, and some independence (Self-Esteem) are required to predict Life Satisfaction across All Locations (N=23)
A combination of some interdependence (Community and Positive Social Relations) Reverse Coded, and mostly independence (Self-Esteem) are required to predict Life Satisfaction across All Locations (N = 59)