Leadership, Management & Life in the Workplace
  • Blog
  • About John
  • Decoding the Workplace
  • Dr. Juran AIG Archival Project
  • Contact
  • Disclaimers

Differences in Happiness: Findings from a Classic Report

8/22/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
On a recent trip as I flew from Alaska, I was very happy to see Denali in early morning light. From the ground I had only seen it in clouds. A few days later I was cleaning up my office and came across a classic study on happiness.  David Myers and Ed Diener published their report “Who is happy?” in a 1995 issue of Psychological Science. Although the study is almost two decades old, my guess is the major findings are still pretty accurate. Their review of previous studies on happiness was very extensive and covered several decades in many cultures. Here are some of their findings:

  • “No time of life is notably happier or unhappier than others” (p. 11). The kind of things that affect happiness may change with age but age alone is not a key to knowing how happy a person is. (supported by a study of over 16,000 people in 16 countries).

  • Although there are differences between women and men in the experience of happiness, overall the levels of happiness are about the same for women and men.

  • The empty nest when children leave home is more often a happy time. The “empty nest syndrome”, depression from children leaving home, “turns out to be rare.”

  • Knowing how happy a person feels does not tell you anything about how bad they might feel. People who are intensely happy tend to experience bad events or difficulties intensely also. 

  • Nations do vary in reported overall levels of happiness. For example, Inglehart (1990) found 10% of the people of Portugal indicated they were “very happy” whereas 40% of people in the Netherlands indicated they were “very happy.” In general countries that are more collectivistic (emphasis on family, groups, community) report lower levels of happiness than individualistic cultures, where the emphasis is on the individual. 

  • The relationship between money and happiness is “modest’. “Wealth  . . . is like health: Its absence can breed misery, yet having it is no guarantee of happiness . . . Satisfaction is less a matter of getting what you want than wanting what you have” (p. 13).

Myers, D. G., & Diener, E. (1995). Who is happy? Psychological Science, 6 (1), 10-19.

"Denali." © John Ballard, 2013. All rights reserved.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012

    RSS Feed