Why is it that despite our affluence, happiness is so elusive in the industrialised world - Essay Example

? Why is it that despite our affluence, happiness is so elusive in the industrialized world? Introduction Happiness may be manifested by the predominance of positive emotions and is chiefly cognitive. Happiness is a state of mind demystified by an enduring enjoyment of life out of consciousness of the purpose and meaning of life. Happiness is what every person pursues and may be exhibited by a state of comfort and contentment. Nevertheless, its attainment is complicated if not elusive. A person may be economically successful but devoid of happiness. Happiness can be described as stemming from attainment of certain rational values and character. The values, whose accomplishment demands the exercise of rationality, effort, and skill, may be grounded in career, romance, friendship, or hobbies. Without happiness, life is unsatisfying and empty. Hence, happiness is both satisfying and pleasurable to a person (Warr 2007, p. 9). Rationalization of events shields people from psychological pain and hence avail some form of happiness. The mental states related to happiness include hopefulness, optimism, contentment, pleasure and joy, satisfaction, and anticipation. Perspectives on Happiness There are two approaches to happiness, which include hedonic approach and eudaimonia approach. Hedonism focuses on happiness in the angle of pain avoidance and pleasure attainment. This is a subjective form of happiness that may either be high or low depending on the experience of pain or pleasure. Thus, being happy is described through the lens of predominance of positive feelings over negative ones (Belliotti 2004, p. 22). The associated terms within hedonic approach include delight, elation, joy, contentment, comfort, satisfaction, and exhilaration. This perspective incorporates pleasurable experiences whereby happiness is interpreted as well being (Warr 2007, p.9). Eudaimonia approach, on the other hand, spotlights happiness in the arena of self-realization and meaning. This approach probes the extent to which a person is fully functional. This approach recounts standards that can exist independently of a person. The overriding themes in this perspective include a sense that people are utilizing their attributes well by exploiting their full potential and enacting central human functions. In summary, this perspective stresses the thought of self-transcendence and views happiness as self-validation (Belliotti 2004, p.33). Factors Contributing to Happiness The key factors, which essentially contribute to happiness comprise of work, private life, community, health, freedom, income, and a philosophy of life (Layard 2005, p. 65). Economists argue that income can slightly increase a person’s happiness. They also argue that as people attain an enhanced purchasing power, they become happier (Bruni and Porta 2007, p. 409). However, the contribution of income to happiness is marginal since people’s aspirations increase with an increase in income. In addition, income and wealth falls into the trap of social comparison and habituation (Layard 2005, p.43). Self-esteem and self-actualization are some of the elements that bear phenomenal influence on happiness. Other minor contributors to happiness include age, gender, looks, IQ and acquisition of higher education whereby people with higher education report being happier than those without or with lower academic qualifications since education leads to superior jobs and feelings of satisfaction (Layard 2005, p. 62). Similarly, access to necessities such as physiological, health, and safety has a slight influence on happiness. The above external and superficial factors contribute immensely to the attainment of happiness. In addition, happiness may be shaped by internal individualized factors such as attitude. Some people are happy because they decide and work towards attaining the goal of being happy. Genetics also have a phenomenal determination on happiness since every person has an innate set point of happiness. Other factors include faith, charity, the quantity and quality of friendships and marriage whereby married people report being happier than singles. The Loss of Happiness in Market Economies The apparent failure to attain happiness within modern economies can be blamed on the reverse causality of factors most of which rests on individual choices. The interaction with the market economies has not produced the expected happiness that should characterize an affluent society. Industrialized societies have experienced exceptional changes within the social and technological realms of society. This has heralded individualism and privatization of aspects such as leisure time (Rathus 2012, p.326). Consequently, key contributors to happiness such as companionship and friendships have been severed. Governments envisage that the economic prosperity will contribute to both the growth of individual happiness as well as social well-being. The attainment of this end has remained a mirage. Whereas the economic output has doubled in the countries, life satisfaction has remained unchanged. Meanwhile, depression has risen in tandem with the increasing economic output. Why happiness is elusive in the Affluent industrialized world Rathus (2012, p. 327) observes that the elusive nature of happiness in the society may be attested by the fact that the study of depression has taken a much longer time and has been more extensive than the study of happiness. This means that depression rather than happiness has become the overriding characteristic of society. The field or movement of positive Psychology gained prominence only in recent times. Prior to the emergence of Positive Psychology, about 90% of emotional research centred on negative psychological states such as neurosis, anxiety, and delusions among others. In the Modern capitalist societies, happiness appears remarkably unpredictable, inconsistent and irrational. Affluence does not necessarily make people happier, which is a contradiction to flawed expectation, which people hold that economic prosperity should automatically be a golden ticket to happiness. Regardless of its prominence among most people, a positive correlation between happiness and affluence is illusory (Mohr 2011, p.39). Despite affluence in the industrialized world as exhibited by enhanced technology and institutional conditions such as social capital and quality of life, the attainment of happiness has remained a mystery to many. Affluence only supports and is not the sole decider of whether a person is happy or not. Happiness remains both a personal and political interest in most affluent societies. Depression in most developed countries can be deemed as a paradox because as people get wealthy, they become depressed to the extent of hampering their functionality (Rathus 2012, p.327). Nevertheless, people cannot be possibly happy all the time. Affluence enhances human happiness by lifting people out of their wretched lives and placing them in new economic classes. Nevertheless, once people attain societal level of per capita wealth, which demarcates a threshold from deprivation to adequate subsistence, there is no effect on happiness. The disparity in pursuit of happiness lies in misconceptions that people harbour on what will make them happy. This arises from confusion from closely related but different elements of happiness and satisfaction. Money has little effect on happiness, but it has exceptional influence on satisfaction. Most people have wrong ideas about contributory factors to happiness. However, the quest for affluence may not necessarily lead to happiness since desires may be altered as people prosper materially (Mohr 2011, p.39). The state of affluence does not last long enough to induce happiness. This is because the attainment of a certain status elicits the desire for even more glory than before the attainnent of such status. The perpetuating desire for affluence deprives people the opportunity to be happy; material possessions are superficial to achievement of happiness. Affluence is a miniature contributory factor to the overall well being and contentment of a person. Since happiness is an emotion, it can only be enjoyed for short lengths of time before it fades away again. This is the motivating factor behind people’s pursuit to reach a steady level of happiness in life. Interestingly, affluent societies avail a range of options to maximization of their needs. The availability of choices should ideally translate to happiness. Contrary to expectations, people who are presented with options to maximize their consumer decisions report being unhappy (Galbraith 1998, p.6). The affluent societies, which are awash with opportunities for maximization, are inclined towards depression and perfectionism. This robs the people opportunities to be happy. In summary, access to too many choices, as evident in affluent societies, dwindles the opportunity for happiness. The capitalistic nature of industrialized countries offers consumers a variety of choices, most of which are competing. Affluent societies bombard their members with standardized tastes, which have a boomerang effect. Despite delivering multiple tastes that people can subscribe to, it ends up frustrating happiness as people are torn between the tastes to adopt. There is an apparent loss of human touch perpetrated by manipulation of goods and messages. This is engineered by the power of advertising (Mohr 2011, p. 36). The conformity within the market place drives consumerism, which has detrimental effects on happiness, especially when the main motivation is emotional rather than functional. Reinforcement of happiness in affluent societies fails because of the social context in which people live, whereby private life is elevated above communal life. Affluent societies feature extensive urbanization arising from industrialization. Urbanization has a negative effect on happiness since the environments are highly individualized and rife with isolation. People place little attention to social contacts and relationships. Happiness in affluent societies is not only hard to achieve but also people are more prone than ever to mental illnesses. The advanced market place of industrialized countries predisposes its subjects to mental illnesses. The depression arises from stressful situations that people have to cope within the societies (Mohr 2011, p.36). Industrialized countries provide their members with competitive opportunities and place a lot of expectations on the delivery of those services. For instance, most workers suffer from job-induced stress, as they have to meet set objectives at a time. One of the disturbing characteristic of affluent and industrialized societies is that, as people attain wealth, they become less secure and more depressed. Security and peace of mind can be regarded as normal, and should increase rather than decrease as people attain affluence. Most people in affluent societies fail to attain happiness because of misplaced priorities. The society is too inclined to novelty, and nothing is considered complete unless it is innovative (Mohr 2011, p.36). The fleeting gratification is demonstrated by the profound attachment to novelty, which prompts reorganization of social, political, cultural, and economic structures of the society, which violate personal security and trust. As people’s mobility in social classes increases, so do expectations. The bar that delineates happiness matches the growth in affluence. This precipitates a never-ending cycle wherein people will pursue happiness but will hardly ever be able to obtain it through aspects such as affluence. A similar outstanding characteristic of individuals is that they always perceive the past to have been less happy, and are more contented in the future than the present. The rationalization may not be necessarily true. Despite the low levels of happiness occasioned by material success, industrialized countries possess other attributes that make happiness less elusive. People in affluent societies enjoy a broadened platform for active involvement in societal matters such as political participation as well as facilitated social contacts. This enhances the chances of the citizens enjoying their life. Similarly, a society that fosters happiness among the members yields enhanced productivity, which is critical to wealth creation (Seligman 2002, p.102). Happiness is an extremely erratic emotion that cannot be accurately predicted. The aspects that one would expect to make people happy have little or no effect on attainment of happiness. For instance, numerous studies on lottery winners, whom one would expect to be the happy, indicate that the subjects report being unhappy despite their windfall. An explanation for this phenomenon probably lies in the fact that material norms that evaluate the well being of a person in society increase with increased income. Conclusion In conclusion, a society is more successful when its members are happy rather than when the members are discontented. Happiness within the society predisposes it to success; this can be evidenced by enhanced health and longevity of its members. The elusive nature of happiness in affluent societies is compounded by the fact that people have set unrealistically high expectations on attainment of happiness. Similarly, majority of people in affluent societies have a fascination with personal feelings. As it seems, most people in affluent societies fail to increase or capitalize on opportunities that may be key to their happiness. The stated shortcoming is shaped by the capitalist cultures and ideologies that are prevalent in affluent societies. References List Belliotti, R. (2004). Happiness is overrated, Oxford, Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 21-40. Bruni, L. & Porta, P. (2007). Handbook on the Economics of Happiness, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar. pp. 409-411. Galbraith, J. (1998). The affluent society, New York, Mariner Books. pp. 6-74. Layard, R. (2005). Happiness: Lessons from new science, New York, Penguin. pp. 63-72. Mohr, J. (2011). From an affluent society to a happy society: Vital signs promising a change and the impacts on industries, Hamburg, Diplomica Verlag. pp. 36-39. Rathus, S. (2012). Psychology: Concepts and connections, Belmont, Wadsworth. pp. 326-327. Seligman, M. (2002). Authentic happiness: Using the new positive Psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfilment, New York, Free Press. pp. 102-110. Warr, P. (2007). Work, happiness, and unhappiness, New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pp.6-10. Read More