Critical Analysis, History of Development and Research of the Concept of Subjective Well Being - Essay Example

? ive Well-being ive Well-being “Wellbeing: ‘living and faring well’, ‘flourishing’, ‘bound up with ideas about what constitutes human happiness and the sort of life it is good to lead” (Gough, 2005, p.1).Well-being cannot be defined accurately because of the various parameters associated with it. Money, health, social status, physical properties etc are often perceived as the symbols of well-being. Even though well-being and happiness are interrelated, both are entirely different concepts. “Wellbeing is a notion that people and policymakers generally aspire to improve. However, it is an ambiguous concept, lacking a universally acceptable definition and often faced with competing interpretations” (Conceicao & Bandura, n. d, p.1) Research on well-being can be thought of as falling into two traditions; the hedonistic tradition which focuses on happiness, generally defined as the presence of positive affect and the absence of negative affect and the eudaimonic tradition which focuses on living life in a full and deeply satisfying way (Desi & Ryan, 2008, p.1) Subjective well-being or SWB is a term which falls under the category of hedonistic tradition. It evolved in psychology during the latter part of the twentieth century. Until the evolution of SWB, psychologists were more interested in learning more about the negative emotional states such as depression and anxiety since anxiety and depressions were causing problems to the mental health. However they realized that it is absolutely necessary to learn more about the factors which makes a person happier, in order to learn more about the causes of negative emotions. The above realizations led them to investigate more about happiness and well-being. According to Van Hoorn (2007), “SWB is a broad category of phenomena that includes people’s emotional responses, domain satisfactions, and global judgments of life satisfaction” (Van Hoorn, 2007, p.2). It is difficult to assess the responses of people to some particular stimuli. Some people will be happier if they have good physical and mental health whereas others may find happiness when they get more money. A third segment of people may find happiness in their physical beauty whereas a fourth category of people find happiness in good marital life. In short happiness or wellbeing is highly subjective. This paper analyses various characteristics of subjective well-being. Meaning of subjective well-being Subjective well-being, as defined by Ed Diener, covers “a broad category of phenomena that includes people’s emotional responses, domain satisfactions, and global judgments of life satisfaction. Subjective well-being consists of two distinctive components: an affective part (evaluation guided by emotions and feeling), which refers to both the presence of positive affect (PA) and the absence of negative affect (NA), and a cognitive part (information-based appraisal of one’s life, evaluated using expectations and “ideal life” as benchmark) (Subjective well-being definition: defining happiness and subjective well-being, 2010) “People can evaluate their lives in terms of a global judgment, in terms of evaluating the domains of their lives or in terms of their ongoing emotional feelings about what is happening to them” (Diener, 2000). For example, satisfaction, marriage, feeling of fulfillment and pleasant emotions etc can generate positive energies in the minds of people whereas failures in achieving intended results in life can generate negative energies in the minds of people. It is often said that life is just like waves in ocean. Waxing and waning are the characteristics of waves. In other words human life is filled with positive and negative affects. Ideal life is an imaginary concept and nobody has yet claimed that they are leading an ideal life. Life can be neutral, happier or miserable based on the experiences faced by a person. A person who faces equal number of good and bad experiences in life can be considered as a neutral person. A person’s life becomes happier or miserable when the number of pleasant or miserable incidents either increases or decreases. In other words, when the number of pleasant experiences increases, a person can be comparatively happier whereas when the number of unpleasant things increases, the person’s life could be miserable. The absence of negative affect itself is the sign of subjective well-being. Research has also shown that happiness is a two-way street: our brain influences what and how we see; at the same time, external elements – channeled through our senses – can physically change our brain, rewiring it and generating new neurons. This means the brain has a major role in subjective well-being (Subjective well-being, n. d) “One of the difficulties of using data on subjective well-being is that individuals may interpret and use the data differently”(Kahneman and Krueger, 2006, p.18). This is because of the difference in cognitive abilities of different people. It is not necessary that two persons visualize the same incident in the same manner. Two blind people, who were asked to define the shape of an elephant, may tell different things. The blind person who touches the legs of elephant may tell that the shape of the elephant is like a rode whereas the blind person who touches the ear of the elephant may describe the shape of elephant as flat. In other words, their senses mislead them. Same way SWB is also heavily dependent on sensations and perceptions of the people. Influence of subjective well-being on money, health and marriage According to Aristotle, a happy man needs external prosperity. Moreover an anonymous person once said that “People who claim that money can’t buy happiness just don’t know where to shop” (Diener & Diener, 2001, p.119). Some people argue that money cannot buy happiness. They argue that those who seek pleasure in spirituality may not consider money as a factor in deciding SWB. Such arguments cannot be accepted completely. Food and shelter are the basic necessities of the human irrespective of whether he likes or dislikes the physical life. It is difficult to achieve these basic necessities without money. It is a fact that money can bring lot of physical facilities to a person. Those who are seeking pleasure in physical things definitely need money to improve their well-being. Many people believe that life starts and ends in this earth itself and the concept of life after death is imaginary. Such people like to enjoy their life with the help of physical properties. In order to earn physical properties, money is essential. In short, money is definitely a factor associated with SWB. Seven types of evidence are reviewed that indicate that high subjective well-being (such as life satisfaction, absence of negative emotions, optimism, and positive emotions) causes better health and longevity. For example, prospective longitudinal studies of normal populations provide evidence that various types of subjective well-being such as positive affect predict health and longevity, controlling for health and socioeconomic status at baseline (Diener & Chan, 2011) Nobody, not even saints or spiritual leaders wants to live an unhealthy life. Even a poor person may satisfy in his life if he has enough physical and mental health. There are many cases in which poor families lead better lives than rich families because of the better health. Money cannot guarantee physical and mental health even though it can assist a person in providing physical facilities. A rich person suffering from cancer or depression may not lead a happy life whereas a poor person without any physical or emotional problems can lead a happy life compared to the rich person. A cancer patient will never enjoy his life even if he gets all the parameters needed for a life of SWB. No physical facilities can generate positive energy in the minds of that person. The thoughts about death will always haunt him because of the dominance of negative energy over positive energies. In many cases, richer people struggle to enjoy mental pleasure because of their busy life styles and over commitments. Bill Gates or President Obama cannot be cited as the persons who enjoy SWG because of the immense stresses they are facing in solving different types of problems. On the other hand, an average American could lead a better life than these people because of the less stress he is facing. In a sample of 59,169 persons in 42 nations, relations between marital status and subjective well-being were found to be very similar across the world. Although cultural variables were found to alter the size of certain relations between marital status and subjective well-being, the effect sizes were very small. Specifically, in terms of life satisfaction, the benefit of marriage over cohabitation was greater in collectivist than in individualist nations. In terms of positive emotions, the benefit of being married over being divorced or separated was smaller in collectivist than in individualist nations. In addition, in terms of negative emotions, the benefit of being married over being divorced or separated was smaller in nations with a high tolerance for divorce. Finally, the relations between marital status, culture, and subjective well-being did not differ by gender (Diener et al, 2000, p. 419) “In many studies it has been revealed that love is an important predictor of happiness, satisfaction, and positive emotions” (Kim & Hatfield, 2004, p.174). Love is often end up in marriages or staying together. Marriage is another factor which determines SWG. Successful marital life is always a symbol of SWG. Some people fail to lead good marital life. Serious problems may develop in their life because of the differences in their perceptions about life. For example, a husband may like to have children whereas the wife may oppose the idea of having children. Since both of them have entirely different views about having children, their marital life will never continue on a positive note. In such cases, sometimes they will decide to separate. In countries like America divorce rate is extremely high whereas in countries like India, it is extremely low. In other words, people in America always like to break a marital relationship which is going against their interests whereas in India, people like to maintain or continue their marital life even if it go against their will. In other words, people in America are more interested in making their life better and they are ready to break the barriers of marriage. Eudaimonic well-being (EWG) Aristotle was the originator of the concept of eudaimonia. He deemed happiness to be a vulgar idea, stressing that not all desires are worth pursuing as, even though some of them may yield pleasure, they would not produce wellness. Aristotle thought that true happiness is found by leading a virtuous life and doing what is worth doing. He argued that realizing human potential is the ultimate human goal. This idea was further developed in history by prominent thinkers, such as Stoics, who stressed the value of self-discipline, and John Locke, who argued that happiness, is pursued through prudence (The Concept Of Eudaimonic Well-Being, n. d) Supporters of Eudaimonic well-being (EWG) argue that health money, or marriage etc like physical aspects cannot guarantee the actual well-being. In their opinion, psychological well-being is more important than the physical well-being. They introduced a new term called Eudaimonic well-being to explain their thoughts more comprehensively. The following illustrations represent some of the psychological aspects which determine the state of Eudaimonic well-being. (The Concept Of Eudaimonic Well-Being, n. d) Ryan & Deci, (2001) have mentioned that “eudaimonic approach focuses on meaning and self-realization and defines well-being in terms of the degree to which a person is fully functioning” (Ryan & Deci, 2001) whereas Ryff et al (2004) defined eudaimonic well-being as the ideas of self-development, personal growth and purposeful engagement (Ryff et al 2004). Supporters of Eudaimonic well-being argue that a life without a purpose, autonomy, positive relationships, environmental mastery, personal growth self-acceptance etc cannot be referred as a better life. Only a person who commands mastery over the above aspects can be said to be in a state of well-being according to this argument. “Sometimes eudaimonic well-being and the good life are equated, and sometimes they are not, but in either case the two share a close relationship: Both consist of pleasure and meaning” (Bauer et al, 2008, p.82). A life without a meaning or purpose cannot be judged as a good life. Both EWG and SWG talk in terms of good life or life with a purpose. However, both EWG and SWG define a good life in different terms. While EWG stresses the importance of functionality of life, SWG concentrates more on the physical and mental wellbeing. Conclusions Well-being is a basic necessity for human irrespective whether it is subjective or eudaimonic. People find pleasure in different things based on their perceptions about life. It is not necessary that even two people in the same family see pleasure in same things. Cognitive abilities, brain and sensations play a vital role in deciding which factor are pleasant to a person and which are unpleasant. References 1. Bauer J. J, Mc Adams P and Pals JL (2008). Narrative Identity And Eudaimonic Well- Being. Journal of Happiness Studies (2008) 9:81--104 ! Springer 2006 DOI 10.1007/s10902-006-9021-6 2. Conceicao P & Bandura R (n. d). Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: A Summary Review of the Literature. Retrieved from http://www.undp.org/developmentstudies/docs/subjective_wellbeing_conceicao_bandura.pdf 3. Diener E & Chan M.Y (2011). Happy People Live Longer: Subjective Well-Being Contributes to Health and Longevity. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1758-0854.2010.01045.x/abstract 4. Diener E. & Diener R.B (2001) Will Money Increase Subjective Well-Being? Retrieved from http://www.intentionalhappiness.com/articles/July-2009/Money-Happiness-2002.pdf 5. Diener E. Gohm C.L. Suh E and Oishi S. (2000). 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A Short introduction to subjective Well-being: its measurement, Correlates and policy uses. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/16/39/38331839.pdf Read More