Facts Salient on Happiness
Socrates: Eudamonia (being good, happy life)
Happiness is not the fullness
Not constant joy because joy is always in movement
Emphasis on process rather than outcomes is the flow aspect of life
Concepts of Happiness
Subjective Happiness
Individuals evaluation of their happiness (Scale 1-10)
Objective Happiness
Physiological approach -> Hedonic Approach (cardinal utility)
Psychological Effects
Determinants of Happiness
Personality Factors
Socio-demographic Factors
Economic Factors
Contextual and Situational Factors
Institutional Factors
Psychological Mechanisms and Processes
Cognition and Affect
Adaptation, Aspiration, Social Comparison, Coping
Income and Happiness
Positive correlation
Economists -> Higher income leads to higher happiness
More goods leads to freedom and a higher opportunity set
Psychologists -> Decreasing marginal utility of happiness
Other factors help income positively correlate with happiness
Human Rights, Higher income countries have democracy
People living under natural and less stressful conditions can be considered a
myth
Money doesnt buy happiness according to empirical evidence
Over Time
A raise in income initially provides happiness but we get accustomed to it
Upward adjustment of expectations induces human beings to accomplish more
and more
The more one gets the more one wants
Greater opportunities dont always raise happiness
People think they were less happy in the past but expect to be happier in the fu ture
Relative income and Happiness
Unemployment and Happiness
Negative Correlation
Personal Unemployment
Self report analysis shows that unemployed individuals have lower levels of hap piness than employed people
Psychological -> cost depression and anxiety
Social Cost
General Unemployment
High unemployment sends negative feelings across the population therefore re ducing their happiness
People compare their situation relative to others
People with high job satisfaction are generally happy
Intrinsic features (conduct of work itself) are more effective on well-being
Leisure is positively correlated with happiness
Inflation and Happiness
Has a marked effect on peoples happiness
No difference whether people predict inflation or not
Capability and Happiness
Sen: More freedom to live the kind of life which they find valuable
Means and Ends of well-being, ends have intrinsic importance as the means are
instrumental to reach the goal
Beings and doings are known as Functionings
Difference between functionings and capabilities is basically achievements and
freedoms
Libertarianism
A paradigm of an evaluative framework and not a fully specified theory
A framework
A critique
A formula
Primary Goods- things that every rational man is presumed to want
Natural Primary Goods (Intelligence, imagination, health etc..)
Social Primary Goods (Civil Rights, Political Rights etc...)
3 Conversion Factors
Personal Characteristics (Physical Condition, sex etc...)
Social Characteristics (Social Norms, Power Relations etc...)
Environmental Characteristics (Climate, infrastructure etc...)
Human Diversity
Ability to look at diverse people in different social and geographical locations
Basic Capabilities are a subset that refers to the freedom to do some basic things
that are necessary for survival
List?
As it is not a fully developed diaspora, leave it
Not necessary to give a forced list, allow social and personal choices