The Science of Happiness

Have you read the Asian edition of TIME magazine (January 17, 2005)? The cover story is very interesting - the science of happiness. For years psychologists have been doing the research about happiness. Apparently happiness has a lot of things to do with the way you live, think, and also where you live! Culture plays a role in one's happiness.

According to a psychologist, Asians tend measure their happiness from social point of view - not personal. For most Asians especially East Asians such as Japanese, Chinese, and South Koreans, personal happines is not in their plan. To me it is kind of surprising and not surprising - both at the same time. I realize that it could be true. An Asian might consider her/himself happy when s/he has fulfill the social "demands", regardless her/his true personal feelings. It sucks, especially for the younger generation.

On the other hand, many Asians in developing countries consider themselves "happy" or "satisfied". From what I see in the place I live, people are cheerful despite life's difficulties. They live life happily and minimize the stress by making spontaneous jokes, etc. This is where you can see that the people are friendly. But in another place people might be in a middle of a stressful traffic jam with public vehicle drivers driving recklessly, honking car horns, shouting people, etc. or even in the middle of a riot, or... looting :(

It really depends on the individual, but where you live - your environment - and the way you live do contribute to your happiness.

A British economist wrote a book about happiness. According to him, personal happiness is closely related to one's social relationships. A loss of job affects one's happiness because it also means a loss of social link. Family stability also contribute much to one's happiness. Some society are very mobile and move a lot to other places to find better jobs, and some people do not do it for some reasons. The "mobile" people might say that the others should move to the places where jobs are, to be dynamic. But for those others, dynamism might be unworthy compared to the family stability.

According to the book, to create/promote a happy society, we should make a more family-friendly working environment, such as more flexible hours, more parental leave, and more access to childcare. Agree! Plus, more vacation days :)