Predictors of Subjective Well-Being Across Cultures


# Abstract
- **lay-cultural** beliefs of happiness
- **excessive concerns of social-evaluation** in East Asian cultures
by ecological and biological
> Keywords: **subjective well-being, culture, self, emotion**




# Culture
<details><summary>

**Which life is prioritized, preferred state of happiness (low - high arousal)**</summary>

- being aware of its omnipresent influence on our mind is usually difficult.
- play critical role of shape every aspect of happiness - conceptualized
</details>




# Objective Conditions - National Wealth
### **Non-Directed Effect**
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National affluence raises happiness** only through **its effect on freedom, individualism, or democracy</summary>

1. **evenly distributed** - why progressive taxation is good for SWB
2. economic indices might shadow the effects of various positive-social qualities on happiness that correlate with national wealth
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### Directed View
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No difference after certain point, Some types (ex. national income, public resources) effect to** cognitive evaluations**</summary>

1. positive feelings - psycho-social factors (ex. social support, respect, and autonomy)
2. Negative feelings - societal and personal factors - in more richer country
</details>

> Cognitive Evaluation - Think - social conditions
> Emotional well being - Feel




# Lay Beliefs (+desire) of Happiness
- different between culture by culture (Collectivism / individualism)ex. definition  -  social level condition or fortune / personal level feeling
> But these questionnaire studies  which describe definition results theory-confirming rather than novel insights




### Desire
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**how positively people thought about a happy person ∝ actual happiness level of each nation**</summary>

1. Ambivalent about being overly happy, because happiness is believed to be followed by unhappiness at the end
2. Inalienable right and a product of an individual’s action in western → make some degree of pressure to be happy,** aversion **to  non-Western
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non-Western negative emotions are believed to have important functional value


### Why different?
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**happiness has high social active social interaction → infection**</summary>

1. **Ambivalent **high pathogen reinforced to de-value traits or emotions
2. **Inalienable** low pathogen reinforced to value traits or emotions
</details>

> fixed-amount theorists : less happy




# Emotion
Valence(pole) and arousal dimension type
- **HAP **: high activation positive affect - ex. excitement, elation activation
- **LAP **: Low activation positive affect - ex. calmness and serenity activation


<details><summary>

**Cultural variation in ideal positive affect causes a difference in the link between positive emotion and happiness**</summary>

discrepancies between ideal and actual LAP ← ideal positive affect is LAP in east → motivation to pursue happiness predict high : means social way has more possibility
discrepancies between ideal and actual HAP  ← ideal positive affect is HAP in west → motivation to pursue happiness predict high
</details>



<details><summary>

**Relate differently with another pole of positive emotion**</summary>

**east**: centered more on **socially engaged** (feelings of closeness to others, friendly feelings)
**west**: rely more on** socially disengaged** (pride and feelings of superiority) emotion
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### Dialectic view
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feeling bad and good at the same time</summary>

east - emotion regulation, such as the dampening or savoring of positive emotions
west - maximize positive emotion and minimize negative emotion more
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**Cultural Use in judgement **(also in self-view)
> <details><summary>
> 
> “affect-as-information” theory</summary>

> momentary mood as a heuristic cue for making satisfaction evaluative judgement
> - more occur interdependent person > independent being
> interdependent → other's evaluation important
> </details>
> 




# Importance of the Self
### High Esteem, Consistency, and Clarity
<details><summary>

**positive belief about one’s overall self seems to matter more for the happiness of individualist than collectivist cultural members**</summary>

 → **self-esteem** is a stronger predictor of happiness in Western than Asian cultures
> - degree of consistency, clarity of one’s feeling
 → the relational tone between the self and other significant selves (e.g., family) seem to be more salient for the well-being of collectivist cultural members** (relationship harmony)**
> - being flexible to situational demands is highly appreciated by others (evaluated by significant others)
</details>




**inner-self is more pivotal anchor of psychological experience in individualistic → sum depends more to individualism country**
**Might matter more for collectivists**
 → overlap between satisfaction with national satisfaction and personal satisfaction becomes larger in collectivist nations



## Concern for Social Approval and Conflict
<details><summary>

inner state of the self - how the world subjectively appears to her : WE**ST**</summary>

→ extends to various realms of life, and creates several cultural variations in link to happiness -meeting one’s inner potential
</details>

<details><summary>

external layer  : EA**ST**</summary>

→ concrete and practical factors which are visible is easy to be acknowledged (**money**)

</details>



**key difference is the “focus of concerns”**
objective social status associated with happiness more in **EAST**
trusted their own judgments in **WEST**



contingency of self-worth - self-judgments of happiness could be more prone to fluctuations in **EAST,** depending on the tone of social feedback
> contingency of self-worth (CSW) # 변동성




excessive **concern **of other’s view might be a key psychological reason in **EAST **of happiness
<details><summary>

more **concerned **about potential damages to their social image</summary>

→ promotive social gestures that benefit happiness are less pursued, in fear that they may instigate negative reactions 
> → less likely to seek social support (contradiction to stereotype)→ more hesitant to celebrate positive events
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> **Detrimental for happiness**
> a) being more focused on external, materialistic aspects of happiness,
> b) Not being able to create and use idiosyncratic standards for self-judgment (self-enhancing view)
> c) being oriented more towards preventive than promotive decisions in everyday life




# Culture-Person Fit Issue
### **culture- person fit(matching) hypothesis**
- framework employed in explaining happiness across cultures
<details><summary>

**key idea of frame work**</summary>

if other things equal → **person is happier(esp. **relational well being**) **when her personal characteristics (personality, value, emotion) **resembles the dominant** (practices or values of the residing) culture.
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<details><summary>

**But can make cultural relativism and give up personal autonomy to fit strategy is bad for happiness**</summary>

even valued autonomy and enjoyed typical individualistic were happier especially among fluent group
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>  Extraverts prevalent, culture boosted the positive effect on happiness
> + religious, virtue has similar pattern




## Newcomers: Ecological and Biological Factors
dichotomous individualism and collectivism paper - so why culture select these factors?
### by **ecological and biological factors**
these give fundamental insight about the origins of cultural variation, and how SWB is related to such non-psychological factors
<details><summary>

**prevalence of pathogens**</summary>

- That leads to the emergence of individualism and collectivism to inhibit the transmission of pathogens
- less positively in high pathogen regions → behavioral features associated with happiness (e.g., risk-taking, novelty seeking) increase the spread of disease.
</details>

<details><summary>

**resource scarcity (**+climate harsh**)** leads to a more negative perception</summary>

- complacent and optimistic acceptable when the environment is safe and resource is abundant

</details>

> demanding climates predict ill-being in poor nations but not in wealthy nations,because resources buffer the negative effects of climate




### evolutionary angle (adaptive functions)
1. population density is negatively correlated with life satisfaction - more stressful
2. gene - 1→ short allele of the 5-HTTLPR → prevalence of affective disorders → collectivism
> high positive affect were correlated with the national prevalence of THERS 324420 A allele in the FAAH gene




# Conclusion
 Even in collectivist cultures where inner emotions seem to play a less defining role in happiness, the correlation direction same.
 Hence, appreciating the cultural variance in happiness is important, but not to the extent of obscuring the universal aspects of human well-being.
 They are all likely headed toward a common destination—securing essential needs for survival and reproduction (social respect, belonging, resource)





