Happiness indicator

So-called happiness indicators are indicators that are intended to make human happiness or satisfaction comparable over time and place. Based on the findings of happiness research and positive psychology , it is partly assumed that happiness (or subjective well-being ) is measurable and even comparable across cultural boundaries: happiness indicators provide a framework for this.

methodology

Various methods exist to try to determine the happiness or subjective well-being of people. The easiest method to use with a large number of people are subjective satisfaction surveys . The participants are asked one or more questions about their well-being / feeling of happiness. Some of the most common surveys are presented below.

U index

In this survey, the participant is asked about the periods of time during the day in which he felt uncomfortable ("unpleasent state").

Day Reconstruction Method

Here the participant is asked how satisfied he or she was at certain times of the day.

Euro-Barometer Survey Series

The participants have to answer the following question:

"On the whole, are you very satisfied, fairly satisfied, not very satisfied, or not at all satisfied with the life you lead?"

for example: "Are you overall very satisfied, satisfied, not very satisfied or not at all satisfied with the life that you lead?"

Life Satisfaction Scale ("Life Satisfaction Scale")

This method requires participants to rate five questions with a score of 1 to 7, where 1 means no agreement and 7 means maximum agreement:

• In most ways my life is close to my ideal. (My life largely corresponds to my ideals.)
• The conditions of my life are excellent. (My living conditions are excellent.)
• I am satisfied with my life. (I am satisfied with my life.)
• So far I have gotten the important things I want in life. (So ​​far, I've achieved the important things in my life.)
• If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing. (If I could live my life again, I would change almost nothing.)

Neuromedical research

Using fMRI and EEG it is possible to measure the blood flow in areas of the brain. In the last few decades, many experiments have been carried out to find out which feelings lead to activities in which areas of the brain. In this context, positive emotions and feelings of happiness were also researched. It is shown that a higher activity of the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) correlates strongly with an open, curious attitude towards stimuli, while a higher activity of the right PFC correlates with a more fearful withdrawal attitude. In further experiments, Davidson et al. show a corresponding connection between brain activity and personal assessment of happiness / satisfaction: stronger activity of the left PFC correlated clearly with higher subjective satisfaction.

Happiness indicators in specific applications

Some proponents of happiness research, such as Richard Layard, argue that politics should aim to maximize human well-being rather than material well-being. In order to achieve this goal, the analysis and continuous collection of happiness indicators are necessary.

Gross National Happiness in Bhutan

With this expression, the King of Bhutan expressed the opinion as early as 1972 that a pure consideration of the economy and the gross national product says too little about the well-being of the inhabitants of a state. The four pillars of gross national happiness are the promotion of socially just social and economic development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, protection of the environment and the establishment of good government and administrative structures.

Great Britain

In Great Britain, sustainability indicators have been collected at national level for a number of years . Since 2006, happiness indicators have also been queried as part of this survey. a. rate their life satisfaction on a scale from 0 to 10.

See also

• Happy Planet Index
• life quality
• Social indicators

literature

• Bruno Frey, Alois Stutzer: Should National Happiness be maximized? Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts, Zurich 2007.
• Daniel Kahneman, Alan Krueger: Developments in the Measurement of Subjective Well-Being . In: Journal of Economic Perspectives , Vol. 20, 2006, No. 1, pp. 3-24.
• Richard Layard: The happy company. Change of course for politics and business . Campus, Frankfurt a. M. 2005

Web links

• UK Sustainable Development
• Homepage of Richard J. Davidson, University of Wisconsin

Individual evidence

1. ↑ psych.uiuc.edu ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Urry et al .: Making a live worth living .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. psyphz.psych.wisc.edu  
3. ^ Richard Layard : Happiness: has social science a clue?
4. ↑ Sustainable Development . ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. UK Sustainable Development