Mainstream economists have never paid any particular attention to the concept of happiness, as skepticism about such a measure of development as subjective well-being is widespread. That is why it is not at all surprising that the nature of happiness has not yet been defined in a uniform way even though research has significantly increased in the last decades. As Diener (2003) aptly underlined, happiness to different scholars can mean anything from pleasure, life satisfaction, positive emotions, a meaningful life, to a feeling of contentment. For example, for Ng (1978) happiness is welfare, for Oswald (1997) – pleasure or satisfaction. The author of the «Happiness paradox», Richard Easterlin, revealed his own uncertainty about the issue, confessing that he used the term happiness interchangeably with subjective well-being, satisfaction utility, well-being and welfare. Frey and Stutzer (2005) consider reported subjective well-being as a proxy measure for utility. Economists such as Frank and Layard use the category of subjective well-being as a synonym for happiness. For this reason, it is evident that nowadays, to economists, happiness is not a concept to define, but to measure empirically.
Other social scientists, on the contrary, have been working on the theme for decades. Sociologists were pioneers in discovering empirical indicators of the standard of living and researching quality of life. The approach from psychology, where experimental studies began as far back as in the 1950-s, is that the term reflects a complex interaction between the following three components – life satisfaction as a cognitive element, affect as affective component and subjective well-being, including both, affective and cognitive components. Ed Di...
... middle of paper ...
...s and Ray, Rebecca (2000) “Individual psychological culture and subjective well-being” in a Diener, Ed and Suh, Eunkook M. (2003) Culture and Subjective Well-being, A Bradford Book.
22. Stevenson, Betsey, Wolfers, Justin (2009) “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness”, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, Volume 1(2).
23. Van Praag, Bernard M. S., Frijters, Paul and Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada (2003) “The anatomy of subjective well-being”, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 51(1).
24. Van Praag, Bernard M.S. and Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada (2004) “Happiness quantified. A satisfaction calculus approach”. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
25. Watkins, Philip C. (2004) “Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being” in Emmons, Robert A. And McCullough, Michael E. (2004) The Psychology of Gratitude, Oxford University Press.
This paper explores the links between social relations, gender and life satisfaction within a traditional society. We are all searching for happiness, and in doing so making choices on the numerous crossroads in life. Throughout the history of human civilization great philosophers have been engaged in searching for a universal recipe and its ingredients which, combined in the right proportions, will lead to private happiness contributing to happiness and wellbeing for all. Besides purely economic