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Introduction
Happiness help people develop optimism and a take on the world attitude. Consequently, happy people are often healthy due to effective wellness and state of mind. Every person has their own story of happiness pursuit. Family relations, including marriage and intergenerational relationships, affect someones state of happiness. While many people find it difficult to pursue happiness, it is an intrinsic individual effort. Yeimi Portillo and Maya Hmed have different social backgrounds and religious affiliations, making them significant for the interviews. However, they hold similar perspectives on happiness. Both interviewees believed that social happiness does not amount to personal happiness. However, ones family and social environment affect personal happiness in various dimensions. Moreover, self-esteem is crucial for a contented life and may lead to sadness or happiness in ones life. While social factors like family and friends affect individual happiness, intrinsic satisfaction is significant for a happy life.
Interviews: Yeimi Portillo and Maya Hmed
Yeimi Portillo
Yeimi Portillo illustrated that family life is significant to personal happiness. She is married to a lovely husband, and they have five beautiful kids: four girls and a son. Yeimi did not identify herself with any religion showing that social institutions play an insignificant role in personal happiness. Yeimis social life was influenced by her family, leading her to have a well-defined and planned career path despite being a housewife. When asked about her perspective on happiness and relationship, she responded that a happy relationship involves an equal share of financial responsibilities. A happy relationship is key to a successful family and encourages sharing of responsibilities (Martin). Furthermore, Yeimi said that social happiness has nothing to do with family happiness since one can have good friends but with the worst family. According to Yeimi, social influences like other peoples attitudes can significantly affect a persons pursuit of happiness (OpenStaxCollege). Therefore, she advised people to focus on their personal goals and ignore negative influences from the social environment.
Maya Hmed
Positivity and content are significant for happiness, as proved by Maya. With Egyptian origins and Islamic culture, Maya is a psychotherapist who is contented with life. She said that happiness is situational since she sometimes found herself happy while at other times, she was sad. Maya proved that social happiness does not influence personal happiness. According to her, as she grew old, she enjoyed the time spent alone. Celebrating victories whether big or small helps people to become happy and satisfied with their progress (Seingman et al.). Moreover, she said that high self-esteem makes one happy and contented with their looks. When asked about her view on a happy relationship, she said that many factors contributed to the happiness in marriage and relationships. Empathizing, respecting, and understanding are key pillars of a happy relationship that contribute to happiness (Diener et al). Although social and family relationships are part of happiness, personal satisfaction is the most important key factor of happiness. Like Yeimi, Maya loves making people around her happy by helping them. Therefore, Yeimi and Maya believed in pouring love out into the world as long as it helps someone.
Lessons Learned
Mayas and Yeimis perspectives on happiness were similar to my personal belief. The two have diverse social backgrounds that have shaped their happiness. Yeimi taught me that a relationship was crucial to happiness. However, fulfilling happiness can only be gotten from an intrinsic personal conviction (Yana). Developing a relationship with oneself instead of sourcing happiness from other people is key to happiness (Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener). Her sentiments proved the source of sadness in my marriage. Our friends and family members can help us become happy, but for a moment (Diener). Moreover, the two interviewees believed that self-esteem is the most significant element of happiness in life. Money is regarded as a source of happiness since it helps people afford their materialistic desires (Baumgardner). Self-esteem encourages happiness and satisfaction while low self-esteem increases frustrations and sadness (MARTIN). Therefore, happiness in life is effectively pursued by developing high self-esteem and helping others.
Annotated Bibliography
Hong-ngam, Jongrak, et al. Factors affecting the level of happiness through economics status: evidence from elderly in the northeastern region of Thailand. International Journal of Business and Globalisation 29.1 (2021): 116-134.
Happiness is influenced by various factors, including an individuals economic status. The authors sought to identify the various economic factors that contribute to happiness among the elderly in preparation for the aging society. Although the paper addressed the northeastern region of Thailand, the researchers identified a special connection between happiness and economic status. According to the article, income, human capital, and accessibility to economic capital influences happiness among the aged. Unlike the youths, the aged have many responsibilities, including taking care of their families. Such responsibilities require financial capacity that helps the aged meet the social and basic needs of their dependents. The level of income significantly influenced the level of happiness among the aged. Those with low incomes were unable to meet their family needs leading to depression and sadness. Therefore, the article concludes that economic factors like income levels influence happiness among the aged. Although the paper addressed the impact of finance on happiness, the author ignored other social factors that lead to happiness amid financial constraints.
López-Ruiz, Víctor-Raúl, et al. The relationship between happiness and quality of life: A model for Spanish society. Plos one 16.11 (2021): e0259528.
Well-being among the communities members is crucial for development in a society. Happy community members take part in various economic and social activities that help sustain the community. López-Ruiz et al. studied the factors that primarily affect the happiness of a population. According to the authors, the factors are associated with income levels and residential and job stability. The article used a regression model to explain the relationship between the Spaniards happiness and well-being. The authors concluded that happy people are those with the highest level of well-being and quality of life in the most important dimensions. The article helped in advancing the researchs theme of money and happiness. Although the article is significant in interrelating happiness and quality of life, the authors failed to address other factors like family and relationships that may affect an individuals happiness. Moreover, quality of life cannot be defined by happiness but by all factors, including cultural values that help in bringing up an individual.
Krys, Kuba, et al. Personal life satisfaction as a measure of societal happiness is an individualistic presumption: evidence from fifty countries. Journal of Happiness Studies 22.5 (2021): 2197-2214.
Happy individuals have personal life satisfaction that impacts society in various dimensions. For instance, according to the interviewee Yeimi, her level of happiness encouraged her to develop an effective career plan. Although various studies have shown that happiness is correlated with individualism, the nature of the relationship is understudied. Krys, Kuba, et al. explore the study gap and test the relationship between individualism and societal happiness. The study focused on four concepts of happiness: individual life satisfaction, individual interdependent happiness, family satisfaction, and family interdependent happiness. The articles theme resonates with my studys topic, the pursuit of happiness.
The authors, upon analyzing collected data, concluded that the positive association between societal happiness with individualism could not be generalized to collectivism-themed happiness. Therefore, although family satisfaction and intermediate happiness are significant for societys growth, personal satisfaction is the most important factor of happiness. However, the study was limited to participants since it only involved students and excluded older participants. Moreover, the authors conclusion that family satisfaction and intermediate happiness do not affect individualism was unsatisfactory. However, the article helped in understanding how happiness ta the individual level can affect the family and society at large.
Lama, Dalai, Howard Cutler. The Art of Happiness.
Economic stability is one of the causes of happiness since people feel satisfied with whatever they do. Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler explore how a handsome income satisfies people, making them happy. According to the authors, human beings feeling of contentment is strongly influenced by their tendency to compare. Consequently, when human beings compare their past with presents and find that they are better, they become happy (Rogers). The authors argument is consistent with the personal perspective on happiness as given by Maya: celebrating every win, whether small or big, makes people happy. Moreover, satisfaction depends on the person human beings compare themselves with. For instance, a poor man may compare himself with a rich man. Consequently, the poor man becomes unsatisfied, which breeds sadness. Therefore, comparison with smarter, more beautiful, and more successful parsons leads to frustrations, envy, anger, and unhappiness. Although the authors argue that satisfaction is the source of happiness, they ignore environmental factors like traumatic events and failure to reach the personal target.
Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener. Can Money Buy Happiness? . In Happiness: Unlocking the mysteries of psychological wealth. John Wiley & Sons, 2011.
Money has been associated with happiness, and wealthy people are believed to live happily. Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener argue that money can buy happiness but to a limited extent. The authors use research that was conducted in the 1980s that determined the relationship between income and life satisfaction level. The research illustrated that the more a person earned, the more they became satisfied with life. Data from wealthy nations proved the same trend. With sufficient income, people can boost their living and afford things that add joy to their lives. Moreover, the authors use lottery winners to illustrate their main argument point. However, Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener present cases where money is not equal to happiness. They use data from research conducted in Calcutta, a city of joy, where people live in abject poverty but live happily. The authors concluded that although money can buy happiness, there are other factors like a healthy relationship that cause happiness. The authors arguments were well defended, but they did not explain sadness as observed among the wealthiest people.
Conclusion
Happiness is crucial for a healthy lifestyle, well-being, and societal development. Interviewing people with different social and religious backgrounds helped in understanding the impact of family and other social factors on happiness. Although family happiness leads to personal happiness, self-happiness can only be achieved through contentment. Money can buy happiness but to a limited extent. Data collected from wealthy people and nations show that happiness is directly proportional to income levels. However, cities like Calcutta have presented contrary data indicating that money is not the only ultimate factor that determines happiness. Therefore, Yeimi and Mayas perspectives on happiness proved that although family happiness and money contribute to happiness, personal satisfaction is the most crucial factor.
Works Cited
Baumgardner, J. (2017). Relationships are key to happiness . Web.
Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener. Can Money Buy Happiness? . In Happiness: Unlocking the mysteries of psychological wealth. John Wiley & Sons, 2011.
Diener et al., 1. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 2, 276-302. Web.
Diener, E. &. (2002). Very happy people. Psychological Science, 13.
Hong-ngam, Jongrak, et al. Factors affecting the level of happiness through economics status: evidences from elderly in the northeastern region of Thailand. International Journal of Business and Globalisation 29.1 (2021): 116-134.
Krys, Kuba, et al. Personal life satisfaction as a measure of societal happiness is an individualistic presumption: evidence from fifty countries. Journal of Happiness Studies 22.5 (2021): 2197-2214.
Lama, Dalai, and Howard Cutler. The Sources of Happiness.
López-Ruiz, Víctor-Raúl, et al. The relationship between happiness and quality of life: A model for Spanish society. Plos one 16.11 (2021): e0259528. Web.
MARTIN, M. (2020). The Connections Between Self Esteem and Relationships. Web.
Martin, M. W. (2012). Happiness and the Good Life.
Maslow, A. H. (2013). A theory of human motivation.
OpenStaxCollege. (2014). The Pursuit of Happiness. PSYCHOLOGY, 83. Web.
Rogers, C. (2004, March 14). Person-centered expressive arts therapy. A theoretical encounter, Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies, 31-47.
Seingman et al. (2005). Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions. American Psychologist, 410-421.
Yana. (2022). The Pursuit of Happiness. Web.
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