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22 National Differences in Subjective Well-Being Ed Diener and Eunkook Mark Suh There are substantial differences between nations in reported subjective well-being (SWB). Although surveys ofsubjective well-being face methodological challenges , the existing data suggest that the measures have a degree of validity and that the betweennation differences are substantive. People in wealthy nations tend to report greater SWB than people in poor nations. The causal factors relating wealth to well-being, however, are not yet understood. The wealth of nations strongly correlates with human rights, equality between people, the fulfillment ofbasic biological needs, and individualism. Because of the high intercorrelations between these predictor variables and wealth, their separate effects on SWB have not yet been isolated. Another variable that correlates with higher SWB in nations is political stability and a related variable, interpersonal trust. Individualism is a cultural variable that correlates across nations with both higher reported SWB and higher suicide rates. Possible reasons for these divergent outcomes of individualism are discussed. Individualists believe that happiness is more important than do collectivists, who emphasize other values such as «harmony" and «respect." Furthermore, reports of SWB are highest in those nations where it is thought to be important. Interestingly, when making life satisfaction judgments, individualists are more likely than collectivists to weight their moods and emotions and less likely to consult norms about how appropriate it is to be satisfied. Furthermore, people in Latin cultures prize pleasant affect and denigrate unpleasant affect, whereas people in the Confucian cultures of the Pacific Rim appear to place less emphasis on pleasant affect and are more accepting of unpleasant emotions. The major approaches to the psychological understanding of the differences in SWB between societies are the innate needs approach, the theory ofgoal striving, models of emotion socialization , and genetic explanations. Policy implications of the national differences in SWB are discussed briefly· FOR MILLENNIA THINKERS have discussed the quality of human existence-what makes a desirable society and individual life. Philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas concentrated on the individual and defined the quality of human life in terms of virtue, closeness to God, and other personal qualities . Other scholars such as Confucius focused on the quality of life of a society, stressing relationships between people. In modern times scientists measure the quality of life and approach this task from several directions. Economists assess the amount of goods and services produced by a society as a reflection of quality of life. Their assumption is that if a society produces abundant goods and services, people will select those that they most want and therefore are likely to create a desirable life. Human needs are most likely to be fulfilled in a society that produces many goods and services, and therefore well-being or utility will be heightened in a nation with greater productivity. Other researchers, especially scientists working in the social indicators tradition, have enumerated other felicitous qualities of a society beyond goods and services and devised methods to measure them. For example, in addition to products and services, the good society should have low crime, a long life expectancy, respect for human rights, and an equitable distribution ofresources. In this approach, scientists attempt to compare societies based on indices that summarize a variety of important social indicators (see, for example, Diener 1995). A third approach to defining and measuring quality of life is in terms of subjective well-being (SWB)-how individuals evaluate their lives, both in terms of satisfaction judgments and in terms of affective reactions (moods and emotions). In this tradition, the individual with a desirable life is satisfied and experiences frequent pleasant emotions and infrequent unpleasant emotions. The ideal society is defined as one in which all people are happy and satisfied and experience an abundance of pleasure. Furthermore, more specific variables, such as trust, self-esteem, absence of pain, and satisfaction with one's work and with one's marriage, can also be added to the list of subjective indicators. We need subjective, economic, and social indi- National Differences in Subjective Well-Being 435 cators to appraise the full range of quality of life of a society because the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches are complementary (Diener and Suh 1997). This chapter, however, concentrates on subjective measures of well-being in comparing the quality of life of nations. Measurement validity in this area is sufficient to derive a few broad inferences , but improvements in methodology are needed before we can gain strong conclusions. Although measures of SWB are...

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