Cultural Construction Of Happiness Essay

Cultural Constructions of Happiness: Theory and Empirical Evidence In this article, Yukiko Uchida et al., “identifies cultural variations in cultural meanings of happiness, motivations underlying happiness, and predictors of happiness. Specifically, in North American cultural contexts, happiness tends to be defined in terms of personal achievement. In basic terms, happiness is a universal emotion” (1). People across the world are going to prefer being happy over unhappy and pleasant over unpleasant. It’s different for everyone on what their meaning for happiness is, whether that’s what establishes happiness, what people might try to do to achieve happiness, or what aspects might predict happiness. Yukiki Uchida also states, “Happiness is best predicted by self-esteem.” My interpretation of that statement is that happiness is based off of how

Conyers et al. states, “For the vast majority of people in cultures around the world, achieving greater happiness is their foremost goal. Everyone, for the most part, wants to be happy” (41). The book talks about the evidence that positive emotions made people more creative and receptive, along with stepping out of their comfort zone. “A positive outlook can elevate every aspect of our lives, producing a powerful, upward spiral. Success leads to greater happiness, but psychologists conducting a meta-analysis of 225 papers involving more than 275,000 subjects conclude that the reverse may also be true: Happy people are more successful. (Conyers 45). Conyers asserts, “we are who we perceive ourselves to be.” Our preconceived judgements on ourselves and our self-worth reflects on our psychological functioning and well-being. Meaning, if we change the way that we think about ourselves we can also change our thoughts and