SOC 135 Lecture Notes - Individualism, Consilience, Class Conflict
Document Summary
Happiness (kenworthy: happiness consists of some combination of three elements: life satisfaction, which involves an appraisal of the overall condition of one"s life; Positive feelings, such as pleasure and joy; and. Negative feelings, such as worry, frustration, anger, and sadness: two facts about happiness in the united states are puzzling. First, despite a variety of favorable developments, americans haven"t, on average, gotten happier over the past four and a half decades. Second, despite our comparative affluence, americans are only in the middle of the happiness pack among the world"s rich nations. For any given person, genetics and unique individual circumstances play an important role: but scientists have identified a number of external factors that also tend to have an influence. Determinants of happiness: social support, family, friends, a generous welfare state, freedom to make life choices. Contemporary american society: trust, religiosity, quality of government.
