Happiness as an expression of freedom and self-determination: a comparative multilevel analysis

Collection article | Sammelwerksbeitrag

"In this paper, subjecitve well-being, as measured by survey questions on life satisfaction and happiness, is investigated from a sociological-comparative point of view. The central thesis is that happiness will be greater the more freedom a person has in her/his life decisions. It is hypothesized,therefore, that happiness will be higher in all those social contexts (micro and macro) which provide a person with greater freedom. Hence, happiness should be higher among the employed, among the persons in higher positions and with higher incomes, and happiness should also be higher in free market and democratic, and in less stratified societies. A comparative emperical analysis (multilevel regression) is carried out, using survey data on 41 nations from the World Value Survey 1995-97. The finding that happiness is related significantly to the degree of individual freedom is fully confirmed. It also has been proven that people who live in circumstances providng providing more freedom of personal choice are happier; this happens only through their perception and trough their expected change (improvement or stagnation) in the future" (author's abstract)

Angaben zum Objekt

• ISBN: 1-4020-2890-3
• Umfang: Seite(n): 207-231
• Sprache: Englisch
• Anmerkungen: Status: Veröffentlichungsversion

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Challenges for quality of life in the contemporary world: advances in quality-of-life studies and research; Social indicators research series (24)

Klassifikation und Themen

• Thema: Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie ; Soziologie, Anthropologie ; Erhebungstechniken und Analysetechniken der Sozialwissenschaften ; Allgemeine Soziologie, Makrosoziologie, spezielle Theorien und Schulen, Entwicklung und Geschichte der Soziologie ; Erwerbstätigkeit ; Zufriedenheit ; Glück ; Selbstbestimmung ; sozialer Status ; Einkommen ; Entscheidungsspielraum ; Bildungsniveau ; empirisch

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Haller, Max ; Hadler, Markus
• Ereignis: Herstellung
• (wer): Glatzer, Wolfgang ; Below, Susanne von ; Stoffregen, Matthias
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Kluwer Academic Publ.
• (wo): Niederlande, Dordrecht
• (wann): 2004

Weitere Informationen

• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-235210
• Rechteinformation: GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften. Bibliothek Köln
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 21.06.2024, 16:26 MESZ