Introduction to a culturally sensitive measure of well-being: combining life satisfaction and interdependent happiness across 49 different cultures

• Main Author: Krys, Kuba
• Publication Date: 2023
• Other Authors: Haas, Brian W., Igou, Eric Raymond, Kosiarczyk, Aleksandra, Kocimska-Bortnowska, Agata, Kwiatkowska, Anna, Lun, Vivian Miu Chi, Maricchiolo, Fridanna, Park, Joonha, Šolcová, Iva Poláčková, Sirlopú, David, Uchida, Yukiko, Vauclair, Christin Melanie, Vignoles, Vivian L., Zelenski, John M., Adamovic, Mladen, Akotia, Charity S., Albert, Isabelle, Appoh, Lily, Mira, D. M.Arévalo, Baltin, Arno, Denoux, Patrick, Domínguez-Espinosa, Alejandra, Esteves, Carla Sofia, Gamsakhurdia, Vladimer, Fülöp, Márta, Garðarsdóttir, Ragna B., Gavreliuc, Alin, Boer, Diana, Igbokwe, David O., Işık, İdil, Kascakova, Natalia, Klůzová Kráčmarová, Lucie, Kosakowska-Berezecka, Natasza, Kostoula, Olga, Kronberger, Nicole, Lee, J. Hannah, Liu, Xinhui, Łużniak-Piecha, Magdalena, Malyonova, Arina, Barrientos, Pablo Eduardo, Mohorić, Tamara, Mosca, Oriana, Murdock, Elke, Mustaffa, Nur Fariza, Nader, Martin, Nadi, Azar, Okvitawanli, Ayu, van Osch, Yvette, Pavlopoulos, Vassilis, Pavlović, Zoran, Rizwan, Muhammad, Romashov, Vladyslav, Røysamb, Espen, Sargautyte, Ruta, Schwarz, Beate, Selim, Heyla A., Serdarevich, Ursula, Stogianni, Maria, Sun, Chien Ru, Teyssier, Julien, van Tilburg, Wijnand A.P., Torres, Claudio, Xing, Cai, Bond, Michael Harris
• Format: Article
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Download full: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/39717
• topic: Cultural sensitivity; Culture; Happiness; Interdependent happiness; Life satisfaction; Self-construals; Selfhoods; Well-being

How can one conclude that well-being is higher in country A than country B, when well-being is being measured according to the way people in country A think about well-being? We address this issue by proposing a new culturally sensitive method to comparing societal levels of well-being. We support our reasoning with data on life satisfaction and interdependent happiness focusing on individual and family, collected mostly from students, across forty-nine countries. We demonstrate that the relative idealization of the two types of well-being varies across cultural contexts and are associated with culturally different models of selfhood. Furthermore, we show that rankings of societal well-being based on life satisfaction tend to underestimate the contribution from interdependent happiness. We introduce a new culturally sensitive method for calculating societal well-being, and examine its construct validity by testing for associations with the experience of emotions and with individualism-collectivism. This new culturally sensitive approach represents a slight, yet important improvement in measuring well-being.