'Research and critical reflection – Money doesn’t buy you happiness. Essay\r'

'M maveny doesn’t acquire you satisfaction. Every oneness has heard the statement before and some studies of happiness and welf atomic shape 18 gener aloney leave on it. However, steady though nones does non bribe you happiness it is by and large harbourd that currency can be a means to an end. Hence, currency cannot bargain for you happiness, hardly it can provide you with financial security and soundly- cosmos. If you asked a shortsighted someone if they were clever most will put forward you they are not collect to surviving in poor conditions and having poor health. Their invite for gum elasticty and security step upweighs their lead for decorous things and possessions. So if money does not demoralize you happiness what does purchase you happiness? What are the factors in follow that sire you adroit? One flair to address this headway could be looking at ones well-being. As such a deeper interpretation of well-being is necessary. When considering the concept of well-being, there are dickens major approaches, objective well-being, and subjective well-being. object well-being looks at how healthy a person is and the access he has to resources. indwelling well-being on the other present looks at the overall happiness of a person. In the same breath it is in addition argued that material well-being, that is the things we buy and recede, does not deuce-ace to our overall happiness. Hence, money doesn’t buy you happiness. (Williams, 2014).\r\nConsidering this notion that money does not buy you happiness (Myers & angstrom unit; Diener, 1995), Kawachi and Kennedy (2002, p.30 -31) sought divulge to summarise the main ingredients to happiness in one’s flavour. They noted sex, ethnicity and period scarcely make you happy. Rather it is the relationships and connection of interests you incur around you that turn backs levels of happiness. Further more, enjoying one’s work and leisure is ext remely agree with happiness. On the other hand, one’s wealth and in interject does not have a straight correlation with happiness. Some poor tidy sum are happy, some risque mess are miserable and frailty versa. Nonetheless, millions of people across the globe pass off large amount of money overwhelming things they do not need. I myself precipitation victim to marketing ploys and consume free-lance(a) things that I do not eer need, but want because I entrust it will make me twin in more in my community, or make me happier.\r\nPeople follow fashionable trends and want all the tonic toys that come out thinking it will make them happy. This need of people to have nice envisage things has previously been coined the â€Å"new consumerism”. Back in the day, it meant keeping up with others in your community, if your sojourn got a new flash car, you had to go get one. However, with the popularisation of television, and posthumousr on the rise of mass media, â⠂¬Å"new consumerism” meant people were now competing all over the globe. Furthermore, as we live in a hu spells of inequality in terms of income and wealth, the shift between what we want and what we have more often than not depends on our income. Schor (1998), referred to this as â€Å"the ambitiousnessal gap”. If one cannot ease up something, he can any be â€Å" dysphoric” dealing with not having that ware/want, or he chooses to take on debt in order to concede it and have it then and there; gum olibanum having to work more to cover the debt and the motorcycle continues. So if we look at happiness as the â€Å"difference between what we have and what we want we suddenly become joyless” (Williams, 2014, p.5).\r\nLargely, I agree with the statement the money does not buy you happiness. By guild’s standards I am in spades not a full-bodied man but I consider myself to live a moderately happy life; largely due to the fact that I am healt hy, I have groovy friends and a loving family. According to several(prenominal) scholars (Benin & Nierstedt, 1985, Inglehart, 1990, Myers, 2000) it is indeed our kind relationships that generate the heightsest levels of happiness. With that said, I smooth consume sure things, materialistic things, and go to sure places in order to construct my social identity. I want things in order to fit in or get approbation from my peers. According to many scholars however this does not lead to my well-being but kinda to unhappiness. This draws back to the â€Å"aspirational gap”, if I cannot buckle under to look a certain way or buy certain things and keep up with the times do I ultimately become unhappy? personally I would interchangeable to say it does not apply to me, but reflecting back to Schor’s (1998) study, it appears to point in that direction. As such, I do agree with the concept more so as a circularize of people around me become unhappy when they cannot afford something they want.\r\nOr become unhappy because they got themselves into debt due to their unnecessary consumptions. Maslow (1943) devised a possibleness of motivation which attempted to explain the ranked nature of people’s well-being. first off it is our basic psychological unavoidably like hunger and thirst that we have to satisfy. Next, it is our take for security and protection, followed by our need for social bonds and love. The last two steps are ones self-esteem and self-actualisation. This is a very hierarchic view which means once a certain level has been satisfied one seeks to satisfy the next until you reach to the take in †self actualisation. This will explain wherefore people become unhappy when they cannot afford something †reach self-actualisation. Moreover, identities are fluid. I unendingly consume new trends, go to new places, and change my habits to fit society’s norms. Social psychology attributes this to people’ s nature to conform. One study by Asch (1952, cited in Bond & Smith, 1996) shows the aspiration of people to conform to the majority even when the outcome is clearly wrong. I agree with this as I buy certain clothes and go to certain places because I want to fit in with my surroundings.\r\nZaichkowsky (1994) claims that peoples affaire with a product depends on a person apparent relevance of a product based on his inseparable needs and values. Hence my values stand from my surroundings and my need for a product comes from my need to fit in to my surroundings. A lot of the above-mentioned concepts discussed were first investigated by and by WWII and throughout the 20th century. However, as the imbeding is constantly evolving and changing do these outlooks on happiness and well-being still apply today? Have they gotten any split or worse? Early studies showed an summation in mental disorders and disunites throughout the late 20th century, as well as the increment need o f people for bigger and better things. A study by Helliwell, Layard, and Sachs (2012) found that on average rich people are happier than poor people. However, they found that a country’s economical growth does not indicate an increase in the overall happiness of its people. This is entirely due to the fact that once people reach a comfortable/ take into custody level of income; further increase of it does not generate higher(prenominal) levels of happiness.\r\nMoreover, they found unemployment is highly correlated with low levels of well-being, whilst being apply †and satisfied with your job †was correlated with higher levels of well-being. Finally, they noted in Maslow’s gain of human needs, love and belonging come just after basic physiological and safety needs. Clearly, the sources of individual happiness admit the set of social interactions through which individuals are interconnected.” (p.70). The aforementioned trends discussed appear to be in line with the current state of sweet Zealand. Helliwell et. al. (2012) found modernistic Zealand ranked as the 13th happiest country in the world. This was attributed due to a low unemployment rate (6.2%), divorce number down (stats.govt.nz), and ranking high on education as well as freedom. (Helman, 2013). However, when looking at the swipe 50 richest countries in the world (aneki.com) New Zealand does not even make an appearance.\r\nHowever, it is safe to assume that new consumerism and the â€Å"aspirational gap” still apply to New Zealand as the countries spending ($2,578 million) is higher than its GDP ($211,678 million). (stats.govt.nz). It certainly appears that money does not buy you happiness. Rather being poor is correlated with low levels of well-being. capital in itself can provide a person with security, but increased income does not appear to have an effect on overall happiness. Looking at Maslow’s theory, a person could have all the money in the world but if they are alone and do not have a loving community of friends and family to share it with they are almost ever going to be unhappy. Rather, happiness is opinionated by a large number of factors with an emphasis on basic needs such as food and water, as well as friendships and belonging to a loving community. Consumption of materialistic objects and the aspiration for more money negatively affects our well-being.\r\nReferences\r\nBenin, M.H. and B.C. Nierstedt: 1985, ‘ comfort in single- and dual- earner families: The effects of married happiness’, job satisfaction and life cycle, Journal of Marriage and the Family 47, pp. 975â€984. Bond, R. & Smith, P. B. (1996). subtlety and conformity: a meta-analysis of studies using asch’s (1952b, 1956) line judgment task. Psychological Bulletin, 119(1), 111â€137. Maslow, Abraham H. 1943 â€Å"A theory of human motivation.” Psychological Review, 50: 370-396. Helliwell, J., Layard, R., & Sac hs, J. (2012). World Happiness Report. warmness for Economic Performance. The Earth Institute capital of South Carolina University. Helman, C. (2013). The world’s happiest (And Saddest) countries. †http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/10/29/the-worlds-happiest-and-saddest-countries-2013/ Inglehart, R.: 1990, Culture Shift in locomote Industrial Society (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ). Myers, D.G.: 2000, ‘The funds, friends and faith of happy people’, American Psychologist 55(1), pp. 56â€67. Myers, D. G. & Diener, E. (1995). Who is happy? Psychological Science, 6(1), 10â€19. Offer, A. (2006). The challenge of affluence: self-control and well-being in the United States. Williams, J. (2014) Consumption and Well-being. Chapter 12. P. 104 †127. Zaichkowsky, J. L. (1994). The personal closeness inventory: reduction, revision, and application to advertising. Journal of Advertising, 23(4), 59â€69.\r\n'