Hppiness and Mental Well-being of Society Essay

Hppiness and Mental Well-being of Society - Essay Example A society is crippled if happiness does not prevail in it. Similarly happiness is directly linked to the mental well being of an individual and together both of these components found an important part of the society. A society which does not have happiness may be known as partial or without an important component. In order to maintain a society one has to ensure that happiness is prevailing amongst individuals. This article would further describe happiness in relation to a society. It would tell how a society can be judged by the happiness or unhappiness which is prevailing in the society (Nettle 2005). Happiness is being governed by different components of life and all these together amalgamate to form a perfect circle of happiness. The feeling of happiness which one individual has depends on his own personal nature and varies according to his needs. Some people get happy when they are having immense power while some get happy when they are living in a society which supports equality. The factors of happiness can vary according to the experience one individual has to go through or it can be hereditary too (Layard). With the increasing time the factors of happiness have changed through out the world. Even if a person is wealthy it is not necessary that he would be happy and would have a good life. If he is wealthy he may have to go through other problems which would destroy the happiness in his society. In the previous years it is seen the living standard in the western countries has increased and so has the level of wealth. Gradually the level of wealth and living standards has be en compared to the level of happiness and research has clearly shown that the level of wealth and living standards does not count to a greater amount of happiness in the world. The amount of wealth does not illustrate an image of the society, however the amount of happiness does. It shows how well a person is leading his life and how the government is working towards the betterment of the society (Gilbertson 1987). In this regard a study conducted by Easterlin gave surprising results. According to his study though wealth did have an impact on a person's happiness but after a certain increase in a person's income it no longer left an impact and hence he suggested through his study that though increasing income did have an effect on happiness but only up to a certain extent. Different researches done by different psychologists and economists tell us about the impact of the factors of happiness affecting society. Different surveys conducted by the organization of World Value Surveys sh ow how different factors affect the societies and the happiness levels in them. The method of the research adopted by the organization is to measure the effects of happiness in accordance to their effect. Every factor is compared to the factor of income and the results are derived respectively. Following is a table which shows how the factors affect happiness in the societies respectively Fall in happiness(index) Income Family income down 33% relative to average 1 Work Unemployed (rather than employed) Job insecure (rather than secure) Unemployment rate up 10 percentage points Inflation rate up 10 percentage points 3 1.5 1.5 0.5 Family Divorced (rather than married) Separated (rather than ma