Different Pursuits to Happiness

Different Pursuits to Happiness

Tessie Deschaine

University of Phoenix

Most people are all in the pursuit of the same thing, happiness. The want or need for happiness and positive subjective well-being is something that all human beings have had in common since the beginning of time. However, the way in which people pursue their happiness differs from culture to culture. It all depends on the values of the cultural and if they are an individualistic culture, view of self is independent, or a collective culture, view self as interdependent. “Individualistic cultures include the industrialized countries of North America (e.g., United States & Canada), Western Europe (e.g., England, France, Denmark, Netherlands), and countries reflecting Western cultural traditions (e.g., Australia & New Zealand), and Collectivist cultures include countries of East Asia (e.g., China, Japan, Korea), the Middle East (e.g., Pakistan), Africa, and Latin America (e.g., Venezuela, Columbia, Mexico)” (Baumgardner & Crothers, 2009, p.117). The American and Asian perspective of happiness, differ in many ways such as, their individual sense of subjective well-being or cultural ideals, emotional expressiveness, and sense of group pride and individual pride.

While the American perspective of happiness and pursuit to positive well-being is an on-going individual effort, the Asian perspective of happiness and pursuit to positive well-being is a group effort. “North Americans show a pervasive tendency to perceive themselves as “better than average” in comparisons to others, to exaggerate the amount of control they have over life events, to see only a rosy future ahead that mostly excludes the occurrence of negative events, and to engage in self-serving explanations for behavior” (Baumgardner & Crothers, 2009, p.119). Individualistic cultures such as American, view happiness and life satisfaction as very important, while collective cultures such as Asians do not. Asians feel...