Happiness Scale

This is the fifth in a six-part series of perspectives on various issues in modern life contributed by Mary K. Evjen Olsen, executive director of corporate marketing at DreamVille Entertainment, a media corporation that produces and distributes TV documentaries and various culture contents worldwide. ― ED.

By Mary K. Evjen Olsen

Exactly how much income guarantees happiness for an individual? Does ``the more the merrier'' as regards one's economic status correlate with one's happiness level?

A scale, introduced by British occupational psychologist Carol Rothwell and life coach Peter Cohen which measures supposedly essential elements like money, health, social rank or position, and relationships in a person's life, proposes some interesting views for us to contemplate.

Since the scale was first introduced 20 years ago, these measures in developed countries such as the United States, Japan and Germany show little or no change, though the per capita income in those countries has nearly tripled. Korea proves to be no exception.

In fact, Korea's per capita income, at well over $20,000 today, is 10-fold that of the late 1980s. Yet the nation's average happiness scale ranks nearly rock-bottom in the world, as indicated in a report by the Asian Wall Street Journal.

This seems to support strongly some of the study findings presented by scholars like John Haisken-DeNew at Harvard University: Once a person's income reaches somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000, which is considered sufficient to meet the basic needs in modern life, increases in income or extended wealth seem to bear no significant impact on a person's happiness scale.

If a handsome paycheck is not what guarantees happiness in our lives, what then could be the factors that determine it?

Let us consider the P factors in Rothwell's happiness scale equation, which stand for personal characters like a positive or negative view of life itself, adaptability to minor or drastic changes in circumstances and the ability to tackle emotional conflicts in life.

What is our dominant view of life? Do we generally feel that life treats us unfairly, or that the majority of the people in the world are evil? Are we by nature optimistic or pessimistic?

Are we capable of realistically distinguishing what problems we can actually tackle, subconscious emotional issues that cause us to act irrationally at times during our common crises in life, a loss of job, wealth or health, for instance?

Are we capable of dealing with a crisis in a constructive manner with self-generated strength like patience and hope? It would be quite interesting to observe the difference and change in our happiness scale after contemplating these questions.

Very often, it is rather our own attitudes and perspectives that hinder or rob us of our happiness than the actual burdens of life that we all have to shoulder, according to scholars like Richard Easterlin of the University of Southern California and Richard Layard of the London School of Economics and Politics.

In other words, it is not what comes our way in life that is so important for our happiness but how we deal with what comes our way!

Now, let us take a look at the E factors. The E here stands for so-called essential conditions for a happy human existence, such as material possessions, health and safety.

Interestingly, though, these conditions can very often vary in one individual's life, imposing various degrees of change in life and requiring us to apply our personal characters that are seen in the P factor above.

These means that, while we all need a certain amount of materials and depend on essential conditions like health and safety for happiness, what could make true differences in our happiness again are our attitudes and ways of dealing with life's variables.

Finally, here are the H factors that affect our happiness. According to Rothwell these are the higher needs like pride and expectations for love, social respect and recognition. Regardless of the amount of wealth or material possessions, we all desire a certain amount of respect and recognition and depend heavily on them for happiness.

The question could be, though, how or through what we strive to achieve these H factors; through excessive wealth and its accompanying fame, or through more noble causes like the promotion of ethics and integrity in our world, a compassion-driven act of giving to starving children around the globe, or efforts to minimize environmental damage to our towns and villages? Just what sort of recognition are we seeking in our lifetime?

Simply by asking ourselves these questions from time to time, we could all perhaps achieve a higher level of contentment in life, a higher happiness scale, which would obviously reflect in our words, gestures and ways of handling life's common variables.