Abstract
The chapter investigates the correlates of life satisfaction and happiness in México, in order to know the degree of redundancy between them as well as their key correlates. The way the studied correlates behave does not allow a conclusive statement about the degree of redundancy between the variables under study, although it clearly shows that for some specific variables such as economic status or satisfaction with family life, social life and affective life, different behaviours consistent with a greater emotive and smaller cognitive load are displayed by the indicator regarding happiness when compared to the one for life satisfaction.
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- 1.
For life satisfaction two scales are used; one between 0 and 10 but also another from 1 to 10. In turn, happiness is not measured using numerical scales; labels are used instead: Very happy, Quite happy, Not very happy and Not at all happy (see Diener et al. 2010). Helliwell et al. (2012) make a similar exercise with comparable information on life satisfaction and happiness from the European Social Survey and find that both indicators are complementary, to the point that the average of both behaves better than either of them taken separately in terms of the proportion of variance that can be explained by a common set of explanatory variables.
- 2.
It is to be expected for such assessments to be more or less affected by emotions or feelings a person is experiencing unless that person actually comes from Planet Vulcan.
- 3.
Kennedy (1994, p. 229).
- 4.
\( {Y}_k=1 \) is “worse” (or “better”) than \( {Y}_{k+1}=1\forall k \); here Y is life satisfaction or happiness and has 11 categories, with values ranging from 0 to 10.
- 5.
Kennedy (1994, p. 232) states that in cases like this “using multinomial probit or logit would not be efficient because no account would be taken of the extra information implicit in the ordinal nature of the dependent variable.”
- 6.
Ordered logit models, although they account for interpersonal comparability of subjective well-being (if two people respond 10 on a scale of 0–10 is because they both have a very high level of subjective well-being), do not require a response assume that 10 is “the double ”one than 5 nor that the distance from 0 to 1 is the same as that of 9–10. See: Agresti (2002), Escobar et al. (2009), and DeMaris (1995).
- 7.
From the outset, we may have left out of the analysis over 50 % of the variance, if we consider the issues raised by Seligman (2002) who, citing multiple studies “hundreds of them” said they converge on that “approximately 50 % of nearly every aspect of personality is attributable to genetic inheritance.”
- 8.
The questionnaire, tabulated and database logging level BIARE are available free and free at: http://www.inegi.org.mx/inegi/contenidos/Investigacion/Experimentales/Bienestar/default.aspx
- 9.
This led to a non-specific response of the module about 15 % above the crimped no response, forcing it to make an ex-post adjustment factors for expansion.
- 10.
Changes to the final version mainly affect the way of asking about affects.
- 11.
- 12.
Diener (2009) states that, in terms of subjective well-being, there are no significant differences between the information that results from applying questionnaires face to face or deferred.
- 13.
Collection of this type of information from children and adolescents implies the need for more specialized items than the ones used in this study. Moreover, the evidence from preliminary field trials, showed that population over 70 years, especially the under-schooled, had serious limitations to interact efficiently with the questionnaire, especially considering that it should be self-administered.
- 14.
As a reference, consider that the sample used by Gallup in Mexico as part of its remarkable global exercise is around 1000 questionnaires.
- 15.
Life satisfaction was captured at the beginning of the module and happiness at the end. It is possible that this relative positioning is a source of some of the differences in the responses to both questions.
- 16.
See Appendix 4.
- 17.
It is likely that respondents exhibit “digit preference” so that some numbers, such as 0, 5 or 10 may be preferred to others in their neighborhood to express a particular evaluative stance.
- 18.
Calculations were carried out on the basis of the figures in Table 31.1.
- 19.
Estimated values for the odds-ratios and the significance of the associated parameters may be found in Appendix.
- 20.
Layard (2005) shows that education only plays a rather small impact on happiness, even if education increases happiness trough the increase in income associated with more education. Helliwell (2003) finds that once other variables are simultaneously considered, the level of education is innocuous with respect to subjective well-being.
- 21.
Stutzer y Frey (2006), using data from the German Socio Economic panel, finds that those who are married are happier than those who are single.
- 22.
Park and Peterson (2010) suggest that specific urban environments may be more or less conducive to the development of certain character fortitudes, which constitute one of the pillars of positive psychology . The question would then be about what forms of psychological development are provided by a certain type of city, rather than how conducive it is to make more or less happy individuals: “Researchers in psychology can contribute to urban future policies and welfare of cities and their residents by studying how cities create, facilitate or allow the expression of different strengths of character among its citizens”. This is therefore a valid but different perspective to the one followed in this work. It is clear that town size is a tool that aims to capture elements related to a greater or smaller relative probability of experiencing more or less subjective well-being. Ideally, one would work directly with those characteristics, if only all the relevant information were available.
- 23.
“Rousseau speaks of a natural state of man in which he is good and happy without worries and without industry, without speech and without home, oblivious to all war and all attachments. This being was moved by two basic impulses: self-love and compassion. He is innocent, like a little child. There is no separation between what is and what seems to be. He defines man as a noble savage, a primitive man living in peace and harmony with nature.”Http://es.wikiversity.org/wiki/L%/C3%ADneas_principales_del_pensamiento_de_Jean_Jaques_Rousseau. “Only in this original state power and desire are in equilibrium and the man is not unhappy” (McMahon 2006).
- 24.
With some ambiguity in the third quintile which is significant at the 15 % level.
- 25.
See Stevenson and Wolfers (2013).
- 26.
To what Frey (2008) says, in the sense that “people are concerned about their relative position in the income ladder. It is not the absolute level of income that matters, but the own situation in relation to other individuals’” it is necessary to add that as long as we are talking about life satisfaction, since happiness, at least for the case of Mexico, does not respond to the economic situation of the household.
- 27.
This can be seen as an additional incentive for those who can keep their income level to seek early retirement.
- 28.
Stutzer (2004), using data for Germany finds that greater income aspirations reduce people’s wellbeing for a given income or consumption level.
- 29.
Nevertheless, these positive experiences do generate some kind of hysteresis related with differences in the probability of attaining academic achievements. Thus, controlling for a set of economic and demographic variables, we find that the probability of having an outstanding degree of studies is inversely related to negative experiences in childhood and adolescence and directly related to positive experiences in these stages.
- 30.
In order to properly speak about resilience it is necessary to carry out more specific analysis, as suggested by Peterson et al. (2008).
- 31.
Peterson (2013) defines “post-traumatic growth” as the ability to achieve a better situation after receiving negative perturbation. This is an alternative way to state Nietzsche’s aphorism. Peterson et al. (2008) show evidence of stronger character tracts after a traumatic perturbation. While the analysis of resilience we do in this paper is superficial and is not intended to see its impact on strengths but on subjective well being, it does give us signs that the ability to adapt to negative emotional perturbations is an area of opportunity for developing policies to cultivate character strengths of the adult general population of Mexico.
- 32.
Here we deal with the inverse of the odds ratios reported in the corresponding row of Table 33.9 in the Appendix.
- 33.
Even though we have no additional information regarding the frequency with which people did not sleep “very well”, it is clear that the not sleeping is the least sustainable in the long term and also the rarest of all.
- 34.
The reciprocals of the values reported in the corresponding row of Table A32.8 in the appendix are used. Participation in associations that promote faith is a special case within those with a religion. Merely professing a religion does not make a difference from not having any religion, since the corresponding odds ratio is not statistically different from 1.
- 35.
These results are consistent with those reported by Kross et al. (2013). The authors followed a panel of 82 facebook users and through a version of the experience-sampling method, and find that life satisfaction as well as other indicators of subjective well-being are negatively associated with use intensity of that social network. The exercise controlled for the size of the social network, gender, reason for using facebook, their level of loneliness, depression and self-esteem.
- 36.
Lyubormirsky (2010) shows evidence suggesting that altruism -including kindness, generosity and compassion- are key elements for social connections that are fundamental to happiness. He specifically shows evidence that acts of kindness (especially if spontaneous and out of the ordinary) are positively associated with the subjective well-being of the person who does the good deed.
- 37.
Seligman (2011) states that well-being has five dimensions, each valuable in itself: positivity, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment.
- 38.
See the Appendices for greater detail.
- 39.
Considering that there is another variable in the model, “receiving food aid”, which takes over the minimum income for survival. The contrasting behaviour of these variables is maintained with or without “receiving food aid.”
- 40.
Keynes (2005).
- 41.
For details on the operation of the labor market in Mexico see Negrete (January–April 2011).
- 42.
Gottman (1994) states that healthier and more stable couples are associated with a 5 to 1 relationship of positive to negative emotions.
- 43.
Weiner (2009).
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Appendices
Appendices
1.1 Appendix 1
Odd ratios for each variable in the cumulative ordinal logit model. Every variable in every table is included in the same model (one each for life satisfaction and for happiness), so the thematic division of the seven tables below is merely a means for ease of exposition and is not related to the way results were obtained.
1.2 Appendix 2
Table 32.9 shows the results of an alternative model in which age is incorporated as a continuous variable and with a quadratic element in order to capture a possible U shape relationship, which in fact happens. For brevity we only report the age section, even if the rest of the model was run using the same specification reported in previous tables.
1.3 Appendix 3
The Tables 32.10, 32.11, 32.12, 32.13, 32.14, 32.15, and 32.16 show a summary of relations between dependent and explanatory variables which emerge from the ordinal cumulative model used.
1.4 Appendix 4
With the purpose of providing the reader with the interpretation of the results reported in Appendix 1, we next point out the questions and the questionnaire used in collecting the required information to calculate each variable in the model.
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Leyva, G., Bustos, A., Romo, A.M. (2016). Life Satisfaction and Happiness in Mexico: Correlates and Redundancies. In: Rojas, M. (eds) Handbook of Happiness Research in Latin America. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7203-7_32
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