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Interdependent Happiness: Theoretical Importance and Measurement Validity

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Abstract

We proposed the concept of “interdependent happiness,” which is interdependently pursued and attained. A nine-item Interdependent Happiness Scale (IHS) was developed to measure the happiness of individuals who are relationally oriented, quiescent and ordinary. Interdependent happiness correlated with both subjective well-being (SWB) and interdependent self-construal among Japanese students (Study 1); their SWB was more likely to be explained by IHS than the SWB of American students (Study 2); and IHS explained the SWB of working adults in the US, Germany, Japan, and Korea (Study 3) and Japanese adults and elders from collectivist regions of the country (Study 4). Cultural and cross-cultural psychological perspectives were incorporated to shed new light on collective happiness

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Notes

  1. Hitokoto et al. (2009) defined Japanese regional I–C by factor analyzing prefecture-level variables (N = 47) agreed on by professionals of cultural and cross-cultural psychology (Appendix 2). Variables included average number of family members, divorce rate, people working in tertiary industry, households living with elders, high school graduates choosing to work, two-income households. The regional difference was stable for a quarter century (r > .92). Regional I–C correlated with prefectural domestic product, dominance of agriculture, average number of voluntary associations, friends, attitudes toward strangers, attendance at local events, general trust, opinions about one’s work role, annual number of people moving in and out (Oishi and Kisling 2009), and reported social skills initiating new relationships in meaningful directions. Importantly, the regional I–C correlated with the regional variability in the regression coefficients of one’s satisfaction with interpersonal relationship and life satisfaction, after controlling for the effect of self-esteem (Naoi et al. 2003). However, the result was provided by a small number of areas (N = 11), with items measuring each construct being single items.

  2. This university consists of students from variable prefectures in Japan, but 68 % of our sample was originally from Hyogo prefecture and Osaka prefecture, another highly individualistic prefecture in Japan. Students were from families with relatively high social economic status, and the educational level of the university is high according to the public university rankings. Given these conditions, our sample was estimated to be quite an individualistic sample compared to the average Japanese population, and thus results are considered to be systematically biased towards the individualistic end of the regional variability. However, considering that such sampling would only negatively affect our hypotheses, and we cover rarely sampled regionally variable adult participants in measuring IHS, we consider it valuable as an empirical attempt to understand the whole picture in Japan.

  3. Before conducting the HLM analysis, we tested for intra-class correlation between SWLS and prefecture (van de Vijver et al. 2008). SWLS was significantly explained by prefectures (r = .007, p < .05). The size of the intra-class correlation is considered small, and points out that the regional variability in average cognitive well-being is quite the same across prefectures in Japan. However, since our main purpose was to test whether the effect of IHS on SWLS differs according to regional I–C, we continued to analyze the hypothesized model.

  4. Removing those participants from two highly individualistic prefectures (i.e., Hyogo and Osaka) from the analysis did not alter the main finding. Therefore, variation of regional I–C at level 2 seemed to be related uniquely to the difference in the regression weight of IHS.

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Acknowledgments

Study 3 was supported by the Global COE Program (D-7) to Kyoto University from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology (MEXT), Japan. Study 4 was supported by the Life satisfaction survey 2009 for graduates of Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan. We are also indebted to Rie Asakura, Chin Ming Hui, Kokoro Ikkai, Jason Kisling, Junko Tanaka-Matsumi, and Becky Mckenzie for their helpful comments on this work.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, 1012 East Hall, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1043, USA

    Hidehumi Hitokoto

  2. Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Yukiko Uchida

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  1. Hidehumi Hitokoto
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Correspondence to Hidehumi Hitokoto.

Appendices

Appendix 1

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Table 7 Examples of scale items in Study 1 and Study 2
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Appendix 2

See Table 8.

Table 8 Regional I–C and participant distribution in Study 3
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Hitokoto, H., Uchida, Y. Interdependent Happiness: Theoretical Importance and Measurement Validity. J Happiness Stud 16, 211–239 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9505-8

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