Past research has suggested that up-regulating displays of happiness leads to positive social outcomes. In my dissertation research, I suggest that whether the up-regulation of displays of happiness leads to positive outcomes depends on observers’ culture. I developed and tested a model of how one aspect of observers’ culture, analytic-holistic thinking, influences the relation between expressers’ displays of happiness and observers’ prosocial behavior. In two studies, I examined how observers’ analytical-holistic thinking moderates the effect of expressers’ inauthentic displays of happiness (regulated through surface acting) and expressers’ authentic displays of happiness (regulated through deep acting) on observers’ prosocial behavior and trust inferences. In a laboratory experiment (Study 1), observers’ analytical-holistic thinking moderated the effect of project leaders’ inauthentic displays of happiness (vs. neutral emotional displays) on observers’ trust in the expresser, but not on observers’ prosocial behavior (time taken to edit a cover letter). In a field fundraising experiment (Study 2), observers’ analytical-holistic thinking moderated the effect of fundraisers’ inauthentic displays of happiness (vs. authentic displays of happiness) on observers’ trust in fundraisers, intentions to volunteer for the charity organization, and monetary donations to the charity organization. Further, observers’ trust in fundraisers mediated the moderating effect of observers’ analytical-holistic thinking on the relation between fundraisers’ inauthentic displays of happiness and observers’ intention to volunteer. Contributions to the literature on the social effects of emotions and to the literature on fundraising and helping as well as practical implications are discussed.

This dissertation combines three contributions to the literature on the determinants of well-being and the social nature of preferences. Departures from self-centred, consumption-oriented decision making are increasingly common in economic theory and are empirically well motivated by a wide range of behavioural data from experiments, surveys, and econometric inference. The first two contributions are focused on the idea that reference levels set by others’ consumption may figure prominently in both experienced well-being and in decision making. In the first paper, the well-being question is addressed empirically through the use of self-reported life satisfaction and high-resolution census and survey data in Canada. Strong income externalities are found at multiple spatial scales after controlling for various confounding factors. The second paper explores the general equilibrium consequences of a utility function having an explicit comparison with neighbours’ consumption. The question is investigated in a model in which decision makers knowingly choose their neighbours — and hence their consumption reference level — as well as their own consumption expenditure, thereby helping to set the reference level for nearby others. For both discrete and continuous distributions of types in an economy with a heterogeneous population undergoing such endogenous formation of consumption reference groups, there exist general equilibria in which differentiation of neighbourhoods occurs endogenously. The novel welfare implications of growth in such economies are described. The final paper addresses econometric reservations about the use of subjective reports as dependent variables. The date and location of survey interviews are combined with weather and climate records to construct the random component of weather conditions experienced by respondents on the day of their interview. Standard inferences about the determinants of life satisfaction remain robust after taking into account this significant source of affective bias.

With a background in the 17th century’s English political events, but also the ideological scene of that time, the purpose of this essay is to analyze two concepts, freedom and happiness, in Thomas Hobbes’s political writings. Hobbes is well known for his political works, mostly for Leviathan, where his thoughts about government and religion are exposed. But what does he say about freedom? And what about happiness? The study shows that Hobbes’s political thought is quite original from this aspect too. Freedom and happiness are defined both from an individual and a political perspective. His philosophical system is based on materialism and mechanism, and so is his view on the concepts of freedom and happiness. In the study of the concept of freedom attention is paid to another concept associated in a way with freedom: free will. Both Hobbes’ view on free will and the connection between the two of them are highlighted. The aim is to find a connection between freedom and happiness in Hobbes political philosophy. It is found, but it changes according to the perspective one starts to look at it. The title is a question: You are free, so are you happy? Looking into Hobbes’s political writings an attempt to answer this question is made. One conclusion can be: one can be both free and happy as part of a society.

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Work-life issues have been concerned by employees and employers from decades ago. The family structure has been transformed for the work style and most practices have been changed with human resource policy. However, the organizational climate of work and life is not clear and few of organizations implement comprehensive evaluation for the work-life culture. This research proceeds the cross-level analysis by using the hierarchical linear model which provides more precise outcomes. Besides, supervisor support has been recognized one of social supportive and informal organizational supportive resources, included by the work-life culture. Because of the unclear conception of informal organizational support, this research talks about the relationship of supportive supervisor behavior and organizational work-life policy. Furthermore, supervisor support comes up with employees¡¦ subjective well-being. Many scholars recognize employees who have supervisor support experience can reduce work-family conflict and turnover rate. Reasonably, job search behavior is the priority of voluntary quitting and job choosing, which helps to understand the process of employees¡¦ mind changing. To sum up, this research emphasizes on the influence among supportive supervisor behavior to work-life integration policy, subjective well-being and job search behavior. There are three dimensions for individuals, departments and organizations, combing employees¡¦ subjective well-being and objective job research behavior, excluding individual segmentation preference and segmentation support of workplace so as to strengthen the casual relationship and impersonal evaluation.

This study aimed to reveal the relationship between quality of life and happiness in a comparative manner, to underline the importance of happiness and enable researchers to familiarize themselves with happiness in the sociological context of Turkey. Quality of life and happiness, which are multidimensional and interdisciplinary concepts, were firstly identified by looking at their treatment in different approaches. Then, they were analyzed by relating them to different variables in the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) data which allows for making comparisons among European Union countries and Turkey. Our study is limited to four countries, namely Bulgaria, Denmark, Hungary and Turkey that were selected on the basis of two criteria / their average of happiness score and their membership status in the European Union. On the other hand, the independent variables of the study are &ldquo / having&rdquo / (material living conditions), &ldquo / loving&rdquo / (social relations), &ldquo / being&rdquo / (quality of society), &ldquo / time pressure&rdquo / (work-life balance), &ldquo / alienation&rdquo / , &ldquo / environment&rdquo / , internet using, health and socio-demographic variables namely gender, age, region, employment status and educational level. Consequently, improving quality of life resulted in happiness. In other words, the main aim of improving quality of life is to supply, improve and increase happiness.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 49 pages. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Much research has focused on the development of methods of measuring preference for stimuli. These methods have shown to be an accurate and valid way to identify potential reinforcers. However, these methods have only been conducted with tangible stimuli and have not been extended to non-tangible stimuli or activities, potentially because these types of stimuli are not appropriate for current preference assessment presentation methodologies. This study used a single stimulus presentation preference assessment to identify preferred activities for two adults with developmental disabilities. Two measures (duration of engagement and indices of happiness) were collected to identify preferred stimuli. For both participants, there were differences in happiness measure between activities. The engagement measure only produced differentiated results for one participant. / ABSTRACT: Reinforcer assessments were conducted to determine if the measures of preference were able to identify high preference stimuli that functioned as more effective reinforcers more than stimuli identified as low preference. Both participants exhibited high rates of an arbitrary response during all conditions of the reinforcer assessment. Therefore, the reinforcer assessments did not validate the results of the preference assessments. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.Ed.), Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references.

This work examines the perceptions of women in art and literature in Russia during the later half of the nineteenth century. It specifically focuses on the women question and examines women's function and role in Russian society and how different visual artists along with Tolstoy examine this issue through their artwork. The first section of the work focuses specifically on women's social conditions in Russia highlighting their role as daughter, wife and mother. It examines the educational system in place designed for women and the limitations placed upon women concerning marriage and family life. Along with the historical and social analysis, this section also examines three Russian artists' portrayal of various issues relating to the woman question and the role, or lack thereof, of women in society. The second section examines Tolstoy's initial examination of women's issues through his novella "Family Happiness," and attempts to answer the question: On what side of the woman question debate is Tolstoy? It challenges the accepted,traditional reading of Tolstoy's work as misogynistic and anti-woman, and reveals through a careful reading of the text, a sympathetic female character. The last section deals with his monumental work, Anna Karenina, with a specific examination of how Tolstoy deals with the character Anna. It negates previous readings of the text by other critics who attempt to reveal Tolstoy's antagonistic behavior toward the women characters in the text. Through a careful reading of specific passages of the text, the work shows that Tolstoy also creates a sympathetic character in Anna. This work concludes attempting to position Tolstoy on neither side of the woman question, not the case with the artists studied in the work nor other authors mentioned during this period in history, and instead reveals Tolstoy's determination to create characters and situations which are present in every society. In his approach, Tolstoy has succeeded in surpassing the boundaries of class and time and created characters and situations universal.

Life review involves a systematic, chronological review of an individual’s life from birth to death as well as an examination of the meaningfulness of life experiences and events. The purpose of the current study was to discover the effects of life review on happiness and life satisfaction in the older population. Participants from 71 to 85 years of age completed a demographics questionnaire, the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) and the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). SHS and SWLS were completed every other day from the beginning to the end of the data collection process. Once a consistent baseline was reached for the individual, the life review process began. Participants shared experiences from childhood and adolescence, adulthood, and older adulthood during the course of three sessions. At the end of the third session, participants were asked to write a letter to their younger self. It was hypothesized that engaging in the life review process would increase life satisfaction and happiness in the elderly. Results revealed that the life review intervention did not affect participants’ levels of life satisfaction and subjective happiness, with the exception of participant four who displayed increases in these variables.