Happiness Research Institute - Essay Sample

Happiness Research Institute has its base in Copenhagen, Denmark. According to the institute, their main goal is to use the United Nations and OECD's measurement guidelines and benchmarks by providing insights on the levels of quality of life, well-being, and happiness. This is achieved by combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. Humans are faced with the same challenges no matter how they measure their well-being, quality of life, and happiness; different components need to be analyzed; this is because happiness, well-being, and quality of life are a complex concept.

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By examining people's happiness levels, the institute is tasked with looking at how an economy is doing, interest rates on loans, how it affects people, inflation in the economy, unemployment rate in a state, GDP per capita, and growth. These indicators tell more about the status of the economy of a particular country. The eudaimonic dimension, affective and cognitive, is the institute's dimensions to measure life quality. The indicator of overall life satisfaction is the mental dimension; this forms the basis for many international rankings, for example, The World Happiness Report. Aristotle's perception of a good life is the foundation of the eudaimonic dimension, which focuses on purpose and meaning. The affective dimension focus is both positive and negative emotions that people experience daily, for example, stress, anger, worry, and joy.

According to the institute, they believe people are the best judges of how they feel, whether happy or not. This is why the Happiness Research Institute cares about how people think about the value of life. Subjective phenomena such as stress, anxiety, and depression are very hard to work with but are how we experience our lives as people. The institute follows people over time, observing how life circumstances affect the different dimensions of happiness. For example, how a rise in income, unemployment, or stress affects other types of measurement.

Wealth does not necessarily mean a person is happy; a person may be wealthy but sick, which means that individuals have all the money they aren't satisfied with. According to Robert F. Kennedy, Gross Domestic Product measures everything but fails to measure what makes life worthwhile. Today people have grown more affluent, and also as time passes, more and more people will get richer, but that would not mean that they would be happier. Let's not rule out that rich people are not more comfortable; some, if not most, are but being rich doesn't make it just that an individual is happy.

With how these studies have shown progress, the government is now fighting for a spot to be educated on how happiness studies can contribute to public policy by incorporating new progress measures. Several things affect happiness in people, but sadly they cannot be changed. The genetic makeup of an individual cannot be altered; when given time, individuals' policies can be changed; behavior takes less time to change than the two. Many aspects influence happiness ranking globally; these are freedom for people to make life choices, GDP per capita, social support, and unselfishness.

The Happiness Research Institute believes that a society's noble ideas can be found in treating vulnerable members. Social inequality in society also affects people's happiness; belittling another gender can cause social unrest in our homes and community, armed conflict as a way of some people proving they can be equals, and crime rates would go up. According to the World happiness record of 2016, well -being inequality has a terrible impact than income inequality on how people feel about their lives, and when such issues are not addressed may lead to suicide

I find it hilarious when Meik Wiking, the CEO of Happiness Research Institute, claims that Denmark is among the world's happiest nations. Over the years, Denmark has been awarded the title of "Happiest Country in the World." When statistical data is pulled out, we also get to see that the country that has been awarded the happiest country in the world also suffers the happiness-suicide paradox; many people in Denmark kill themselves because they are not satisfied. According to Wiking's statistics, Denmark is somewhere in the middle, not even close to the top tier position. Happiness is an umbrella term; a subsection about happiness should be looked into to measure life quantity (Wiking 2016).

One is Life satisfaction, how happy you are on a scale of one to ten; two, the kind of emotions we experience daily. These two dimensions are linked; for example, when a person has positive emotions, they are likely to experience life satisfaction because one leads to another. The third dimension is happiness; according to Wikings, happiness is a good life.

In conclusion, happiness research plays a significant role in the correct models that humans may avoid and engage in to be a happy lot in the end by shifting our policy priorities. We can achieve different goals such as productivity and longevity by making a quality of life in our societies. Increasing awareness of inequalities in the community will be achieved when we follow the recommendations of The Happiness Research Institute and incorporate them into our systems.

References

TEDx Talks. (2016, May 11). The Dark Side of Happiness [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbtzY-8IFTQ