Monetary Wisdom: How Do Investors Use Love of Money to Frame Stock Volatility and Enhance Stock Happiness?

Monetary intelligence asserts: individuals apply their money attitude to frame critical concerns in the context and strategically select certain options to achieve financial goals and ultimate happiness. Bridging the gap between stock volatility and behavioral economics, we collected longitudinal data from multiple sources and at multiple times: First, private investors (N = 229) in Shanghai—the financial capital of China—completed their love of money attitude measure (Rich-affect, Motivator-behavior, and Importance-cognition) and demographic variables in a survey. Second, we recorded daily Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index (“the Index”) for 30 consecutive trading days during the financial crisis in 2008—public records. Third, we text-messaged investors, collecting their daily Index Happiness, Stock Percentage (stocks/liquid assets), and Stock Happiness—private information. Here, investors illustrate: high Rich investors fret about low Index happiness, yet high Rich and high Importance investors boast high stock happiness, supporting the endowment effect and investor hubristic smirk. High Motivator investors quickly adjust their stock percentage/portfolio, suffering low Index happiness and low stock happiness. Gender moderates the relationship between the Index and Index happiness. Our panel data of intra-personal changes of stock happiness demonstrate investor monetary wisdom in the boom-and-bust cycles. Behaviorally, investor must become masters (but not slaves) of money and deactivate money as a Motivator. Curbing the desire to become Rich enhances happiness after gains (boom/risk aversion); appreciating money’s Importance bestows happiness after losses (bust/risk seeking). We expand prospect theory and offer implications to investor wealth, health, and happiness during financial crisis in particular as well as individual subjective well-being and happiness in general.     

Association Between Religiosity and Happiness Among a Group of Muslim Undergraduate Students

The association between religiosity and happiness has been the focus of much recent research. The majority of them report a positive correlation between a religious attitude and behavior and the level of happiness. However, different findings have been reported. The aim of the current study was to test link between religiosity and happiness among a group of undergraduate Muslim students. Two hundred and seventy-one health-related students agreed to participate and completed Oxford Happiness Index and a religious belief questionnaire. It was found that higher score on religious belief was significantly linked to the level of happiness (r = .256, P = .01). The result confirms that individuals with a more religious attitude experience more happiness. The result of this study should be considered in programs designed to improve overall well-being of university students.     

Christian Commitment and Personal Well Being: Exploring the Connection Between Religious Affect and Global Happiness Among Young Churchgoers in Australia

Drawing on data from the 2011 Australian National Church Life Survey, this study was designed to assess the connection between religious affect (as a measure of Christian commitment) and global happiness (as a measure of personal well being) among a sample of 6,194 young churchgoers in Australia between the ages of 8 and 14 years, attending a range of denominations, including Catholic, Anglican, Uniting, Pentecostal, and other Protestant churches. Employing the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity and the Powell Index of Global Happiness, the data demonstrate a significant positive correlation between religious affect and global happiness, after controlling for individual differences in sex and age.     

Happiness from Ancient Indian Perspective: Hitopadeśa

People who seek happiness intentionally often do not get it. That is, as per the paradox of happiness, in order to be happy one should forget about it (Martin in J Happiness Stud 9(2):171–184, 2008) and try to make others happy. Given that, the purpose of present article is to suggest a six-stage people-centric (rather than self-centric) theoretical model of happiness (sukha), which is constructed using a framework based on one of the eminent ancient Indian texts—Hitopade?a. The ancient yet novel model describes a balanced path to happiness. The propounded model indicates “knowledge” (vidyā) as a foremost antecedent of happiness. The model propounded not only offers insights on achieving integrated well-being and happiness in a moral and philanthropic way, but also extends complex constructs and perspectives in the realm of happiness studies and psychology, which could subsequently promote further research. Furthermore, the proposed model seems to corroborate some of the modern well-being theories.     

Toward a critical theory of happiness: Philosophical background and methodological significance

Happiness is discussed in its development since the pragmatists' interpretation of the concept. From early psychological approaches onwards, the notion of happiness has existed in the tension between the normative “summum bonum” and the empirical — “subjective well-being”. Dialectical philosophy attempted to mediate between these two levels, with Hegel locating happiness in the sphere of reason, and Marx interpreting it as a consequence of social practice. Building upon this materialist notion and upon Freud's analysis of distorting forces, the Critical Theorists of the Frankfurt School warn against taking the subjective experience of well-being at face value. The appropriateness of their caveats is illustrated in the methodological debates over response bias in the social psychology literature. It would appear that it is quite unsatisfactory to define happiness operationally as that which is reflected directly in self-reports.     

Lenin,Gorbachev, and ‘national-statehood’: Can Leninism countenance the new Soviet federal order?

One of the most intractable contemporary problems in the USSR is the Soviet federal dilemma. The late 1980s witnessed competing claims among the national minority groups of the USSR to rights of voice, representation, and cultural, economic, and even political sovereignty. Since the onset ofperestrojka, the principle of ‘nationalstatehood’ has acquired a new legitimacy. Nationality is one of the pillars of the federal reform. The drive to create a ‘new Soviet federalism’ has become an important component ofperestrojka. But, according to Leninist doctrine, the ‘nation’ is a transitional formation. Unless there is a significant departure from Leninist theory, the new acknowledgement of the ‘rights of nations’ in the USSR can only be a political — and thus temporary — concession. Can the ideology evolve in such a way as to provide ideologically-based political legitimacy to the notion of national-statehood? Is Gorbachev's ‘dynamic’ interpretation of Leninism capable of rejecting one of Lenin's most fundamental concepts? The thesis of this article is that Soviet federal reform requires a substantial departure from the Leninist tradition. The extent to which Soviet leaders are prepared to do this casts light on one of the perennial concerns of socialist thought, namely whether ideology matters at all.     

Selflessness Meets Higher and More Stable Happiness: An Experience Sampling Study of the Joint Dynamics of Selflessness and Happiness

Previous studies have demonstrated the existence of a positive relationship between selflessness and happiness. However, none of these studies yet differentiated the between—and within—person levels of analysis. Moreover, the Selflessness/Selfcenteredness Happiness Model (SSHM) suggests that selflessness might stabilize happiness. In this experience sampling study, we explored the relationships between selflessness and happiness—baseline and stability—at both the within and betweenperson levels. During five consecutive days, participants responded seven times a day to short questions about happiness and selflessness. Our results showed that more selfless individuals were happier and that more selfless moments of an individual were also happier moments. Moreover, more selfless individuals were more stable from one day to the other. Finally, people becoming more selfless experienced more happiness stability at the following assessment moment and the next day. This study brings new evidence of the importance of selflessness for happiness.

     

Freedom and Rationality as Predictors of Cross-National Happiness Patterns: The Role of Income as a Mediating Variable

Freedom and rationality have traditionally been viewed as essential ingredients to the 'pursuit of happiness'. Previous research has found that the way in which happiness is linked to freedom and other attributes of individualistic society is affected by the income level. This paper formulates a structural model of the linkage between political freedom, rationality, and happiness which takes explicit account of income as a mediating variable. Since income is hypothesized to be linked to the degree of freedom and rationality prevailing in a society, this approach permits to distinguish between direct and indirect linkages of happiness to freedom and rationality. Estimating the model with cross-national data yields the following key findings: (1) Happiness is positively related to freedom as well as to rationality at high freedom/rationality levels and negatively at low levels. (2) Whereas freedom affects happiness only indirectly (through its impact on income), rationality has both direct and indirect effects on happiness.     

A Different Rationale for Redistribution: Pursuit of Happiness in the European Union

This paper considers the role of redistribution in the light of recent research findings on self reported happiness. The analysis and empirical work reported here tries to relate this to a representative actor ‘homo realitus’ and the ‘pursuit of happiness’ rather than the traditional ‘homo economicus’. Econometrically estimating the determinants of happiness in the European Union (EU) using Eurobarometer data and the construction of an ‘Index of Happiness’ facilitates policy simulations. Such simulations find that in terms of average happiness there is little advantage to redistributing income within a country, but more from redistributing income between countries. The importance for happiness of relative income, average standard of living, marital status and age are confirmed. The theoretical rationale for redistribution is also examined.     

Global and School-Related Happiness in Finnish Children

The relation between the global happiness and school-related happiness of 737 12-year-old students was examined. The measures were the Subjective Happiness Scale Lyubomirsky and Lepper (1999) and the School Children’s Happiness Inventory (SCHI 2007). Additionally, the respondents were asked to choose from a list of 12 putative items that make people happy what they felt increased their happiness. They were also asked about their relationships with family members and other important people. The results show a strong relationship between global and school-related happiness and social relationships. The most popular choices of the happiness increasing factors were success in school, more free time and success in a hobby. However, the choices were dependent on the level of global happiness. The least happy students more often than others wanted to have more friends, better looks, more money and a peaceful family life. The happiest students had the fewest number of expressed desires with no special characteristics. The results confirm safe social relations as a primary factor underlying children’s happiness, but they also reveal an achievement-focused attitude in the Finnish students. Future directions in happiness research among school children are discussed.     

Happiness,Despair and Education

In today’s world we appear to place a premium on happiness. Happiness is often portrayed, directly or indirectly, as one of the key aims of education. To suggest that education is concerned with promoting unhappiness or even despair would, in many contexts, seem outlandish. This paper challenges these widely held views. Focusing on the work of the great Russian writer, Fyodor Dostoevsky, I argue that despair, the origins of which lie in our reflective consciousness, is a defining feature of human life. Education, I maintain, should not be seen as a flight from despair but as a process of deepening our understanding of suffering and its potentially pivotal role in our humanisation. In developing these ideas, I draw on Kierkegaard’s The Sickness Unto Death and Unamuno’s The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Nations, among other sources.     

Forgiveness and happiness. the differing contexts of forgiveness using the distinction between hedonic and eudaimonic happiness

The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between forgiveness and happiness using a two-dimensional model of happiness (hedonic and eudaimonic happiness). 224 United Kingdom students were administered the Enright Forgiveness Inventory, The Depression–Happiness Scale and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire – Short-form. The present findings suggest that forgiveness accounts for statistically significant variance, albeit quite low, in both hedonic and eudaimonic happiness and the relationships may vary depending on which aspect of happiness is being considered. In terms of shorter-term hedonic happiness, the present findings suggest it is important not to engage in negative cognitions about the transgression. In terms of maintaining eudaimonic happiness, engaging in positive behaviours and feelings may lead to, be the result of, or be very much part of longer-term happiness.     

Emotional stability as a major dimension of happiness

Happiness is associated with both extraversion and neuroticism, and extraversion is generally considered the more important. A recent study of happy introverts has shown that extraversion is not always an essential correlate of happiness, and an extensive meta-analysis has found that neuroticism is a greater predictor of both happiness and life satisfaction. It is suggested that the reason for the importance of neuroticism having been overlooked in the past, is the difficulty of handling the idea that (positive) happiness is related to the absence of a (negative) construct. This difficulty could be resolved by the reversal of neuroticism into an alternative and positive concept of “emotional stability”. Happiness could then be regarded as being associated with two positive qualities. With this change of emphasis, a short empirical study has been made of the relationships between happiness as measured by the Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI) and extraversion and emotional stability. In bivariate and partial correlation, emotional stability was more strongly associated with happiness than extraversion, and accounted for more of the total variability in multiple regression. Emotional stability was also the greater correlate for a majority of the 29 items of the OHI, and the sole significant predictor of the happiness of younger people.     

Paradoxes of happiness

To get happiness forget about it; then, with any luck, happiness will come as a by-product in pursuing meaningful activities and relationships. This adage is known as the paradox of happiness, but actually it contains a number of different paradoxes concerning aims, success, freedom, and attitudes. These paradoxes enhance our understanding of the complexity of happiness and its interaction with other values in good lives, that is, lives which are happy as well as morally decent, meaningful, and fulfilling. Yet, each paradox conveys a one-sided truth that needs to be balanced with others. Happiness, understood as subjective well-being, involves positively evaluating our lives and living with a sense of well-being. As such, it should not be confused with either pleasure or normative conceptions of “true” happiness.     

A hidden cost of happiness in children

Happiness is generally considered an emotion with only beneficial effects, particularly in childhood. However, there are some situations where the style of information processing triggered by happiness could be a liability. In particular, happiness seems to motivate a top-down processing style, which could impair performance when attention to detail is required. Indeed, in Experiment 1, 10- to 11-year-old children (N = 30) induced to feel a happy mood were slower to locate a simple shape embedded in a complex figure than those induced to feel a sad mood. In Experiment 2, 6- to 7-year-old children (N = 61) induced to feel a happy mood found fewer embedded shapes than those induced to feel a sad or neutral mood. Happiness may have unintended and possibly undesirable cognitive consequences, even in childhood.     

When the dissolution of perceived body boundaries elicits happiness: The effect of selflessness induced by a body scan meditation

Drawing on the Self-centeredness/Selflessness Happiness Model (SSHM), we hypothesized that a reduction in the salience of perceived body boundaries would lead to increase optimal emotional experience. These constructs were assessed by means of self-report measures. Participants (n = 53) were randomly assigned to either the selflessness (induced by a body scan meditation) condition or the control condition. As expected, the reduction in perceived body salience was greater in the body scan meditation condition than in the control condition. The change in perceived body salience was accompanied by a change in happiness and anxiety. Participants in the body-scan meditation condition reported greater happiness and less anxiety than participants in the control condition. Happiness increased when the salience of body boundaries decreased. Mediation analyses reveal that the change in happiness was mediated by the change in perceived body boundaries, which suggests that selflessness elicits happiness via dissolution of perceived body boundaries.     

Prioritizing Happiness has Important Implications for Mental Health,but Perhaps Only if you Already are Happy

Happiness is frequently posited as an important outcome of quality of life and characteristic of well-adjusted and functioning individuals. Happy individuals are less likely to report adverse mental health. Understanding the importance that individuals place on happiness is less clearly articulated and inconsistent. Valuing or placing higher importance of happiness appear to confer both benefits and risk for mental health outcomes. The primary aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the importance of happiness and mental health outcomes and whether the relationship between happiness and mental health is moderated by the importance individuals place on happiness. We utilised data from two studies, a university student sample (n = 413) and a community sample (n = 248) to examine the study aims. Mental health was operationalised in terms of psychological distress and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Happiness and the level of importance individuals ascribed to happiness were associated with adverse mental health outcomes. In multi-variate analyses, level of happiness was more strongly related to mental health. Interactions between happiness and the importance of happiness revealed that the effect of happiness was moderated by the importance that individuals placed on happiness. Overall happiness and to a lesser extent, the importance of happiness, are significantly associated with mental health outcomes. Happiness was most strongly related to mental health amongst those who rated the importance of happiness more highly.

     

Church Attendance and Happiness Among Northern Irish Undergraduate Students: No Association

Robbins and Francis (1996) note that the relationship between religiosity and happiness varies according to the precise measures used and the samples studied. To further explore the association between religiosity and happiness, 154 Northern Irish undergraduate students completed the Depression–Happiness Scale and a measure of frequency of Church attendance. No significant association was found between a greater frequency of Church attendance and happiness scores. As such, these findings compliment previous research using the Depression–Happiness Scale alongside an attitudinal measure of religion, and support the view that when happiness is operationalised in terms of the Depression–Happiness Scale there is no association with either attitudinal of behavioural measures of religiosity.     

Can seeking happiness make people unhappy? [corrected] Paradoxical effects of valuing happiness

Happiness is a key ingredient of well-being. It is thus reasonable to expect that valuing happiness will have beneficial outcomes. We argue that this may not always be the case. Instead, valuing happiness could be self-defeating, because the more people value happiness, the more likely they will feel disappointed. This should apply particularly in positive situations, in which people have every reason to be happy. Two studies support this hypothesis. In Study 1, female participants who valued happiness more (vs. less) reported lower happiness when under conditions of low, but not high, life stress. In Study 2, compared to a control group, female participants who were experimentally induced to value happiness reacted less positively to a happy, but not a sad, emotion induction. This effect was mediated by participants' disappointment at their own feelings. Paradoxically, therefore, valuing happiness may lead people to be less happy just when happiness is within reach.     

Freedom and Happiness in Nations: A Research Synthesis

Freedom is highly valued, but there are limits to the amount of freedom a society can allow its members. This begs the question of how much freedom is too much. The answers to that question differ across political cultures and are typically based on ideological argumentation. In this paper, we consider the compatibility of freedom and happiness in nations by taking stock of the research findings on that matter, gathered in the World Database of Happiness. We find that freedom and happiness are positively correlated in contemporary nations. The pattern of correlation differs somewhat across cultures and aspects of freedom. We found no pattern of declining happiness returns, which suggests that freedom has not passed its maximum in the freest countries.