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Harmony is predominately considered as a social dimension, especially in Eastern and collectivistic cultures. From a psychological well-being perspective, inner harmony has not been studied in Western and individualistic cultures. However, recent research has shown that individuals think of inner harmony is an important component of happiness (Delle Fave et all, 2011, 2016). The study explored lay peoples understanding of happiness. The main aim was to investigate the relationship between defining happiness as inner harmony, socio-demographic characteristics and well-being. The sample comprised of 1652 adults (aged from 30 to 60), living in urban areas of 16 countries across six continents. The samples were balanced by age, gender, education and country. The participants provided their own definitions of happiness and completed five well-being questionnaires (Satisfaction with Life Scale, PANAS, Meaning in Life Questionnaire, Basic Psychological Needs Scale, and DASS-21). Binary logistic regressions were carried out to determine which demographic features and well- being predict inner harmony as a component of happiness definition. Findings show that sociodemographic factors explain 6.5% of harmony inclusion in happiness definitions whereas well- being explains less than 1% of the variance. Geographic region best predicts conceptualizing happiness as inner harmony - participants from Oceania and South America are more likely to mention harmony than Europeans are. Marital status and being religious also predict defining happiness as harmony. Depression was the only significant well-being predictor, indicating that less depressed individuals more often mention harmony. The findings indicate that contextual factors better explain the conceptualization of happiness in terms of inner harmony than experienced level of well-being. |
