Social and personal values: harmonious living and happiness

The aim of society is to exist without problems. Lack of subsistence, invasions from outside, internal conflicts, and lack of order can lead to problems and therefore they need to be tackled in the value framework of society. This is true for all societies. At the individual level, people want to feel good. People classify societies into good or bad on the basis of some subjective or objective criteria and societies classify individuals into conformists and deviants on the basis of their adherence to the value system of society. Good societies are expected to contribute to human happiness at subjective level also. Subjective happiness leads to improved productivity, positive social outcome, helpfulness, cooperation in society, friendliness, feeling of energy and activity, setting of higher goals, and health and physical well-being (Lucas and Diener, 2004). Figure 1.1 shows the reciprocal relationship between subjective happiness and functioning society.