Module 2: Paradoxes of Happiness
  Lecture 4: Quality of Life: Evidence from Surveys
 

The purpose of this survey is stated to be as follows: ‘to provide a public policy white paper to world governments, NGOs and businesses to advise their leaders on current and emerging issues and share innovative solutions and best practices to improve your personal and professional lives’. In this exercise seven areas, namely, home/family, work, society, physical & mental health, economy, political, and living environment are rated on a eleven-point scale from 0-10, with 0 being very dissatisfied, 5 being neutral, and 10 being very satisfied. In this case happiness is seen as a joint outcome of satisfaction with seven conditions: economic, environmental, workplace, health, mental health, social relationships, and political with equal weight attached to all. One may argue that the list is not complete or that happiness does not depend equally on all seven dimensions. Many things may be seen as missing. Moreover, the contribution of the different factors in making a person happy or unhappy may be different. For example, a one-point reduction in economic satisfaction may not be compensated by a one-point improvement in political satisfaction; a one-point improvement in economic satisfaction may improve the overall happiness by the same amount or less, or more, as a one-point improvement in political satisfaction.