Pursuit of Happiness
PSY/220
Chelsea Holloman
October, 25, 2015
Erika Chomina Carter

According to Baumgardner and Crother, the authors of the book Positive Psychology, the American emphasis on the pursuit of happiness is focused mainly upon each individual’s idea of happiness.

Being happy, having a positive attitude, and feeling good about the self are central values in American culture. The pursuit of happiness is described in the Declaration of Independence as an inalienable right. In a society that offers abundant opportunities and considerable individual freedom, people are encouraged to make life choices based on what makes them happy and satisfied. What makes Americans happy is heavily influenced by their culture’s individualistic model of self. Consistent with the SWB conception, happiness in America is an individual’s subjective judgment about his or her own life. Happiness is both subjective and individualized, in that the basis of judgment reflects the person’s unique personal makeup and his or her own idiosyncratic criteria. (Baumgardner & Crother, 2009, p. 118.)

Americans have what is referred to as an individualistic style of happiness. Although it is possible for groups of Americans to have similar interests, the goals that we set for ourselves that lead us to our happiness are unique to each individual, much like a fingerprint. We can have similar desires with different reasoning for them or different desires with similar reasoning for why we have those desires. Another characteristic about the American emphasis on the pursuit of happiness is that we change. When we change, whether it be individually or as a country, our desires and goals change. This process of change goes on for our entire lives. For example, as children we desire simple things, like playing with friends or getting new toys, to make us happy. As young adults we start to realize what we like and just want to have fun but as mature adults we are wiser and have to be more responsible, balancing our desires with our responsibilities. As we change, grow up, and achieve our desired happiness our self image improves. In comparison to the traditional American perspective of happiness, the authors of Positive Psychology describe the traditional Asian perspective on happiness in the following quote,

In America’s individualistic culture, individual happiness is an important cultural value and ideal. Children are encouraged to be emotionally expressive, to take pride in their achievements, stand out from others, and to take a positive and self-enhancing view of themselves. This can be contrasted with Asian cultures, in which happiness has less importance as a cultural ideal and children are encouraged to moderate their emotions, fit in with others, take pride in the achievement of their groups, and to adopt a self-critical and self-effacing attitude toward themselves.(Baumgardner & Crother, 2009, p. 119) In the Asian collectivist culture, happiness isn’t treated in the same way that it is in the American culture. These two cultures have huge differences in what we consider to be important in our lives. Members of the Asian culture choose to externalize their happiness rather than focus entirely on their individual happiness, as they believe that happiness comes and goes. Their happiness is determined by the relationships and achievements associated with the people in their lives. Their happiness is not self centered. In the collectivist culture the emotional state is something that is believed to be a freely flowing part of life that cannot and should not be controlled. It is natural and is meant to fluctuate from happiness to sadness and then back again as many times as you are intended to experience it. “Rather than pursuing and cultivating the experience of happiness, Asian cultures tend to regard happiness and other emotions as temporary states that come and go. Emotions are like the weather— sunny today and rainy tomorrow.” (Baumgardner & Crother, 2009, p. 120.) The Asian collectivist style of happiness does not require an individual to control their flow of emotions and state of happiness by trying to eliminate unhappiness. Unhappiness and unpleasant emotions are just as much a part of life as happiness and positive emotions are. Where there is happiness there will also be unhappiness at one time or another. Each of them have their place in both American and Asian cultures but each culture views them in drastically different ways.

References
Baumgardner, S. R. and Crothers, M. .K. (2009). Positive psychology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.