Adaptation amidst Prosperity and Adversity : Insights from Happiness Studies from around the World

Some individuals who are destitute report to be happy, while others who are very wealthy report to be miserable. There are many possible explanations for this paradox; the author focuses on the role of adaptation. Adaptation is the subject of much work in economics, but its definition is a psycholog...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Graham, Carol
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	en_US
Published:	World Bank 2013
Subjects:	addiction crime diabetes health indicators hypertension life expectancy living conditions migrants migration morbidity mortality obesity personality psychologists psychology quality of life unemployment victims violence workers
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13501

id	okr-10986-13501
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-135012021-04-23T14:03:08Z Adaptation amidst Prosperity and Adversity : Insights from Happiness Studies from around the World Graham, Carol addiction crime diabetes health indicators hypertension life expectancy living conditions migrants migration morbidity mortality obesity personality psychologists psychology quality of life unemployment victims violence workers Some individuals who are destitute report to be happy, while others who are very wealthy report to be miserable. There are many possible explanations for this paradox; the author focuses on the role of adaptation. Adaptation is the subject of much work in economics, but its definition is a psychological one. Adaptations are defense mechanisms; there are bad ones like paranoia, and healthy ones like humor, anticipation, and sublimation. Set point theory—which is the subject of much debate in psychology—posits that people can adapt to anything, such as bad health, divorce, and extreme poverty, and return to a natural level of cheerfulness. The author's research from around the world suggests that people are remarkably adaptable. Respondents in Afghanistan are as happy as Latin Americans and 20 percent more likely to smile in a day than Cubans. The findings suggest that while this may be a good thing from an individual psychological perspective, it may also shed insights into different development outcomes, including collective tolerance for bad equilibrium. The author provides examples from the economics, democracy, crime, corruption, and health arenas. 2013-05-21T17:28:17Z 2013-05-21T17:28:17Z 2011-07-02 Journal Article World Bank Research Observer 1564-6971 doi;10.1093/wbro/lkq004 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13501 en_US World Bank Research Observer;26(1) CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank Journal Article
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	addiction crime diabetes health indicators hypertension life expectancy living conditions migrants migration morbidity mortality obesity personality psychologists psychology quality of life unemployment victims violence workers
spellingShingle	addiction crime diabetes health indicators hypertension life expectancy living conditions migrants migration morbidity mortality obesity personality psychologists psychology quality of life unemployment victims violence workers Graham, Carol Adaptation amidst Prosperity and Adversity : Insights from Happiness Studies from around the World
relation	World Bank Research Observer;26(1)
description	Some individuals who are destitute report to be happy, while others who are very wealthy report to be miserable. There are many possible explanations for this paradox; the author focuses on the role of adaptation. Adaptation is the subject of much work in economics, but its definition is a psychological one. Adaptations are defense mechanisms; there are bad ones like paranoia, and healthy ones like humor, anticipation, and sublimation. Set point theory—which is the subject of much debate in psychology—posits that people can adapt to anything, such as bad health, divorce, and extreme poverty, and return to a natural level of cheerfulness. The author's research from around the world suggests that people are remarkably adaptable. Respondents in Afghanistan are as happy as Latin Americans and 20 percent more likely to smile in a day than Cubans. The findings suggest that while this may be a good thing from an individual psychological perspective, it may also shed insights into different development outcomes, including collective tolerance for bad equilibrium. The author provides examples from the economics, democracy, crime, corruption, and health arenas.
format	Journal Article
author	Graham, Carol
author_facet	Graham, Carol
author_sort	Graham, Carol
title	Adaptation amidst Prosperity and Adversity : Insights from Happiness Studies from around the World
title_short	Adaptation amidst Prosperity and Adversity : Insights from Happiness Studies from around the World
title_full	Adaptation amidst Prosperity and Adversity : Insights from Happiness Studies from around the World
title_fullStr	Adaptation amidst Prosperity and Adversity : Insights from Happiness Studies from around the World
title_full_unstemmed	Adaptation amidst Prosperity and Adversity : Insights from Happiness Studies from around the World
title_sort	adaptation amidst prosperity and adversity : insights from happiness studies from around the world
publisher	World Bank
publishDate	2013
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13501
_version_	1764423629478559744

Adaptation amidst Prosperity and Adversity : Insights from Happiness Studies from around the World

Similar Items