Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4400, USA.
Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2013 May;39(5):559-77. doi: 10.1177/0146167213480042.
We explored cultural and historical variations in concepts of happiness. First, we analyzed the definitions of happiness in dictionaries from 30 nations to understand cultural similarities and differences in happiness concepts. Second, we analyzed the definition of happiness in Webster's dictionaries from 1850 to the present day to understand historical changes in American English. Third, we coded the State of the Union addresses given by U.S. presidents from 1790 to 2010. Finally, we investigated the appearance of the phrases happy nation versus happy person in Google's Ngram Viewer from 1800 to 2008. Across cultures and time, happiness was most frequently defined as good luck and favorable external conditions. However, in American English, this definition was replaced by definitions focused on favorable internal feeling states. Our findings highlight the value of a historical perspective in the study of psychological concepts.
我们探讨了幸福概念在文化和历史上的差异。首先，我们分析了来自 30 个国家的词典中对幸福的定义，以了解幸福概念在文化上的异同。其次，我们分析了从 1850 年至今韦氏词典中对幸福的定义，以了解美国英语中幸福概念的历史变化。第三，我们对 1790 年至 2010 年美国总统的国情咨文进行了编码。最后，我们在谷歌 Ngram Viewer 中调查了从 1800 年到 2008 年“幸福的国家”与“幸福的个人”这两个短语的出现情况。跨越文化和时间，幸福最常被定义为好运和有利的外部条件。然而，在美国英语中，这个定义被侧重于有利的内部感觉状态的定义所取代。我们的研究结果强调了在研究心理概念时采用历史视角的重要性。
