Rajkumar Ravi Philip
Department of Psychiatry, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, India.
Front Psychol. 2023 Feb 2;14:1090340. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1090340. eCollection 2023.
The concept of happiness is consistent across cultures to a significant extent, and encompasses both internal (subjective) and external (situational) aspects. Cultural values and norms shape emotions and behavior from an early age, and hence play a key role in influencing cross-national variations in happiness. Cross-national variations in culture can thus play a key role in influencing the relationship between adverse circumstances, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and happiness. The current study examines the relationship between the six dimensions of culture, defined by Hofstede and his colleagues, and subjective ratings of happiness in 78 countries, obtained before (2017-19) and during (2020-21) the COVID-19 pandemic, based on data from the most recent World Happiness reports. The key results were: (a) countries were as likely to experience an increase as a decrease in self-reported happiness during this period; (b) distinct domains of culture were significantly correlated with happiness at each time point, though there was a certain degree of overlap; (c) pre-pandemic levels of happiness were negatively associated with changes in happiness during the pandemic; and (d) among cultural dimensions, long-term orientation was positively associated with changes in subjective happiness, while indulgence was negatively associated with this variable. Certain cultural values may play an important part in fostering a path to well-being in the face of stressful or traumatic circumstances. This path may be similar to the concept of mature happiness, derived from existential philosophy, which is characterized by achieving a balance between the positive and negative aspects of one's life.
幸福的概念在很大程度上在不同文化中是一致的，并且涵盖了内在（主观）和外在（情境）两个方面。文化价值观和规范从早年就塑造着情感和行为，因此在影响幸福的跨国差异方面起着关键作用。文化的跨国差异因此在影响诸如新冠疫情等不利情况与幸福之间的关系方面可能起着关键作用。本研究基于最新的《世界幸福报告》数据，考察了霍夫斯泰德及其同事定义的文化六个维度与78个国家在新冠疫情之前（2017 - 2019年）和期间（2020 - 2021年）幸福主观评分之间的关系。关键结果如下：（a）在此期间，各国自我报告的幸福水平增加和减少的可能性相同；（b）不同的文化领域在每个时间点都与幸福显著相关，尽管存在一定程度的重叠；（c）疫情前的幸福水平与疫情期间幸福的变化呈负相关；（d）在文化维度中，长期导向与主观幸福的变化呈正相关，而放纵与该变量呈负相关。某些文化价值观在面对压力或创伤性情况时，可能在促进通往幸福的道路上发挥重要作用。这条道路可能类似于源自存在主义哲学的成熟幸福概念，其特点是在一个人生活的积极和消极方面之间实现平衡。
