WEEK 9 Flashcards
Cantril Ladder
- What is it?
This asks respondents to think of a ladder, with the best possible life for
them being a 10 and the worst possible life being a 0. They then rate
their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale.
in 2023:
- most happy and miserable countries?
Finland = most happy
Afganistan = miserable
What is the pattern for countries that are happiest?
Richer, peaceful democracies in the developed world do better
The Easterlin paradox
As countries get richer they don’t seem to get much happier.
correlation between happiness of countries and
income inequality?
Most studies show NO correlation between happiness of countries and
income inequality
Minkov (2009) finds that ….
personal freedom is the best single predictor.
An underlying statistical issue?
“good” things tend to cluster together -
Health, happiness, income, equality, freedom, safety, relatively nice governments, better
environments, etc - and it’s not easy to pick them apart using statistical techniques.
Potential reasons behind huge differences in happiness?
- Do all the translated versions of the “best possible life for you” mean the same
thing? - Are there cultural differences in how happy you say you are? (Are Africans and perhaps Asians more conservative about this, for example?) Do people in different cultures think of the same things when answering the question?
- Different cultures may have somewhat different understandings of what happiness
is. This has been considered a bit in recent years. E.g. Japanese Ikigai ~ “reason for waking or getting up in the morning” (Kono & Walker, 2019). - Is the sampling similar in different types of country?
- Are people always free to say what they think when they are interviewed?
happiness rating study?
We compared Polish and German students in a German university, Asian and other students at UC
findings?
Poles, Asians, and Hungarians were less happy
The different groups rated the hypothetical “good life” situation the same in terms of happiness
John Money?
Introduced Theory that: Gender identity is learnt and malleable
If you want your children (or others!) to be happy then…..
If you want your children (or others!) to be happy,
accept their gender identity!
Theories and Determinants of Queer Wellbeing
- Isolated socially
- Low mood
- Over-vigilance
- Fear of others
- Worry about future events
- Low self-worth
cisgenderist and marginalising
Cisgenderism
refers to the cultural
and systemic ideology that denies,
denigrates, or pathologizes selfidentified gender identities that
do not align with assigned gender
at birth as well as resulting
behavior, expression, and
community.
-Barriers to having gender-concordant identity
documents
-Barriers to having gender-concordant identity
documents => Low wellbeing for trans people
Those living in cities with more anti-gay policies
more likely to experience….
-Those living in cities with more anti-gay policies
more likely to experience violence, lower
wellbeing and have less support
Intersectionality
Recognition of how different forms of oppression (such as racism,
sexism, homophobia, and ableism) intersect and interact with each
other to create unique experiences of marginalization and privilege.
Policy Level Wellbeing Initiatives
But do these actually have an impact?
Improvement in SWB awer same-sex marriage legalized (Boerxen &
Vignoli, 2019)
* No difference awer homosexuality decriminalised (Díaz-Sánchez &
Yerovi, 2022)
* Psychological wellbeing improved with 11 policies/insxtuxonal or
student-operated resources/programmes
Summary
- There have been historical (malicious and innocent) attacks on queer
wellbeing, effects of which are impacting wellbeing today - Queer individuals live in an inherently marginalising socio-cultural
context i.e., not starting at ‘0’ - Similar determinants as non-queer wellbeing – but fulfilled in
differing ways - Identities differing from cisgender and heterosexual have existed
across various cultures - A multi-pronged approach is required to reduce disparities between
queer and non-queer wellbeing
