Gender Differences in Correlation between Social Relationships and Happiness: Cross-Country Analysis

• Thesis title in Czech: Korelace mezi sociálními vztahy a štěstím: rozdíly mezi muži a ženami, analýza napříč zeměmi
• Thesis title in English: Gender Differences in Correlation between Social Relationships and Happiness: Cross-Country Analysis
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2018/2019
• Thesis type: Bachelor's thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Institute of Economic Studies (23-IES)
• Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Julie Chytilová, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned by the advisor
• Date of registration: 22.05.2019
• Date of assignment: 22.05.2019
• Date and time of defence: 10.06.2020 09:00
• Date of electronic submission: 07.05.2020
• Date of proceeded defence: 10.06.2020
• Opponents: Ing. Tomáš Želinský, Ph.D.

References

MEJIA, Zameena, 2018. Harvard's longest study of adult life reveals how you can be happier and more successful [online].
Harvard Study of Adult Development [online]
MINEO, Liz, 2017. Harvard study, almost 80 years old, has proved that embracing community helps us live longer, and be happier [online].
WALDINGER, Robert, 2016. What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness [online].
LAYARD, Richard, 2005. Happiness: Lessons from a new science.
SAPHIRE-BERNSTEIN, Shimon and TAYLOR, Shelley E., 2012. Close relationships and happiness [online].
SUTTIE, Jill, 2009. Is There a Happiness Gender Gap? [online].
STUTZER, Alois and FREY, Bruno S. Recent Developments in the Economics of Happiness: A Selective Overview (IZA DP No. 7078, December 2012) [online].

Preliminary scope of work in English

Research question and motivation

“Good relationships keep us happier and healthier”, states Dr. Robert Waldinger (Mejia, 2018), a director of the Study of Adult Development at Harvard Medical School. This research studied people for approximately 75 years of their life and concluded that the health of people is dependent on how they are happy, and happiness depends on the quality of relationships with other people. (Mineo,2017; Waldinger, 2016)
In my bachelor‘s thesis, I plan to focus more on the second part of the aforementioned statement, namely on the dependence between people’s relationships and happiness. My bachelor’s thesis will study not only the correlation between social connections and happiness, but it also will explore, how this correlation differs between genders and how this difference is affected by changing of woman’s social role over the time. More precisely, the question of my bachelor’s thesis is: How the gender differences in the relationship between social interactions and happiness change over time?

There will be mentioned the short motivation for the scrutiny of the correlation between social relationships and happiness. Richard Layard in his book “Happiness: Lessons from a new science“ claims that not income, but the relationships and the opportunity to trust people really make a society happier (people get used to wealth faster than to new relationships, so marginal happiness from income is decreasing very quickly in comparison with marginal happiness from relationships). Also, there is an example with unemployment: a feeling of uselessness and loss of social relationships are always more harmful than a decrease in income. (Layard, 2005)
Previous research (Taylor et al, Proulx, et al) has shown that quality social connections are more important for women’s happiness than for men’s. (Saphire-Bernstein and Taylor, 2012) However, in the modern world, the role of women permanently expands. Nowadays, a woman is not only a housewife and a mother, but she is also a full-fledged worker and an active participant of social life. The pressure on women increases and it can induce negative consequences on women’s feelings of happiness. (Suttie, 2009) Therefore, I aim to study how these changes in women’s life correlate with changes in the relationship between social interactions and happiness for women and for men.

Contribution

There exists a lot of literature and researches related to happiness. It can be confirmed by the fact, that the number of papers about happiness referenced in EconLit increased greatly in the period between 1986 and 2011 (from 3 per year in 1986-1990 to 146 per year in 2011). (Stutzer, Frey., 2012)
The short literature review can include “Happiness: Lessons from a new science“ by Richard Layard, “Harvard's longest study of adult life reveals how you can be happier and more successful.” by Zameena Mejia and “Close relationships and happiness” by Shimon Saphire-Bernstein and Shelley E.Taylor.
My bachelor‘s thesis will replicate the analysis, whether happiness strongly correlates with people’s relationships or not, and show, how this dependence differs for men and women. The main distinctive feature of my research is that it will explore this problem from the point of view that the women’s role in society has changed recently, as it was shown in the motivation. More precisely, I will study time changes in the correlation between social interactions and happiness for genders.

Methodology

I will study the correlation between social connections and happiness to confirm that there is a strong dependence between them. The culmination of my bachelor thesis will be a survey of how this dependence differs for genders and an explanation of these trends over time (with changing the social roles of women).
I plan to use data for males and females from World Values Survey for Feeling of happiness and some determinants of social relationships (for example, the importance of friends in life or if other people can be trusted) approximately from the year 1990 to recent years for countries with different levels of development.

Outline

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Definition of happiness and its determinants
4. Definition of social relationships and their aspects
5. Correlation between social relationships and happiness:
5.1. Previous literature and researches
5.2. Description of chosen data
5.3. Description of the methodology
5.4. Time-series analysis
5.5. Interpretation of the results
6. Correlation between social relationships and happiness for women and men separately
6.1. Description of changes in women’s social role
6.2. Time-series analysis
6.3. Interpretation of the results
7. Conclusion