Culture and Happiness: An Interdependent Approach

Previous chapters have progressively prepared the way for the core contribution of the current volume: the explication of an interdependent mode of happiness and well-being. In the current chapter, we examine interdependent happiness in detail, exploring its relation to culture, looking at what it means, what causes it, and the way it shapes motivation. In the course of this discussion, we necessarily discuss the definition of culture and the relationship between, say, culture and environment and biology. We contrast this interdependent mode with the independent mode that, in many ways, has become the default mode for global measurements of happiness. To further bring the interdependent mode into relief, we summarize several key studies and other empirical data built up by cultural psychologists. The current chapter sets the stage, in turn, for the next chapter in which we explore how this alternative mode of happiness leads to clear differences in actual cultural practices (e.g., education), social organization, and approaches to measurement.