The Role of Culture in Shaping Perceptions of Wellbeing & Happiness

This annotated bibliography explores the intricate relationship between culture and the concepts of wellbeing, happiness, and quality of life. It examines how culture shapes individual understandings and experiences of the 'good life' through the analysis of three key articles. The first source highlights the interconnectedness of wellbeing, happiness, and quality of life, emphasizing happiness as a central objective and quality of life as a cross-cultural project linked to health and life satisfaction. The second source delves into the importance of comfort and its connection to wellbeing and quality of life, highlighting the significance of mental and physical well-being, stress reduction, and self-care. The third source underscores the critical role of mental health and cultural diversity in achieving a happy and fulfilling life, emphasizing the need to respect and value different cultures while addressing mental health challenges. The bibliography concludes that individuals must adapt their behaviors and working processes to align with their surrounding culture to achieve a good and high-quality lifestyle within their society.

Annotated Bibliography

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Articles.........................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7

Topic: The Good Life? Wellbeing, happiness & quality of life
Question: How important is culture to understandings of the good life?
INTRODUCTION
Happiness is essential for good quality of life. Happiness comes from internal and it gives
meaning to life and it is the satisfying experience. Well being is the combination of both the
negative and positive affect and satisfaction with life. Good quality of life gets if one will take
everything in the positive manner. Culture is important to understand the good life. This
annotated bibliography considers the research which is based on wellness, happiness and good
quality of life.
Articles
Source 1:
Medvedev, O.N. and Landhuis, C.E., 2018. 'Exploring constructs of well-being, happiness and quality of
life'. PeerJ, 6, p.e4903.
(Medvedev and Landhuis, 2018) There is direct relationship between well-being, happiness and
quality of life. It is said that well-being is the synonymous of happiness. Happiness is considered
the important objective of human life. Here happiness is compared with the physical value, love
and wealth. Along with happiness other goals of human being is also valued because completion
of that also provide happiness. Happiness and well-being is becoming very important. Quality of
life is considered as health related issue which is combine with WHO definition of complete
health which include mental and physical well-being. Quality of life make the life meaningful
and increase confidence.
Quality of life is the cross cultural project. Happiness leads to life satisfaction. Well being
denotes that a person can take activity effectively because he or she is well. (Medvedev and
Landhuis, 2018) When everything is already planned then the quality of life can be improved.
Positive attitude can bring good quality in life. Patience also denote good quality life, if we are
patient in every situation then problems can be solved easily. People panic in difficult situation

but that should not be happen. Creating awareness for happiness is very important in today's
world. Regular exercise can also bring happiness.
Cross References for Medvedev and Landhuis (2018)
DienerE and et.al. 2010.New well-being measures: short scales to assess flourishing and
positive and negative feelings. Social Indicators Research 97(2):143-15
Krägeloh CU, and et.al . 2016. Ordinal-to-interval scale conversion tables and national items
for the New Zealand version of the WHOQOL-BREF. PLOS ONE11(11):e0166065
Oishi A, Diener E. 2014. Residents of poor nations have a greater sense of meaning in life than
residents of wealthy nations. Psychological Science 25(2):422-430
Source 2:
Pinto, S., Fumincelli, L., Mazzo, A., Caldeira, S. and Martins, J.C., 2017. Comfort, well-being and quality
of life: Discussion of the differences and similarities among the concepts. Porto Biomedical
Journal, 2(1), pp.6-12.
(Pinto and et.al., 2017) Well being and quality of life is considered and an important objective in
the topic like health, economy and environment. If want to lead comfortable life then good
quality is essential. Comfort is very important topic in nursing. Comfort is the therapy in nursing.
Well being is defined as positive experience, pleasure and prosperity and it is also connected
with the social, mental and environmental aspects in the living. It says that individual care is also
very necessary and should be there in healthy manner and also include aspects which is related to
stress reduction and taking self care. Well-being itself means to be comfortable. Physically
active is helpful in mental well-being. One should exercise daily which help in blood circulation
and facilitate well-being. (Pinto and et.al., 2017) Attention should be given to present situation
only not to think about past and future and should live in present only. Donation or charity also
give mental well-being and gives sense if happiness which is required to live good quality of life.
Human well-being is related to culture, aspires, age, geography etc. and that is measured with the
help of facts and figures.

Cross References for Pinto and et.al., 2017
M.L. SiefertConcept analysis of comfortNurs Forum, 37 (2012), pp. 16-23
C. Allan, D. Carrick-Sen, C.R. Martin
What is perinatal well-being? A concept analysis and review of the literature J Reprod Infant
Psychol, 31 (2013), pp. 381-398 S. Pinto, S. Caldeira, J. Martins
A systematic literature review towards the characterization of comfort Holist Nurs
Pract, 30 (2016), pp. 14-24
Source 3:
Gopalkrishnan, N., 2018. Cultural diversity and mental health: Considerations for policy and
practice. Frontiers in public health, 6, p.179.
(Gopalkrishnan, 2018) Mental health is very important to lead happy life. If the person is mental
healthy then only he or she can do their work effectively. Mainly mental health is ignored by the
people but it should not because it is that important as the physical health is. It is affected by how
one feel, react, think etc. mental health tells that how the stress and work load is handled. Mental
health is necessary in every life stage whether it is children, adult or old age people. It brings
peace in the life. Mental health issues can affect human behaviour. Good mental health will lead
to good behaviour and bad mental health will lead to bad behaviour.
Cultural diversity means different types of culture and every culture is different from the other
culture. (Gopalkrishnan, 2018) There are diverse groups which is present in the society. One
should value which is offered by other cultures and should celebrate every culture. Negative
cultural difference spread negativity among societal group. Cultural differences should be
respected. Cultural diversity is important as in our society people exist which follow various
culture.
Cross References for Gopalkrishnan, 2018
Frank RF. Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class. Berkely; Los

Angeles, CA: University of California Press (2013).
Fernando S. Race and Culture in Psychiatry. Hove: Routledge (2015).
Fernando S. Globalization of psychiatry – A barrier to mental health development. Int Rev
Psychiatry (2014) 26:551–7. doi: 10.3109/09540261.2014.920305

CONCLUSION
From the evaluation it can be identified that culture is the way of living which have to be
followed by individuals for being within a society. This is important for individuals that they are
able to develop their working process as per the culture of their surrounding through which they
can ensure that they are able to achieve a good and quality of life style during their engagement
within the society.

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