MGMT101: Paraphrasing Assignment on Happiness and Resilience

This assignment focuses on the skill of paraphrasing, using four different paragraphs about happiness from various sources. The student provides paraphrased versions of each paragraph, demonstrating their understanding of the original text while expressing the ideas in their own words. The assignment covers different perspectives on happiness, including economic indicators, social relationships, and psychological resilience. The student then synthesizes the four perspectives into a single paragraph, highlighting the multifaceted nature of happiness and its measurement, referencing the original sources appropriately. The assignment assesses the student's ability to comprehend complex information, rephrase it accurately, and integrate different viewpoints into a cohesive analysis.

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Read through the 4 paragraphs written about ‘happiness’ and paraphrase each:
Paragraph 1:
‘Research shows that happiness is not the result of bouncing from one joy to the next;
achieving happiness typically involves times of considerable discomfort. Money is important to
happiness, but only to a certain point. Money buys freedom from worry about the basics in life
—housing, food, and clothing. Genetic makeup, life circumstances, achievements, marital
status, social relationships, even your neighbors—all influence how happy you are. Or can be’.
(Psychology Today, 2018)
Solution:
According to Psychology Today published in the year 2018, it was found that happiness is not
an outcome of a single joy to another but despite of this, happiness is something that include
times of substantial uneasiness. It is also believed that money is not always important at every
point of time. It is essential up to some extent. One can gain freedom such as food, cloth,
shelter by investing money but these do not determine one’s inner happiness. Social inter links,
marital status, attainments, life conditions and inherited makeup actually defines happiness.
Thus, happiness cannot easily be measured and sometimes it is intangible in nature too.
Paragraph 2:
Psychologist Anna Rowley – who counsels executives at Microsoft and other corporations –
shirks the word ‘happiness’ altogether. She believes resilience is the most important skill to
cultivate, given the rapid rate of economic and technological change. Feeling good is all fine and
good but it’s transient. Learning to deal with difficulty, by contrast, improves your chances of
feeling good again. That’s much more useful than clinging to an illusion. (Livni, 2018)
Solution:
According to study conducted by Livni in the year 2008, it was stated that a well-known
psychologist named Anna Rowley defined happiness in her own different way. She counseled

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top most executives of Microsoft and other renowned organizations and concluded that
happiness is a long word with various meaning. She made it short and described it as a way of
facing difficulty and overcoming it and then getting a feeling is what happiness actually mean.
Getting connected to illusion do not actually defines happiness. She thinks suppleness is one of
the essential art to cultivate, and bring a quick change in technology. Feeling happy is nice but it
is transient in nature.
Paragraph 3:
‘Today’s figures may surprise some, showing a small increase in both reported happiness and
life satisfaction during a period that has seen political change and uncertainty. It's worth noting
that employment rates rose during the period covered by this report, and other Office for
National Statistics’ analysis showed people perceiving an improvement in their own financial
situations and in the overall economy. These are factors we believe may account for some
people's increased sense of personal well-being’. (Office for National Statistics, 2017)
Solution
According to Office for National Statistics published in 2017, it was found that the level of
happiness and self-satisfaction has been increased over the period of time. It can be noted that
there is a rise in the rates of employment over the period of time despite of changes in politics
and uncertainty. The report also notifies that there is an increase in the overall financial
situation of the entire economy. There are various factors which may be taken under
consideration for the better enhancement of an individual’s wellbeing.
Paragraph 4:
‘There are objective measures of wellbeing, like life expectancy and levels of unemployment,
and also subjective measures – how people actually feel about progress, including overall
satisfaction with life and levels of anxiety. It is important to have a mix because objective

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measures, such as actual levels of crime, don’t always reflect the way people feel, for example,
their fear of crime – and the differences can have important implications for policy’. (Gov.uk,
2013)
Solution:
According to the Government of UK, in the year 2013, it ca be noted that well-being includes
two measure objectives i.e. objective measures and subjective measures. Objective measures
include life expectation and levels of idleness. On the contrary, subjective measures includes
the inner feeling of an individual after achieving progress and level of satisfaction that also
include anxiety level. The fear of crime do not reflect feeling of an individual because this are
just a temporary illusion.
Now, write a paragraph that brings together the 4 perspectives. Here is an example:
The virtue of happiness has been debated in recent years in terms of what it is and how it can
be measured (Gov.uk, 2013). Happiness has been characterised by economic indicators such as
being in employment (ONS, 2017; Gov.uk, 2013) and having sufficient finance to not ‘worry
about the basics’ (Psychology Today, 2018). Furthermore, it is argued that happiness also
includes other social factors, such as quality of relationships with others (Psychology Today,
2018) and perceived levels of crime (Gov.uk, 2013). However, Livni (2018) draws on Rowley’s
caution that happiness in itself is less important than people developing a more resilient
approach to the speed of modern life. The issue of happiness is significant due to the impact it
can have for national policy (Gov.uk, 2013).
Solution:
The actual level of happiness has been argued and how it can be achieved and measured is
defined by the government of UK in 2013. Some define happiness as being employed along with
having enough financial balance for which he/she will not have to worry about fulfilling their
basic needs. In addition to this, it was further argued that there are various social factors
included under happiness such as social relationship and apparent level of crime. Thus, Livni

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concluded that fighting with the problems and then attaining a certain feeling defines
happiness. According to the report of National statistics, self-satisfaction and inner happiness
relies in strong financial circumstances. It is not easy to measure the factors that determine
happiness. Thus, the definition of happiness varies from person to person. One can be satisfied
with one thing while the same thing fails to satisfy the other.