Science conquers the old saying,”People can’t buy happiness.” A systematized facts or knowledge based on scientific principles, where studies and research are their tools, can settle the question of whether money can buy happiness? Yes, It gives us conclusions. If you happen to post this question in the inter-net and search the phrase “money can buy happiness” you will be surprised or even amazed of listings from journals to researched, books and even blogs, which gives you the answer “yes” money can buy happiness. Money shows or marked pleasure in people lives. In this subjects the old saying is a thing of the past. Money is not the only factor affecting once happiness, but it shows more relevance on the health and status of the person.
Even the Psychology and Psychiatry branch of Science made studies in this topic one example, quoted “Financially richer people tend to be happier than poorer people”, according to sociological researcher Glenn Firebaugh, Pennsylvania State University, A graduate student of Laura Tach, Harvard University.”We find with and without controls for age, physical health, education, and other correlates of happiness,” said Firebaugh, “that the higher the income of others in one’s age group, the lower one’s happiness.” Firebaugh’s data found that physical health was the best single predictor of happiness, followed by income, education, and marital status. The researchers found a relative income effect, the richer you are relative to your age peers, the happier you will tend to be. Also says by Adele Horin “It does not make you as content as getting married or finding a job, but money matters more to making people happy than previously believed”, according to new research. Studies shows the importance of economic circumstances, undermine findings that poor people are just as happy as the rich are. “Money doesn’t buy Happiness – or Does it?” By the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, at Melbourne University, shows that when wealth, not just income is measured, the rich are indeed happier than the poor are. Professor Mark Wooden, the study’s co-author, said: “This has led some people to say money is not that important, relative to other things.” However, when people’s assets were taken into account, the value of their houses, cars, art works, even stamp collection, a different picture emerged. “Assets were far more important than income in determining happiness,” said Professor Wooden. “And when you combine income and assets, money seems to matter more than people thought before”.
“The old saying “money can’t buy happiness” has been proved wrong by researchers at The University of Nottingham. A study into lottery jackpot winners, those who have won more than 1 million – found that a resounding 97 per cent of interviewees were just as happy, if not happier, following their big win. Dr Richard Tunney, Psychology Lecturer at The University of Nottingham, said: “The old saying ‘money can’t buy you happiness’ may not be true, but traditional family values, a comfortable home and financial security are clearly key elements to a happy life. “National Lottery operator Camelot commissioned the research. It is the first academic study into jackpot winners since the National Lottery began 12 years ago. Money is not the only factor affecting health and happiness, They say “money can’t buy you happiness” but researchers have proved the opposite too. Winning just 1,000 can be enough to change a person’s outlook on life, suggests the study by researchers at the University of Warwick. Professor Andrew Oswald, who is leading the research, said: “We found a strong link between financial windfalls and being happy and having much better psychological health. “A small amount of money is not going to solve a major health problem or solve a major psychological problem. “But it’s true we can detect even quite small windfalls, begin to show up in our statistics on our psychological wellbeing. “Overall the more you get, we find, the cheerier you’ll become. Large sums are better than small sums”.
Scientists looked at 9,000 families in Britain throughout the 1990s. During the decade, a number of the people had windfalls of hundreds of thousands of pounds, enabling the researchers to observe the impact. They measured individuals’ psychological health using standard strain indicators to gauge their levels of happiness. Professor Oswald advised that money was not the only factor affecting good mental health and happiness. He said: “There are lots of other factors in life, especially personal things like getting married and so on.” The research found that women tended to be happier than men are, and people in there 30s were least likely to be content. Professor Oswald said happiness followed a U-shaped pattern, with people beginning life happy but becoming discontented in their early 30s, before their happiness recovered and continued, increasing into their 60s.
For me, Money is a tool that in fact can give you good health, more quality time, a stronger relationship, security and stability in life. Money can give more benefits to your friends, relatives and even to your community, country and church organization as you share it and with full knowledge to manage it.
Reference & Sources
Psychology / Psychiatry News “Can money buy happiness?”
Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 14 Aug 2005 – 16:00 PDT
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/29109.php
www.medicalnewstoday.com
Money can buy happiness
By Adele Horin
June 16, 2004
www.smh.com
NOTTINGHAM UNIVERSITY
University Park
Nottingham
NG7 2RD
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/53610.php
You are in: Health
Wednesday,9 January, 2002, 11:07 GMT
Money ‘can buy you happiness’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1750337.stm
