Happiness and Social Well-Being in the Estimates of Russians – the Problem of Differentiation of Concepts
Acknowledgments
The article was prepared with the support of RFBR. Project № 19-011-00522 «Factors of social wellbeing in the changing and stable societies»
How to Cite
Sushko P.E. 2020. Happiness and Social Well-Being in the Estimates of Russians – the Problem of Differentiation of Concepts — Sociologicheskaja nauka i social’naja praktika. Vol. 8. No. 1. P. 48-62. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/snsp.2020.8.1.7094
Abstract
The article analyzes subjective assessments of social well-being and happiness in the context of their relationship with the characteristics of individuals in various areas of the social system. The similarities and differences in assessments of these categories are analyzed in the context of age, socioprofessional and income groups. It is shown that in older age groups, as well as in low-income groups engaged in low-skilled physical and non-physical labor, the categories of happiness and well-being are not actually divided in subjective assessments. On the contrary, in younger age groups, as well as those who belong to the middle and high-income groups mainly engaged in highly skilled non-physical labor, a discrepancy is found in assessments of social well-being and happiness. In the first case, the similar perception of the categories studied is evidence of weak motives for achievement and of focus on the reference groups in assessments. In these groups, the principle of “living no worse than others” prevails. In the second case, the difference in the estimates of well-being and happiness can be explained by the more stable position of these groups in the social system. They are better aware of the possible levels of social well-being that one can strive for. The empirical basis for the analysis was the 26th wave of the annual RLMS-HSE survey monitoring the Russian population’s economic status and health, which was conducted in 2017.
Keywords:
social well-being, social status, objective and subjective well-being, happiness, inequality, social groups
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Baturin N. A., Bashkatov S. A., Gafarova N. V. (2013). Teoreticheskaya model’ lichnostnogo blagopoluchiya. [Theoretical model of personal well-being]. Vestnik YUUrGU. Seriya «Psikhologiya». T. 6. № 4. P. 4–14. (In Russ.).
Chernysh M. F. (2019). Faktory, vliyayuschie na perezhivanie schast’ya v rossiyskom obschestve. [Factors affecting the experience of happiness in Russian society]. Sociologicheskaya nauka i social’naya praktika. T. 7 № 2. P. 9–33. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/snsp.2019.7.2.6407 (In Russ.).
Gradosel’skaya G. V. (2003). Sub”ektivnye i ob”ektivnye otsenki blagosostoyaniya. [Subjective and objective assessments of welfare]. Sotsiologicheskiy zhurnal. № 3. P. 86–98. (In Russ.).
Divisenko K. S. (2018). Sub”ektivnoe blagopoluchie: vozmozhnosti biograficheskogo issledovaniya. [Subjective well-being: opportunities for biographical research]. Peterburgskaya sotsiologiya segodnya. Vyp. 9. P. 47–61. (In Russ.).
Karabchuk T. S., Sal’nikova D. V. (2016). Ob”ektivnoe i sub”ektivnoe blagopoluchie: opyt sravnitel’nogo analiza stran TSentral’noy Azii, Rossii i Belarusi. [Objective and subjective well- being: experience of comparative analysis of Central Asian countries, Russia and Belarus]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya. № 5. P. 96–109. (In Russ.).
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Kolennikova N. D. (2018). Ekonomicheskiy status zanyatogo naseleniya Rossii: ob”ektivnoe i sub”ektivnoe izmereniya. [Economic status of the employed population of Russia: objective and subjective measurements]. Vestnik Instituta sotsiologii. T. 9. № 1 (24). P. 76–94. DOI: 10.19181/ vis.2018.24.1.498 (In Russ.).
Mareeva S. V. (2018). Zony sub”ektivnogo blagopoluchiya i neblagopoluchiya v rossiyskom obschestve. [Zones of subjective well-being and disadvantage in Russian society]. Vestnik Rossiyskogo universiteta druzhby narodov. Seriya: Sotsiologiya. T. 18. № 4. P. 695–707. DOI: 10.22363/2313-22722018-18-4-695-707 (In Russ.).
Model’ dokhodnoy stratifikatsii rossiyskogo obschestva: dinamika, faktory, mezhstranovye sravneniya. (2018). [Model of income stratification of Russian society: dynamics, factors, cross- country comparisons]. Ed. by N. E. Tikhonova. M.; SPb.: Nestor-Istoriya publ., 368 p. DOI: 10.3175444691419-7 (In Russ.).
Osobennosti modernizatsii sotsial’noy struktury rossiyskogo obschestva. (2018). [Features of modernization of the social structure of Russian society]. M.: FNISTS RAN, 200 p. URL: http:// www.isras.ru/index.php?page_id=1198&id=6805 (data obrascheniya: 15.11.2019). DOI: 10.19181/ monograph.2019.1 (In Russ.).
Radaev V. V., Shkaratan O. I. (1996). Sotsial’naya stratifikatsiya. [Social stratification]. M. Aspekt Press publ., 318 p. (In Russ.).
Sal’nikova D. V. (2017). Istochniki nesoglasovannosti rezul’tatov issledovaniy vzaimosvyazi ob”ektivnogo i sub”ektivnogo blagopoluchiya. [Sources of inconsistency in the results of research on the relationship between objective and subjective well-being]. Ekonomicheskaya sotsiologiya. T. 18. № 4. P. 157–174. (In Russ.).
Tikhonova N. E. (2003). Fenomen sotsial’noy eksklyuzii v usloviyakh Rossii. [The phenomenon of social exclusion in Russia]. Mir Rossii. T. XII. № 1. P. 36–84. (In Russ.).
Tikhonova N. E. (2014). Sotsial’naya struktura Rossii: teorii i real’nost’. [The social structure of Russia: theories and reality]. M.: Novyy khronograf: In-t sotsiologii RAN, 408 p. (In Russ.).
Tikhonova N. E. (2018). Dinamika sotsial’no-ekonomicheskogo polozheniya massovykh sloev naseleniya Rossii: 2003–2018 gg. [Dynamics of the socio-economic situation of the mass strata of the Russian population:2003-2018.]. Sotsiologicheskaya nauka i sotsial’naya praktika. T. 6. № 3. P. 7–25. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/snsp.2018.6.3.6000 (In Russ.).
Shkaratan O. I., Yastrebov G. A. (2008). Rossiyskoe neoetakraticheskoe obschestvo i ego stratifikatsiya. [Russian neo-ethacratic society and its stratification]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya. № 11. P. 40–50. (In Russ.).
Voronin G. L. (2009). Ob”ektivnye i sub”ektivnye pokazateli obschestvennogo blagopoluchiya. [Objective and subjective indicators of social well-being]. Sotsiologicheskiy zhurnal. № 3. P. 41–54. (In Russ.).
Festinger L. (1954). A Theory of Social Comparison Processes. Human Relations. Vol. 7. № 2. P. 117–140.
Graham C. Subjective Well-being in Economics. (2016). The Oxford Handbook of Well-being and Public Policy. Eds. By M. Adler, M. Fleurbaey, NY: Oxford University Press. P. 424–452. DOI: 10.1093/ oxfordhb/9780199325818.013.14.
Graham C., Pettinato S. (2002). Frustrated Achievers: Winners, Losers and Subjective Well-Being in New Market Economies. Journal of Development Studies. Vol. 38. № 4. P. 100–140.
Inequality in the 21st Century. (2018). Ed. by Grusky, D. B., Hill, J. London, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. 506 p.
Article
Received: 24.11.2019
Accepted: 01.04.2020
Citation Formats
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Harvard
Sushko, P. E. (2020) ’Happiness and Social Well-Being in the Estimates of Russians – the Problem of Differentiation of Concepts’, Sociologicheskaja nauka i social’naja praktika, 8(1), pp. 48-62. doi: https://doi.org/10.19181/snsp.2020.8.1.7094.
Section
MODERN RUSSIAN SOCIETY
Publisher: Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FCTAS RAS)