ارزشهای زنانه و امید به زندگی شاد در ملت ها

Cross-national studies suggest that people are happier in feminine nations that are also economically affluent. The first objective of the present study was to replicate this finding with a quality of life index which is more comprehensive than the usual measures of subjective well-being. This comprehensive indicator termed Happy Life-Expectancy (HLE) combines subjective happiness with objective longevity. As predicted, in the richer countries, HLE was higher in feminine nations (r=−0.51, n=14, P<0.05, one-tailed), whereas in the poorer nations HLE did not correlate with national masculinity–femininity (r=−0.27, n=13, NS). A second objective was to examine the mechanisms behind the significant relationship in the richer countries. Contrary to expectation, the findings could not be explained by national differences in private freedom.

While it is possible to study the somatic and psychological health of individuals in relation to, for example, personality, demographic or socio-cultural variables, it is also feasible to examine average health in countries. At the latter level of analysis, one can gain an understanding of how social system characteristics may influence the health of populations at large. Studies of this kind fall within the so-called holocultural methodologic tradition which is a paradigm of research for testing hypotheses (cf. Rohner, 1986, p. 38) where cultures (nations or states within a nation) are treated as units of study, and culture (national or regional) scores on the variables of interest are correlated with one another (e.g. Lester, 1996, Lester, 2000, Lynn and Martin, 1995 and Matsumoto and Fletcher, 1996). In this methodology, the sampling universe comprises all known cultures or nations.