HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011
'Happiness Is All About Earning More Than Your Friends'
Source:Indiareport
Money can buy you happiness, only if you earn more of it than your friends, scientists say.
A study of life satisfaction in dozens of countries found that contrary to popular perception, economic growth doesn't bring with it a corresponding long-term rise in happiness.
While people may feel more positive in the short-term, the shine quickly wears off, found the study by researchers from University of Southern California.
However, they found that the rich are happier than the poor within an individual country, the Daily Mail reported.
This implies that what matters is earning more than others, not the actual amount earned, said Professor Richard Easterlin, who led the study.
Professor Easterlin first coined the theory in the 1970s which became known as the Easterlin Paradox.
With several recent studies challenging his findings, Professor Easterlin again set out to examine if this pattern still exists.
After crunching together figures from 37 countries around the globe including burgeoning economies such as China, South Korea and Chile, the University of Southern California professor said little had changed.
He said:"Simply stated, the happiness-income paradox is this: at a point in time both among and within countries, happiness and income are positively correlated.
"But, over time, happiness does not increase when a person's income increases."
He added:"China's growth rate implies a doubling of real per capita income in less than 10 years, and Chile's in 18 years.
"Yet both China and Chile show mild declines in life satisfaction.
A study of life satisfaction in dozens of countries found that contrary to popular perception, economic growth doesn't bring with it a corresponding long-term rise in happiness.
While people may feel more positive in the short-term, the shine quickly wears off, found the study by researchers from University of Southern California.
However, they found that the rich are happier than the poor within an individual country, the Daily Mail reported.
This implies that what matters is earning more than others, not the actual amount earned, said Professor Richard Easterlin, who led the study.
Professor Easterlin first coined the theory in the 1970s which became known as the Easterlin Paradox.
With several recent studies challenging his findings, Professor Easterlin again set out to examine if this pattern still exists.
After crunching together figures from 37 countries around the globe including burgeoning economies such as China, South Korea and Chile, the University of Southern California professor said little had changed.
He said:"Simply stated, the happiness-income paradox is this: at a point in time both among and within countries, happiness and income are positively correlated.
"But, over time, happiness does not increase when a person's income increases."
He added:"China's growth rate implies a doubling of real per capita income in less than 10 years, and Chile's in 18 years.
"Yet both China and Chile show mild declines in life satisfaction.
Prayers Can Handle Harmful Emotions
Source:Indiareport
Those who choose to pray find personalised comfort during hard times and can easily deal with their emotions and problems, according to a new study.
The 75 per cent of Americans who pray on a weekly basis do so to manage a range of negative situations and emotions illness, sadness, trauma and anger, a researcher at University of Wisconsin-Madison has claimed.
Through the course of his in-depth interviews with victims of violent relationships, Shane Sharp, a sociology graduate at the university, gathered ways how prayer helped them deal with their situations.
Sharp's interviewees represented a wide swath of the US in geographic, educational and racial terms, and came largely from Christian backgrounds.
Those who were boiling with anger said they found"a readily available listening ear,"said Sharp, who explores how prayer helps manage emotional pain in the December issue of the journal Social Psychology Quarterly.
"If they vented their anger to the abusive partner, the result was likely to be more violence,"Sharp said.
"But they could be angry at God while praying without fear of reprisal. During any interpersonal interaction, the participants are considering how they look through the other's eyes. In the case of people who pray, they are considering God's view."
"During prayer, victims came to see themselves as they believed God saw them. Since these perceptions were mostly positive, it helped raise their senses of self-worth that counteracted their abusers'hurtful words,"Sharp says.
Prayer is also a handy distraction for some, Sharp's study found.
Simply folding hands and concentrating on what to say is a reprieve from the anxiety of an abusive relationship.
The experience isn't that much different from a conversation with a close friend or a parent, he says.
"I looked at the act of praying, of speaking to God, as same as a legitimate social interaction,"Sharp said.
"Instead of a concrete interaction in which you would have to be face-to-face with another person, prayer is with an imagined other.
The 75 per cent of Americans who pray on a weekly basis do so to manage a range of negative situations and emotions illness, sadness, trauma and anger, a researcher at University of Wisconsin-Madison has claimed.
Through the course of his in-depth interviews with victims of violent relationships, Shane Sharp, a sociology graduate at the university, gathered ways how prayer helped them deal with their situations.
Sharp's interviewees represented a wide swath of the US in geographic, educational and racial terms, and came largely from Christian backgrounds.
Those who were boiling with anger said they found"a readily available listening ear,"said Sharp, who explores how prayer helps manage emotional pain in the December issue of the journal Social Psychology Quarterly.
"If they vented their anger to the abusive partner, the result was likely to be more violence,"Sharp said.
"But they could be angry at God while praying without fear of reprisal. During any interpersonal interaction, the participants are considering how they look through the other's eyes. In the case of people who pray, they are considering God's view."
"During prayer, victims came to see themselves as they believed God saw them. Since these perceptions were mostly positive, it helped raise their senses of self-worth that counteracted their abusers'hurtful words,"Sharp says.
Prayer is also a handy distraction for some, Sharp's study found.
Simply folding hands and concentrating on what to say is a reprieve from the anxiety of an abusive relationship.
The experience isn't that much different from a conversation with a close friend or a parent, he says.
"I looked at the act of praying, of speaking to God, as same as a legitimate social interaction,"Sharp said.
"Instead of a concrete interaction in which you would have to be face-to-face with another person, prayer is with an imagined other.
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