Examining the Relationship Between Relational Goods, Income and Happiness in the Context of Attachment Theory

Year 2024, Volume: 32 Issue: 61, 369 - 399, 30.07.2024

Keziban Altun Erdoğdu Türkmen Göksel

https://doi.org/10.17233/sosyoekonomi.2024.03.17

Abstract

Recent studies on the economics of happiness have shown that the benefits arising in interpersonal relationships, defined as relational goods, are an important source of happiness. In addition, these studies explain that the increase in income after a certain subsistence level does not lead to an additional increase in happiness (income-happiness paradox). In the survey following the literature, the relationship between relational goods, income and happiness with attachment theory, which is a subtitle of relational happiness theory, was investigated using the fourth wave of the World Values Survey. The findings revealed that the happiness of individuals with insecure attachment, who avoid relationships because they find others unreliable, is not higher because the time they allocate to the production/consumption of relational goods is less. In addition, across the world, it is observed with the help of the figure that the relationship between income and relational goods weakens as the level of real income per capita increases.

Keywords

Happiness, Relational Goods, Relational Happiness Theory, Attachment Theory, Income-Happiness Paradox

Bağlanma Kuramı Kapsamında İlişkisel Mallar, Gelir ve Mutluluk Arasındaki İlişkinin İncelenmesi

Abstract

Son dönemde mutluluk ekonomisi üzerine yapılan çalışmalarda, kişiler arası ilişkilerde ortaya çıkan faydaların (ilişkisel malların) mutluluğun önemli bir kaynağı olduğunu gösterilmiş ve belli bir geçim düzeyi sonrası gelirdeki artışın mutlulukta ek bir artışa neden olmaması (gelir-mutluluk paradoksu) açıklanmıştır. Literatüre takiben çalışmada, ilişkisel mutluluk teorisinin bir alt başlığı olan bağlanma kuramıyla ilişkisel mallar, gelir ve mutluluk arasındaki ilişki Dünya Değerler Araştırması’nın dördüncü dalgası kullanılarak araştırılmıştır. Bulgular, başkalarını güvenilmez bulduğu için ilişkilerden kaçınan güvensiz bağlanmaya sahip bireylerin ilişkisel malların üretimine/tüketimine ayırdıkları zaman az olması nedeniyle mutluluklarının daha yüksek olmadığını ortaya koymuştur. Ayrıca dünya genelinde, şekil yardımıyla kişi başı reel gelir arttıkça ilişkisel mallar ile gelir arasındaki ilişkinin zayıfladığı gözlenmiştir.

Keywords

Mutluluk, İlişkisel Mallar, İlişkisel Mutluluk Teorisi, Bağlanma Kuramı, Gelir-Mutluluk Paradoksu

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