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

References

• Ainsworth, M. et al. (1978), Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation, New York, Psychology Press.
• Bartholomew, K. & L.M. Horowitz (1991), “Attachment Styles among Young Adults: A Test of a Four-Category Model”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(2), 226-244.
• Becchetti, L. et al. (2008), “Relational Goods, Sociability, and Happiness”, Kyklos, 61(3), 343-363.
• Becchetti, L. et al. (2011), “Income, Relational Goods and Happiness”, Applied Economics, 43(3), 273-290.
• Becchetti, L. et al. (2012), “The Relationship between Social Leisure and Life Satisfaction: Causality and Policy Implications”, Social Indicators Research, 108(3), 453-490.
• Becchetti, L. et al. (2019), The Microeconomics of Wellbeing and Sustainability: Recasting the Economic Process, London, Academic Press.
• Belk, R.W. (1984), “Three Scales To Measure Constructs Related To Materialism: Reliability, Validity, And Relationships To Measures of Happiness”, Advances in Consumer Research, 11, 291-297.
• Belk, R.W. (1985), “Materialism: Trait Aspects of Living in the Material World”, Journal of Consumer Research, 12(3), 265-280.
• Bowlby, J. (1969), Attachment and Loss: Volume I: Attachment, New York, Basic Books, a Member of the Perseus Books Group.
• Bowlby, J. (1973), Attachment and Loss: Volume II: Separation, Anxiety and Anger, New York, Basic Books, a Member of the Perseus Books Group.
• Bruni, L. & L. Stanca (2008), “Watching Alone: Relational Goods, Television and Happiness”, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 65(3-4), 506-528.
• Bruni, L. (2010), “The Happiness of Sociality. Economics and Eudaimonia: A Necessary Encounter”, Rationality and Society, 22(4), 383-406.
• Donati, P. (1986), Introduzione Alla Sociologia Relazionale, Milan, Franco Angeli.
• Donati, P. (2014), “Relational Goods and their Subjects: The Ferment of a New Civil Society and Civil Democracy”, Recerca: Revista de Pensament i Anàlisi, 14, 19-46.
• Dumludağ, D. (2014), “Fayda, Mutluluk ve Refah”, içinde: A.F. Aysan & D. Dumludağ (eds.), Kalkınmada Yeni Yaklaşımlar (365-386), Ankara: İmge Kitabevi Yayınları.
• Erdoğan, M. (2016), Davranışsal İktisat Açısından Lüks Tüketim, Materyalizm, Sosyo-Ekonomik Statü ve Dini Değerler, Bursa, Ekin Yayınevi.
• Ger, G. & R.W. Belk (1996), “Cross-Cultural Differences in Materialism”, Journal of Economic Psychology, 17(1), 55-77.
• Gui, B. (1987), “Eléments Pour Une Définition D’économie Communautaire”, Notes Et Documents, (19-20), 32-42.
• Gui, B. (2005), “From Transactions to Encounters: The Joint Generation of Relational Goods and Conventional Values”, in: B. Gui & R. Sugden (eds.), Economics and Social Interaction: Accounting for Interpersonal Relations (23-51), Cambridge University Press.
• Gui, B. (2013), “Relational Goods”, in: L. Bruni & S. Zamagni (eds.), Handbook on the Economics of Reciprocity and Social Enterprise (295-305), Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Hazan, C. & P. Shaver (1987), “Romantic Love Conceptualized As an Attachment Process”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(3), 511-524.
• Karagülle, A.E. & B. Çaycı (2014), “Ağ Toplumunda Sosyalleşme ve Yabancilaşma”, Turkish Online Journal of Design Art and Communication, 4(1), 1-9.
• Kasser, T. & V.G. Kasser (2001), “The Dreams of People High and Low in Materialism”, Journal of Economic Psychology, 22(6), 693-719.
• Main, M. et al. (1985), “Security in Infancy, Childhood, and Adulthood: A Move to The Level of Representation”, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(1-2), 66-104.
• Mikulincer, M. & P.R. Shaver (2005), “Attachment Theory and Emotions in Close Relationships: Exploring the Attachment‐Related Dynamics of Emotional Reactions to Relational Events”, Personal Relationships, 12(2), 149-168.
• Nappo, N. (2010), “Relational Goods and the Well-being of People Working in Italian Social Cooperatives”, Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Sociali, 118(4), 449-474.
• Neyse, L. & F. Exadaktylos (2014), “Davranışsal İktisat, Sosyal Sermaye ve Kalkınma”, içinde: A.F. Aysan & D. Dumludağ (eds.), Kalkınmada Yeni Yaklaşımlar (413-432), Ankara: İmge Kitabevi Yayınları.
• Nussbaum, M.C. (1986), The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Pugno, M. (2009), “The Easterlin Paradox and The Decline of Social Capital: An Integrated Explanation”, The Journal of Socio-Economics, 38(4), 590-600.
• Richins, M.L. & S. Dawson (1992), “A Consumer Values Orientation for Materialism and Its Measurement: Scale Development and Validation”, Journal of Consumer Research, 19(3), 303-316.
• Scitovsky, T. (1976), The Joyless Economy: An Inquiry into Human Satisfaction and Consumer Dissatisfaction, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Siegel, D.J. (1999), The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are, New York, The Guilford Press.
• Stanca, L. (2016), “Happiness and New Media”, in: L. Bruni & P.L. Porta (eds.), Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Happiness and Quality of Life (467-482), Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Sugden, R. (2005), “Fellow-Feeling”, in: B. Gui & R. Sugden (eds.), Economics and Social Interaction: Accounting for Interpersonal Relations (52-75), Cambridge University Press.
• Sümer, N. et al. (2020), Anne Duyarlılığı ve Çocuklarda Bağlanma, İstanbul, Koç Üniversitesi Yayınları.
• Uhlaner, C.J. (1989), “‘Relational Goods’ and Participation: Incorporating Sociability into a Theory of Rational Action”, Public Choice, 62(3), 253-285.
• Uhlaner, C.J. (2014), “Relational Goods and Resolving the Paradox of Political Participation”, Recerca: Revista de Pensament i Anàlisi, 14, 47-72.
• William, J.B. & W.G. Bowen (1966), Performing Arts-The Economic Dilemma, New York, The Twentieth Century Fund.
• Wooldridge, J.M. (2013), Ekonometriye Giriş: Modern Yaklaşım, Çeviri Editörü: E.Ç. Akay, Ankara: Nobel Yayıncılık.
• Yoo, J. et al. (2021), “Does Materialism Hinder Relational Well-Being? The Role of Culture and Social Motives”, Journal of Happiness Studies, 22(1), 241- 261.