Geography of Happiness: A Spatial Analysis of Happiness Affected by Socio-Economic Factors at the Level of Rural Areas (Case Study: Villages of Torbat-Haydarieh Township)

Document Type : Thesis Article

Authors

1 PhD, Department of Geography and Rural Planning, Faculty of Geography, University of Sistan and Balochestan, Zahedan, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Rural Planning, Faculty of Geography, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran.

3 Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Rural Planning, Faculty of Geography, University of Sistan and Balochestan , Iran.

4 Professor, Department of Geography and Rural Planning, Faculty of Geography, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran.

Abstract

Happiness is a person's judgment and evaluation of satisfaction with their quality of life. Studies have shown that there are spatial differences in the Happiness of people between places and regions. Therefore, this study has investigated the state of Happiness and its spatial dependence in rural areas of Torbat-e Heydarieh. The present research is descriptive-analytical in terms of applied purpose and method.Data collection tools were questionnaires and interviews from selected samples consisting of 380 households from the statistical population of rural households in Torbat-e Heydarieh (N = 23105) using Cochran's formula and quota sampling method. Descriptive statistics, Fordyce Happiness Questionnaire, and multiple regression were used to analyze the data and GIS was used to analyze the vigor status of the studied villages in Torbat-e Heydariyeh. The test results and comparison of the means of Happiness obtained from the Fordyce questionnaire indicate that the Happiness of the villages was classified into three categories: low (average scores 320-355), medium (356-365) and high (366-385). The results of multiple regression also showed that out of 18 independent variables related to Happiness, 4 variables were income with a correlation coefficient of (0.399), social capital (0.383), the distance of 5 km from the nearest city (0.599) and distance of 10 to 15 km. It had the highest correlation with the city with a coefficient of (0.452) with the Happiness of rural households. Also, the study of the Happiness map of the studied villages confirms the spatial dependence of Happiness due to the cluster Happiness of the villages.

Keywords

References

Agricultural Jihad of Torbat-Haydariah. (2019).
Anbari, M., Haghi, S. (2013). The effects of social risks on women's social vitality, Rural Development, 5(1): 158-133.
Arifwidodo, S., Perera, R. (2011). Quality of life and compact development policies in Bandung, Indonesia. Appl. Res. Qual. Life, 6,159–179.
Aslam, A., Corrado, L. (2012). The geography of well-being. J. Econ. Geogr. 12, 627– 649.
Ballas, D., & Thanis, L. (2022). Exploring the Geography of Subjective Happiness in Europe During the Years of the Economic Crisis: A Multilevel Modelling Approach, Social Indicators Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-021-02874-6.
Berry, B.J.L., Okulicz-Kozaryn, A. (2011). An urban–rural happiness gradient. Urban Geogr. 32, 871–883.
Brereton, F., Clinch, J.P., Ferreira, S. (2008). Happiness, geography and the environment. Ecolog. Econ. 65, 386–396.
Carbonell, A. F., Gowdy, J. (2007). Environmental degradation and happiness, Ecological Economics, 60, 509- 516.
D'Ambrosio, C., Frick, J.R. (2012). Individual wellbeing in a dynamic perspective. Economica vol 79, pp 284–302.
Deputy of Rural Development of the Presidential Institution. (2015).
Diener, E., Emmons, R.A., Larsen, R.J., Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. J. Pers. Assess. 49, 71–75.
Diener, E., Suh, E.M., Lucas, R.E., Smith, H.L. (1999). Subjective well-being: three decades of progress. Psychol. Bull. 125, 276–302.
Dolan, P., Peasgood, T., White, M. (2008). Do we really know what makes us happy?  review of the economic literature on the factors associated with subjective well-being. J. Econ. Psychol. 29, 94–122.
Easterlin, R.A. (2001). Income and happiness: towards a unified theory. Econ. J. vol. 111, pp 465–484.
Easterlin, R.A., McVey, L.A., Switek, M., Sawangfa, O., Zweig, J.S. (2010). The happiness–income paradox revisited. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 107, 22463–22468.
Florida, R., Mellander, C., Rentfrow, P.J. (2013). The happiness of cities. Reg. Stud. 47, 613–627.
Frey, B., & Stutzer, A. (2002). Happiness and economics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Grimes, A., Wesselbaum, D. (2019). Moving Towards Happiness? International Migration, Vol. 20, pp 1- 21.
Inglehart, R. (1994). Cultural evolution in an advanced industrial society, translated by Maryam Veter, Tehran: Kavir Publications.
Kahneman, D. (2000). Experienced utility and objective happiness: a moment based approach, In: Kahneman, D. & Tverski, A. (Eds.) 'Choices, values and Frames’, Cambridge University Press, New York. 
Kahneman, D., Krueger, A.B., Schkade, D.A., Schwarz, N., Stone, A.A. (2004). A survey method for characterizing daily life experience: the day reconstruction method. Science 306, 1776–1780.
Kozaryn, A. O. (2011). Geography of European Life Satisfaction, Soc Indic Res, 101, 435- 445.
Lyubomirsky, S. (2010). Hedonic adaptation to positive and negative experiences. In: Folkman, S. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Stress, Health, and Coping. Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 200–224.
Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K.M., Schkade, D. (2005). Pursuing happiness: the architecture of sustainable change. Rev. Gen. Psychol), 9, pp 111–131.
Mirshah Jafari, E. Abedi, M., Darikondi, H. (2004). Happiness and factors affecting it, Cognitive Science News, 4 (2): 53-58.
Morrison, P.S. (2007). Subjective wellbeing and the city. Soc. Policy J. N. Z. vol. 31, pp 74– 103.
Naibi, H. (1995). A research in social psychology: measuring the level of happiness of heads of households in Tehran, master's thesis in sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran.
Nawijn, J., Marchand, M. A., Veenhoven, R., & Vingerhoets, J. (2010). Vacationers Happier, but Most not Happier After a Holiday, Applied Research in Quality of Life,vol. 5(1), pp 35-47.
Okenfels, A. (2009). Economics in real life, in search of happiness, translated by Jafar Khairkhahan, Dunyai Ekhtaz newspaper, 9 (2255).
Okulicz-Kozaryn, A. (2011). Geography of European Life Satisfaction, Soc Indic Res, 101, 435-445.
Oswald, A.J., Wu, S. (2010). Objective confirmation of subjective measures of human well-being: evidence from the U.S.A. Science vol. 327, pp576–579.
Rehdanz, K., Maddison, D. (2008). Local environmental quality and life-satisfaction in Germany. Ecolog. Econ. 64, 787–797.
Sadeghi, Kh., Bazarafshan, J., Haji-Nejad, A., Yasuri, M. (2020). Investigation of factors affecting the vitality of rural households (case study: Foman city), Tehran Rural Researches, 11(2): 250-269.
Schimmel, J. (2009). Development as Happiness: The Subjective Perception of Happiness and UNDP’s Analysis of Poverty, Wealth and Development, Happiness Stud, vol 10, pp 93- 111.
Seligman, M.E.P. (1999). Positive social science. J. Posit. Behav. Interv. 1, 181–182.
Senik, C. (2009). Direct evidence on income comparisons and their welfare effects. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organisation 72, 408–424.
Stanca, L. (2010). The geography of economics and happiness: spatial patterns in the effects of economic conditions on well-being. Soc. Indic. Res, 99, pp 115–133.
Stiglitz, J., Sen, A., Fitoussi, J.-P. (2009). Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress.
Stutzer, A., Frey, B. S. (2003). Reported Subjective Well-Being: A Challenge for Economic Theory and Economic Policy, CREMA Working Paper Series, CREMA - Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts, http://hdl.handle.net/10419/214283.
Tobler, W.R. (1970). A computer movie simulating urban growth in the Detroit region. Econ. Geogr., 234–240.
Veenhoven, R. (2017). Greater Happiness for a Greater Number: Did the Promise of Enlightenment Come True? Soc Indic Res 130, pp 9–25.
Veenhoven, R. (2018). Co-development of Happiness Research: Addition to ‘‘Fifty Years after the Social Indicator Movemen, Soc Indic Res, 135:1001- 1007.
Vendrik, C. M. (2013). Adaptation, anticipation and social interaction in happiness: An integrated error-correction approach, Journal of Public Economics, vol 105, pp 131- 149.
Wang, D., Wang, F. (2015). Contributions of the usage and affective experience of the residential environment to residential satisfaction.
Zhu, J., Fan, Y. (2018). Commute happiness in Xi’an, China: Effects of commute mode, duration, and frequency, Travel Behaviour and Society, 11, pp 43- 51.
Journal of Rural Research
Volume 13, Issue 4
March 2023
Pages 700-715

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 24 May 2022
  • Revise Date: 06 August 2022
  • Accept Date: 14 September 2022

Share

How to cite

Statistics