On 21 Feb 2008 at 15:10, Helweg-Larsen, Marie wrote: > You mind find this segment interesting from 60 minutes especially if > you teach about positive psychology or happiness more generally. The > first half explains why Denmark in particular might have such > happy/content people (although it would have been nice had they also > mentioned living wages, equality, respect, etc.) and the second half > talks about positive psychology.
> http://60minutes.yahoo.com/segment/140/happiness. You can click on each > segment or only the first one (which should play them all). > > Marie (a happy Dane who would obviously be much happier if she had > socialized medicine and low expectations) The 60 Minutes report was on White et al of Leicester University, UK (who got their data from Marks et al, _The Happy Planet Index_, 2006, among others). The measure was self-reported subjective happiness from which they constructed what they modestly refer to as the "first ever world map of happiness". It seems that the happiest nation on earth is...wait for it...Denmark. Congratulations, Marie! The study is probably this one: White, A. (2007). A Global Projection of Subjective Well-being: A Challenge To Positive Psychology? Psychtalk 56, 17-20. http://www.le.ac.uk/users/aw57/world/sample.html More information is available in the news release at http://tinyurl.com/h26b9 and see BBC news "Denmark happiest place on earth' at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5224306.stm, where you can view their world happy map. But not so fast, happy-breath. Denmark??? The land where nights are long (and cold), where herring is eaten raw, and where a gloomy suicidal prince roams the halls of Elsinor? I don't buy it. The Danes may _say_ they're happy, but are they really? I checked the World Health Organization (WHO) statistics on suicide at http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suiciderates/en/ and combined the data to get an overall rate for each country, arranged by rank. Denmark ranks higher in suicide rate (14.5 per 100, 000) than 73 other countries in a list of 100. By comparison, Canada's rate is higher than 63 countries with 12.3, the US rate is higher than 57 with 10.8, and the UK 's higher than 45 with 7.6 The suicide rate in Denmark is 90% higher in Denmark than it is in the UK. On this measure, the Danes don't look so cheerful. If they're so darned happy, why are they shuffling off that mortal coil at such an alarming rate? Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
