Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T18:26:59.811Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Satisfacción de vida en Costa Rica: Un enfoque de dominios de vida

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Mariano Rojas
Affiliation:
Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Sede México y Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla
Maikol Elizondo-Lara
Affiliation:
Merck Corporation, México
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Resumen

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Costa Rica es un país que de manera sistemática ha mostrado altos niveles de satisfacción de vida a pesar de que su ingreso per cápita no es alto. Datos recientes de la encuesta Gallup del 2008, la cual se hace en más de 140 países del planeta, muestran que los costarricenses tienen la satisfacción de vida más alta del mundo. Esta investigación sigue un enfoque de dominios de vida para entender la satisfacción de vida de los costarricenses y plantea que la satisfacción de vida es el resultado de la satisfacción personal en cada una de las diferentes facetas o áreas concretas donde se ejerce como ser humano. La investigación muestra que el ingreso, aunque estadísticamente significante, no es determinante de la satisfacción económica, y que la satisfacción económica no determina la satisfacción de vida. La investigación concluye que para los costarricenses el nivel de vida es solo uno de los aspectos que influyen en su satisfacción de vida; por ello, su satisfacción de vida es muy alta a pesar de que su ingreso per cápita es comparativamente bajo.

Abstract

Abstract

Costa Ricans have high life-satisfaction levels, even though their per capita income is not high. This result shows up systematically in most polls. For example, a 2008 Gallup Poll shows that Costa Ricans have the highest life satisfaction in the world of 143 countries in which the survey was implemented. Why does a country with mid-level per capita income have the highest life satisfaction in the world? This article follows a domains-of-life approach to understand the high life satisfaction of Costa Ricans. The approach states that life satisfaction emerges from satisfaction in different domains of life in which people act as human beings. The article shows that income, though statistically significant, does not determine economic satisfaction. Furthermore, economic satisfaction does not determine life satisfaction. The article shows that the standard of living is just one of many aspects affecting Costa Rican's life satisfaction. Costa Ricans obtain life satisfaction from other noneconomic domains, such as in their availability and use of free time and in their interpersonal relations. Hence, it is possible for Costa Ricans to attain high life satisfaction levels with a midrange per capita income.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by the Latin American Studies Association

Footnotes

Este proyecto ha contado con el apoyo de una beca incondicionada de la Merck Company Foundation, brazo filantrópico de Merck and Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, Estados Unidos.

References

Referencias

Argyle, Michael 2002 The Psychology of Happiness. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cheung, Chau-Kiu, y Leung, Kwan-Kwok 2004Forming Life Satisfaction among Different Social Groups during the Modernization of China”. Journal of Happiness Studies 5:2356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, Andrew, y Oswald, Andrew 1994Unhappiness and Unemployment”. Economic Journal 104:648659.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crooker, Karen, y Near, Janet 1998Happiness and Satisfaction: Measures of Affect or Cognition?Social Indicators Research 44:195224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, Robert 1996The Domains of Life Satisfaction: An Attempt to Order Chaos”. Social Indicators Research 38:303332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, Robert 1997 Comprehensive Quality of Life Scale—Adult, 5a ed. Melbourne, Australia: Deakin University.Google Scholar
Cummins, Robert 1999 Directory of Instruments to Measure Quality of Life and Cognate Areas. Melbourne, Australia: Deakin University.Google Scholar
Cummins, Robert 2003A Model for the Measurement of Subjective Well-Being through Domains”. Draft. Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.Google Scholar
Di Tella, Rafael, MacCulloch, Robert y Oswald, Andrew 2001Preferences over Inflation and Unemployment: Evidence from Surveys of Happiness”. American Economic Review 91:335341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diener, Ed 1984Subjective Well-Being”. Psychological Bulletin 95:542575.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dohmen, Joep 2003Philosophers on the ‘Art-of-Living‘”. Journal of Happiness Studies 4:351371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eagly, Alice H. 1987 Sex Differences in Social Behavior: A Social-Role Interpretation. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Easterlin, Richard A. 1974 “Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence”. In Nations and Households in Economic Growth: Essays in Honor of Moses Abramovitz, editado por David, Paul A. and Reder, Melvin W., 89125. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Easterlin, Richard A. 1995Will Raising the Incomes of All Increase the Happiness of All?Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 27 (1): 3548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easterlin, Richard A. 2001Income and Happiness: Towards a Unified Theory”. Economic Journal 111:465484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada 2002Subjective Questions to Measure Welfare and Well-Being: A Survey”. Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers No. 02–020/3, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada, y Frijters, Paul 2004How Important Is Methodology for the Estimates of Determinants of Happiness?Economic Journal 114:641659.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frey, Bruno, y Stutzer, Alois 2000Happiness, Economy and Institutions”. Economic Journal, 110:918938.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Headey, Bruce, Holmström, Elsie y Wearing, Alexander 1984The Impact of Life Events and Changes in Domain Satisfactions on Well-Being”. Social Indicators Research 15:203227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Headey, Bruce, Holmström, Elsie y Wearing, Alexander 1985Models of Well-Being and Ill-Being”. Social Indicators Research 17:211234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Headey, Bruce, y Wearing, Alexander 1992 Understanding Happiness: A Theory of Subjective Well-Being. Melbourne, Australia: Longman Cheshire.Google Scholar
Hicks, John 1941 “Education in Economics”. Transactions of the Manchester Statistical Society, 30 de abril.Google Scholar
Lu, Luo, y Gilmour, Robin 2004Culture and Conceptions of Happiness: Individual Oriented and Social Oriented SWB”. Journal of Happiness Studies 5:269291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyubomirsky, Sonja 2001Why Are Some People Happier Than Others? The Role of Cognitive and Motivational Processes in Well-Being”. American Psychologist 56:239249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mallard, Alison, Lance, Charles y Michalos, Alex 1997Culture as a Moderator of Overall Life Satisfaction-Life Facet Satisfaction Relationship”. Social Indicators Research 40:259284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McBride, Michael 2001Relative-Income Effects on Subjective Well-Being in the Cross Section”. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 45:251278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meadow H. L., J. T. Mentzer, Rahtz, D. R. y Sirgy, J. 1992A Life Satisfaction Measure Based on Judgment Theory”. Social Indicators Research 26:2359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meier, Gerald 1991Pareto, Edgeworth and Hicks: The Education of an Economist”. Review of Political Economy 3:349353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michalos, Alex 1980Satisfaction and Happiness”. Social Indicators Research 8:385–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michalos, Alex 1985Multiple Discrepancy Theory”. Social Indicators Research 16:347413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oswald, Andrew 1997Subjective Well-Being and Economic Performance”. Economic Journal 197:18151831.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rojas, Mariano 2006 “Well-Being and the Complexity of Poverty: A Subjective Well-Being Approach”. In Understanding Human Well-Being, edited by McGillivray, Mark and Clarke, Matthew, 182206. Tokyo: UN University Press.Google Scholar
Rojas, Mariano 2007a “The Complexity of Well-Being: A Life-Satisfaction Conception and a Domains-of-Life Approach”. In Researching Well-Being in Developing Countries: From Theory to Research, edited by Gough, Ian and McGregor, Allister, 259280. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rojas, Mariano 2007bHeterogeneity in the Relationship between Income and Happiness: A Conceptual-Referent-Theory Explanation”. Journal of Economic Psychology 28:114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rojas, Mariano 2008Experienced Poverty and Income Poverty in Mexico: A Subjective Well-Being Approach”. World Development 36 (6): 10781093.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rojas, Mariano 2009A Monetary Appraisal of Some Illnesses in Costa Rica: A Subjective Well-Being Approach”. Pan American Journal of Public Health 26 (3): 244254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rojas, Mariano 2010Domain-Absentee Persons and the Explanatory Structure of Life Satisfaction”. Documento de trabajo, Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, Ciudad de México.Google Scholar
Salvatore, Nadine, y Sastre, Teresa Muñoz 2001Appraisal of Life: ‘Area’ versus ‘Dimension’ Conceptualizations”. Social Indicators Research 53:229255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sumner, L. W. 1996 Welfare, Happiness, and Ethics. Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
van Praag, Bernard, y Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada 2004 Happiness Quantified: A Satisfaction Calculus Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Praag, Bernard, Frijters, Paul y Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada 2003The Anatomy of Subjective Well-Being”. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 51:2949.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veenhoven, Ruut 1984 Conditions of Happiness. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veenhoven, Ruut 1992 Happiness in Nations: Subjective Appreciation of Life in 56 Nations, 1946–1992. Rotterdam: Erasmus University.Google Scholar
Veenhoven, Ruut 1996Developments in Satisfaction Research”. Social Indicators Research 37:145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veenhoven, Ruut 2003Arts-of-Living”. Journal of Happiness Studies 4:373384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar