Is there happiness in money? An attitudinal study of native Lithuanian speakers

Abstract

The paper considers the different notions of happiness known since antiquity, such as the Greek concepts of harmonia, eudaimonia, makarioi, and hēdonē, and explores the factors of happiness. The aim of this research is to form a more complete understanding of Lithuanian speakers and their attitude(s) towards happiness. The research surveyed 210 Lithuanian speakers aged 15 to 35 who were residing in Lithuania, France, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The analysis shows that today people’s individualism reveals itself through gender differences. The list of factors determining happiness is shorter for men than it is for women, and men have one distinctive factor for happiness – friends. The respondents of both genders valued health, family and love the highest, however, the other factors for happiness reveal gender differences. Women need several happiness-determining factors at the same time, which conforms to the psychological nature of women as gatherers, whereas men create their happiness in a more specific, more focused and less scattered way.