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Can Money Buy Happiness?

Annotated Bibliography

Can Money Buy Happiness?

Natalie Borden

PSY 6104: Positive Psychology

April 22, 2018

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Can Money Buy Happiness?

Can money buy happiness?

This is a question we all strive to seek. Is money the answer? Is money all you need in

life to be happy? It is easy to say that today money runs the world, from buying a coffee every

morning before work to political power that runs the big banks today. From the morning till the

night of each and every day, money is there and needs to be there. We can all agree that money is

power, but the question is, does money create happiness or is the idea of wealth that encourages a

life without worry. We each have our own opinion and definition on what happiness is. Is money

your definition of happiness? Questions I have about the final paper is, should we be getting five

articles and summarizing each and that’s what will be making up the length of the paper? A page

long summary on each article seems difficult even though double spaced.

 Harvard Mental Health Letter (HARV MENT HEALTH LETT), Sep2008;

25(3): 7-7. (1p)

This article states the response of money can buy happiness if you give it away. The article

demonstrated a survey done on 632 Americans to rate their happiness based on how much money

they made each year as well as the amount spent on bills and gifts for themselves. The study

relayed based on the research Americans were happier with a greater income as well as personal

spending on gifts or charity donations to certain organizations. The researches have reported

greater happiness among individuals that made a greater proportion of their income on charitable

donations regardless of the actual amount of income made each year. This is a helpful source for

another point of view by research done on the connection between happiness by giving back and

the amount of income made by individuals.

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Can Money Buy Happiness?

 Kerr, Lisa M., Case Western Reserve Law Review, 00087262, Spring99, Vol. 49,

Issue 3

This article covers the impact of the amount of money of health coverage and the level of

happiness that correlates with this. The article demonstrated how the economic factor of society

affects the utilization of infertility services. As women are faced with this decision of high cost

infertility coverage, it changes the attitudes of women towards infertility coverage and health

insurance due to the high costs of health care. The article shows how infertility is a serious health

problem in the united states and how the high costs of infertility services causes women to be

unhappy due to being infertile because the cost of insurance coverage is so expensive that

women are having no option because they cannot afford this coverage. This is a helpful source

because money has an impact of happiness even with things such as health coverage, the article

gives insight on how money has an impact of women being fertile just because of a money issue

with health insurance.

 Ashkanasy, Neal M. Academy of Management Perspectives. Feb2011, Vol. 25

Issue 1, p23-29. 7p. DOI: 10.5465/AMP.2011.59198446. , Database: Business

Source Elite

This article gives a multilevel perspective on studies showing that money can buy and does buy

happiness but studies also has shown that happiness does not seem to increase with economic

growth. The surveys compare the subjective happiness of young and old people are happy rather

than middle-aged people. It also shows that people that are employed, exercises regularly, and a

healthy diet are happier than if they didn’t have these attributes. The article states that happy

countries are rich, educated, and have a low unemployment rate, likewise the opposite of non-

happy countries. The survey explains that more positive moods in a workplace setting tend to
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Can Money Buy Happiness?

result in more positive outcomes of financial growth by increased chances of higher paid position

opportunities. This is a helpful source because it shows the relationship of money and happiness

by explaining how organizational behavior and giving useful information given the correlation

and question of if money can buy happiness.

 Jahan, Farhat; Aijaz, Asiya. Indian Journal of Health & Wellbeing. 2015, Vol.

6 Issue 10, p1041-1043. 3p

This article gives a psychological perspective of the link between economic affluence and

happiness. The article states how we all look for happiness one way or the other, regardless of

whether we are poor or rich. Changing behavior was a topic in this article stating the best way to

understand happiness is to find what makes us happy and what makes us not happy. In this

article, a study conducted by Elizabeth, Aknin and Norton (2009) found regardless of what we

buy, we experience a greater level of happiness when we spend money on other rather than on

ourselves. This finding suggest that we find happiness between personal goals and helping

others. Another case study shown in this article was if we strive for a certain level of financial

freedom, we will find happiness. This concluded that buying materialistic things alone are not

sufficient enough to make us happy. This is a helpful source because it gives useful information

by showing how external factors of happiness such as physical health, satisfying family life, and

mental health are more valuable then internal factors like buying materialistic items for yourself.

I like how it gives a psychological perspective on the correlation of money and happiness by

saying your “rich” has more meanings to people than just the financial side of life.

 Wyld, David C. Academy of Management Perspectives. Feb2011, Vol. 25 Issue

1, p101-103. 2p. DOI: 10.5465/AMP.2011.59198457. , Database: Business

Source Elite
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Can Money Buy Happiness?

This article presents the wealth obsession among society today. A study done in this

article was the insight between the relationship between pay and job satisfaction. Their

findings state employees who had higher salaries tended to have more happiness in their

personal life. A question in this article was does pay motivate workers. A meta-analysis

was done to study this question and the results were a statistically significant positive

relationship between pay level and happiness in the work place, the correlations of the

pay level and job satisfaction between American employees versus employees in

Australia, Britain, India and Taiwan was weaker for American employee’s due to the

culture of society in America vs the culture in the other countries studied. One of the

more interesting findings was comparing employees at different pay levels and their

happiness, the findings argued higher-paid employees would be much more satisfied with

their job and showed more positive attitudes in everyday life vs their counterpart

coworkers with less paying positions and less positive attitudes due to the compensation

factor. The significance of the research done in this article points out a dilemma for

employers when it comes to pay and the level of happiness and positive attitudes of the

employees in the work place setting. Consequently, the article reminds us that money

may not necessarily make employees have a better positive attitude at work, due to the

external factors of his/her personal life. This is a helpful source because provides useful

information of the comparison of higher paying jobs and the relationship of happiness, as

well as the dilemma for employer’s employees when it comes to job satisfaction and the

money given for certain positions.

Doing research on the relationship between money and happiness gave me a different

perspective when trying to answer this question. A lot of factors come into play both in our
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Can Money Buy Happiness?

society and workplace environment today. Everyone has a different definition of what “Rich” is,

some people believe rich is being financially free, as others believe being rich is having high

family values, and personal experience in life such as traveling the world or being mentally and

physically healthy. Personally, do I think money can buy happiness, I believe that question

everyone will have a different answer, but to answer the question yes, I believe personally money

can buy happiness because the world today, without money there’s not much you can do. Most

activities or attributes in life require money to do, for example traveling the world you need

money for that, having that coffee every morning you need money for that, going to the gym to

maintain your physical health you need money for that. Without being financially stable in life,

you run into a lot of problems ranging from being able to eat to taking care of your family with

healthcare.

References:
 Harvard Mental Health Letter (HARV MENT HEALTH LETT),

Sep2008; 25(3): 7-7. (1p)

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Can Money Buy Happiness?

 Kerr, Lisa M., Case Western Reserve Law Review, 00087262,

Spring99, Vol. 49, Issue 3

 Ashkanasy, Neal M. Academy of Management
Perspectives. Feb2011, Vol. 25 Issue 1, p23-29. 7p. DOI:
10.5465/AMP.2011.59198446. , Database: Business Source Elite

 Wyld, David C. Academy of Management Perspectives. Feb2011,

Vol. 25 Issue 1, p101-103. 2p. DOI: 10.5465/AMP.2011.59198457. ,
Database: Business Source Elite

 Jahan, Farhat; Aijaz, Asiya. Indian Journal of Health &

Wellbeing. 2015, Vol. 6 Issue 10, p1041-1043. 3p

 Anderson, S. L. (2016). PSY101 annotated bibliography template

. [Template]. College of Health, Human Services, and Science.
Ashford University: Clinton, IA.