Sociology Question

The general topic of the essay assignment is to analyze how living in the United States in the 21st century affects happiness/well-being. Drawing on course materials assigned to date (i.e., the ones referenced in the essay prep quiz), discuss how living in an affluent society can increase happiness/well-being and the various reasons why greater affluence in a society does not necessarily lead to greater happiness/well-being. Given what you know from the assigned course materials, think about what you could do in your own life to increase your own happiness and well-being? Also, given what you know from the assigned course materials, think about what sort of changes in society might have the effect of increasing the overall happiness/well-being of the greatest number of people in a society.

Your response should draw on your responses to all of the questions in the essay prep quiz.

Now, for grading criteria. I am going to keep this pretty simple and straightforward as well.

To get an A on the paper, here is what you need to do:

1. Write a minimum of 2000 words.
2. Reference each of the sources included in the essay prep quiz. These should be cited in the text of your paper (with author last name, year of publication, and page number in the text) and included in your reference list at the end of the paper.

3. Accurately and clearly respond to each of the essay prep quiz questions. (There are 10 of them).

4. Write well. Use proper grammar, spelling, and citations; write effective paragraphs and maintain strong organization of your ideas throughout the paper.

5. Fully address the essay prompt:

“The general topic of the essay assignment is to analyze how living in the United States in the 21st century affects happiness/well-being. Drawing on course materials assigned to date (i.e., the ones referenced in the essay prep quiz), discuss how living in an affluent society can increase happiness/well-being and the various reasons why greater affluence in a society does not necessarily lead to greater happiness/well-being. Given what you know from the assigned course materials, think about what you could do in your own life to increase your own happiness and well-being? Also, given what you know from the assigned course materials, think about what sort of changes in society might have the effect of increasing the overall happiness/well-being of the greatest number of people in a society.”

Note: If you did a thorough job on the essay prep quiz, you will have all the material you need to write an effective essay. You will, however, need to organize the material in a way that follows the essay prompt.

Essay prep questions

What would the hedonic treadmill theory predict about how a person’s happiness would be affected by living in an affluent society? How do the revisions Diener makes to the theory help to make sense of what social scientists know about how happiness is affected by living in an affluent society?

Drawing on the point made by Layard regarding the importance of meaningfulness in life, explain how this finding might help to understand why there is an imperfect correlation between affluence in society and happiness of individuals within the society. Think about what might need to be changed in (U.S.) American society to make it more likely that the affluence of a society would lead to greater happiness among its people.

Drawing on the reading “The Paradox of Choice” by Barry Schwartz, explain how the expansion of choice in affluent societies might help to explain why affluence does not always lead to greater happiness. Based on Schwartz’s research, how much choice and what kinds of choices do you think would maximize the overall happiness in a society? Can you think of ways society might be changed in a way that allowed people the freedom to make important choices in their own lives but not so many choices that they are overwhelmed and their well-being compromised?

What does chapter 2 of Myers The Pursuit of Happiness tell us about the relationship between wealth and happiness within countries? In other words, are the rich the happiest?

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