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The Pursuit of Happiness

Satisfactory Essays

The Pursuit of Happiness
Andrew Roberts
PSY/220

June 9, 2013

The Pursuit of Happiness
The Pursuit of Happiness for one person is different for that of another person. The same goes for those of different cultures. It could be the traditions in how they are brought up as children and what they are taught to believe at an early age. In America we are continually told about the American Dream which is the portrait of the perfect family in a Norman Rockwell painting, the perfect job, the house with the white picket fence and no problems where everybody looks happy and acts as if they are happy; this would be a stereotype of what happiness looks like. Is this true happiness? Not really for very few of us ever achieve all of these …show more content…

Happiness is based on what is going on around the culture as a whole and not the individual. Asian cultures and traditions do not look at happiness as a major experience in the realm of life experiences. They regard happiness and all emotions as temporary states of the mind and continue on with their day as if nothing happened. Asian cultures are more apt to view well being by how they are seen as a family or country by those around them in their community which is very critical for the Asian cultures. Whereas Americans are more individualistic in this sense for we are always looking to be better than the next person.
A good example of the difference between Asian cultures and America would be the Olympic Games. Children from most other countries than the USA are literally taken from homes at early ages and it is their job to bring home the gold medal for their country. It is put in their heads at an early age that this is their meaning in life and that if they don’t succeed that they will be bringing failure not only to themselves but to their family and country if they don’t succeed. This is why when America took the gold in women’s gymnastics this past summer, and China took the silver that the Chinese women looked so down like it was the end of the world. Where as in the diving competition when the Chinese women would win Gold they looked like it was expected. With the American diver there was so

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