Well-Being and Ill-Being: Names and Naming

Synonyms

Perception of emotions; Perception of feelings; Quality of life and its perception

Definition

Words and names for the various states of well-being and ill-being underlie cultural, situational, and lingual influence. Usually people express their well-being by giving names to their feelings and emotions. Originally these emotions and feelings are nameless and have to be identified and recognized by the individual before they can be included in human communication. Each language offers an inventory of words for our emotions and feelings, and an individual has variable possibilities to ascribe a certain word or term to our emotions and feelings. This is a process of interpretation and part of the social construction of reality (Berger & Luckmann, 1967).

Description

Subjective well-being, as used in social indicators and quality of life research, refers to all of the various types of evaluation, both positively and negatively, that people make of their life. There are many words, names, labels, terms, and concepts to describe certain states of well-being and ill-being (Diener, 2006, p. 397). In each language there is available a somewhat different inventory of words which can be used to describe emotions and feelings about well-being. They are the reservoir of names for the nameless signals which we get from our body. Sometimes there are labels which can be assigned immediately to an emotional or feeling state; sometimes it is doubtful or ambivalent, what the exact term would be for a certain feeling. Often there are elaborated concepts around our emotions, for example, if anxiety is regarded. The process which performs a characterization of human well-being states is often regarded as typification (Tritt, 1992). Each individual possesses his or her own inventory of words and names to define feeling states. The societal recognition of these emotions is highly differentiated, some are forbidden, and others are evaluated positive. In a process of interpretation, we express our well-being, which depends mainly on the individuals, their body feelings, cultural influences, and language elaboration.

Languages offer different labels for emotional states. This is one reason why it is rather hard to find the exact translation for an emotional word. For example, the English words “happy” and “joyful or joy” are translated in English-German dictionaries into the word “glücklich,” but happy refers rather to a temporary feeling. For example, you are happy because you got a good grade in an exam. Joy is related more to a meaningful experience in life, for example, my family brings me joy. It is more a feeling which comes from the inside, and it is produced internally whereas happiness is produced externally. The word joy refers to a much more intense emotion than the word happy. In German there is no such differentiation of “glücklich,” which is used in both situations. This is just one example for distinctive semantic meanings and uses of emotional words in different languages and situations. Another aspect with respect to the word happy is that in English it is often used whereas joy is used rarely (see Pörings & Schmitz, 1999, p. 145). In each case people feel something and want to find a word for this. This is often not easy because many words for well-being or ill-being are overlapping or close together and finding an exact word is part of an aspiring social process.

As subjective well-being can refer to evaluations of all aspects of human life, there are many words available to describe these assessments.

There are already guidelines available, which describe basic terms of subjective well-being (Diener, 2006, p. 399). The ensemble of words and terms for the positive side and for the negative side of subjective well-being in English is the following (Figs. 1 and 2).

Well-Being and Ill-Being: Names and Naming, Fig. 1

Labels for positive emotions and feelings in English (Source: Self-produced)

Well-Being and Ill-Being: Names and Naming, Fig. 2

Labels for negative emotions and feelings in English (Source: Self-produced)

Besides words for each emotion, we are able to express our emotions just with our facial expressions and/or our body language. In a communication with others, we don’t need to name our emotions. The dialogue partner knows how we feel, just when he or she looks into our face or to our body, and vice versa. This is so special on emotions that we have a clue how others feel, without the use of words, just with our feeling for emotions and the ability to interpret facial expressions. In all countries of the world, a laughing person generally gives us the idea that this person is happy. It is not necessary that the person explains how he or she feels by telling us. So some emotions are culturally universal (Eckman & Wallace, 1971).

In various cultures certain feelings and emotions have different recognition. Some emotions are seen as a pleasant feeling in all of the cultures in the world. For example, happiness is always classified as a pleasant feeling and sadness is always classified as an unpleasant feeling. But there are feelings which are classified differently in nations, for example, pride is in Western countries more a positive, whereas in India it is considered to be a negative emotion. In German the term “Gemütlichkeit” describes a special pleasant social context, but it is difficult to express this word in English.

There are also differences in how people handle emotions in social relations. In Japan the feelings of unpleasant emotions like grief are hidden in the public and covered with a smile. When the people in Japan were confronted with the tsunami catastrophe and some had just lost their relatives or their homes, but when they were interviewed or shown in the media they smiled, because with smiling they covered their sadness. Emotions are hidden in front of unfamiliar people who don’t belong to the family because they don’t want to confront them with these negative feelings. In Western cultures, showing sadness in the public area is more accepted. So when humans are sad they sometimes cry and tears are running out of their eyes. Some people are more sensitive than others; they cry more often or longer. Within some cultures it is more accepted that women cry in public than men, so men more often try to suppress their negative emotions.

To say that “I’m feeling happy” is very common, but to say that “I feel shame” is not. That’s why shame is an emotion which usually is not exhibited (Neckel, 1991, p. 171) and directly expressed by the people feeling shame, for example, poor people (Becker & Gulyas, 2012).

Neckel (2009) also draws attention to the aspect of emotional self-management. He mentions advice manuals, for example, the German manual, The Formula for Happiness: How Good Feelings Arise (Klein 2003). These advice manuals give instructions on how to control one’s own emotions and also the emotions of others (Neckel, 2009).

Individuals have different inclinations to emotions and are more or less emotional or sensitive. There are variations between persons with a different cultural background and their emotional expressions, and there are also differences between persons with the same cultural background.

Besides names and facial expressions for special types of well-being and ill-being, we have imagination of the depth of emotions and feelings. An individual’s assessment is usually decisive about how his or her feelings (“I feel angry” or “fully angry”) and labeled, but very often others assist this process (“Are you feeling angry? You look angry.”). Exactly why they know it is unclear.

In the exploration of feelings and emotions social scientists are confronted with the question of how to measure them. There are different measurement procedures to get more knowledge about the kind and intensity of feelings. We have broad categories like satisfaction and happiness on the bright side of life and worries and pains on the dark side. If we want to compare individuals or nations, we need scales. The scales used in well-being research are rather different, and this is a hint to the fact that they are somewhat artificial.

The most used life satisfaction scale runs from 0 to 10 and has 11 points with a midpoint. Others have only 10 points or seven or five or only three points. Most scales are one sided from zero to a higher value; some have zero in the middle and are differentiating to plus and minus. Alternative scales use verbal answer categories: not happy, somewhat happy, and totally happy. Sometimes we find a bipolar scale with yes and no and sometimes the two sides are differentiated. Partly graphics use ladders and stairs. (Visit Veenhoven’s World Database of Happiness for a collection of measurement scales: http://worlddatabaseof happiness.eur.nl/).

Of course there are distinctive terms which are clearly separated, but the meaning of many terms is partly the same. We can use semantic differentials to clarify if terms are similar or not. In the study of Campbell, Converse, and Rodgers (1976), this technique, which was developed by (Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, 1957), was used. Here the respondents were asked how satisfied and how happy they feel about their present life. They rated themselves between pairs of contrary adjectives. According to these results, satisfaction and happiness are somewhat similar, but they are not the same. We would expect the same for negative terms like anxiety and fear or others.

By asking people, for example, how happy people feel, researchers try to measure and compare people’s feelings. If we look at the correlations between five global measures, we see the following results (see Table 1):

Well-Being and Ill-Being: Names and Naming, Table 1 Relationships of five Measures of Well-Being

The 7-pt. satisfaction scale is correlated strongly positive with the 7-pt. happiness scale. This means that more satisfaction goes together with more happiness. Positive affect is correlated positively with satisfaction (.30) and a little bit stronger with happiness (.36). This shows that in general satisfaction and happiness are interpreted as something positive, whereas negative affect is correlated positively with worries, and this is also according to our theoretical expectation. Just positive and negative affects seem to be independent from another (.01). So it could be possible to have a high positive affect, but at the same time a high negative affect. The ambivalence of feelings is documented in this result.

Information about the scales:

• Satisfaction 7-pt. scale: How satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days? 7 steps: from completely satisfied to completely dissatisfied.

• Happiness 7-pt. scale: How do you feel how happy you are? 7 steps

• Worries: Most people worry more or less about some things. Would you say you never worry, worry a little, worry sometimes, worry a lot, or worry all the time?

• Positive affect: (Bradburn’s Positive Affect Scale) number of five positive events experienced. “During past few weeks did you ever feel…particularly exited or interested in something you had done?…proud because someone complimented you on something?…on top of the world?…that things were going your way?”

• Negative affect: (Bradburns’s negative affect scale) number of five negative events experienced. “During the past few weeks did you ever feel so restless that you couldn’t sit long in a chair?…very lonely or remote from other people?…bored?…depressed or very unhappy? Upset because someone criticized you?”

The correlations show the relationships between the various measurement types of people’s feelings. There is no direct way for researchers to know what others are feeling, but we try to indirectly determine what survey respondents feel and express. We are constructing reality with the quantification means developed in other scientific fields. Also meters and hours are constructions of human beings and no natural units.

New styles of expressing emotions were introduced with the computer world where emotions are expressed with “Emoticons.” These “Emoticons” (a portmanteau word of the English words emotion and icon) are built by using punctuation marks and letters; they are little pictures that look like faces. “Smiles” are graphic Emoticons; they are used by people to communicate their emotions and to specify the context of meaning. Especially in Internet chats, in private e-mail communication, in twitter, or at social networks, this expression is used (for more information about Emoticons, see Walther, 2006). Smiles which look like faces are also used in questionnaires by asking: Which face comes closest to expressing how you feel about your life as a whole? (see, e.g., Andrews & Withey, 1976, p. 376). So you can put Smiles in a row which range from happy to sad (see, e.g., Fig. 3).

Well-Being and Ill-Being: Names and Naming, Fig. 3

Emotions respectively smilies from happy to sad (Source: http://tango.freedesktop.org/Tango_Desktop_Project)

Discussion

Emotions and feelings of well-being, which belong to our human nature, are not self-evident. Moreover, they have to be identified by individuals in question, by significant others and also by QoL researcher. As the case of a newborn child shows, human beings have emotions and feelings before they are able to speak. Giving names to them is learned in the individual socialization process of growing up, and it is part of the social construction of reality. Often other persons refer to our emotions and feelings of well-being, then they influence our interpersonal relationships. Self-definitions and definitions by others about well-being are included in our communication processes. If different emotions and feelings of well-being run against others, this can cause distortions in relationships and also severe conflicts.

The interpretation of emotions and feelings of well-being and ill-being depends on personalities, situations, and cultures, and the verbalization of emotions and feelings is not absolutely necessary as body language and facial expressions also transport information.

There is always more or less uncertainty and variability in the process of identifying and interpreting emotions and feelings.

Cross-References

Emotional Well-Being

Face Perception

Happiness

Satisfaction with Life as a Whole

Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), an Overview

Semantic Differential

Subjective Well-Being (SWB)

World Database of Happiness

Worries (Global Measure)