Qualitative research on happiness and Vietnam's (HPI) among 178 countries in 2006

Abstract

Happiness is a research subject, of which it is extremely difficult to acquire an adequate understanding. As such, it had been for long only the target of theological and philosophical studies, which was subject to experience-based and quantitative interpretation. Being unsatisfied with such interpretations, in recent years, ambitious efforts have been dedicated by experts working in diverse sciences, including mathematicians, to translate happiness into measurable indicators. Following this trend, in July 2006, the New Economics Foundation (NEF), a social-economic research institution based in the United Kingdom, launched a report titled Happy Planet Index (HPI) which provided rankings to 178 countries. The report gained for itself certain credibility in the international community. According to the report,

the top rank in HPI in 2006 was Vanuatu, an island-state in the South Pacific; while Zimbabwe, an African nation, was ranked at the bottom of 178 countries. Vietnam reached a rather high HPI, ranking 12 of 178 countries, surpassing even China, Thailand, Italy, Japan, the United States and more than 160 other countries.

Having discussed a one hundred year history of the qualitative research trend with its strengths and limitations, on which an analysis of this phenomenon made by the writer as based. As the writer put it, happiness constitutes both a subjective and objective value. Thus, the pursuit of happiness, though how much it bears upon subjective characteristics, is not an impracticable or a merely "idealistic" search, but possibly said it is fully hard.