Posted: December 11th, 2014

Influences of the Places we Live on our Happiness: Living in Urban and Rural Areas http://naturalnews.com/043518_happiness_nature_mental_health.html# http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2996208/

Influences of the Places we Live on our Happiness: Living in Urban and Rural Areas

http://naturalnews.com/043518_happiness_nature_mental_health.html#
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2996208/

Influences of the Places we Live on our Happiness: Living in Urban and Rural Areas
There are various understandings directed towards the term happiness, with some individuals considering it to be the feeling of being satisfied. People tend to be happy in case the environment they live in is favorable, and their health is physically, biologically, emotionally and psychologically comfortable. According to the understanding drawn from psychologists, happiness is influenced by factors such as the financial stability of an individual and the ability to satisfy the fundamental human needs. Additionally, happiness is produced by the satisfaction acquired from luxurious moments, an indication that the feeling is stimulated by positive happening surrounding an individual.
Happiness is a feeling that is significantly influenced by internal and external factors surrounding human beings. External factors that influence happiness are with inclusion of employment, income, and education among others. On the other hand, good health and individuals’ expectations are considered to be some of the internal factors that influence happiness, hence life satisfaction of people (Amato & Zuo, 1992). Rural-urban migration is common. The principal intention of people moving from rural to urban regions is to seek for happiness, and this is in the sense that their focus is to find employment, income, better education, and better health services.
Rural environment differs from urban setting in different dimensions such as social dimensions, economic dimensions, and socio-economic dimensions. This is an indication that the living standards of people in rural areas is different from that of people in urban areas, but the perception that people have towards satisfaction of basic needs contributes immensely to their life. The connections that are established between individuals and the society where they live immensely contribute to life satisfaction and more importantly lead to balance in rural and urban living. Thus, there is great a need to understand the aspect of happiness depending on the places where people live, with more focus being laid upon the rural setting and urban setting, as this will be the topic that I shall argue in this paper.
As I mentioned in the introduction,  there is a big correlation between happiness and internal, external factors. People need a good income to satisfy their needs, also education is another external requirement which they need in order to feed their life satisfaction. And if they do not find chance for obtaining these need where they live, people tend to change places they live and move to another place. In this case rural-urban migrations becomes common. People try to find opportunities to feed their external needs such as good income, and high education, and internal needs such as health and some subjective expectations, in the urban areas. However, while, rate of migration from rural areas to urban areas becomes high, because of this incursion into the urban areas, there occurs lack of job opportunities and migrants can not find environment they expected. On the other hand, people living in urban areas also migrate to rural areas, because of stressful environment of urban settings. The external factors such as income and job are not met, and people are forced by situation to move to rural areas to seek satisfaction. Conversely, the urban-rural migration is significantly contributed to the need for people to meet the basic needs such as food and shelter (Dolan, Peasgood & White, 2008)

The difference that exists between people with high income and those that have low income is very high, and this establishes the differences in how people live and perceive happiness. People have the perception that only the rich people are the ones who are happy, but psychologists have confirmed that the poor also become happy if they understand their situation and work towards meeting their basic needs. Income differences between individuals who are categorized to be wealthy and those who are poor have been evidence to be a single issue that causes differences between people’s social setting. The perception that those living in urban areas are comfortable and happy are those who can satisfy and meet the external factors can be easily confirmed through understanding the social settings. The experiences in the rural environment for people who have expectations of being happy and can meet the external factors are not favorable (Dowling & Yap, 2013). This is because the rural areas are characterized by poverty, little development, inadequate infrastructure, low-quality education, and low-quality health services among other negative parameters that influence human satisfaction negatively.
The living styles of people who have little income in urban regions are hostile and aggressive as compared to the rural setting. People in urban centers need to address various expenses such as paying the rent, electricity bill, and water bills. The food that people consume in urban regions is bought, an indication that the poor may find it difficult to survive in such environment (Graham & Pettinato, 2002). And this is what makes poor people living in urban settings to become more aggressive.  A I said poverty is one of the causes of urban-rural migration. A significant concern is that the living cost of people in rural areas is minimal because they do not pay rent, but rather construct simple shelters. They also purchase most of the foods they consume because they produce them through farming.
Studies have revealed that engagement in economic and non-economic activities is facilitated by people’s achievement and individual’s expectations (Plaut, Adams & Anderson, 2009). The productivity of people, irrespective of whether they are living in rural or urban regions influences their living styles and hence life satisfaction. It is true that productive people are more comfortable than non-productive individuals because they can meet the basic needs and the secondary needs that help in meeting the external factors. People living in rural areas tend to satisfy their requirements through involvement in economic activities such as farming, mining, fishing and other activities that can help them in generating income such as investing in the transport sector. The individuals who are unable to participate in economic activities tend to have an aggressive and hostile lifestyle in rural areas. This is an indication that they cannot fit in an urban environment (Plaut, Adams & Anderson, 2009). The ability to be productive contributes immensely to happiness in rural areas because the cost of living in those regions is very low as compared to that in urban centers.
In order to advance the understanding of productivity and other external factors that lead to the establishment of happiness to human beings, it is essential to describe the external factors. Considering employment, it is evident that the chances of securing jobs in urban centers are higher than in rural areas. This causes people to shift to urban areas to seek for jobs, which consequently help them in meeting the factor of income (Graham & Pettinato, 2002). Jobs in urban areas are observed to be offering higher income than those in rural areas, and this enables people to satisfy their basic needs, hence attaining satisfaction. With sufficient revenue, people tend to seek high-quality education, which is acquired from institutions that are considered to be expensive. Additionally, individuals with the significant amount of revenue tend to get health services from expensive hospitals where services and treatment are of high quality. This is an indication that satisfaction of one factor influencing happiness leads to appreciation of all other factors irrespective of whether people are living in rural or urban regions.
There are rich people from rural setting, and their appreciation with the external and internal factors is influenced by the expectations and the efforts that they integrate with their daily life operations. The productivity of people in rural areas determines whether they will be able to live happy lives that are only attained by satisfaction of external factors. The expectations of people and emotional satisfaction contribute immensely to happiness irrespective of the setting where individuals live (Dowling & Yap, 2013). For instance, when poor have the desire and hope of getting rich, they tend to involve their knowledge and energies in productive economic activities. Consequently, when they achieve their dream, happiness is created. This is also true of low-income earners in urban regions. Understanding the needs of the environment where one lives significantly determines whether life satisfaction will be met or not. In the main, it is the perception that individual persons have towards life and the environment where they live in that contribute to life satisfaction and happiness (Amato & Zuo, 1992).
In the main, the experiences in urban setting for people with less income are different from that of people in rural areas. This is in the sense that those in rural areas have better living standards, hence are happier. The rural setting is more supportive as compared to urban setting, and the support that people offer to each other in rural areas binds them together making them happy. Therefore, living in rural or urban areas is not an issue that influences happiness, but the ability of people to meet the basic needs. Besides it is their ability to address the primary factors that affect happiness such as employment, income, education and good health. This is because happiness is a psychological feeling that is established when one is stress-free. It is also achieved if people understand their individual needs, the needs of the society and the needs of the environment where they live.

Amato, P. R., & Zuo, J. (1992). Rural Poverty and Psychological Well-Being. The Sociological Quarterly 30 (2), 229-240
Dolan, P. Peasgood, T., & White, M. (2008). Do we Really Know what makes us Happy? A Review of the Economic Literature on the Factors Associated with Subjective Well-Being. Journal of Economic Psychology, Vol 29, 94-122
Dowling, J. M., & Yap, C. (2013). Happiness and Poverty in Developing Countries: A Global Perspective. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
Graham, C., & Pettinato, S. (2002). Happiness and hardship: Opportunity and Insecurity in New Market Economies. Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Plaut, V. C., Adams, G., & Anderson, S. (2009). Does Attractiveness buy Happiness? ‘It depends on where you’re from’. Personal Relationships Vol 16, 619-630

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