Subjective Well-Being among Institutionalized and Non- Institutionalized Senior Citizens

Abstract

The concept of subjective well-being has ever been a matter of intense debate and it has always cogitated the minds of great thinkers all over the world ever since the inception of human civilization .Still it is difficult to define it comprehensively as to what constitutes good life. It varies from individual to individual as some people think material wealth is the source of happiness where as for others, it is renunciation. In fact, the Weser and the Eastern cultures are markedly different on the issue of subjective well-being as the former has always gone for how much more it can have and the later struggled for the least requirement of life. Naturally, the dichotomy is science versus religion or more precisely, it is materialism versus spiritualism. The result is that the West has developed the empirical science and the East has excelled in spirituality. Thus, the overall culture influences the mass into grasping the philosophy of subjective well-being on the average. That’s why the count on subjective well-being may be subjected to external or internal factors like sense-pleasure, human relationship, love-needs, material gain or renunciation leading to spiritual upliftment.