The Outlook on Happiness and Self-Control Across Cultures: The Positive Relationship Between Self-Control and Happiness

Abstract

This literature review examined the research question of whether or not self-control had a positive correlation with happiness. The goal of this paper was to analyze self-control and happiness across the globe and to use supporting previous research to find if there was a positive correlation between the two. Previous research supported the idea that different perspectives of self-control can affect a person's ability to be content in life (Wei et al., 2013) and in addition, varying outlooks on happiness can also affect how a person views their well-being (Pflug, 2009). The concept of how self-control and happiness vary across cultures and that there are similarities between self-control and happiness was validated through supportive research. A positive relationship between self-control and happiness may be plausible because of the positive aspects that come with having good self-control (Cheung et al., 2014).