Capital and Happiness; the Relationship Between Social and Cultural Capital and Happiness

Since the beginning of human civilization one of the basic needs of human beings in all cultures has been feeling happy, which affects the physical and mental health of community members. Hence, the aim of this study is to examine the state of feeling of happiness and its relationship with social and cultural capital. The method used in this research is survey and data was gathered using questionnaires. The sample was composed of 384 of citizens of Aran & Bidgol in 2005 and the obtained data was analyzed by the statistical software LISREL and SPSS. The assessment of results showed that the happiness of the sample was at the moderate to high level (7.58) and the amount of happiness in the emotional dimension was at a higher level than cognitive and social dimensions. Also, the average values of social and cultural capital were 66.3 and 40.6 respectively. In analytical findings, statistics showed that there is a direct and significant relationship between social (0.478) and cultural capital (0.402) and feeling of happiness; in other words, with an increase in social and cultural capital, there will be a rise in citizens’ feeling of happiness. Also, the cultural capital indirectly, and by affecting the social capital, leads to an increase in the feeling of happiness.