CONNECTING
"Society must be organized in such a way- Erich Fromm
that a person's social and loving characteristics
cannot be separated from their social
existence, but are part of it."
PARTNER
Finding a complementary partner is a catalyst for happiness. Ending up with an unsuitable partner has an opposite effect.
A partner gives us access to sex, which may result in having our own family. However, the need for sex must be nuanced: it can also have a negative impact on our relational well-being.
Many studies also suggest that marriage makes people happier than being unmarried or single. This conclusion may be too far-reaching when other variables that are not measured here are taken into account.
Having a partner also has a positive impact on other dimensions: especially our needs related to safety and security benefit from having a partner.
FAMILY
People strive to be part of a group. Our families are often considered the most important group we belong to.
Families stimulate our quality of life. Receiving support from our family members has a significant importance for our quality of life. Having strong bonds with people we attach to, such as our parents when we are children or adolescents is also important.
When children become parents themselves, life feels much more complicated. New parent couples can see their own sense of quality of life drop drastically for several years.
Of course, there are more dimensions at play in families than just the bond between parent and child. The bond with brothers and sisters, if they exist, is also of great importance. Interesting to mention is that gender has an important impact on our emotional well-being.
FRIENDS
It will not surprise you that having reliable friends is an important element for a quality life. Having multiple friends even has a major impact on our health and life expectancy.
The least we can say is that forging friendships is a complex process. It depends on a series of parameters, of which commonalities between two individuals is the most important. As physical beings, we occasionally strive for touch. Touching each other is part of strong friendships, which emphasizes the importance of proximity.
Regarding the number of friendships, we can say that quantity is less important than quality, although the two are linked. More than five close friends seems difficult to achieve, as does more than twelve to fifteen 'casual' friends. Family members often belong to both groups.
GEMEENSCHAP
Anthropology discovered, by comparing the size of our neocortex with group size, that our brain can sustain between one and two hundred meaningful social relationships with people who are part of our community.
Broadly, communities can be defined as a group of people who have something in common, formed around a location or a shared interest, and who offer belonging and emotional safety — both important building blocks for a happy life.