Happiness and satisfaction are closely related.  Presumably satisfaction can be measured however it is extremely difficult to measure happiness.  Satisfaction concerns past events, experiences, and interactions, therefore, when someone asks for one’s opinion or perception related to one’s life, job, relationship, neighbours, activities, involvement level, experience, etc., one tends to share one’s view based on his/her own reflection on a particular area or person (as the case may be).

Perception is a cognitive process which is the result of the interaction between the senses and cognition.  Most of the satisfaction surveys are based on individual’s senses and the kind of past experiences that have been registered in the cognitive faculty.  This registry helps one build cognition.  Individual’s intelligence, genes, culture, and other such influencing factors keep affecting cognitive abilities.

Satisfaction and perception are different in nature though some time people tend to use them alternatively.  There is no expectation in perception, whereas satisfaction is always related to aspiration and expectation. It is the result of mental process coming out of the analysis based on expectations.  Perception could be neutral however there could be no-satisfaction and dissatisfaction as well.  Both perception and satisfaction depend on the mindset formed through experiences, environment, growing and learning.

In order to make effective decisions at individual, organizational, national, and/or global level study, analysis and review of satisfaction plays a very important role.  It is always of an individual, however his/her capacity might differ.  One may represent an organization and express satisfaction accordingly; a leader of a unit within an organization or a leader of a country could express satisfaction and reflect the view as a head of a unit or a country.  This is much to do with individual behaviour vis-à-vis group behaviour.

Satisfaction is measured through different tools and instruments depending on whose satisfaction with what. When people are asked on how comfortable their life is, what is their level of satisfaction with their conditions of living, relationships, neighbors, spouse, etc., it is to gauge life satisfaction.  And it is believed that a person who has better life satisfaction levels is a happy person.

Hence life satisfaction is used as a proxy to happiness.  This view has been dominating in the literature on happiness, human well-being, subjective well-being, and quality-of-life.  Further it has led to make comparisons across geographies and culture.  Though the belief systems are very different. Though cultural values are not similar.

It is difficult to measure happiness, however one can explore the studies on measurement of satisfaction to view happiness objectively.  Some of my writings on happiness are available on my blog. The researches on job satisfaction and customer satisfaction have helped organisations to take better decisions and make informed choices from amongst the available pool.  Yet I am of the view that whatever tool or measure we use to assess happiness, it may not be absolute.  So, for studies and understanding it may help researcher, organizations, or nations but for the actual joy of living life well, happiness would remain be a pursuit and promise.