The Sources of Happiness to the Malaysians and Indonesians: Data from a Smaller Nation

The purpose of the present study is to explore the happiness indicators of the Malaysians and Indonesians. Although there have been many studies investigating happiness dimension in Western societies, relatively is known about it in the Eastern societies. A total of 202 respondents (100 Malaysians, 102 Indonesians) were asked to respond to a question on happiness. Content analysis of responses to the question what makes you happy yielded 12 themes. Qualitative analyses yielded, as predicted, the welfare of the groups especially family, take precedence over personal achievements.