Work, Happiness, and Unhappiness

by Warr; Peter

• ISBN13: 9780805857108
• ISBN10: 0805857109
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-02-02
• Publisher: Psychology Pres

Summary

Award-winning psychologist Peter Warr explores why some people at work are happier or unhappier than others. He evaluates different approaches to the definition and assessment of happiness, and combines environmental and person-based themes to explain differences in people's experience. A framework of key job characteristics is linked to an account of primary mental processes, and those are set within a summary of demographic, cultural, and occupational patterns. Consequences of happiness or unhappiness for individuals and groups are also reviewed, as is recent literature on unemployment and retirement. Although primarily focusing on job situations, the book shows that processes of happiness are similar across settings of all kinds. It provides a uniquely comprehensive assessment of research published across the world. Initial chapters explore the several meanings of happiness and the ways in which those have been measured by psychologists. The construct includes pleasure, satisfaction and subjective well-being, and unhappiness has been studied in terms of dissatisfaction, strain, anxiety, and depression. The impacts of principal environmental features on these experiences are reviewed through an analogy with vitamins in relation to physical healthbeneficial only up to a point. However, environmental effects are not fixed. Influences on happiness from within the person are examined in terms of principal thinking patterns, personality styles, and cultural backgrounds. Differences are explored between groups (men and women, older and younger people, employees who are full-time and part-time, and so on), and processes of person-environment fit are placed within an overall framework which emphasizes the impact of variations in personal salience. The book is written primarily for academic readers, including senior undergraduates, graduate students, teachers, and researchers in fields of Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Management, Human Resources, and Labor Studies. However, the topic's centrality in many professions makes it important also to a wider readership.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
The Principal Concepts	p. 1
Work and Its Implications	p. 3
Perspectives on Happiness	p. 7
Content and Structure of the Book	p. 14
Well-Being and Self-Validation	p. 19
Happiness as Well-Being	p. 19
Measuring Happiness as Well-Being	p. 30
Happiness as Self-Validation	p. 38
Measuring Happiness as Self-Validation	p. 44
Three Dimensions of Happiness: Pleasure, Arousal, and Self-Validation	p. 46
Some Concepts Related to Happiness	p. 49
Unemployment and Retirement: Role Preference and Other Influences	p. 61
Unemployment and Unhappiness	p. 62
Retirement and Happiness	p. 71
Multiple Roles Across Time	p. 77
The Vitamin Analogy	p. 81
Nine Primary Features of Any Environment	p. 81
The Primary Features in Employment, Unemployment, and Retirement	p. 89
Vitamins and Environmental Characteristics	p. 95
Environmental Features and Different Forms of Happiness	p. 106
Constant Effects Beyond a Threshold	p. 111
Three Additional Features in Job Settings	p. 112
Availability of Money	p. 115
Physical Security	p. 120
Valued Social Position	p. 124
Supportive Supervision	p. 128
Career Outlook	p. 133
Equity	p. 135
Control, Skill, and Goals	p. 141
Opportunity for Personal Control	p. 141
Opportunity for Skill Use	p. 153
Externally-Generated Goals	p. 158
Variety, Clarity, and Social Contact	p. 183
Variety	p. 183
Environmental Clarity	p. 188
Contact With Others	p. 193
Combinations, Measurement, Causes, and Work Profiles	p. 203
The Combination of Job Features	p. 203
Environmental Measures: Objective or Subjective?	p. 214
Environmental Changes Across Time	p. 220
Other Models of the Job Environment	p. 232
Profiling Psychologically Bad and Good Jobs	p. 238
Social and Judgmental Influences	p. 243
Social Influences on Happiness	p. 244
Judgments in a Particular Situation	p. 249
Self-Help Exercises	p. 273
Baseline Happiness and Associated Mental Processes	p. 276
Differences Between Sets of People	p. 281
Cultural Differences	p. 283
Demographic Differences	p. 288
Occupational Differences	p. 314
Personality, Genes, and Happiness	p. 327
Personality, Values, and Motives	p. 327
Personality and Happiness: Meanings and Associations	p. 332
The Inheritance of Happiness	p. 347
Combined Effects: Environment and Personality	p. 349
Personality and Exposure to Environmental Features	p. 351
Moderator Effects and Differential Salience	p. 357
Explaining Dispositional Effects	p. 357
Dispositional Moderators of Job-Happiness Associations	p. 365
Personality and Judgment Processes	p. 377
Person-Environment Fit and Work Values	p. 383
Frameworks of Person-Environment Fit	p. 384
P-E Fit, Wants, and the Vitamin Framework	p. 393
Salience and Person-Environment Fit	p. 394
Occupational Values	p. 398
Some Consequences of Happiness	p. 403
General Considerations	p. 403
Job Performance	p. 407
Associated Thoughts and Behaviors	p. 421
Absence From Work	p. 427
Staff Turnover	p. 432
References	p. 435
Author Index	p. 491
Subject Index	p. 513
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