International Differences in Well-Being

by Diener, Ed; Kahneman, Daniel; Helliwell, John

• ISBN13: 9780199732739
• ISBN10: 0199732736
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-03-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book draws together the latest work from scholars around the world using subjective well-being data to understand and compare well-being across countries and cultures. Starting from many different vantage points, the authors reached a consensus that many measures of subjective well-being, ranging from life evaluations through emotional states, based on memories and current evaluations, merit broader collection and analysis. Using data from the Gallup World Poll, the World Values Survey, and other internationally comparable surveys, the authors document wide divergences among countries in all measures of subjective well-being, The international differences are greater for life evaluations than for emotions. Despite the well-documented differences in the ways in which subjective evaluations change through time and across cultures, the bulk of the very large international differences in life evaluations are due to differences in life circumstances rather than differences in the way these differences are evaluated.

Author Biography

ED: Joseph R. Smiley Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois, and currently the president of IPPA, the International Positive Psychology Association (2008 & 2009).DK: Nobel Prize winner (2002, Economic Science), and Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He is also Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs Emeritus at the Woodrow Wilson School, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Princeton University, and a fellow of the Center for Rationality at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.JH: Arthur J.E. Child Foundation Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of British Columbia

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. ix
Measuring Well-Being in an International Context
Income's Association with Judgments of Life Versus Feelings	p. 3
The Structure of Well-Being in Two Cities: Life Satisfaction and Experienced Happiness in Columbus, Ohio; and Rennes, France	p. 16
Culture and Well-Being: Conceptual and Methodological Issues	p. 34
Life Satisfaction	p. 70
Life (Evaluation), HIV/AIDS, and Death in Africa	p. 105
International Comparisons of Income and Well-Being Through Time
Does Relative Income Matter? Are the Critics Right?	p. 139
Happiness and Economic Growth: Does the Cross Section Predict Time Trends? Evidence from Developing Countries	p. 166
Happiness Adaptation to Income Beyond "Basic Needs"	p. 217
The Easterlin and Other Paradoxes: Why Both Sides of the Debate May Be Correct	p. 247
International Differences in the Social Context of Well-Being
International Evidence on the Social Context of Well-Being	p. 291
How Universal Is Happiness?	p. 328
Faith and Freedom: Traditional and Modern Ways to Happiness	p. 351
The Impact of Time Spent Working and Job Fit on Well-Being Around the World	p. 398
Work, jobs, and Well-Being Across the Millennium	p. 436
Index	p. 469
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