The Science of Subjective Well-Being

by Eid, Michael; Larsen, Randy J.

• ISBN13: 9781606230732
• ISBN10: 1606230735
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-10-09
• Publisher: The Guilford Press

Summary

This authoritative volume reviews the breadth of current scientific knowledge on subjective well-being (SWB): its definition, causes and consequences, measurement, and practical applications that may help people become happier. Leading experts explore the connections between SWB and a range of intrapersonal and interpersonal phenomena, including personality, health, relationship satisfaction, wealth, cognitive processes, emotion regulation, religion, family life, school and work experiences, and culture. Interventions and practices that enhance SWB are examined, with attention to both their benefits and limitations. The concluding chapter from Ed Diener dispels common myths in the field and presents a thoughtful agenda for future research.

Author Biography

Michael Eid, DSc, is Professor of Psychology at the Free University of Berlin, Germany. Dr. Eid is currently Editor of Methodology--European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral and Social Sciences and Associate Editor of the Journal of Positive Psychology. His main research interests are subjective well-being, mood regulation, multimethod measurement, and longitudinal data analysis.

 

Randy J. Larsen, PhD, is the William R. Stuckenberg Professor of Human Values and Moral Development and Chair of the Psychology Department at Washington University in St. Louis. He conducts research on emotion, primarily in terms of differences between people, and studies such topics as subjective well-being, mood variability, jealousy, attraction, depression, and strategies for the self-management of self-esteem and emotion. Dr. Larsen is an elected member of the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology and is listed as one of the highly cited psychologists by the Institute for Scientific Information.

Table of Contents

Ed Diener and the Science of Subjective Well-Being	p. 1
The Realm of Subjective Well-Being
Philosophy and the Science of Subjective Well-Being	p. 17
Sociological Theories of Subjective Well-Being	p. 44
Evolution and Subjective Well-Being	p. 62
The Pursuit of Happiness in History	p. 80
Measuring Subjective Well-Being
The Structure of Subjective Well-Being	p. 97
The Assessment of Subjective Well-Being: Successes and Shortfalls	p. 124
Measuring the Immeasurable: Psychometric Modeling of Subjective Well-Being Data	p. 141
The Happy Person
Personality and Subjective Well-Being	p. 171
Happiness and the Invisible Threads of Social Connection: The Chicago Health, Aging, and Social Relations Study	p. 195
The Happy Mind in Action: The Cognitive Basis of Subjective Well-Being	p. 220
The Frequency of Social Comparison and Its Relation to Subjective Well-Being	p. 239
Regulation of Emotional Well-Being: Overcoming the Hedonic Treadmill	p. 258
Two New Questions about Happiness: "Is Happiness Good?" and "Is Happier Better?"	p. 290
Material Wealth and Subjective Well-Being	p. 307
Religion and Human Flourishing	p. 323
Subjective Well-Being in the Interpresonal Domain
What Makes People Happy?: A Developmental Approach to the Literature on Family Relationships and Well-Being	p. 347
Research on Life Satisfaction of Children and Youth: Implications for the Delivery of School-Related Services	p. 376
Job Satisfaction: Subjective Well-Being at Work	p. 393
Comparing Subjective Well-Being across Cultures and Nations: The "What" and "Why" Questions	p. 414
Making People Happier
Interventions for Enhancing Subjective Well-Being: Can We Make People Happier and Should We?	p. 431
Promoting Positive Affect	p. 449
Gratitude, Subjective Well-Being, and the Brain	p. 469
Conclusions and Future Directions
Myths in the Science of Happiness, and Directions for Future Research	p. 493
Author Index	p. 515
Subject Index	p. 533
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.