Handbook of Well-Being

Keywords: Subjective well-being; happiness; life satisfaction; well-being

This chapter aims to serve as an introduction to the science of happiness, by providing a catalogue of the main questions that have been posed about the topic across millennia. I cover the various answers that have been offered to these ...

This article examines three crucial turning points or “revolutions” in the world history of happiness from the Paleolithic to the present, focusing on the impact of the Agricultural Revolution that began c. 10,000 BCE, the “Axial Age” of...

Religion plays an important role in the lives of many people. To understand how religion relates to well-being, it is important to consider the beliefs and practices of the world’s main religions. In the first section, we begin by descri...

Well-being is a broad, multifaceted construct. This chapter reviews different ways of defining and measuring well-being and the implications this has for understanding the correlates and causes of well-being. Hedonic well-being (HWB), eu...

Subjective well-being, by definition, is a construct that relies on people's subjective evaluation of their lives as a whole. The subjective nature of the construct makes self-report a natural method for assessing SWB. However, the psych...

This chapter reviews a variety of methods for assessing subjective well-being beyond traditional global self-reports.  The chapter examines indicators of SWB such as brain activity, smiling, cognitions, memory, and momentary experience. ...

How do people decide how happy they are? In principle, a number of models are possible and the current chapter highlights three of them. People could subdivide their life into various domains, consider their progress in these domains, an...

This chapter focuses on the process of obtaining valid assessments of Subjective Well-Being (SWB) from individuals, primarily with conventional self-report methodology.  A brief review of the SWB construct and its constituent facets is f...

This chapter gives an overview of modern latent variable models for well-being (WB) research. After a short introduction into the importance of measurement error and methodological artifacts that can be produced by measurement error, the...

This chapter explores the distinct contributions of qualitative wellbeing research in relation to quantitative research, and particularly concerning the many ways in which wellbeing phenomena are ‘cultural’. The core contribution of qual...

The top-down approach to well-being focuses on how people attend to and construe information in their lives and how these processes affect their well-being. In this chapter, we review evidence that attention and construal, broadly concei...

This chapter outlines the topic of affective forecasting, the process of predicting one’s future feelings (Gilbert & Wilson, 2007). Although people are often fairly skilled at making these sorts of predictions, examples of systematic...

The human pursuit of well-being occupies space that extends beyond simply seeking pleasure, feeling good, and being satisfied. In philosophy, Aristotle introduced the concept of “eudaimonia” to reflect human flourishing as a reflection o...

Ever since the Aristotelian conception of happiness as activity of the soul to modern perspectives on the ever-active biological organism, the doing part of life has been considered essential for survival and wellbeing. Humans must act i...

Goals are considered by some theories as essential for subjective well-being (i.e., telic theories, see Diener, 1984). In fact, achieving goals is beneficial for subjective well-being. However, just holding goals does not bring about goa...

Classical theories of hedonic adaptation assume that lasting changes in subjective well-being (SWB) are not possible because one’s SWB inevitably returns to its baseline level, a phenomenon known as the hedonic treadmill. This baseline l...

From an evolutionary perspective, feelings of subjective well-being signal progress toward adaptive goals. We discuss life history theory and fundamental motives—integrating ideas from social psychology and evolutionary biology that offe...

Decades worth of research on subjective well-being provides evidence for the idea that personality plays a strong role reports of positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction. Specifically, this research shows that subjective ...

One way to pursue happiness is to improve the objective levels of external outcomes such as wealth; that is an economic approach. Another way to pursue happiness is to improve the arrangement of and choices among external outcomes withou...

Research into the genetic and environmental origins of human wellbeing has made tremendous progress over the last two decades. Genetic effects on subjective wellbeing (SWB) are well established, and meta-analyses reveal average heritabil...

Abundant evidence highlights the important role of personality traits, age, and social relationships in the experience of subjective well-being. Experiential factors influence well-being, and evidence shows that specific forms of trainin...

Typically, when we experience stress, our physiological and social resources allow us to regulate and adapt effectively, which tends to prevent maladaptive outcomes associated with those experiences. A complex network of stress response ...

In their everyday environments, people spend a lot of time experiencing and dealing with appetitive desires of all kinds, including those for foods, sex, and drugs. In this chapter, we review the concept of appetitive desire and spell ou...

The growing evidence that positive psychological functioning is linked to favorable health outcomes has led to a search for biological mechanisms that may underlie these salubrious effects. Although there is interest in biological proces...

This chapter provides a lifespan perspective on subjective well-being. First, evidence for stability and change in subjective well-being across the lifespan is considered with attention to both set-point theory and evidence regarding whe...

Results regarding whether men and women differ in terms of their well-being levels have been highly inconsistent. To more conclusively understand the past research regarding on the relationship between gender and subjective well-being (i...

The purpose of this chapter is to clarify what is currently known about subjective well-being (SWB) for racial groups in the United States, with a focus on common racial struggles and resilience in people of color. We organize the chapte...

This chapter reviews the body of research investigating the effect of religion and religiosity on subjective well-being (SWB).  First, we provide a broad overview of the relation between religiosity and SWB, with specific attention to cu...

As some of the most important relationships in people’s lives, marriage and parenthood offer many opportunities for people to experience great joy or to suffer incredible disappointment. In the current chapter, I review current understan...

Work is a significant contributor to subjective well-being (SWB) among working people and their families.  Chronic, structural work conditions and discrete emotionally-charged events have potential to influence SWB via job satisfaction, ...

This chapter reviews what is known about how leisure contributes to subjective well-being (SWB). We review evidence documenting the importance of leisure for SWB and point to psychological need fulfillment as the main mechanism through w...

For decades, researchers and practitioners have theorized psychological disorder and health as opposite ends of a single continuum. We offer a more nuanced, data driven examination into the various ways that people with psychological dis...

In this chapter, we review the literature on the connections between various facets of the broad construct of subjective well-being (SWB) and physical health. We aim to highlight which variables have been explored most, which need more r...

Time and money are scarce and precious resources: people experience stress about having insufficient time, and worry about having insufficient money. This chapter reviews research showing that the ways in which people spend their time an...

To advance research on income and subjective well-being (SWB), we review and synthesize the research on this topic. There is robust evidence showing a substantial association between income and SWB. However, addressing the question of wh...

In this chapter I review theory and evidence linking socioeconomic status in society to subjective well-being. Research on this topic includes studies across countries and cultures and two primary theoretical perspectives that make predi...

Do individuals need relationships with others to thrive? We begin this chapter with a review of the evidence that the formation and maintenance of positive social bonds contributes to mental and physical health and conclude that people n...

This chapter surveys evidence documenting positive linkages among social capital, prosocial behaviour, and subjective well-being. Whether in the workplace, at home, in the community, or among nations, better and deeper social connections...

The topic of meaning in life is coming to the fore in well-being research. From an arcane existential idea to a cornerstone of wellbeing, the path from obscurity to recognition was established through empirical research. This chapter sum...

This chapter uses the most recent version of Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) theory to explain how working conditions influence employees, and how employees influence their own working conditions. We show how employee self-undermining activ...

The literature that has investigated the association between wisdom and well-being has yielded conflicting results ranging from positive associations through zero to even negative associations. After defining and explaining the central c...

Social relationships are one of the most important facets of well-being and one of the strongest links with both physical and psychological health. Romantic relationships specifically may have a particularly intense impact on well-being ...

In this chapter we provide an overview of how resilience has been defined and measured with a particular emphasis on the relationship between resilience and well-being. Specifically, we distinguish between resilience defined as a trait a...

To fully understand how psychological functioning is related to health and longevity, it is important to not only consider psychological distress, but also subjective well-being (i.e., the presence of positive thoughts and feelings). Thi...

We review research indicating that higher levels of positive affect help produce better social relationships for that person and those around him or her. By better relationships we mean those that are experienced as more pleasant and les...

This chapter reviews research into the happy worker-productive worker thesis, which suggests that individuals and groups with raised wellbeing perform better in their jobs than do those with lower wellbeing. We examine different types of...

In the post-material era, people are increasingly focusing on the pursuit of happiness. This popular interest has been met by a growing number of authors and interventionists who promise routes to happiness. In large part, these avenues ...

This chapter provides a guide to help people understand the complex effects that affect, a component of subjective well-being, might exert on various cognitive processes, including the use of abstract information, heuristics, stereotypes...

Whether people can sustainably change their level of happiness has been a topic of much debate in the psychological literature, with some researchers suggesting that happiness change is futile and others suggesting that it is quite possi...

A corpus of literature has documented the benefits of physical activity to well-being and quality of life in older adults. However, this relationship has frequently been studied in the context of health-related quality of life (HRQL), as...

Positive Psychological Interventions are activities that have been demonstrated to cause a positive change in a population by increasing a positive variable (e.g., optimism). Although these activities come in a variety of forms and focus...

Research and practice in mental health has a long history of focusing on what is wrong with people. By contrast, relatively little work has examined how to raise subjective well-being. This chapter provides a general overview of some the...

In this chapter we provide an overview of stress management interventions (SMI) and review the evidence for their effects on employee stress and well-being.  We start by setting out a typology of SMI that classes SMI according to level (...

We provide an overview of well-documented factors that predict and explain national and cultural differences in happiness. A brief history of the culture and happiness research is offered, followed by a literature summary on how cultural...

Subjective well-being is a main goal in modern society, thus it is worth knowing 1) how subjective well-being differs across nations, 2) how it develops over time, 3) what the determinants of subjective well-being in nations are and 4) w...

The present chapter reviews conceptual and measurement issues related to culture and subjective well-being (SWB). Historically, the concepts of happiness gradually shifted from good luck and fortune to the satisfaction of desires and goa...

So-called “small societies” such as Amish communities and traditional tribal groups offer a unique opportunity to chart the conceptual territory of subjective well-being (SWB). First, these groups offer an alternative to standard cross-n...

Materialism is a psychological construct reflecting the extent to which an individual believes that it is important to attain money, possessions, image, and status, relative to other aims in life.  This chapter reviews evidence showing t...

This chapter summarizes what we know about value—SWB relations and identifies some of what we do not know but would like to know. We first discuss the nature of values and the structured system they form. We draw on the ten values in the...

Empirical research consistently indicates that contact with the natural world is associated with broad psychological and physical benefit. Of particular interest are findings indicating that exposure to natural environments improves subj...

Research on subjective well-being has shown that there are geographical differences in well-being. Drawing on theory and research in social-personality psychology, economics, and geography this chapter reviews research concerned with the...

Life balance is a state of equally moderate-to-high levels of satisfaction in important life domains contributing to overall life satisfaction. Life balance can be effectively achieved through a set of inter-domain strategies. Two sets o...

This chapter analyzes legal implications of subjective well-being (SWB) research. Law can and should learn much from SWB research because the law can and should care about people’s SWB. An incomplete list of legal doctrinal and subject a...

This chapter focusses on the question of how formal institutions, like those governing the level of freedom and the generosity of the welfare state, affect self-reported well-being. The evidence suggests, for example, that more freedom, ...

Measures of subjective well-being have gained substantial attention in economics as quantitative approximations of individual welfare. They allow researchers to study relevant determinants of welfare on an individual as well as on a soci...

Media technology—from mass media to social media and from video gaming to computer-mediated communication—plays an increasingly central role in people’s lives. Due to exponential increases in computing power, people now carry incredibly ...

Diener (2000) proposed that indicators of subjective well-being should complement existing economic and social indicators that reflect the quality of life in nations. In this chapter, we review the reasons for including indicators of sub...