Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress.

Abstract

W. Wilson's (1967) review of the area of subjective well-being (SWB) advanced several conclusions regarding those who report high levels of "happiness." A number of his conclusions have been overturned: youth and modest aspirations no longer are seen as prerequisites of SWB. E. Diener's (1984) review placed greater emphasis on theories that stressed psychological factors. In the current article, the authors review current evidence for Wilson's conclusions and discuss modern theories of SWB that stress dispositional influences, adaptation, goals, and coping strategies. The next steps in the evolution of the field are to comprehend the interaction of psychological factors with life circumstances in producing SWB, to understand the causal pathways leading to happiness, understand the processes underlying adaptation to events, and develop theories that explain why certain variables differentially influence the different components of SWB (life satisfaction, pleasant affect, and unpleasant affect).In 1967, Warner Wilson presented a broad review of subjective well-being (SWB) research entitled, "Correlates of Avowed Happiness." Based on the limited data available at that time, Wilson concluded that the happy person is a "young, healthy, welleducated, well-paid, extroverted, optimistic, worry-free, religious, married person with high self-esteem, job morale, modest aspirations, of either sex and of a wide range of intelligence" (p. 294). In the three decades since Wilson's review, investigations into SWB have evolved. Although researchers now know a great deal more about the correlates of SWB, they are less interested in simply describing the demographic characteristics that correlate with it. Instead, they focus their effort on understanding the processes that underlie happiness. This trend represents a greater recognition of the central role played by people's goals, coping efforts, and dispositions. In this article, we review research on several major theoretical approaches to well-being and then indicate how these theories clarify the findings on demographic correlates of SWB.Throughout the review we suggest four directions that researchers should pursue in the decades ahead. These are by no means the only questions left to answer, but we believe they are the most interesting issues left to resolve. First, the causal direction of the correlates of happiness must be examined through more sophisticated methodologies. Although the causal priority of demographic factors such as marriage and income is intuitively appealing, it is by no means certain. Second, researchers must focus greater attention on the interaction between internal factors (such as personality traits) and external circumstances. As we shall see, demographic factors have surprisingly small effects on SWB, but these effects may depend on the personalities of those individuals being studied. Thus, future research must take Person X Situation interactions into account. Third, researchers must strive to understand the processes underlying adaptation. Consid...

Physical activity and subjective well-being among people with spinal cord injury: a meta-analysis

“…1 We searched for studies that included measures of life satisfaction, satisfaction with important life domains (for example, health, leisure, self), positive affect and negative affect. In all, 12 PA and 21 SWB search terms were used in our literature searches.…”

“…First, although a variety of SWB constructs have been examined, most research has focused on life satisfaction and depressive symptoms. Given that SWB encompasses a wide range of human experiences, 1,27 investigators should expand their conceptualizations of SWB beyond life satisfaction and symptoms of depression to examine other dimensions, such as those listed in Table 2. Although we are not necessarily suggesting that researchers include a large number of SWB outcome measures in their studies, we do encourage the investigation of affective dimensions other than depression and further examination of subdomains of life satisfaction.…”

“…1 Examples of SWB dimensions include satisfaction with life, health and physical functioning, depression and anxiety.…”

Local neighbors as positives, regional neighbors as negatives: Competing channels in the relationship between others’ income, health, and happiness

“…4 Concerns about the validity and reliability of SWB metrics have been addressed at length elsewhere, and we refer interested readers to the corresponding literature. SWB metrics have been shown to be psychometrically sound, internally consistent and comparable across individuals, over time, and for different levels of economic development (Diener et al, 1999;Helliwell et al, 2010;Krueger & Schkade, 2008). Further, they are increasingly used in public policy and economic analyses (Diener et al, 2009;Di Tella & MacCulloch, 2006;O'Donnell, 2013;Stiglitz et al, 2010;Stone & Mackie, 2013).…”

Promoting well-being through group drumming with mental health service users and their carers

“…The hedonic tradition typically places centrality on pleasurable experiences as the pathway to happiness. Well-being is concerned with the balance between positive affect and negative affect, along with perceived satisfaction with one’s life (Diener, 2000; Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999). The eudaimonic tradition advocates that virtue and the fulfilment of human potential and self-realization are at the core of well-being (Deci & Ryan, 2008; Waterman, 1993).…”