Subjective Well-Being

Subjective Well-Being

Author: Panel on Measuring Subjective Well-Being in a Policy-Relevant Framework

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2014-01-01

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 0309294479

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Subjective well-being refers to how people experience and evaluate their lives and specific domains and activities in their lives. This information has already proven valuable to researchers, who have produced insights about the emotional states and experiences of people belonging to different groups, engaged in different activities, at different points in the life course, and involved in different family and community structures. Research has also revealed relationships between people's self-reported, subjectively assessed states and their behavior and decisions. Research on subjective well-being has been ongoing for decades, providing new information about the human condition. During the past decade, interest in the topic among policy makers, national statistical offices, academic researchers, the media, and the public has increased markedly because of its potential for shedding light on the economic, social, and health conditions of populations and for informing policy decisions across these domains. Subjective Well-Being: Measuring Happiness, Suffering, and Other Dimensions of Experience explores the use of this measure in population surveys. This report reviews the current state of research and evaluates methods for the measurement. In this report, a range of potential experienced well-being data applications are cited, from cost-benefit studies of health care delivery to commuting and transportation planning, environmental valuation, and outdoor recreation resource monitoring, and even to assessment of end-of-life treatment options. Subjective Well-Being finds that, whether used to assess the consequence of people's situations and policies that might affect them or to explore determinants of outcomes, contextual and covariate data are needed alongside the subjective well-being measures. This report offers guidance about adopting subjective well-being measures in official government surveys to inform social and economic policies and considers whether research has advanced to a point which warrants the federal government collecting data that allow aspects of the population's subjective well-being to be tracked and associated with changing conditions.


The Science of Subjective Well-Being

The Science of Subjective Well-Being

Author: Michael Eid

Publisher: Guilford Press

Published: 2008-01-01

Total Pages: 561

ISBN-13: 1606230735

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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.


The Relationship Between Natural Environments and Subjective Well-being as Measured by Sentiment Expressed on Twitter

The Relationship Between Natural Environments and Subjective Well-being as Measured by Sentiment Expressed on Twitter

Author: Yian Lin

Publisher:

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 53

ISBN-13:

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There is growing evidence that time spent in nature can affect well-being. Nonetheless, assessing this relationship can be difficult. We used social media data—1,971,045 geolocated tweets sent by 81,140 users from locations throughout Seattle, Washington, USA—to advance our understanding of the relationship between subjective well-being and natural environments. Specifically, we quantified the relationships between sentiment (negative/neutral/positive) expressed in individual geolocated tweets and their surrounding environments focusing on land-cover type, tree-canopy density, and urban parks. Controlling for multiple covariates such as location types and weather conditions, we estimated three random-intercept partial proportional odds models corresponding to the three environmental indicators. Our results suggest that for a given type of land-use, tweets sent from some natural land-cover types were less likely to be negative compared to tweets sent from the urban-built land-cover type. We also found that for tweets sent in industrial zones, the association between tree-canopy coverage and sentiment polarity was positive: an increase in tree-canopy coverage was associated with a lower probability of having negative sentiments and with a higher probability of having positive sentiments; but for tweets sent in commercial/mixed zones, the association between tree-canopy coverage and sentiment polarity was negative. For parks, tweets sent from urban parks in commercial/mixed zones and residential zones were less likely to be negative compared to tweets sent from outside parks. In industrial zones, only tweets sent from large natural parks (with area >= 40,000 sf2 and impervious surface


Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research

Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research

Author: Alex C. Michalos

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-02-12

Total Pages: 7347

ISBN-13: 9789400707528

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The aim of this encyclopedia is to provide a comprehensive reference work on scientific and other scholarly research on the quality of life, including health-related quality of life research or also called patient-reported outcomes research. Since the 1960s two overlapping but fairly distinct research communities and traditions have developed concerning ideas about the quality of life, individually and collectively, one with a fairly narrow focus on health-related issues and one with a quite broad focus. In many ways, the central issues of these fields have roots extending to the observations and speculations of ancient philosophers, creating a continuous exploration by diverse explorers in diverse historic and cultural circumstances over several centuries of the qualities of human existence. What we have not had so far is a single, multidimensional reference work connecting the most salient and important contributions to the relevant fields. Entries are organized alphabetically and cover basic concepts, relatively well established facts, lawlike and causal relations, theories, methods, standardized tests, biographic entries on significant figures, organizational profiles, indicators and indexes of qualities of individuals and of communities of diverse sizes, including rural areas, towns, cities, counties, provinces, states, regions, countries and groups of countries.


Handbook on Wellbeing, Happiness and the Environment

Handbook on Wellbeing, Happiness and the Environment

Author: David Maddison

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2020-05-29

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 1788119347

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This topical and engaging Handbook brings together cutting-edge research on the relationship between happiness and the natural environment. With interdisciplinary contributions from top scholars, it explores the role of happiness research as a new approach to environmental social science, illustrating the critical links between human wellbeing, happiness and the environment.


One Health: The Well-being Impacts of Human-nature Relationships

One Health: The Well-being Impacts of Human-nature Relationships

Author: Eric Brymer

Publisher: Frontiers Media SA

Published: 2019-11-07

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 2889632261

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In recent years there has been a growing body of evidence from fields such as public health, architecture, ecology, landscape, forestry, psychology, sport science, psychiatry, geography suggesting that nature enhances psychological health and wellbeing. Physical activity in the presence of nature, feelings of connection to nature, engagement with nature, specific environmental features (e.g. therapeutic, water and trees) and images of real and virtual nature have all been posited as important wellbeing facilitators. Thus, the association between natural environments and health outcomes might be more complex than initially understood (Pritchard, Richardson, Sheffield, & Mcewan, 2019). Despite the number of studies showing improvements in psychological health and wellbeing through nature-based physical activities or feelings of connection to nature the exact role and influence of the natural environment in this process is still rather unclear (Brymer, Davids, & Mallabon, 2014; Karmanov & Hamel, 2008). Research is also beginning to consider the importance of individual differences, meaning and the person-environment relationship (Freeman, Akhurst, Bannigan & James, 2016; Freeman & Akhurst, 2015) in the development of wellbeing and health outcomes. Furthermore traditional theoretical notions, such as Biophilia, topophilia, restoration theories and stress reduction theories typically used to interpret findings are also being critiqued. Often one of the main barriers for practitioners is the vast array of theories that claim to effectively explain research findings but that tend to be only partially relevant (e.g. for Physical activity or restoration), focus on the characteristics of the person (e.g. nature relatedness) and only some features of the landscape (e.g. therapeutic landscapes). This special edition therefore brings together cutting edge ideas and research from a wide set of disciplines with the purpose of exploring interdisciplinary or trans-disciplinary approaches to understanding the psychological health and wellbeing benefits of human-nature interactions.


Metrics of Subjective Well-Being: Limits and Improvements

Metrics of Subjective Well-Being: Limits and Improvements

Author: Gaël Brulé

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-08-02

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 3319618105

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This volume analyses the quantification of the effect of factors measuring subjective well-being, and in particular on the metrics applied. With happiness studies flourishing over the last decades, both in number of publications as well as in their exposure, researchers working in this field are aware of potential weaknesses and pitfalls of these metrics. Contributors to this volume reflect on different factors influencing quantification, such as scale size, wording, language, biases, and cultural comparability in order to raise awareness on the tools and on their conditions of use.


Psychology of Sustainable Development

Psychology of Sustainable Development

Author: Peter Schmuck

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1461509955

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Human activity overuses the resources of the planet at a rate that will severely compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Changes toward sustainability need to begin within the next few years or environmental deterioration will become irreversible. Thus the need to develop a mindset of sustainable development - the ability of society to meet its needs without permanently compromising the earth's resources - is pressing. The Psychology of Sustainable Development clarifies the meaning of the term and describes the conditions necessary for it to occur. With contributions from an international team of policy shapers and makers, the book will be an important reference for environmental, developmental, social, and organizational psychologists, in addition to other social scientists concerned with the impact current human activity will have on the prospects of future generations.