The goal of this dissertation is to contribute to the new field of happiness economics which over the past several decades has substantially enhanced our understanding of cognitive judgment, human behavior, and the nature of happiness. Chapter 1 starts with a discussion of the subjective approach to measuring well-being and lays the foundation for the empirical work that follows in chapters 2 and 3. This approach has a strong appeal because ancient and modern cultures, and a long tradition in philosophy, view achieving happiness as the ultimate goal of human existence. It also recognizes that humans are the best judges of their own condition. In this first chapter, I discuss some common ambiguities related to the term happiness and outline some of the most common ways in which subjective well-being (SWB)data is measured. Next, I discuss how reliable subjective well-being data is and what are some of its strengths and weaknesses in the context of economic research. Some major insights from the growing literature on happiness economics are also provided and alternative approaches to measuring quality of life (and well-being) are suggested in the last section. One puzzle in the happiness economics literature has been that although real incomes have substantially improved over the past 40 years, happiness levels in the United States have stagnated. In chapter 2, I show that the rising level of income inequality in the United States since the 1970s can explain the stagnating happiness levels of Americans. First, using subjective well-being data from the General Social Survey, I estimate the concavity of the utility function within a neo-utilitarian framework of welfare analysis and calculate the Atkinson index of inequality. Although the estimates suggests that Americans have become increasingly more inequality-averse over time, the results suggest that the concavity of the utility function alone cannot explain the happiness patterns observed in the past several decades. Once I account for the negative external cost from economic inequality, however, the empirical analysis implies that economic growth has not been sufficient to compensate for the loss of subjective well-being associated with the rising level of inequality. This is consistent with the findings of several different surveys on subjective well-being. Finally, I evaluate the equality-efficiency trade-off in the US, and discover a small and positive trade-off. Chapter 3 considers another important policy topic in recent years -- the increasing cost of college tuition and the scrutinized value of higher education. Using subjective well-being data, I show that higher education has a large non-monetary (happiness) return that goes beyond the benefit of finding a better paid and more satisfying job. A person with a high school degree, for instance, would have to earn \$41,683 more per year to be equally as happy as somebody with a college degree that has a similar socio-economic background. This large non-monetary return is associated with better marriage, health, and parenting choices, and stronger social networks that translate into higher levels of interpersonal trust. The lion's share of this non-monetary return is earned in college while the majority of the returns from graduate school are associated with higher salary. This return varies among the different subgroups of the population. Women, for example, benefit twice as much from a college education as men, and this non-monetary return has slightly increased over time. This may explain, at least partially, the increase in demand for college education over the past 30 years, and the unprecedented rise in the price of college tuition. It is hypothesized that one way in which education works is to change the attitudes, values, and behavior of students. Higher education, for example, makes students more open-minded, tolerant, and risk-averse. Evidence in support of this hypothesis is found by estimating the coefficient of risk (and inequality) aversion. Finally, using subjective well-being data from the European Value Study, the average non-monetary return from higher education is also calculated for Europeans and compared to that in the United States. Although higher education is also found to have a positive effect on happiness in Europe, the non-monetary returns are much larger in the United States. Furthermore, contrary to the United States, the direct effect of education on happiness in Europe is substantial, while the indirect effect is negligible.

Dette studiet undersøkte om det finnes en positiv relasjon mellom korsang og det subjektive velbefinnendet. I undersøkelsen deltok 84 sangere fra 5 kor på både avansert og amatørnivå. Deltagerne fylte i et Mood Adjective Checklist-skjema (MACL: L. Sjöberg, E. Svensson & L.-O. Persson, 1979) før og etter korøvelsen på to forskjellige korøvelser. Resultatene indikerte at korsang påvirket deltagerne signifikant i form av økt velbefinnende, og at sangere mellom 32 og 51 år hadde den største økningen i grad av velbefinnende før og etter korøvelse. Det fantes derimot ingen signifikant forskjell i velbefinnende mellom amatørkor og avansert kor. Resultatene står som et bidrag til tidligere forskning innenfor området, men kan på grunn av det lave deltagerantallet ikke anses være generaliserbart.

Livstillfredsställelse är vår kognitiva bedömning av vårt liv. Studier har visat att affekter påverkar vår kognition, samtidigt ses livstillfredsställelse som en stabil disposition. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om vår bedömning av vår livstillfredsställelse tillfälligt förändras efter att ha exponerats för negativ respektive positiv information. Hypotesen var att vi uppskattar vår livstillfredsställelse olika högt beroende på om vi exponeras för negativ eller positiv infomation. Satisfaction With Life Scale delades ut till 50 studenter på en högskola efter exponering av negativ respektive positiv information under en föreläsning. Resultatet visade att det inte fanns någon statistiskt signifikant skillnad mellan negativ och positiv information med avseende på livstillfredsställelse. Avsaknaden av skillnad skulle dock exempelvis kunna bero på en för svag exponering av negativ information. Keywords: life satisfaction, happiness, subjective well-being, current mood

This paper is a framework for the pursuit of happiness. It uses psychological data, philosophical theories, and trends in neuroscience to support the idea that anyone can be happy. It first discusses personality psychology, biology of personality, and the relationship between personality and happiness. From there it explains positive illusions and Depressive Realism to show how one can implement both to increase personal happiness.

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。

Lycka är en viktig beståndsdel i en människas liv och innehåller komponenter som livstillfredställelse och påverkan av yttre förhållanden. En typ av yttre förhållande som lycka skulle kunna påverkas av är fysisk aktivitet. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om det fanns ett samband mellan lycka och grad av fysisk aktivitet hos högskolestudenter beroende på kön, ålder, civilstånd och antalet studerade terminer. En enkät med två instrument, Oxford happiness questionnaire och International physical activity questionnaire delades ut till 99 högskolestudenter där data bearbetades med variansanalyser. Resultatet visade att högskolestudenter med låg grad av fysisk aktivitet skattade sin lycka lägre än högskolestudenter med måttlig och hög grad av fysisk aktivitet. Även ålder och civilstånd hade en inverkan på hur deltagarna skattade sin lycka. Deltagarantalet ses som en bidragande faktor till resultatet och framtida studier bör fokusera på faktorer som ligger till grund för lyckonivå vid låg grad av fysisk aktivitet.

The aim of the study was to examine the determinants of well-being in Malaysian students at home and overseas. Prior to the main study, interviews were conducted with seven PhD students of Malaysia studying in Plymouth, to explore their needs and values, and their adaptation experiences in terms of missing and enjoyment experiences abroad. Based on the interview findings and literature reviews, a questionnaire was developed and named as the Adaptation to Life Index, which consisted of two scales - ‘missing experience’ and ‘enjoyment experience’. A longitudinal survey was carried out using Malaysian students in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the US, Ireland, and Canada as well as students who remained in Malaysia. At Time 1, data were collected from 1118 students who were enrolling at various overseas preparatory studying programmes and 972 first year students in one of the public university in Malaysia who were continuing their education in Malaysia. Measurements used were the Big Five Personality Inventory (John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991), Schwartz’s Short Value Scale (SSVS) (Lindeman & Verkasalo, 2005; Schwartz, 1992), Positive and Negative Affect Scales (PANAS) (Watson, et al, 1988), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) (Diener, et al., 1985), perceived stress scale (based on the results of Malaysian Certificate of Education and perceived English language fluency), and a section on socio-demographic background. At time 2, 30 % of the participants (N= 628) were retained. Life satisfaction for home students remained constant over time. However, life satisfaction for overseas students started much lower at Time 1 but increased at Time 2. Results showed that life satisfaction at time 1 strongly predicted life satisfaction at Time 2, but neither personality nor values were predicted life satisfaction at Time 2. Personality and values at Time 1 predicted ‘missing experience at Time 2 and in the overseas students, being fluent in English predicted less ‘missing experience’. There were few predictors of Time 1 for ‘enjoyment’ at Time 2, but fluency with English predicted better enjoyment.

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / Globally the Subjective Well-Being (SWB) of children is recognized as having a significant effect on the child's psychological and social functioning. Furthermore, not only does children's SWB have effects on childhood well-being research, it has also increased the knowledge of how children view their life that has been determined through the measurement of specific domains that relates to children's lives. The overall aim of this study was to ascertain the SWB of children across three age groups in the Western Cape. Within this process, the study further aimed to fit the structural model depicting the nature of the relationship between global, domain specific and overall life satisfaction across three age groups. The Theory of Model Fit: Goodness of Fit and Fit Indexes was used as the theoretical position conceptualising the study. The sample included 3236 children aged 8, 10, and 12 years selected using stratified random sampling from 29 schools in the Western Cape. The study used Structural Equation Modelling and Multi-group Confirmatory Factor Analysis to address the stated aims and objectives. Ethics principles of informed consent, anonymity, the right to withdraw and privacy were adhered to within the study. Findings of this study indicate that the descriptive statistics depicted high levels of SWB for both measures with mean composite scores ranging between 81.20 to 86.15 for the SLSS; and 83.29 to 84.07 for the PWI-SC. Confirmatory factor analysis showed excellent fit for both the SLSS and the PWI-SC across age groups (multi-group model). The application of Multi-group Confirmatory Factor Analysis in the current study found the measures to be comparable across the three age groups (8, 10 & 12) for the SLSS and two age groups for the PWI-SC (10 & 12). A combined model with two latent constructs, representing different levels of abstraction was also tested. An excellent fit was obtained for this combined model. Appropriate fit statistics was obtained for the overall pooled sample. The standardised regression weights of 0.57 for the PWI-SC and 0.47 for the SLSS point to adequate loadings of the latent constructs onto the OLS. Markedly, it was found that a significant overall mean difference was found between the 10 and 12-year olds and not between the 8 and 10-year olds; while for the domain-specific PWI-SC a similar tendency was noted across the 10 and 12-year olds participants (8 year old group was not applicable in this analysis). / National Research Foundation (NRF)

No description available.