The philosophy of wellbeing

Philosophers use ‘wellbeing’ to refer to what makes your life go well for you, and ‘happiness’ to refer to a positive psychological state. Wellbeing and happiness need not be the same thing, hence the common expression ‘there’s more to life than happiness’.

• Moorhouse, F., Plant, M., and Houlden, T. (2020). An introduction to the philsophy of wellbeing

Two entries from the Stanford Encyclopedia for Philosophy.​

• Well-being
• Happiness​

The measurement of wellbeing

A book-length document, “these guidelines represent the first attempt to provide international recommendations on collecting, publishing, and analysing subjective well-being data”:

• OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being

Two general discussions of the measures:

• Dolan, P. and White, M. (2007). How Can Measures of Subjective Well-Being Be Used to Inform Public Policy? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2(1), 71–85
• Diener, E., Inglehart, R. and Tay, L. (2013). Theory and Validity of Life Satisfaction Scales. Social Indicators Research, 112(3), 497–527

​Distinguishing between the “remembering self” and the “experiencing self”:

• Kahneman, D. and Riis, J. (2005). Living, and thinking about it: Two perspectives on life. In F. Huppert, B. Keverne, & N. Baylis (eds.), The Science of Well-being. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press

A sceptical take on using happiness measures:

• White, M. (2015). The Problems with Measuring and Using Happiness for Policy Purposes. Mercatus Research, Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Arlington, VA

A paper suggesting people make global comparison, suggesting people might be using roughly the same criteria to judge their lives:

• Becchetti, L., Castriota, S., Corrado, L. and Giachin Ricca, E. (2013). Beyond the Joneses: Inter-Country Income Comparisons and Happiness. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 45, 187–95

A paper comparing Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) to life satisfaction scores:

• Dolan, P. and Metcalfe, R. (2012). Valuing Health: A Brief Report on Subjective Well-Being versus Preferences. Medical Decision Making, 32(4), 578–82

An advanced paper on cardinality:

• van Praag, B. M. S. (1993). The Relativity of the Welfare Concept. In: M. Nussbaum and A. Sen (eds.) The Quality of Life. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press

An advanced paper on how much difference it makes if you interpret life satisfaction scores as ordinal vs cardinal:

• Ferrer‐i‐Carbonell, A. and Frijters, P. (2004). How Important Is Methodology for the Estimates of the Determinants of Happiness? The Economic Journal

Determinants of life satisfaction

• The Origins of Happiness : The Science of Well-Being over the Life Course
  Andrew Clark, Sarah Flèche, Richard Layard, Nattavudh Powdthavee and George Ward. 2018.
• Dolan, P., Peasgood, T. and White, M. (2008). Do We Really Know What Makes Us Happy? A Review of the Economic Literature on the Factors Associated with Subjective Well-Being. Journal of Economic Psychology, 29(1), 94–122​

Hedonic adaptation

• Luhmann, M., Hofmann, W., Eid, M. and Lucas, R. E. (2012). Subjective Well-Being and Adaptation to Life Events: A Meta-Analysis on Differences Between Cognitive and Affective Well-Being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(3), 592–615
• Diener, E., Lucas, R. E. and Napa-Scollon, C. (2009). Beyond the Hedonic Treadmill: Revising the Adaptation Theory of Well-Being. In: E. Diener (ed.) The Science of Well-being. Springer

Affective forecasting

A paper on the fact we’re not very good at predicting how we or others will feel:

• Wilson, T. D. and Gilbert, D. T. (2005). Affective Forecasting. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(3), 131–34

Social comparison

• Alderson, A. S. and Katz-Gerro, T. (2016). Compared to Whom? Inequality, Social Comparison, and Happiness in the United States. Social Forces, 95(1), 25–54
• Yudkin, D. A., Liberman, N., Wakslak, C. and Trope, Y. (2016). Measuring Up to Distant Others: Expanding and Contracting the Scope of Social Comparison. SSRN Electronic Journal​

The Easterlin Paradox

The Easterlin Paradox is the finding that raising GDP doesn’t raise aggregate life satisfaction over the long-term.

• Stevenson, B. and Wolfers, J. (2008). Economic Growth and Subjective Well-Being: Reassessing the Easterlin Paradox. Cambridge, MA.
• Easterlin, R.A. et al. (2010). The Happiness-Income Paradox Revisited. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107(52), 22463–68
• Easterlin, R. A. (2016). Paradox Lost? SSRN Electronic Journal

Poverty, income, and life satisfaction

• Biswas-Diener, R. and Diener, E. (2001). Making the Best of a Bad Situation: Satisfaction in the Slums of Calcutta. Social Indicators Research, 55(3), 329–52
• Fleche, S. and Layard, R. (2017). Do More of Those in Misery Suffer from Poverty, Unemployment or Mental Illness? Kyklos, 70(1), 27–41

A study on cash transfers that suggests adaptation and comparison effects:

• Haushofer, J., Reisinger, J. and Shapiro, J. (2015). Your Gain Is My Pain: Negative Psychological Externalities of Cash Transfers, Working Paper.

Another study on cash transfers:

• Haushofer, J. and Shapiro, J. (2016). The Short-Term Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers to the Poor: Experimental Evidence from Kenya. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131(4), 1973–2042

A paper suggesting that making people wealthier didn’t decrease depressive symptoms:

• Green, E. P., Blattman, C., Jamison, J. and Annan, J. (2016). Does Poverty Alleviation Decrease Depression Symptoms in Post-Conflict Settings? A Cluster-Randomized Trial of Microenterprise Assistance in Northern Uganda. Global Mental Health (Cambridge, England)

A paper discussing the fact that China became less satisfied despite economic progress:

• Graham, C., Zhou, S. and Zhang, J. (2017). Happiness and Health in China: The Paradox of Progress. World Development, 96, 231–44

Effective treatments

• Thrive: The Power of Evidence-Based Psychological Therapies
  Richard Layard and David M. Clark. 2014.
• Uher, R. and Pavlova, B. (2016). Long-Term Effects of Depression Treatment. The Lancet Psychiatry, 3(2), 95–96

Annual reports

• The World Happiness Reports include a global survey and analysis of the state of the world’s happiness.
• The Global Happiness Policy Reports are the state of the art on happiness research applied to policy.

Videos

• A happy possibility about happiness (and other subjective) scales
  Michael Plant (Wellbeing Research Centre, 2021)
• Can I get a little less life satisfaction please?
  Michael Plant (Wellbeing Research Centre, 2020)
• On measuring and maximising what matters
  Michael Plant (EAGxAustralia 2019)
•  Philosophical issues related to maximising happiness
  Michael Plant (Four-part lecture series, Oxford University, 2018)
•  What are the best ways to improve world happiness? Michael Plant (EA Global: London 2017)

Podcasts

• How to measure impact, and why we may have all been doing it wrong
  Michael Plant (Clearer Thinking, 2021)
• How can we use our resources most effectively to help people feel happier?
  Barry Grimes (NexGen Minds, 2022)