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We aim to verify the equivalence between the paper and electronic version of Chinese SF-36 administered using the Quality-of-Life-Recorder. A crossover trial of the electronic and paper versions of the Chinese SF-36 was performed as follows: the interviewees were asked to fill out either an electronic version or a paper version firstly according to their own willingness. After at least 30 min interval, interviewees were required to complete the other version. This study used a convenience sample of medical college freshman participating in courses at the College of Medicine of Zhejiang University (China). About 100 subjects were eventually recruited and the response rate was 90.9%. The mean difference of completion time between the two versions was caused by an impact of order sequence and advantages of the electronic version over the paper version were eventually verified. At both the level of eight subscales and the level of 36 items, score equivalence was achieved between two versions. Thereby this study provided an empirical basis for the identification of the equivalence between the paper version and electronic version of the Chinese SF-36 and can be regarded as a pilot towards further investigations on how to facilitate widespread deployment of the Quality-of-Life-Recorder in Asian populations.

The purpose of the current study is to examine the effects of the Positive Psychology-Based Online Group Counselling Program (PPBOGCP) on the psychological well-being, self-compassion and hope levels of the mothers having children with intellectual disabilities. The current study is a mixed-design research having quantitative and qualitative dimensions. The quantitative dimension of the study was designed in a quasi-experimental design based on the experimental, placebo and control group pre-test, post-test and follow-up test model. The study group is comprised of a total of 35 participants. While in the experimental group, the 10-session PPBOGCP developed by the researcher was implemented, a 10-session group counselling was conducted in the placebo group. No study was conducted with the individuals in the control group. As the data collection tools, the Psychological Well-Being Scale, Self-Compassion Scale and Dispositional Hope Scale were used in the current study. The quantitative analyses were conducted in SPSS 17 program package while the qualitative data were analyzed with the content analysis technique. According to the findings of the current study, the PPBOGCP created significant differences in the psychological well-being, self-compassion and hope levels of the mothers having children with intellectual disabilities according to the intervention time effect (p

A plethora of research shows that income is an important factor in adult’s life satisfaction, but research ascertaining its importance for children’s life satisfaction is scant. Using a largescale nationally representative longitudinal survey with children aged 10–15, we estimate comprehensive life satisfaction models that account for heterogeneity in exogenous circumstances in children’s lives, focussing on family income and material deprivation. We find empirical support for the hypothesis that children are more satisfied with their lives, the more income their family has and the less material deprivation they experience throughout their teens. There are, however, differences across age groups with children aged 12–15 experiencing greater life satisfaction losses on account of lower family material wellbeing than younger children. Overall, income effects for older children are small but statistically significant when accounting for unobserved individual differences.

Improving mental wellbeing has a range of benefits for society, including increased productivity, longevity, and resiliency. However, interventions designed to improve mental wellbeing are often only compared to waitlist controls, leaving uncertainty regarding the mechanisms of their effectiveness. The current study in 326 participants assessed a six-week positive psychology intervention against an active control (n = 163) in an online randomized control trial. Outcome measures included life satisfaction, wellbeing (subjective and psychological wellbeing), stress, depression and anxiety symptoms, and self-compassion. The potential moderating effect of participating during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was also explored. The intervention group showed greater improvements in life satisfaction by week six (β = 0.18, p = .014) and were maintained through to 7 weeks post-baseline (β = 0.23, t = 3.07, p = .002) and remained significant when accounting for COVID-19 restrictions. An improvement in composite wellbeing from baseline to 7 weeks post-baseline was detected when accounting for COVID-19 restrictions. Composite wellbeing and total depression and anxiety symptoms improved significantly more in the intervention group for participants with low baseline resiliency resources. These findings support the efficacy of using online multi-component positive psychology interventions in boosting wellbeing and reducing distress symptoms particularly in individuals with fewer resiliency resources who may need added support. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10902-021-00449-3.

Flow is a mental state of thorough absorption and concentration in an activity, in which intrinsic motivation and enjoyment are maximized, and the individual achieves optimal performance. This study investigated how daily flow experiences during parents' interactions with their children contribute to parental well-being. The Day Reconstruction Method was completed by 832 employed Israeli parents of children aged 2 to 12, who reconstructed their experiences on three different working days over three weeks, and rated their levels of flow, as well as positive and negative affect for each experience. Participants also completed measures of subjective well-being and parental satisfaction and efficacy. The results indicated that parents' flow experiences during interactions with their children were positively related to parents' positive affect, self-efficacy and satisfaction, and greater subjective well-being. The findings underscore the importance for parental well-being of daily optimal experiences with their children.

The aim of the present study was to test an explanatory model for individual and social wellbeing which incorporates the advantages of using digital technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was carried out in Italy, one of the countries that has been most severely affected by the pandemic worldwide. The study was designed to include variables that might be specifically pertinent to the uniqueness of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. Adults living in Italy (n = 1412) completed an online survey during the lockdown period in March 2020. Results showed two distinct digital interaction processes highlighted by the facilitating use of online emotions (“e-motions”) and online social support (“e-support”). In short, e-motions were positively related to posttraumatic growth, which in turn was positively associated with positive mental health and higher engagement in prosocial behaviors. Moreover, individuals who perceived themselves as having greater e-support were characterized by higher levels of positive mental health, which it turn was positively associated with prosocial behaviors. Collectively, these two digital interaction processes suggest that digital technologies appear to be critical resources in helping individuals cope with difficulties raised by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This work analyses the existence of asymmetric effects on the subjective well-being of the population of different countries in response to changes in the levels of aggregate income. Microdata from the Eurobarometer and the World Values Survey are used for the period 2000–2019. This period includes several economic changes, among which are the strong expansion at the beginning of the century, the Great Recession, and the subsequent recovery. Our study includes several groups of countries. In the broadest case, the study comprises a group of 83 countries and analyses the issue both from a global perspective as well as focusing particular attention on European countries. These asymmetric effects of economic activity are in line with behavioural economics and previous literature and allow us to determine a macroeconomic aversion to losses. The results obtained support the existence of asymmetric effects of changes in aggregate income on subjective well-being, and show that losses generated in recessions require a far more vigorous recovery if they are to be compensated for, and that they might even have permanent effects. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10902-021-00401-5.

The importance of both income rank and relative income, as indicators of status, has long been recognised in the literature on life satisfaction and happiness. Recently, several authors have made explicit comparisons of the relative importance of these two measures of income status, and concluded that rank dominates to the extent that reference income becomes insignificant in regressions including both these explanatory variables, and that even absolute or household income, otherwise always positively related to happiness, may lose statistical significance. Here we test this hypothesis with a large UK panel (British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society) for 1996–2017, split by age and retirement status, and find, contrary to previous results, that rank, household income and reference income are all usually important explanatory variables, but with significant differences between subgroups. This finding holds when rank is in its often-used relative form, and also with absolute rank.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has induced stress and anxiety. According to past studies, positive support within married couples reduces stress during diseases and disasters, but their mechanisms are unclear. To address this gap and help individuals better cope with COVID-19-related psychological distress, this study examined the relationships among daily positive support, daily gratitude, and daily stress within married couples. In this 14-day daily diary study, 54 heterosexually married couples (N = 108) aged 28 to 71 years participated. After reporting their demographic information at the start of the study, they reported their perceived positive support from their partner, daily stress, and feelings of gratitude at the end of each day of the study for 14 consecutive days. Using a multivariate outcome, multilevel cross-classification, we found that daily positive support was negatively associated with daily stress, mediated by daily feelings of gratitude. On a day when a person reported more perceived positive support than others, this person also reported a higher level of feelings of gratitude and a lower level of stress, regardless of age. We found only an actor effect, no partner effect. These findings show how greater daily positive support is linked to greater daily feelings of gratitude, which in turn is linked to less daily stress during an emergent public health crisis. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10902-021-00387-0.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic threatens human beings’ livelihoods and mental health, which lowers their well-being and gives rise to anxiety. This study examines whether there is a causal relationship (and, if so, in which direction) between people’s well-being and COVID-19 anxiety. Two hundred and twenty-two participants (54.50% female, Mage = 31.53, SD = 8.17) from 26 provinces of China completed measures of subjective well-being (SWB) and COVID-19 anxiety at three key nodes of the development of COVID-19 in China. The results showed that people’s SWB and COVID-19 anxiety fluctuated with the peak (T1), decline (T2), and trough stages (T3) of the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the cross-lagged analysis showed that the participants’ SWB at T0 (pre-pandemic stage; the base level of SWB) and T1 could significantly predict their COVID-19 anxiety at T1 and T2 respectively. However, SWB at T2 was not associated with the COVID-19 anxiety at T3. Furthermore, COVID-19 anxiety could not predict subsequent SWB from T1 to T3. The current findings contribute to clarifying the causal relationship between well-being and anxiety through the development of epidemics, as well as finding ways to alleviate people’s COVID-19 anxiety. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10902-021-00385-2.

On the assumption that existential questions may arise in the face of the transition to motherhood in the shadow of a global crisis, we sought to compare the levels of presence of meaning and search for meaning in life between two samples of new mothers: one recruited before the outbreak of COVID-19, and the other during the pandemic. In addition, we examined the associations between mother's marital satisfaction and perception of the infant on the one hand, and the two aspects of meaning in life on the other, investigating whether these variables mediate the link between research group and meaning in life. The results indicate that mothers reported significantly higher perception of infant's warmth and presence of meaning before than during the pandemic. Furthermore, they displayed greater marital satisfaction and more search for meaning during the pandemic than prior to it. For the whole sample, higher marital satisfaction and perception of infant’s warmth were related to higher presence of meaning, and lower marital satisfaction and perception of the infant's invasiveness were related to higher search for meaning. Finally, mother's marital satisfaction and perception of the infant fully mediated the relationship between the research group and the two aspects of meaning in life. These findings are significant in that they provide, for the first time, evidence of changes in meaning in life among new mothers in a crisis situation, along with the importance of their perceptions of their relationships with the infant and spouse under these circumstances.

Given the need to understand both the negative and positive psychological consequences of the current global COVID-19 pandemic (Brewin et al. in Perspectives in Public Health https://doi.org/10.1177/1757913920957365 2020), the aim of this study was to test a cognitive model of post-traumatic symptoms (PTS) and post-traumatic growth (PTG) during confinement caused by the SARS-COV-2 epidemic. In line with cognitive models of trauma elaboration (Park in Psychological Bulletin https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018301 ), we included in our model some beliefs associated to the world (e.g., primal beliefs about a good world), to the self (e.g., death anxiety or orientation toward the future) and to others (e.g., suspiciousness or identification with humanity). To evaluate the explanatory model, a national representative sample of adults between the ages of 18 and 75 (N = 1951) was surveyed between 7th and 13th April, 2020, in the middle of a strict 7-week national confinement. Structural equation modelling yielded a very similar model to the one initially specified. The results highlight the role of both negative and positive core beliefs, which are pertinent to the current pandemic threat, in the appearance of PTS and PTG, respectively. In short, primal beliefs about a good world, openness to the future and identification with humanity were associated with PTG; while suspiciousness, intolerance of uncertainty, anxiety about death and also identification with humanity were associated with PTS and consequent impairment. This is an innovative study of different pathways to traumatic responses and growth during a pandemic. Future research is needed to replicate its findings.

Funder: King's College London, It is a commonly expressed sentiment that the science and philosophy of well-being would do well to learn from each other. Typically such calls identify mistakes and bad practices on both sides that would be remedied if scientists picked the right bit of philosophy and philosophers picked the right bit of science. We argue that the differences between philosophers and scientists thinking about well-being are more difficult to reconcile than such calls suggest, and that pluralism is central to this task. Pluralism is a stance that explicitly drives towards accommodating and nurturing the richness and diversity of well-being, both as a concept and as an object of inquiry. We show that well-being science manifests a contingent pluralism at the level of methodology, whereas philosophy of well-being has largely rejected pluralism at the conceptual level. Recently, things have begun to change. Within philosophy, conceptual monism is under attack. But so is methodological pluralism within science. We welcome the first development, and bemoan the second. We argue that a joined-up philosophy and science of well-being should recognise the virtues of both conceptual and methodological pluralism. Philosophers should embrace the methodological justification of pluralism that can be found in the well-being sciences, and scientists should embrace the conceptual reasons to be pluralist that can be found in philosophical debate.

Although considerable research has examined the traits and features involved in living a good life (Baumeister et al. in J Posit Psychol 8(6):505–516, 2013; Ryan et al. in Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness, Guilford Press, 2006; Wong in Can Psychol/Psychol Can 52(2):69–81, 2011), little research has examined personal philosophies of the good life and the motivational outcomes associated with these views. Through a prospective longitudinal study across one academic year, we examined whether perceiving oneself to be living coherently with personal conceptions of the good life was associated with greater autonomous goal motivation and, subsequently, goal progress and greater subjective well-being (SWB) over time. We hypothesize that perceiving oneself as living coherently in terms of one’s own philosophy of flourishing relates to greater volition, goal progress and happiness. Our results suggest that when individuals assess themselves as following their own philosophy of the good life, they tend to experience greater autonomous motivation, goal progress and SWB. Implications for personality coherence and Self-Determination Theory are discussed.

Across the world, measures were taken to contain the spreading of the COVID-19 virus. Many of these measures caused a sudden rupture in people’s daily routines, thereby eliciting considerable uncertainty and potentially also hampering the satisfaction of individuals’ psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Drawing upon Maslow’s Hierarchical Need Theory and Self-Determination Theory, this study examined the unique role of felt insecurity and the psychological needs, as well as their dynamic interplay, in the prediction of mental health. A large and heterogeneous sample of adults (N = 5118; Mage = 43.45 years) was collected during the first ten days of the lockdown period in Flanders, Belgium. A subsample (N = 835, Mage = 41.39) participated during a second wave one week later. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that felt insecurity, need satisfaction and need frustration all independently predicted various positive (life satisfaction, sleep quality) and negative indicators depressive symptoms, anxiety) of mental health, with little systematic evidence for interactions between the predictors. The pattern of findings obtained concurrently largely held in the longitudinal analyses. Finally, results showed that associations between felt insecurity and lower concurrent and prospective mental health were partially mediated by need satisfaction and frustration, with especially psychological need frustration predicting changes in mental health over time. Overall, the findings suggest that satisfaction of the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness is not just a ‘luxury good’. Satisfaction of these needs is important also in times of insecurity, while need frustration represents a risk factor for maladjustment during such times.

This study evaluates the potential value of eudaimonic well-being in assessing pro-preventive orientation towards suicide and recognizing suicide as a solution. The aim was to integrate positive and negative conceptualizations of mental health for predicting attitudes towards suicide, and towards suicide prevention, among students of the helping professions. The study participants (166 women and 73 men, mean age 22.84 ± 5.15) answered a set of questionnaires, including a Questionnaire on Attitudes Towards Suicide, Goldberg Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWB-42) and Centrality of Religiosity Scale. Multiple regression analysis showed that environmental mastery, purpose in life and positive relationships, controlled for religiousness and psychological problems related to general mental health, predicted the variability of attitudes towards suicide and pro-preventive orientation. Sociodemographic variables were not related to attitudes towards suicide. Our findings suggest that positive mental health, represented jointly by low mental health problems and eudaimonic components of happiness, plays a role in predicting pro-preventive attitudes. Therefore, improving positive mental health among students in the helping professions, these being the future gatekeepers, could be considered an auxiliary strategy for suicide prevention. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10902-019-00163-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and attendant lockdown measures present serious threats to emotional well-being worldwide. Here, we examined the extent to which being outdoors (versus indoors), the experience of loneliness, and screen-time are associated with emotional well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic using an experiencing sampling method. In April 2020, Austrian adults (N = 286, age M = 31.0 years) completed a 21-day experience sampling phase in which they reported their emotional well-being (i.e., happiness), whether they were indoors or outdoors, and loneliness at three random time-points each day, as well as their daily screen-time. Results indicated that being outdoors was associated with higher emotional well-being, whereas greater loneliness and greater daily screen-time were associated with poorer well-being. Additionally, the impact of loneliness on well-being was weaker when participants were outdoors than indoors. These results have health policy implications for the promotion of population well-being during pandemics.

The present study examined how neuroticism, extraversion, and emotion regulation were related to loneliness and well-being during 6 weeks of major public life restrictions in the Covid-19 pandemic in Switzerland. Cross-sectional results from 466 participants showed that neuroticism and emotion regulation strategies were associated with higher loneliness and lower well-being. However, in contrast to prior research, associations of extraversion with loneliness and well-being were weak and were qualified by interactions with emotion regulation. For introverts, maladaptive cognitive strategies such as rumination or catastrophizing were related to higher levels of loneliness. For extraverts, emotion suppression was related to lower levels of affective well-being. Individuals with low maladaptive regulation reported higher well-being the longer the public life restrictions were in place at the time of study participation. These findings suggest that first, extraversion may lose some of its protective value for loneliness and well-being when opportunities to engage in social activities are limited; second, that loneliness and well-being do not decrease over 6 weeks of public life restrictions; and third, that future studies should further investigate the moderating role of emotion regulation on the link between personality, loneliness, and well-being.

This paper aimed to identify the determinants of life satisfaction in the four regions of Asia. Because the determinants of life satisfaction may differ between people who are at a different level of life satisfaction, quantile regression was used to yield more accurate inferences. An earlier study using ordinary least square regression found that the standard of living, marital status, education and the role of government were the most significant determinants of life satisfaction in Asia. Results from the present study also show that these three factors were significant determinants of life satisfaction, but their effects varied considerably across the quantiles. Gender and age were significant determinants of life satisfaction only in Central & West Asia, but the education factor was relatively less significant here as compared to the other regions. In all the four Asia regions, the income variable was a less significant predictor of life satisfaction as compared to the standard of living. This paper further found that employment was more influential in South and Southeast Asia as compared to the other two regions. The effects of these variables varied substantially across the quantiles. Some of these variables had a positive effect on life satisfaction for some quantiles, but a negative effect for other quantiles.

With the expansion of high-speed internet during the recent decades, a growing number of people are working from home. Yet there is no consensus on how working from home affects workers’ well-being in the literature. Using data from the 2010, 2012, and 2013 American Time Use Survey Well-Being Modules, this paper examines how subjective well-being varies among wage/salary workers between working at home and working in the workplace using individual fixed-effects models. We find that compared to working in the workplace, bringing work home on weekdays is associated with less happiness, and telework on weekdays or weekends/holidays is associated with more stress. The effect of working at home on subjective well-being also varies by parental status and gender. Parents, especially fathers, report a lower level of subjective well-being when working at home on weekdays but a higher level of subjective well-being when working at home on weekends/holidays. Non-parents’ subjective well-being does not vary much by where they work on weekdays, but on weekends/holidays childless males feel less painful whereas childless females feel more stressed when teleworking instead of working in the workplace. This paper provides new evidence on the impact of working at home and sheds lights for policy makers and employers to re-evaluate the benefits of telework.

Emotional intelligence (EI) has been found to generally predict subjective wellbeing (SWB) indicators such as life satisfaction and happiness. Concerning the specific abilities of trait EI, i.e., mood attention, emotional clarity and mood repair, research has largely demonstrated that emotional clarity and mood repair are the strongest predictors of SWB indicators, whereas mood attention has been relegated to a secondary role. To clarify previous inconsistencies, we tested EI by means of the bifactor model because it allows for a better comprehension of the complex nature of EI. The current paper was composed of two studies: Study 1 examined the prediction of SWB indicators by EI and its dimensions in the bifactor model; and Study 2 analysed the differences in EI and SWB indicators across university students and employees. Results of Study 1 demonstrated that the structure of EI is best represented by the bifactor model with a general e(motional)-factor and three specific emotional abilities. Mood attention was a negative predictor of SWB indicators, whereas mood repair was a positive predictor, and emotional clarity was non-significant. Study 2 showed that employees and university students did not differed in how EI predicted SWB indicators. These findings evidenced a shift in the study and measurement of EI. Further implications of this paper are discussed.

This paper studies how consumption expenditures, especially spending on certain types of goods and services, affect people’s life satisfaction. The results demonstrate that conspicuous (i.e., visible and positional) spending increases life satisfaction. The analysis suggests that it is one’s conspicuous consumption expenditures relative to those of other households in one’s reference group that really matter. In contrast, savings and spending on basic goods and services, the less visible components of income, do not contribute to life satisfaction. This paper also evaluates the often-discussed relationship between income and life satisfaction, finding that the relationship is largely driven by conspicuous spending. Evidence of relationship heterogeneity across income groups is presented: conspicuous consumption expenditures have a positive influence on life satisfaction for individuals in all income groups; basic consumption expenditures, however, have a negative influence for people in the lowest income quartile. The findings of this paper underscore the importance of social comparisons to people’s well-being and imply that interdependence should be modeled in utility functions. The results are based on the Arellano–Bond generalized method of moments estimation, which controls for bias from unobserved individual heterogeneity and endogenous variables. The data come from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (2006–2010).

Around the world, the financial landscape is becoming increasingly complex. In response to this, an array of initiatives seeks to address financial participation, education, and inclusion for the broad as well as the vulnerable population. There is an increased expectation that these programs will improve the financial wellbeing of individuals and households. But financial wellbeing is inadequately conceptualized and inconsistently defined, making it difficult to understand and improve financial outcomes. Existing conceptualizations, do not adequately account for the dynamic interplay between a person’s environment and their financial wellbeing as well as how aspects of financial wellbeing can interact according to age and life stages. This paper aims to address this gap by redefining and re-conceptualizing financial wellbeing and understanding its components and the relationships between them. To do so, nine focus groups with 54 people living in Australia of different ages, genders, and socio-economic statuses; and 18 one-on-one interviews with people experiencing challenges to their financial wellbeing, are conducted. Using an ecological life-course approach, this paper proposes a definition of financial wellbeing and puts forward a conceptual model allowing us to better understand how financial wellbeing may change over time, and how it is achieved, maintained, or challenged. Policy makers, regulators and organizations may use this model to consider where they might focus their efforts.

This paper aims to examine the impact of being in a specific economic position, namely, being vulnerable to poverty, on people’s level of subjective well-being. Research usually focus on the top or at the bottom of the income distribution, but rarely on those in an in-between position. While the concept of poverty has been widely explored and analysed, people being vulnerable to poverty and who are struggling to maintain a certain standard of living are often neglected. This fact is probably due to the heterogeneous definition of those being vulnerable or the concept of vulnerability itself. Following the vulnerability to poverty approach, this paper estimates the effect of being in this adjacent position on the level of subjective well-being. The main hypothesis is that, people being vulnerable will report a lower level of subjective well-being compared to those in a secured position, but will be better off compared to those in poverty. Results do confirm our hypothesis, as the level of self-reported satisfaction with life is lower than the reference group for those being vulnerable to poverty, but not compared to those in poverty. However, the difference between the two groups is very small and tend to indicate similar subjective well-being. This result raise several questions and may translate how people being vulnerable to poverty feel left behind.

Both corruption and subjective well-being are of concern to academics, governments, and policy makers. This paper studies the impact of corruption on subjective well-being, using cross-national data for 126 countries. By employing preindustrial local traditional democracy level as a novel instrument variable for current corruption, the paper addresses the endogeneity issue. We find the national average of subjective well-being would decrease by 0.23 points if a government became more corrupt by 10 points, and unemployment rate had to decrease equivalently by 9.2% to keep the national average subjective well-being unchanged. Further investigation shows that corruption had a significant effect in democratic or high-income countries only. The results are robust to alternative measures of corruption and happiness, estimation strategies, and excluding outliers.

This paper explores the trends and determinants in happiness and happiness inequality in South Africa at the individual and aggregate district municipality level using the four waves of National Income Dynamics data. The findings indicate that while both happiness as well as income levels show increasing trends in recent years, the inequality trends differ substantially between income and happiness measures. Despite increase in income inequality, South Africa has been registering decreased happiness inequality. The paper identifies the significant determinants of happiness and happiness inequality and finds that income determines happiness level as well as happiness inequality at both individual and aggregate level. The similarity of findings at the individual and aggregate levels indicate that the happiness–income paradox noted in literature does not seem to exist within the South African context. At the aggregate level, income inequality has significant negative and positive impact on happiness levels and happiness inequality respectively. Our finding of increasing happiness levels and decreasing happiness inequality in the backdrop of increasing income inequality, is indicative that absolute effect rather than relative effect of income dominates happiness and happiness inequality at the country level in South Africa. The paper’s findings reinforce the argument that happiness inequality may be a useful supplementary measure of inequality in society.

Philosophers have been interested in happiness and well-being since the Hellenic period. More recently, psychologists have begun to study how happy people are and what makes people’s lives go well. Today, these fields begin to converge, as philosophers are increasingly interested in empirical approaches and some psychologists use philosophical theories to develop accounts of how to measure well-being and happiness. Yet, are philosophers and psychologists really studying the same concept? In this paper, we answer this question. We describe philosophical accounts of well-being and happiness and their corresponding psychological accounts on six characteristics: (a) temporal dimension (short term vs. long term), (b) degree of stability (trait vs. state), (c) psychological process (affective vs. cognitive), (d) constituent element (internal vs. external), (e) perspective (objective vs. subjective), and (f) theoretical approach (descriptive vs. normative). As a result, we identified three broad groups of theoretical accounts: mental state accounts, flourishing accounts, and multidimensional accounts. This classification highlights similarities and differences among the accounts and allows researchers to assess where philosophical and psychological accounts overlap and where they diverge. We conclude our paper with a discussion of the implications of our new way of integrating philosophical and psychological accounts, and present open questions that should be addressed in future research. Keywords: Happiness, Well-Being, Characteristics, Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being, Life satisfaction, Philosophy of Well-Being

This paper examines the moderating effect of positive reciprocity beliefs and the mediating effect of interpersonal trust on the relationship between proactive personality and individual life satisfaction in China. In study one, 371 employees completed a survey, the results of which showed that proactive personality was positively related to employee life satisfaction; however, positive reciprocity beliefs did not moderate this association. In study two, 244 Chinese adolescents completed a two-wave survey with a 4-month interval. These results also confirmed that proactive personality was positively related to individual life satisfaction, and interpersonal trust mediated the association. Positive reciprocity beliefs moderated the effect of proactive personality on interpersonal trust and, furthermore, moderated the mediating effect of interpersonal trust on the relationship between proactive personality and life satisfaction. The findings, theoretical contributions, and practical implications of the present paper are discussed further.

The paper explores the link between employment and subjective well-being among mothers with children under 3 years of age. It uses a pooled sample from the ESS 2004–2014 data from 30 European countries. Analyzing multiple measures of subjective well-being, the paper shows that homemakers are generally happier than full-time workers. No significant differences between homemakers and part-time workers were found. Contrary to our expectations, homemaking was positively associated with happiness particularly among mothers who left higher quality employment for childcare. Though some variation across countries exists, it is not linked to the provision of formal childcare, duration of parental leave, or tax system.

Social comparison is an important issue in the context of subjective well-being. Subjective well-being, including satisfaction with pay, is not only affected by individual salary but also by the salaries of members of a reference group. This paper studies the relationship between relative wage and pay satisfaction allowing the choice of reference group to vary across individuals. The paper utilizes a survey on working conditions and quality of working life that contains questions regarding the individual’s choice of reference group for income comparisons. The results indicate that even after controlling for reference group choice, both absolute and relative pay are significantly related to satisfaction with pay. Allowing the reference group to vary improves the overall performance of the model, however. We also present evidence that questions regarding relative pay are good predictors of satisfaction with pay.

While Sen’s capabilities approach provides a framework of justice for an assessment of human wellbeing, it faces a challenge on the operationalisation side in practice. The happiness approach to measuring wellbeing, in contrast, provides a workable framework of subjective wellbeing assessment using the tools of psychology. The present paper proposes a new way of subjective evaluation of capabilities with a critical review of literature on alternative methodologies addressing the issues in operationalizing Sen’s capabilities approach. The paper argues that some of the methodological problems, reviewed in this paper, can be greatly minimized if we consider capabilities of “being achieved”, which is an overall functioning, for the assessment of human wellbeing. The proposed subjective solution to these problems is defended against Sen’s popular criticism on happiness using Sen’s position-dependent argument.

Gratitude, the experience of appreciating the positive aspects in life, has been associated with increased subjective wellbeing (SWB). This paper proposes two causal frameworks (i.e., a cognitive and a psycho-social framework) that highlight the possible mechanisms by which gratitude influences SWB. This paper provides support for these two frameworks by reviewing research conducted to date on the relationship between the experience of gratitude and SWB, in terms of reduced symptoms of psychopathology, better interpersonal relationships, and improved physical health. In addition, the promising potential of gratitude interventions to improve SWB in healthy individuals and those with symptoms of psychopathology are reviewed. While gratitude interventions represent a relatively new approach, the limited evidence suggests that they may eventually provide an effective form of intervention that can be used to complement current therapy aprroaches for improving SWB. Therefore its potential application in clinical populations and the underlying mechanisms that might be driving the positive effects of gratitude interventions in improving SWB deserve further research attention.