Table of Contents

1. Ed Diener and the Science of Subjective Well-Being, Michael Eid and Randy J. Larsen

I. The Realm of Subjective Well-being

2. Philosophy and the Science of Subjective Well-Being, Daniel M. Haybron

3. Sociological Theories of Subjective Well-Being, Ruut Veenhoven

4. Evolution and Subjective Well-Being, Sarah E. Hill and David M. Buss

5. The Pursuit of Happiness in History, Darrin M. McMahon

II. Measuring Subjective Well-being

6. The Structure of Subjective Well-Being, Ulrich Schimmack

7. The Assessment of Subjective Well-Being: Successes and Shortfalls, William Pavot

8. Measuring the Immeasurable: Psychometric Modeling of Subjective Well-Being Data, Michael Eid

III. The Happy Person

9. Personality and Subjective Well-Being, Richard E. Lucas

10. Happiness and the Invisible Threads of Social Connection: The Chicago Health, Aging, and Social Relations Study, John T. Cacioppo, Louise C. Hawkley, Ariel Kalil, M. E. Hughes, Linda Waite, and Ronald A. Thisted

11. The Happy Mind in Action: The Cognitive Basis of Subjective Well-Being, Michael D. Robinson and Rebecca J. Compton

12. The Frequency of Social Comparison and Its Relation to Subjective Well-Being, Frank Fujita

13. Regulation of Emotional Well-Being: Overcoming the Hedonic Treadmill, Randy J. Larsen and Zvjezdana Prizmic

14. Two New Questions about Happiness: Is Happiness Good? and Is Happier Better?, Shigehiro Oishi and Minkyung Koo

15. Material Wealth and Subjective Well-Being, Robert Biswas-Diener

16. Religion and Human Flourishing, David G. Myers

IV. Subjective Well-Being in the Interpersonal Domain

17. What Makes People Happy?: A Developmental Approach to the Literature on Family Relationships and Well-Being, Marissa L. Diener and Mary Beth Diener McGavran

18. Research on Life Satisfaction of Children and Youth: Implications for the Delivery of School-Related Services, E. Scott Huebner and Carol Diener

19. Job Satisfaction: Subjective Well-Being at Work, Timothy A. Judge and Ryan Klinger

20. Comparing Subjective Well-Being across Cultures and Nations: The What and Why Questions, Eunkook M. Suh and Jayoung Koo

V. Making People Happier

21. Interventions for Enhancing Subjective Well-Being: Can We Make People Happier, and Should We?, Laura A. King

22. Promoting Positive Affect, Barbara L. Fredrickson

23. Gratitude, Subjective Well-Being, and the Brain, Robert A. Emmons

VI. Conclusions and Future Directions

25. Myths in the Science of Happiness, and Directions for Future Research, Ed Diener

About the Author

Michael Eid, DSc, is Professor of Psychology at the Free University of Berlin, Germany. Dr. Eid is currently Editor of Methodology--European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral and Social Sciences and Associate Editor of the Journal of Positive Psychology. His main research interests are subjective well-being, mood regulation, multimethod measurement, and longitudinal data analysis.

Randy J. Larsen, PhD, is the William R. Stuckenberg Professor of Human Values and Moral Development and Chair of the Psychology Department at Washington University in St. Louis. He conducts research on emotion, primarily in terms of differences between people, and studies such topics as subjective well-being, mood variability, jealousy, attraction, depression, and strategies for the self-management of self-esteem and emotion. Dr. Larsen is an elected member of the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology and is listed as one of the highly cited psychologists by the Institute for Scientific Information.

Reviews

'This terrific book captured my attention for hours of nonstop, riveting reading. The contributors are all first-rate, consisting of both eminent social scientists in the field of well-being and innovative young scholars. With a combination of breadth and depth, the book provides comprehensive treatment of cutting-edge theory and research. Chapters cover a broad array of topics, as varied as evolutionary and developmental psychology, behavioral genetics, measurement, happiness interventions, history, and philosophy. This book is indispensable for anyone interested in positive psychology, and is an ideal resource for graduate-level and advanced undergraduate classes.' -" Sonja Lyubomirsky, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, USA" 'Research into subjective well-being has a sustained and honored lineage within psychology, in large part due to the work of Ed Diener and his associates. This book describes what researchers in this area have learned and where we might be headed in the future. It deserves a prominent place on every psychologist's bookshelf. The book is a valuable resource - thorough, intelligent, and provocative - and an action plan for a topic of great individual and societal importance.' - "Christopher Peterson, PhD, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan, USA " 'What makes us happy? One might think this a very simple question, but the contributors to this volume suggest that many of our intuitions are not well supported by science. Instead, subjective well-being in individuals and societies is only partially about accumulating hedonic pleasures and stores of wealth, and even these relationships are not what one might predict. Eid and Larsen have gathered together brilliant thinkers and lively writers who explore just what it is that makes us feel good about our lives.' - "Peter Salovey, PhD, Dean of Yale College and Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology, Yale University, USA" " "