Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

The Science of Well-Being

The Collected Works of Ed Diener

  • Book
  • © 2009

Overview

Editors:
  1. Ed Diener

    1. Dept. Psychology, University of Illinois, Champaign, USA

    View editor publications

    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Present an introduction and in-depth discussion of the major scientific findings and theories of subjective well-being
  • Volume 1 presents broad reviews and theory articles that give readers the major findings in the field, and the basic theories of well-being
  • Volume 2 presents the major works on culture and well-being, coming from the laboratories of Ed Diener and his former students. The volume shows how well-being varies across cultures, as well as the universal and culture-specific causes of well-being
  • Volume 3 presents an analysis of the measures of well-being that are in use, and several new and useful measures
  • Highlight what we now know in terms of whether well-being is helpful to effective functioning, the causes of well-being such as money and relationships, and the different definitions and components of well-being
  • Each volume discusses the research that is needed in the future, with many ideas for new research that will be helpful to researchers working in this area

Part of the book series: Social Indicators Research Series (SINS, volume 37)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-XI
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction—The Science of Well-Being: Reviews and Theoretical Articles by Ed Diener

    • Ed Diener
    Pages 1-10

  3. Subjective Well-Being

    • Ed Diener
    Pages 11-58

  4. In Pursuit of Happiness: Empirical Answers to Philosophical Questions

    • Pelin Kesebir, Ed Diener
    Pages 59-74

  5. Personality and Subjective Well-Being

    • Richard E., Ed Diener
    Pages 75-102

  6. Beyond the Hedonic Treadmill: Revising the Adaptation Theory of Well-Being

    • Ed Diener, Richard E. Lucas, Christie Napa Scollon
    Pages 103-118

  7. Will Money Increase Subjective Well-Being?: A Literature Review and Guide to Needed Research

    • Ed Diener, Robert Biswas-Diener
    Pages 119-154

  8. The Well-Being of Nations: Linking Together Trust, Cooperation, and Democracy

    • William Tov, Ed Diener
    Pages 155-173

  9. The Optimum Level of Well-Being: Can People Be Too Happy?

    • Shigehiro Oishi, Ed Diener, Richard E. Lucas
    Pages 175-200

  10. Beyond Money: Toward an Economy of Well-Being

    • Ed Diener, Martin E.P. Seligman
    Pages 201-265

  11. Conclusion: The Well-Being Science Needed Now

    • Ed Diener
    Pages 267-271
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

Major Theoretical Questions Theories about subjective well-being have grown over the past several decades, but have been re ned only slowly as adequate data have been compiled to test them. We can characterize the theories describing happiness along several dimensions. The rst dimension is whether the theory places the locus of happiness in external conditions such as income and status, as many sociological theories do, or within the attitudes and temperament of the individual, as many psychological theories do. Some have maintained that people adapt to all circumstances over time, so that only individual personality matters for producing happiness, whereas others believe that economicandothersocietalfactorsarethedominantforcesinproducingwell-being. Throughout my writings there is a mix of both the internal and external factors that in uence well-being. A second dimension that characterizes scholarship on well-being is the issue of whether the factors affecting well-being are relative or absolute. That is, are there standards used by people at all times and places in judging their lives and in reacting to events? Or are standards dependent on what other people possess, on expec- tions,andonadaptationlevelsbasedonpastcircumstances?Again,thereisevidence supporting the role of both universal and relative standards. People around the globe are probably in uenced by common factors such as friendship versus loneliness, but even these universal in uences on happiness are probably subject to some degree of comparison depending on what the person is used to and what others have. However, some factors might be much more comparative than other in uences, as Hsee, Yang, Li, and Shen (in press) have described.

Reviews

From the reviews: “The Science of Well-Being, is a potpourri of papers—literature reviews and theory pieces—that overview the field that Diener helped establish. … Certainly academic researchers interested in well-being will find them extremely useful. … The audience should extend beyond research psychologists and include policy makers as well as interested members of the general public. … the collected works of Ed Diener are timely, impressive, and useful.” (Christopher Peterson, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 54 (50), 2009)

Editors and Affiliations

  • Dept. Psychology, University of Illinois, Champaign, USA

    Ed Diener

About the editor

Ed Diener is the Joseph R. Smiley Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois. He received his doctorate at the University of Washington in 1974, and has been a faculty member at the University of Illinois for the past 34 years. Dr. Diener was the president of both the International Society of Quality of Life Studies and the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. Currently he is the president of the International Positive Psychology Association. Dr. Diener was the editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and the Journal of Happiness Studies, and he is the founding editor of Perspectives on Psychological Science. Diener has over 240 publications, with about 190 being in the area of the psychology of well-being, and is listed as one of the most highly cited psychologists by the Institute of Scientific Information with over 12,000 citations to his credit. He won the Distinguished Researcher Award from the International Society of Quality of Life Studies, the first Gallup Academic Leadership Award, and the Jack Block Award for Personality Psychology. Dr. Diener also won several teaching awards, including the Oakley-Kundee Award for Undergraduate Teaching at the University of Illinois.

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation