Happiness, life satisfaction, and fulfillment: The social psychology of subjective well-being

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Citation:

Diener, E., Tamir, M., & Scollon, C. N. (2006). Happiness, life satisfaction, and fulfillment: The social psychology of subjective well-being. In P. A. M. van Lange (Ed.), Bridging social psychology: The benefits of transdisciplinary approaches. Hillsdale, NH: Erlbaum.

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Abstract:

Subjective well-being (SWB) concerns how people evaluate their lives-in terms of satisfaction judgments (with life as well as with domains such as marriage and work), and in terms of moods and emotions, which reflect evaluations of ongoing events. Both the presence of frequent pleasant emotions and that of infrequent unpleasant emotions are considered hallmarks of high SWB. Subjective well-being is important because it is democratic. It allows individuals themselves, rather than experts or policymakers, to evaluate the quality of their own lives. This chapter examines the social nature of SWB, determinants of SWB, the importance of personality, the consequences of SWB, and cognition of SWB. The authors suggest that, in addition to relying on the methods and theoretical foci of social psychology, integrating them with research from other disciplines is critical to a complete understanding of happiness, life satisfaction, and well-being.

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