Happiness
Whatever does not kill us: Cumulative lifetime adversity, vulnerability, and resilience
Mark Seery, Alison Holman, Roxane Cohen Silver
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Exposure to adverse life events typically predicts subsequent negative effects on mental health and well-being, such that more adversity predicts worse outcomes. However, adverse experiences may also foster subsequent resilience, with resulting advantages for mental health and well-being. In a multiyear longitudinal study of a national sample, people with a history of some lifetime adversity reported better mental health and well-being outcomes than not only people with a high history of adversity but also than people with no history of adversity. Specifically, U-shaped quadratic relationships indicated that a history of some but nonzero lifetime adversity predicted relatively lower global distress, lower self-rated functional impairment, fewer posttraumatic stress symptoms, and higher life satisfaction over time. Furthermore, people with some prior lifetime adversity were the least affected by recent adverse events. These results suggest that, in moderation, whatever does not kill us may indeed make us stronger.
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High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being
Daniel Kahneman & Angus Deaton
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 21 September 2010, Pages 16489-16493
Abstract:
Recent research has begun to distinguish two aspects of subjective well- being. Emotional well-being refers to the emotional quality of an individual's everyday experience-the frequency and intensity of experiences of joy, stress, sadness, anger, and affection that make one's life pleasant or unpleasant. Life evaluation refers to the thoughts that people have about their life when they think about it. We raise the question of whether money buys happiness, separately for these two aspects of well-being. We report an analysis of more than 450,000 responses to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, a daily survey of 1,000 US residents conducted by the Gallup Organization. We find that emotional well-being (measured by questions about emotional experiences yesterday) and life evaluation (measured by Cantril's Self-Anchoring Scale) have different correlates. Income and education are more closely related to life evaluation, but health, care giving, loneliness, and smoking are relatively stronger predictors of daily emotions. When plotted against log income, life evaluation rises steadily. Emotional well-being also rises with log income, but there is no further progress beyond an annual income of ∼$75,000. Low income exacerbates the emotional pain associated with such misfortunes as divorce, ill health, and being alone. We conclude that high income buys life satisfaction but not happiness, and that low income is associated both with low life evaluation and low emotional well-being.
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Better Mood and Better Performance: Learning Rule-Described Categories Is Enhanced by Positive Mood
Ruby Nadler, Rahel Rabi & John Paul Minda
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Theories of mood and its effect on cognitive processing suggest that positive mood may allow for increased cognitive flexibility. This increased flexibility is associated with the prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex, both of which play crucial roles in hypothesis testing and rule selection. Thus, cognitive tasks that rely on behaviors such as hypothesis testing and rule selection may benefit from positive mood, whereas tasks that do not rely on such behaviors should not be affected by positive mood. We explored this idea within a category-learning framework. Positive, neutral, and negative moods were induced in our subjects, and they learned either a rule-described or a non-rule-described category set. Subjects in the positive-mood condition performed better than subjects in the neutral- or negative-mood conditions in classifying stimuli from rule- described categories. Positive mood also affected the strategy of subjects who classified stimuli from non-rule-described categories.
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Simon Luechinger, Stephan Meier & Alois Stutzer
Journal of Human Resources, Fall 2010, Pages 998-1045
Abstract:
High unemployment rates entail substantial costs to the working population in terms of reduced subjective well-being. This paper studies the importance of individual economic security, in particular job security, by exploiting sector-specific institutional differences in the exposure to economic shocks. Public servants have stricter dismissal protection and face a lower risk of their organization becoming bankrupt than private sector employees. The empirical results from individual panel data for Germany and repeated cross-sectional data for the United States and Europe show that private sector employees' subjective well-being is indeed much more sensitive to fluctuations in unemployment rates than public sector employees'.
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Higher cortisol content in hair among long-term unemployed individuals compared to controls
L. Dettenborn, A. Tietze, F. Bruckner & C. Kirschbaum
Psychoneuroendocrinology, October 2010, Pages 1404-1409
Abstract:
Unemployment and financial strain are chronic stressors that have been shown to be associated with an increase in mean salivary and serum cortisol levels. Hair analysis for cortisol content is a new promising tool by which hair segmental analysis may provide a retrospective calendar of cumulative cortisol exposure over time rather than momentary assessments. Participants of this study were 31 unemployed and 28 employed individuals (46 women). Hair segmental analysis was conducted using 3-cm long segments starting with the scalp-near segment. Due to differing hair length, 52 individuals had values for the second segment and n = 33 individuals had values for the third segment. Univariate analysis of variance indicated that unemployed individuals had higher cortisol content in the first (p < 0.05, eta2 = 0.071) and second (p < 0.05, eta2 = 0.085) hair segment (a total of 6 cm long hair representing the preceding 6 months of collection). Consistent with other data from our laboratory, there was a wash-out effect for the third segment (p < 0.05 for segment 3 vs. segment 1 and 2). Unemployed individuals indicated increased levels of perceived stress and impairments in subjective well-being compared to employed individuals. These subjective measures of perceived stress and well-being were unrelated to cortisol content in hair. We conclude that hair analysis for cortisol content may be a valid method to detect differences in cumulative cortisol exposure between chronically stressed individuals and healthy controls. Due to a wash-out effect, retrospective ascertainment of cortisol exposure may be limited to the preceding 6 months of specimen collection.
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Do People Seek to Maximize Happiness? Evidence from New Surveys
Daniel Benjamin, Ori Heffetz, Miles Kimball & Alex Rees-Jones
NBER Working Paper, October 2010
Abstract:
Are subjective well-being (SWB) measures a good empirical proxy for utility? We evaluate one necessary assumption: that people's preferences coincide with what they predict will maximize their SWB. Our method is to present survey respondents with hypothetical scenarios and elicit both choice and predicted SWB rankings of two alternatives. While choice and predicted SWB rankings usually coincide, we find systematic reversals. Furthermore, we identify factors - such as predicted sense of purpose, control over one's life, family happiness, and social status - that help explain choice controlling for predicted SWB. We explore how our findings vary with the SWB measure and the choice situation.
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Bruce Headey, Ruud Muffels & Gert Wagner
Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences, 19 October 2010, Pages 17922-17926
Abstract:
Psychologists and economists take contradictory approaches to research on what psychologists call happiness or subjective well-being, and economists call subjective utility. A direct test of the most widely accepted psychological theory, set-point theory, shows it to be flawed. Results are then given, using the economists' newer "choice approach"-an approach also favored by positive psychologists-which yields substantial payoffs in explaining long-term changes in happiness. Data come from the German Socio- Economic Panel (1984-2008), a unique 25-y prospective longitudinal survey. This dataset enables direct tests of theories explaining long-term happiness.
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Does State Spending on Mental Health Lower Suicide Rates?
Justin Ross, Pavel Yakovlev & Fatima Carson
Journal of Socio-Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using recently released data on public mental health expenditures by U.S. states from 1997 to 2005, this study is the first to examine the effect of state mental health spending on suicide rates. We find the effect of per capita public mental health expenditures on the suicide rate to be qualitatively small and lacking statistical significance. This finding holds across different estimation techniques, gender, and age groups. The estimates suggest that policies aimed at income growth, divorce prevention or support, and assistance to low income individuals could be more effective at suicide prevention than state mental health expenditures.
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Altitude, Gun Ownership, Rural Areas, and Suicide
Namkug Kim, Jennie Mickelson, Barry Brenner, Charlotte Haws, Deborah Yurgelun-Todd & Perry Renshaw
American Journal of Psychiatry, forthcoming
Objective: The authors recently observed a correlation between state altitude and suicide rate in the United States, which could be explained by higher rates of gun ownership and lower population density in the intermountain West. The present study evaluated the relationship between mean county and state altitude in the United States and total age-adjusted suicide rates, firearm-related suicide rates, and non-firearm-related suicide rates. The authors hypothesized that altitude would be significantly associated with suicide rate.
Method: Elevation data were calculated with an approximate spatial resolution of 0.5 km, using zonal statistics on data sets compiled from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Suicide and population density data were obtained through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) WONDER database. Gun ownership data were obtained through the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.
Results: A significant positive correlation was observed between age- adjusted suicide rate and county elevation (r=0.51). Firearm (r=0.41) and non-firearm suicide rates (r=0.32) were also positively correlated with mean county elevation.
Conclusions: When altitude, gun ownership, and population density are considered as predictor variables for suicide rates on a state basis, altitude appears to be a significant independent risk factor. This association may be related to the effects of metabolic stress associated with mild hypoxia in individuals with mood disorders.
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Subjective Well-Being, Income, Economic Development and Growth
Daniel Sacks, Betsey Stevenson & Justin Wolfers
NBER Working Paper, October 2010
Abstract:
We explore the relationships between subjective well-being and income, as seen across individuals within a given country, between countries in a given year, and as a country grows through time. We show that richer individuals in a given country are more satisfied with their lives than are poorer individuals, and establish that this relationship is similar in most countries around the world. Turning to the relationship between countries, we show that average life satisfaction is higher in countries with greater GDP per capita. The magnitude of the satisfaction-income gradient is roughly the same whether we compare individuals or countries, suggesting that absolute income plays an important role in influencing well- being. Finally, studying changes in satisfaction over time, we find that as countries experience economic growth, their citizens' life satisfaction typically grows, and that those countries experiencing more rapid economic growth also tend to experience more rapid growth in life satisfaction. These results together suggest that measured subjective well-being grows hand in hand with material living standards.
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Patrick Hill, Joshua Jackson, Brent Roberts, Daniel Lapsley & Jay Brandenberger
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
A widely held assumption is that changes in one's goals and motives for life during emerging and young adulthood have lasting influences on well- being into adulthood. However, this claim has yet to receive rigorous empirical testing. The current study examined the effects of prosocial and occupational goal change during college on adult well-being in a 17-year study of goal setting (N = 416). Using a latent growth model across three time points, both level and growth in goal setting predicted later well- being. Moreover, goal changes both during college and in young adulthood uniquely predicted adult well-being, controlling for goal levels entering college. These findings suggest that what matters for attaining adult well- being is both how you enter adulthood and how you change in response to it.
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Increment-Decrement Life Table Estimates of Happy Life Expectancy for the U. S. Population
Yang Yang & Muhammad Waliji
Population Research and Policy Review, December 2010, Pages 775-795
Abstract:
Using large nationally representative longitudinal data on changes in happiness and mortality and multivariate increment-decrement life tables, we assess length of quality life through cohort estimates of happy life expectancies. We examine population-based and status-based life expectancies in absolute term of years and relative term of proportions. We find that happy life expectancies exceed unhappy life expectancies in both absolute and relative terms for the overall population and population in each state of happiness at any given age. Being happy (as opposed to unhappy) at any age brings a longer life and more of the future life spent in happiness. We also examine social differentials in the estimates of happy life expectancy at each age by sex, race, and education. The educational gap in happy life expectancies is larger than the sex and race gaps. For the better educated, longer life consists of a longer happy life and shorter unhappy life in both years and proportions and regardless of happy or unhappy status at any given age.
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Gerben Van Kleef, Astrid Homan, Bianca Beersma & Daan van Knippenberg
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Do followers perform better when their leader expresses anger or when their leader expresses happiness? We propose that this depends on the follower's level of agreeableness. Anger is associated with hostility and conflict - states that are at odds with agreeable individuals' goals. Happiness facilitates affiliation and positive relations - states that are in line with agreeable individuals' goals. Accordingly, the two studies we conducted showed that agreeableness moderates the effects of a leader's emotional displays. In a scenario study, participants with lower levels of agreeableness responded more favorably to an angry leader, whereas participants with higher levels of agreeableness responded more favorably to a neutral leader. In an experiment involving four-person teams, teams composed of participants with lower average levels of agreeableness performed better when their leader expressed anger, whereas teams composed of participants with higher average levels of agreeableness performed better when their leader expressed happiness. Team performance was mediated by experienced workload, which was highest among agreeable followers with an angry leader. Besides having important practical implications, the findings shed new light on the fundamental question of how emotional expressions regulate social behavior.
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Steve Powell, Willi Butollo & Maria Hagl
European Psychologist, Summer 2010, Pages 185-192
Abstract:
Many people go missing during war and acts of terrorism. Do their families suffer an additional or different kind of mental health burden than families of people who are known to have been killed? Two groups of respondents, each comprising 56 women living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, were included in the study. These were women whose husbands were either confirmed as having been killed during the 1992-1995 war or who were at the time of the study officially still listed as missing as a result of the war. These two groups filled in questionnaires on war events, postwar stressors, and mental health status. The results showed that the group with unconfirmed losses had higher levels of traumatic grief (measured on a version of the UCLA Grief Inventory) as well as severe depression (measured on the General Health Questionnaire), even when traumatic events and stressors were controlled for. This study represents one of the first empirical confirmations that, at least in a war context, suffering the unconfirmed loss of a family member has specific negative mental health consequences compared to suffering a confirmed loss. In particular the high levels of severe depression including suicidal ideation in this group give cause for concern.
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Luca Stanca
Social Indicators Research, October 2010, Pages 115-133
Abstract:
This paper investigates the cross-country distribution of the relationship between economic conditions and well-being. Using a large sample of individuals from 94 countries worldwide, we find that the effect of income on well-being is larger in countries with lower GDP per capita, while the negative effect of being unemployed is stronger in countries with higher unemployment rate or higher GDP per capita. Interestingly, the effect of being unemployed displays positive spatial dependence across countries that is not accounted for by aggregate socio-economic conditions. Overall, the results indicate that geography, culture and institutions must be explicitly taken into account in order to understand the relationship between economic conditions and well-being.
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Happy, healthy, and productive: The role of detachment from work during nonwork time
Charlotte Fritz, Maya Yankelevich, Anna Zarubin & Patricia Barger
Journal of Applied Psychology, September 2010, Pages 977-983
Abstract:
Mentally distancing oneself from work during nonwork time can help restore resources lost because of work demands. In this study, we examined possible outcomes of such psychological detachment from work, specifically well- being and job performance. Although employees may need to mentally detach from work to restore their well-being, high levels of detachment may require a longer time to get back into "working mode," which may be negatively associated with job performance. Our results indicate that higher levels of self-reported detachment were associated with higher levels of significant other-reported life satisfaction as well as lower levels of emotional exhaustion. In addition, we found curvilinear relationships between psychological detachment and coworker reported job performance (task performance and proactive behavior). Thus, although high psychological detachment may enhance employee well-being, it seems that medium levels of detachment are most beneficial for job performance.
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Individual and Country-Level Effects of Social Trust on Happiness: The Asia Barometer Survey
Yasuharu Tokuda, Seiji Fujii & Takashi Inoguchi
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, October 2010, Pages 2574-2593
Abstract:
The relationship of individual-level and country-level social trust to individuals' happiness was investigated, using cross-national data of 39,082 participants from 29 Asian countries. For self-reported happiness, 2. 0% of the participants responded they were very happy, while 18.7% were very unhappy. The significant variables associated with happiness were female gender, being age 20-29 years or 60-69 years, married, high income and education, students/retired/homemaker, religious belief, good health, and higher individual and aggregate social trust. Individual health, social trust, and aggregate social trust were all independently associated with people's happiness. People were more likely to be happy if they lived in countries with higher aggregate social trust than countries with poor social trust.
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The Structure of the Genetic and Environmental Influences on Mental Well- Being
Corey Keyes, John Myers & Kenneth Kendler
American Journal of Public Health, forthcoming
Objectives: We sought to investigate the structure of the genetic and environmental influences on 3 measures of mental well-being.
Methods: Analyses focused on the subsample of 349 monozygotic and 321 dizygotic same-sex twin pairs from a nationally representative sample of twins who completed self-report measures of emotional, psychological, and social well-being.
Results: The best-fit model contained a common pathway to all 3 measures of well-being, no shared environmental effects, and 1 set of parameters for men and women. Heritability for the latent "mental well-being" factor was high (72%) and best indexed by psychological well-being. Moderate trait- specific genetic effects were seen for emotional and social well-being. Nonshared environmental effects for all measures were mostly trait specific.
Conclusions: Genetic influences on the measures of mental well-being reflect a single, highly heritable genetic factor, although some trait- specific genetic influences were seen for emotional and social well-being. Moderate proportions of environmental influences were also shared, but the majority of unique environment was trait-specific.