1. Measuring Subjective Wellbeing

2. Two types of wellbeing Eudaimonic Hedonic Definitions of happiness by early philosophers. – Eudamonia : self actualization, self development, personal growth, purposeful engagement. – Hedonism : pursuit of positive feelings, happiness, contentment, avoidance of pain.

3. Psychological interpretation of HWB and EWB HWB – Evaluation of how satisfied we are with our lives – Level of positive emotions minus negative emotions EWB – Waterman : “living in congruence with ones deepest values” – Ryff: combinaton of personal growth, environmental mastery, sense of purpose, autonomy, self acceptance, and positive relations with others

4. Some evidence that Greek philosophers were correct... – Keyes, Shmotkin and Ryff found that HWB and EWB are separate but related concepts – EWB and HWB correlate differently with demographic and personality variables

5. EWB, HWB and SWB Well being is considered subjective as it is for people to evaluate for themselves the degree of their personal sense of wellness. SWB : high level positive affect, low level negative affect, high satisfaction with life. Used interchangeably with ‘happiness’ Maximising WB is maximising feelings of happiness.

6. How is subjective well-being measured? Self Report Using questionnaires such as: Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) Watson et al, 1988 Satisfaction with life scale Pavot & Diener, 1993 U- Index Kahneman & Kruger, 2006

7. Environments to conduct self reports There are a few ways of administering the self report tests - Experience Sampling Methodology -Ecological Momentary Assessment -Day Reconstruction Method

8. Non self report measures Physiological Measures Reports from informants

9. Application of measures of SWB “Big five correlates of three measures of subjective well-being “ – Hayes & Joseph (2003) Measured subjective well-being using: – Oxford happiness Inventory (OHI) – Depression-Happiness Scale (DHS) – Satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) Personality – NEO Five Factor Inventory

10. Application of measures of SWB Oxford Happiness Inventory Argyle, Martin & Crossland 1989 – 29 items on 4 point scale – “I do not feel happy”...”I am incredibly happy” Depression Happiness Scale Joseph & Lewis 1997 – 25 items on 4 point scale – “I felt sad” “I felt cheerful” Satisfaction With Life Scale Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin 1985 – 48 items on 7 point scale – “I am satisfied with my life”

11. Results Higher Subjective well being related to: – Higher Extraversion – Lower Neuroticism – Higher Conscientiousness OHI predicted by higher E and Lower N DHS &SWLS predicted by lower N and higher C

12. Discussion Personality an important correlate of subjective well being – Accounts for 32-56% of variance in SWB scores Which personality dimension the strongest correlate of SWB? – Depends on which measure of SWB

13. Measurement of SWB: Conclusion Various different measurement scales – Score correlation indicates measurement of same construct Personality an important correlate – High E, low N and High C – Yet different dimensions correlate higher with different measures