Study Outcomes

• Explain what is meant by the hedonic perspective on well-being.

• Discuss the facets of subjective well-being.
• Distinguish between the internal and external causes of subjective well-being.
• Know how subjective well-being is measured .
• Discuss how subjective well-being is related to the following demographic variables:
o Age
o Gender
o Marital status
o Intelligence and education
o Employment
 Preparation:
Read Chapter 2 (pages 30 – 48)
of your textbook
eFundi: Do the SWLS and comment on
your score.
Introduction
• Over centuries humans have had interest in happiness
• Main goal in society these days are to be happy
• Why? When? Where? Whom? How?

• These are the questions being asked when we investigate well-being with a focus
on hedonic happiness/‘feeling good’

• Happy and satisfied life = More pleasant than negative experiences

• This field examines what makes life pleasant or unpleasant

• Well-being is generally conceptualised as subjective well-being

Subjective well-being
• There is broad agreement that SWB consists of three facets
• a general evaluation of one’s life as being good
• having more positive emotions
• fewer negative emotional experiences

• Research suggests that the life satisfaction component of SWB can

further be divided into two facets
• (a) general life satisfaction
• (b) domain-specific life satisfaction
• The latter includes satisfaction with marital relationships, work, health, and so forth
Subjective well-being and positive psychology
Well-being (Flourishing) Positive Affect

SWB Negative Affect

Hedonic
(Feeling good)
Savoring Life Satisfaction

Hope

Eudaimonic
Engagement
(Functioning well)

Meaning
Life satisfaction
• Are you where you want to be?

• This facet of SWB is about your own cognitive judgement of your life
as a whole
• Qualitatively evaluate our own lives against our own standards

• Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin,
1985)

• http://internal.psychology.illinois.edu/~ediener/SWLS.html
Affect
• The presence of more positive emotions, in comparison to negative ones, is
associated with higher levels of SWB

• Positive emotions including love, contentment and joy are important for well-
being and can contribute to building our psychological resources (Fredrickson,
2001)

• High SWB does not imply that we should only experience positive emotions

• A ratio of three times the positive affect to negative affect (3:1) indicates
flourishing or optimal well-being
• There should be a balance between the positive and negative emotions
• Examples
Measuring subjective well-being
• Self-report questionnaires
• You as an individual can best judge your own level of happiness (Diener, 1994)

• Only a limited number of scales exist to measure both facets, so

separate measures are normally used for comprehensive assessment
Measuring life satisfaction
• The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) (Diener et al., 1985) is most
widely used
• A global measure of SWL as assessed at a single point in time
• The SWLS is a valid and reliable measure of life satisfaction
• The SWLS has been widely used among culturally diverse groups, even in
South Africa
• The SWLS has also been validated in Setswana (Wissing et al., 2010)
• Valid and reliable for measuring life satisfaction in the South African context
Satisfaction with life scale (SWLS)
______1. In most ways my life is close to my ideal.
______2. The conditions of my life are excellent.
______3. I am satisfied with life.
______4. So far I have gotten the important things I want in life.
______5. If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing.

1 = Strongly Disagree
2 = Disagree
3 = Slightly Disagree
4 = Neither Agree or Disagree
5 = Slightly Agree
6 = Agree
7 = Strongly Agree
Measuring affect
• The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), developed by Watson, Clark
and Tellegen (1988)
• Consists of a list of emotion words which are either positive (e.g. interested, excited,
enthusiastic) or negative (e.g. upset, afraid, guilty)
• Individuals are asked to indicate on a five-point scale to what extent they experienced a
specific emotion
• Present moment VS Previous week

• The Affectometer 2 (AFM) (Kammann & Flett, 1983)

• The English version has been validated among culturally diverse groups in SA (Wissing & Van
Eeden, 2002)
• Translated into Setswana and validated by Wissing et al. (2010)

• Researcher in SA have been hard at work

PANAS
_________ 1. Interested _________ 11. Irritable
_________ 2. Distressed _________ 12. Alert
_________ 3. Excited _________ 13. Ashamed
_________ 4. Upset _________ 14. Inspired
_________ 5. Strong _________ 15. Nervous
_________ 6. Guilty _________ 16. Determined
_________ 7. Scared _________ 17. Attentive
_________ 8. Hostile _________ 18. Jittery
_________ 9. Enthusiastic _________ 19. Active
_________ 10. Proud _________ 20. Afraid
Global scales
• Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) developed by Lyubomirsky and
Lepper (1999)
• More global assessment of happiness
• Evaluates the extent to which a person sees him- or herself as happy or
unhappy on a seven-point scale
• Higher ratings on the SHS are associated with higher levels of SWB
The stability of SWB
• Pavot and Diener (2013) concluded that levels of SWB are relatively stable for most people over
time

• Could be explained by hedonic adaptation and set-point theory

• Although positive and negative events can affect levels of happiness, such as a holiday or conflict with friends,
these effects are often of short duration and quite small

• This means that we will return to initial levels of happiness within a day, week or months after
major life events

• One exception is being widowed, which leads to decreased SWB in the longer term (Lucas, Clark,
Georgellis, & Diener, 2003)

• However, there is also evidence that some change in SWB is possible through engaging in specific
activities
Demographics and subjective well-
being
• Individuals seem to respond differently to the same circumstances, and
judge conditions based on their own expectations and values

• The question arises whether SWB is associated with specific demographic

characteristics such as age, gender and marital status

• Extensive research among many nations and cultures of the world

consistently found that most people are happy (Myers, 2000), scoring in
the range of “slightly satisfied” (21–25) on the SWLS

• Several studies have investigated the association between demographic

variables and SWB, leading to interesting findings
Demographic Variables
• Age: Does not seem to be a strong predictor of SWB;
• Gender: Virtually no difference, but perceived gender roles in some cultures may have an influence;
• Marital status: married people happier; divorce and the death of a spouse, however, lead to lower
SWB;
• Intelligence and education: Intelligent people are not necessarily happier but educational level is
shown to have a positive impact on SWB;
• Employment: job satisfaction can have a positive effect on SWB (also depends on how person views
work: job, career, calling)
• Money: May have positive effect on SWB to the extent that you are able to meet your basic needs
(having lots of money is therefore not necessarily equal to being happier) - the well-know saying
“Money does not buy happiness” therefore seems to be true;
• Sociometric status (respect/admiration received from others): Seems to have a positive effect on
SWB;
• Religion: Modest relationship with SWB;
• Life circumstances: Seems to have little effect on SWB.
 Study Outcomes
• Discuss how subjective well-being is related to the following demographic variables:
o Money
o Sociometric status
o Religion
o Life circumstances
• Discuss various benefits of high levels of subjective well-being.
• Critique subjective well-being, with a particular focus on its applicability within the South
African context.
• Explain the concepts of happiness set point, hedonic adaptation and the hedonic
treadmill.
• Reflect on whether the pursuit of happiness is a worthwhile endeavour.
So who is happiest? Characteristics of happiest
people, include:

• People with strong social relationships;

• People with high quality social lives who spend more time with family and
friends;
• People’s whose basic material needs are met;
• People in good physical health.
Criticism of SWB
• Focus is on the individual and a subjective view of happiness;
• Too dependent on personal resources;
• Contextual factors (e.g. having access to material resources) are considered
only to the extent that they might have a positive impact on the quality of life
of individuals;
• Happiness is seen as result of individual efforts and measured with a focus on
individual judgments.
• To conclude: SWB does not give enough consideration to context and the
interaction between individual, social and environmental aspects, which is
very important in SA as we are one of the most unequal societies in the world
– can happiness in SA be determined by only taking individual factors into
consideration?
 Happiness set point
• Individuals are born with a certain disposition toward specific levels of
happiness, which is due to genetic and personality factors
• It appeared that people return to an average level of happiness, also
referred to as a happiness set point, after experiencing intense
positive or negative emotions
• According to this perspective, even major life events, such as the
death of a loved one, will have only a temporary effect on a person’s
happiness
• Eventually people will return to their initial, biologically determined
level of life satisfaction
Would you be happy if you won the lottery?
 Hedonic adaptation
• Just as our eyes adjust to the darkness of a movie theatre or the
brightness of sunlight after having been indoors, we adjust to
stimuli which elicit emotions
• Such emotional adaptation may be beneficial, in the sense that it
protects us from the severity of negative events in our lives
• Several studies have focused on adaptation to negative events, but
adaptation also seems to occur for positive events. For example,
lottery winners were no happier than a comparison group 18
months after having won the lottery
 Hedonic treadmill
• We may briefly react to positive or negative events, but will soon
return to neutral levels of happiness
• Despite efforts to become happier we normally stay at the same happiness level
• Just as we will get nowhere by running on the treadmill in the
gym, trying to become happier will not lead to lasting change
• Critique or differences
• Some propose that the happiness set point may not be neutral and can even be
positive
• There may be different set points for life satisfaction, and positive and negative
affect
• Happiness can indeed change after certain life events
• Individual differences in adaptation
 Should we pursue happiness?
• According to the HAM (Hedonic Adaptation Model), we can derive more from
positive events over a longer period if we continue to focus on the positive
emotions we associate with these events and the positive change that
occurred because of them

• Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2012) cautioned that happiness should not be

pursued single-mindedly
• We should first focus on and appreciate what we have in the present
before embarking on various activities to enhance our well-being
Please prepare Study Unit 4 & 5 for next week