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Sex and the Pursuit of Happiness: How Other People’s Sex Lives are Related to our Sense of Well-Being
Abstract
A growing literature suggests that income, marriage, friendship, sex, and a variety of other factors influence self-reported happiness. Why these characteristics matter has been less examined. Scholars have recently demonstrated that part of the effect of income is relative. More income makes people happier, in part, because it sets them above their peers. Until now, the role of relative comparison in the study of happiness has been limited to income. The current work extends this focus to another activity—sex. Using GSS data, I examine how respondents’ frequency of sex, as well as the average sexual frequency of their cohort, influences their happiness. The findings suggest that happiness is positively correlated with their own sexual frequency, but inversely correlated with the sexual frequency of others.
... Thus, it stands to reason that people value having regular sex and that sexual comparisons with others who are doing "better" than them (having more frequent sex than they are) might be upsetting and comparisons with others who are doing "worse" (having less frequent sex) might feel good. Indeed, in one study of more than 50,000 people, researchers found that engaging in more frequent sex was associated with greater well-being but that people reported lower well-being when members of their peer group report engaging in more frequent sex than them (Wadsworth, 2014). These results suggest that a person's well-being is not only associated with how much sex they are having in their relationship but may also be contingent on how much sex they are having relative to other people. ...
... Although sexual and general narcissism are moderately correlated (r = .44; Widman & McNulty, 2010), all of the effects of sexual narcissism documented in the literature replicate when accounting for general narcissism, and do not replicate with a measure of general narcissism, suggesting that the two constructs are distinct (McNulty & Widman, 2013, 2014Widman & McNulty, 2010). Given the influence that people high in sexual narcissism have over their partners and their tendency to respond to frustration with aggression (Widman & McNulty, 2010), it is critical to develop an understanding of how they respond to information which may threaten their volatile sense of self. ...
... 2.45] and [0.43, 2.00], respectively), and that these effects remained consistent even when sexual narcissism was included in the model. Given that previous research on sexual narcissism has documented unique effects of this construct above and beyond more general narcissism (McNulty & Widman, 2013, 2014Widman & McNulty, 2010), we did not expect these effects to replicate in our next two studies. ...
Are people who are high in sexual narcissism more sensitive to information comparing their sex lives with the sex lives of others? Does this sensitivity explain narcissists’ lower sexual and relationship satisfaction? We conducted three studies to address this question. Participants completed the Sexual Narcissism Scale (Widman & McNulty, 2010), and then either recalled (Study 1), imagined (Study 2), or actually made (Study 3) a sexual comparison. We found that people high in sexual narcissism (compared with those lower in sexual narcissism) were more bothered when comparing themselves with someone with a higher sexual frequency and felt better about a comparison with someone with a lower sexual frequency. In turn, narcissists’ greater sensitivity to upward social comparisons predicted lower sexual and relationship satisfaction. These results suggest that those high in sexual narcissism may use downward sexual comparisons to maintain their grandiose self-views and be particularly sensitive to upward sexual comparisons. © 2016, © 2016 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
... For instance, Easterlin (1974Easterlin ( , 2001Easterlin ( , 2003 has made a strong argument for the power of relative income: having more income in a general sense doesn't make people happier; what is important is having more income than those with whom we compare ourselves. While the role of social comparison is still underdeveloped in the SWB literature, recent work has added support to this general thesis by demonstrating that social comparison plays an important role in moderating the relationship between SWB and a variety of its correlates, including marriage (Wadsworth 2016), obesity (Wadsworth and Pendergast 2014) and sexual activity (Wadsworth 2014). In all of these studies the influence of individual characteristics on well-being can only be understood after considering the distribution of these characteristics in respondents' reference groups. ...
... 93 Table 3 Negative binomial regression models predicting age-specific suicide rates; found that relative deprivation can be quite influential. High levels of economic inequality can result in more suicide (Burr et al. 1999;Curtis et al. 2013), even after controlling for absolute economic position, and individuals who experience less of a desirable commodity or characteristic than others often exhibit lower levels of SWB (Wadsworth 2014(Wadsworth , 2016Wadsworth and Pendergast 2014). Surprisingly, with the one exception noted above, we do not observe a relationship, negative or positive, between the well-being of places (measured in both absolute and relative terms) and suicide rates at the county-level. ...
In 2011 researchers published a paper that exposed a puzzling paradox: the happiest states in the U.S. also tend to have the highest suicide rates. In the current study, we re-examine this relationship by combining data from the Multiple Mortality Cause-of-Death Records, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and the American Communities Survey to determine how subjective well-being and suicide are related across 1563 U.S. counties. We extend the original study in important ways: by incorporating both absolute and relative measures of subjective well-being; by examining the happiness-suicide association at a more suitable level of analysis; and by including a more robust set of control variables in the model. Contrary to the previous study, we do not observe any significant relationship, negative or positive, between the absolute and relative well-being of places and suicide rates at the county-level. Implications for the study of suicide rates and relative deprivation are discussed.
... However, since CNM individuals are open to having sex with more than their primary partner, it is possible that their overall sexual frequency exceeds that of monogamous persons. Research also indicates for the general population, there is an optimal frequency of sex associated with happiness (Blanchflower & Oswald, 2004) and well-being (Kashdan et al., 2018;Muise et al., 2016;Wadsworth, 2014). Similarly, greater or lesser sexual frequency than is personally desired or the experience of unwanted sex (Cheng & Smyth, 2015;Loewenstein et al., 2015) were associated with declining happiness and well-being. ...
The primary objective of this cross-sectional study was to examine the associations of self-reported health, happiness, marital happiness, frequency of sexual activity, and number of partners from a multinational survey of individuals who are consensually non-monogamous (CNM) or open to being CNM, completed in 2012 with 4062 respondents. We compared data from this survey with the 2010–2014 US General Social Surveys (GSS). This study explored these variables and their predictors by gender (including 612 non-binary-gendered CNM individuals), marital status, number of partners, sexual frequency, age, education, and income and were broken down by behavioral sexual orientation, marital status, and other relevant categories. Respondents in our CNM sample generally reported being as healthy (sometimes healthier; e.g., all respondents M–W Z = 7.66, p < .001, η2 = 0.007), happy (frequently happier; e.g., multiple-partnered Z = 15.43, p < .001, η2 = 0.069), happy in their marriages (in some cases happier; e.g., multiple-partnered females Z = 2.61, p = .009, η2 = 0.067), and reported having more frequent sexual activity (e.g., all Z = 29.54, p < .001, η2 = 0.094) with more partners (e.g., all Z = 60.75, p < .001, η2 = 0.393) compared to corresponding individuals within the GSS. This study contributes to knowledge about commonalities and differences between the general population and those who are CNM regarding health, happiness, and happiness in marriage, including differences in optimal number of sexual partners and sexual frequency.
... Očuvano seksualno zadovoljstvo unatoč smanjenom seksualnom funkcioniranju tijekom tranzicije u roditeljstvo može se objasniti i tendencijom ljudi da se pri procjenama vlastita zadovoljstva uspoređuju s refereničnim skupinama. Tako je moguće da su ljudi zadovoljni svojim seksualnim odnosima ako smatraju da vode ljubav jednako često ili češće od njima sličnih osoba (Wadsworth, 2014). Moguće je da u ovom istraživanju nismo dobili razlike u seksualnom zadovoljstvu pojedinaca u različitim fazama tranzicije u roditeljstvo zato što su se osobe u svakoj od skupina uspoređivale sa sebi sličnima. ...
The transition to parenthood brings changes in many areas of life, including the area of sexuality. The aim of this study was to examine differences in the frequency of sexual intercourse, sexual satisfaction and the sexual self-schema of participants in different stages of their transition to parenthood. The study involved men and women without children, those who were expecting their first child, and parents of six-month-old and one-year-old children (N = 650). The results showed that participants in different stages of transition to parenthood differed in the frequency of sexual intercourse, but not in their sexual satisfaction and sexual self-schema. Men and women without children and parents of one-year-olds reported more frequent sexual intercourse than those expecting their first child and parents of six-month-old children, although these differences were statistically significant only in the female sample. Men, compared to women, reported more frequent sexual intercourse and greater sexual satisfaction. The research results demonstrate the complexity of sexual functioning during the transition to parenthood and can be applied in providing psychosocial support during this period of life.
... Trends in sexual frequency are important given the link between sexual frequency and well-being (e.g., Muise et al., 2016;Wadsworth, 2014). In addition, sexual frequency is associated with relationship satisfaction, which may mediate the association between sexual frequency and overall well-being (Muise et al., 2016).Dissatisfactionwiththefrequencyofsexisamongthemost common complaints in long-term relationships (Risch, Riley, & Lawler, 2003). ...
American adults had sex about nine fewer times per year in the early 2010s compared to the late 1990s in data from the nationally representative General Social Survey, N = 26,620, 1989–2014. This was partially due to the higher percentage of unpartnered individuals, who have sex less frequently on average. Sexual frequency declined among the partnered (married or living together) but stayed steady among the unpartnered, reducing the marital/partnered advantage for sexual frequency. Declines in sexual frequency were similar across gender, race, region, educational level, and work status and were largest among those in their 50s, those with school-age children, and those who did not watch pornography. In analyses separating the effects of age, time period, and cohort, the decline was primarily due to birth cohort (year of birth, also known as generation). With age and time period controlled, those born in the 1930s (Silent generation) had sex the most often, whereas those born in the 1990s (Millennials and iGen) had sex the least often. The decline was not linked to longer working hours or increased pornography use. Age had a strong effect on sexual frequency: Americans in their 20s had sex an average of about 80 times per year, compared to about 20 times per year for those in their 60s. The results suggest that Americans are having sex less frequently due to two primary factors: An increasing number of individuals without a steady or marital partner and a decline in sexual frequency among those with partners.
... It is also commonly accepted that penile-vaginal intercourse is linked with beneficial states in humans. PVI has been associated with a wide range of positive psychological factors, such as relationship satisfaction (Costa & Brody, 2007;Heiman et al., 2011), happiness (Blanchflower & Oswald, 2004;Laumann et al., 2006;Wadsworth, 2014), lower perceived and physiological stress levels (Brody, 2006;Burlesonetal.,2007), and mental health (Brody & Costa, 2009;Kashdan et al., 2014). It is important to note that these associations do not imply causation; more sexual intercourse could be a cause, consequence, or an epiphenomenon of the above states. ...
Previous studies have identified a number of factors that contribute to improved cognitive function, and to memory function specifically, in cognitively normal individuals. One such factor, frequency of penile-vaginal intercourse (PVI), has been reported in a number of animal studies to be advantageous to memory for previously presented objects by increasing neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. However, studies investigating the potential benefits of frequent PVI on memory function in young women are to the best of our knowledge absent from the literature. The current study thus investigated whether the self-reported frequency of sexual intercourse was related to memory function in healthy female college students. To determine whether variation in PVI would be associated with memory performance, we asked 78 heterosexual women aged 18-29 years to complete a computerized memory paradigm consisting of abstract words and neutral faces. Results showed that frequency of PVI was positively associated with memory scores for abstract words, but not faces. Because memory for words depends to a large extent on the hippocampus, whereas memory for faces may rely to a greater extent on surrounding extra-hippocampal structures, our results appear to be specific for memory believed to rely on hippocampal function. This may suggest that neurogenesis in the hippocampus is higher in those women with a higher frequency of PVI, in line with previous animal research. Taken together, these results suggest that PVI may indeed have beneficial effects on memory function in healthy young women.
... Associations between greater subjective well-being and both sexual frequency (Blanchflower & Oswald, 2004;Michael, Gagnon,Laumann,&Kolata,1994;Muise,Schimmack,&Impett, 2016;Wadsworth, 2014) and sexual satisfaction (Brody & Costa, 2009;Davison, Bell, LaChina, Holden, & Davis, 2009;Woloski-Wruble, Oliel, Leefsma, & Hochner-Celnikier, 2010) in crosssectional research have frequentlybeen reported around the world (Cheng & Smyth, 2015;Laumann et al., 2006). Although many studies document similar results, these cross-sectional associations could be attributed to unobserved confoundingfactors.For example, individuals with certain personality traits or in relationships with certain favorable characteristics may be happier and also more sexually satisfied and sexual satisfaction may not actually contribute to subjective well-being. ...
Much cross-sectional research documented associations between sexuality and life satisfaction, but very little longitudinal research on the topic has considered whether changes in sexuality and life satisfaction unfold together over time. Using data from 5582 individuals in partnerships surveyed across 5786 intimate relationships (providing 18,712 observations for analysis) during five waves of the German Family Panel (pairfam), this study examined whether intraindividual changes in sexual frequency and satisfaction were associated with corresponding intraindividual changes in life satisfaction. Fixed effects regression modeling results showed that individuals reported a greater increase (decrease) in life satisfaction when they also experienced a more substantial increase (decrease) in sexual frequency and satisfaction. This finding was consistent for men and women. This study contributes to the literature by documenting that naturally occurring increases in sexual frequency and satisfaction over time predicted corresponding increases in life satisfaction.
... It is also possible that couples feel satisfied as long they think they are engaging in the amount of sex that is considered to be average for couples of their relationship status and duration. Consistent with this possibility, one study found that happiness was positively associated with one's own frequency but was negatively associated with the actual sexual frequency of one's peers (Wadsworth, 2014). It is not clear from this work, however, if people are aware of the average sexual frequency and feel better if they believe they are at or above this frequency. ...
Is it true that engaging in more frequent sex is associated with greater well-being? The media emphasizes—and research supports—the claim that the more sex you have, the happier you will feel. Across three studies (N = 30,645), we demonstrate that the association between sexual frequency and well-being is best described by a curvilinear (as opposed to a linear) association where sex is no longer associated with well-being at a frequency of more than once a week. In Study 1, the association between sexual frequency and well-being is only significant for people in relationships. In Studies 2 and 3, which included only people in relationships, sexual frequency had a curvilinear association with relationship satisfaction, and relationship satisfaction mediated the association between sexual frequency and well-being. For people in relationships, sexual frequency is no longer significantly associated with well-being at a frequency greater than once a week.
... Academic interest in the study of happiness has burgeoned over the past twenty years. Research has established patterns of happiness across personal characteristics and behaviors, such as income (Easterlin, 1973(Easterlin, , 2001(Easterlin, , 2003Graham and Pettinato, 2002), marital status (Haring-Hidore et al., 1985;Veenhoven, 1994;Wadsworth, 2015), educational achievement ( Blanchflower and Oswald, 2004), religious faith ( Witter et al., 1985), physical health ( Dolan et al., 2008), and sexual activity ( Blanchflower and Oswald, 2004;Wadsworth, 2014). In addition to examining the causes of happiness, researchers are increasingly turning their focus to the consequences of happiness, particularly on health and mortality, the focus of this paper. ...
This is the first study to our knowledge to examine the relationship between happiness and longevity among a nationally representative sample of adults. We use the recently-released General Social Survey-National Death Index dataset and Cox proportional hazards models to reveal that overall happiness is related to longer lives among U.S. adults. Indeed, compared to very happy people, the risk of death over the follow-up period is 6% (95% CI 1.01-1.11) higher among individuals who are pretty happy and 14% (95% CI 1.06-1.22) higher among those who are not happy, net of marital status, socioeconomic status, census division, and religious attendance. This study provides support for happiness as a stand-alone indicator of well-being that should be used more widely in social science and health research.
... It has been suggested that a key benefit of a 'sociological lens' (Thin 2014) would be to refocus analyses away from overly individualistic, biological or otherwise de-contextualised considerations emerging from other disciplines (Bartram 2012;Carlisle and Hanlon 2007;Horwitz 2002;Schnittker 2008;Thin 2012). In turn, literature has begun to focus more upon the 'social determinants' of subjective well-being and happiness (Chan and Lee 2006;Deeming 2013;Graham 2009;Wadsworth 2014;Wilkinson and Pickett 2010). However, growing literature has presented more fundamental challenges to the premises of happiness research and associated discourses. ...
In the short decades since the introduction of positive psychology instigated broader interdisciplinary research, interest in happiness has been growing in academia, the media and public policy. Numerous critiques of these developments have been forwarded from a variety of theoretical and disciplinary traditions. This article discusses three such criticisms: the culture-bound and normative character of happiness, ‘bad science’ and scientism, and diminished subjectivity and individualisation. It is argued that criticism, particularly internal criticism, evidences the maturity of the field. However, the depth of some critiques may also indicate that interest in happiness is bound with broader cultural preoccupations and is likely to be superseded.
... In any case, like Blanchflower and Oswald (2004), we take the responses at face value in the analysis below. (2004) is that they did not control for the respondent's health, which is potentially an important correlate of both happiness and the extent to which one participates in, and enjoys, a range of sexual activities (Wadsworth, 2014). ...
We examine the relationship between sexual activities and happiness using a sample of 3800 adults from China. We establish some firm results about the contribution of sexual activities and relationships to happiness for an important country other than the United States. Our main finding is that those who have more sex and better quality sex, proxied by frequency of orgasm and emotional and physical satisfaction with one's primary sex partner, are happier. Another major finding is that the happiness maximizing number of sexual partners is one. We also identify important gender differences between men and women. For men, there is a stronger relationship than for women, between the frequency, and physical aspects, of sexual intercourse and happiness. For women, there is a stronger relationship than for men between giving, and receiving, affection to/from their primary sexual partner and happiness.
... According to Diener (1984), judgments of LS are dependent upon a comparison of one's overall quality of life with some standard which an individual sets for himself or herself without any external imposition. In a recent study, Wadsworth (2013) has made an interesting observation about well-being (includes Voluntas 123 LS) by analyzing the sex lives of individuals. He has argued that the sense of wellbeing has a relative element to it and comes from the belief that an individual is performing better than his/her neighbor. ...
This article analyzes the role of three antecedents of life satisfaction (LS) among healthcare volunteers in Malaysia. The antecedents are: personality traits, motives to volunteer, and spiritual capital. This study has empirically tested the impact of individual dimensions of personality traits, motives, and spiritual capital along with their inter-relationships in explaining the LS. The volunteers of St. John Ambulance participated in this study. The model has been tested using structural equation modeling and it has been found that the three constructs have an explanatory power of 53 %. The main results are: (1) neuroticism, value motives, protective motives, personal well-being, and spirituality have a direct impact on LS and (2) enhancement motives, social motives, and religiosity have an indirect impact on LS. These results can provide insights to researchers and managers regarding profiling the right volunteers, providing the necessary infrastructure, and providing proper training to the volunteers.
Background: COVID-19’s restrictive measures have significantly affected our health, work and social relationships. As yet, less attention has been given to the changes in sex life. Aim: This study investigates people’s satisfaction with sex life in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Methods: A cross-sectional survey of the general population (18 years and over) was conducted, from 1st to 18th July 2020, in 17 municipalities in Kinshasa and several measures were used: Quality of life MANSA, EQ-5D-3L, UCLA Loneliness; PHQ-9; GAD-7. Prior to conducting data analysis, diagnostic tests for our data were performed to assess distribution, variance and multicollinearity. Descriptive statistics, bivariate correlation and multiple regression analysis were used. Results: Sex life satisfaction increases from young adults aged 18- 35 to those aged 36-55 and then there is a decrease from ages 56-69. After controlling for socio-demographic factors, sex life satisfaction was positively associated with the number and quality of people’s friendships (B=0.30, p=0.01) and people’s relationships with their families (B=0.32, p=0.03). People who feel lonely have lower sex life satisfaction (B=-0.15, p=0.01). Conclusion: People’s quality of their friendships and family relationships are important for their sexual well-being. Healthcare providers and policymakers should consider people’s quality of friendships and family relationships when planning to improve the sexual well-being of people in DRC.
This book addresses the sustainability of happiness and well-being in Chinese societies. It starts by introducing the various conceptions of well-being, particularly in the Chinese sociocultural context.
The book then proceeds with the examination of the sustainability of well-being by scrutinizing the effects of sociocultural, contextual, and personal factors on well-being. The contextual factors are the aggregates or averages of personal factors at the contextual levels of the regions and colleges in Mainland China, its special administrative region, and Taiwan. These factors cover personality traits, strengths, orientations, beliefs, values, and idolizing.
By bringing together empirical studies and theoretical perspectives applied to Chinese societies, this book offers researchers in social science and humanities a valuable reference work on happiness and well-being in Chinese societies.
Food insecurity—the lack of consistent access to adequate amounts of food—remains a reality for many American families. Although children are usually protected from reductions in food intake even in households with low food security, about 8 percent of all households with children also experienced reduced food intake and disrupted eating patterns. The research on child food insecurity and family structure is limited and the findings are mixed. Given the increasing complexity of families in the U.S., combined with sustained high levels of food insecurity during the last decade, a closer examination of this relationship is warranted. Using data from multiple years of the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (N = 39,619 households) this study finds that children growing up in complex family households are more vulnerable to food insecurity, on average, than children growing up in two biological married-parent households. The results also show higher odds of child food insecurity among single mother households than among married biological or married stepfamilies suggesting a protective effect of marriage beyond economic resources.
Abstract Even though higher intelligence (IQ) is often associated with many positive outcomes in life, it has become a stylized fact in the happiness literature that smarter people are not happier than their less intelligent counterparts. In this paper, we examine how relative verbal intelligence correlates with happiness and present two main findings. First, our estimations from the General Social Survey for a large representative sample of Americans suggest a small, but positive and significant correlation between verbal intelligence and happiness. Second, we find that verbal intelligence has a strong positional effect on happiness, i.e., people who have greater verbal proficiency relative to their peers in their reference group are more likely to report higher levels of happiness. The positional effect of happiness holds even when we control for a large set of socio-economic characteristics as well as relative income.
If one goes into a London restaurant today, diners are as likely to be photographing their food to share on social media networking platforms, or fiddling with their smartphones to be abreast of the latest Twitter update, as talking to the person sitting opposite them. Such phenomena have led multiple commentators to argue that we now inhabit a world full of ‘digital narcissists’ (Keen, 2007) — a term implying that the wider cultural shift to narcissism is now being partially shaped by the digital revolution (e.g. Carpenter, 2012; Szoka and Marcus, 2011). Is this a fair complaint? Does social networking produce new problems, or is the accusation of self-obsession just another manifestation of cross-generational misunderstanding (Prensky, 2001)?
A growing body of literature suggests that the extent to which people feel happy with their lives depends, at least partially, on how they compare to those around them. Much of this literature, however, has focused on the relative effect of income on happiness while other factors such as education, marriage, or leisure have received less attention. In this study, I extend this line of inquiry by investigating how individuals' level of education, as well as the average level of education of their reference group, influences their happiness. Using longitudinal data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, I find that, even after controlling for an individual's own education, higher reference group education is associated with lower levels of happiness. More educated people, however, are found to be less affected by social comparison. The panel nature of the HILDA dataset, and additional tests, indicate that the negative association between happiness and reference group education is not driven by people's (changing) interpretations of the happiness scale, self-selection, or the income of their reference group. Additional robustness tests show that the results are not sensitive to variations in the definition of a reference group.
A growing body of literature suggests that the extent to which people feel happy with their lives depends, at least partially, on how they compare to those around them. Much of this literature, however, has focused on the relative effect of income on happiness while other factors such as education, marriage, or leisure have received less attention. In this study, I extend this line of inquiry by investigating how individuals’ level of education, as well as the average level of education of their reference group, influences their happiness. Using longitudinal data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, I find that, even after controlling for an individual’s own education, higher reference group education is associated with lower levels of happiness. More educated people, however, are found to be less affected by social comparison. The panel nature of the HILDA dataset, and additional tests, indicate that the negative association between happiness and reference group education is not driven by people’s (changing) interpretations of the happiness scale, self-selection, or the income of their reference group.
Over the last 20 years the academic community has experienced a burgeoning interest in the causes and correlates of subjective well-being. One of the most consistent findings has been that married respondents report higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction than unmarried respondents. Despite its prevalence, scant empirical research has focused on the potential mechanisms driving this relationship. The current work draws on the Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System along with 2000 US Census data to investigate the role of context and reference groups in shaping the relationship between marriage and well-being. The primary research question is whether marriage has a greater influence on life satisfaction when it is more common and thus more normative? The findings offer new insight into the marriage/well-being relationship and have broad implication for how we think about the study of the causes and correlates of subjective well-being.
Previous research has established the negative influence of obesity on subjective well-being. In the present work, the authors use multilevel modeling and Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System data (N = 1,319,340) to examine how this relationship is influenced by the prevalence of obesity in the contexts in which individuals are living and how such relationships vary by gender. The results suggest that some of the influence of obesity on life satisfaction is the result of relative comparison. Implications for both our understanding of the growing "obesity epidemic" and the study of subjective well-being are discussed.
Using meta-analytic techniques, results were synthesized from 58 empirical sources on the association between being married and subjective well-being (SWB). A mean correlation of .14 was found across all studies, which indicated that being married was positively and significantly associated with SWB. However, the magnitude of this association was weaker than expected. The marital-status/SWB relation was correlated with age (r = -.54) and year of study (r = -.28); the relation was stronger in younger samples as compared with older ones and in earlier studies as compared with more recent ones. The introduction of single covariates had little impact on the association between marital status and SWB.
The World Database of Happiness is an ongoing register of scientific research on subjective appreciation of life. It brings together findings that are scattered throughout many studies and prepares for research synthesis. The database stores research findings and presents these in standardized abstracts. This system differs from bibliographies that store publications and data-archives that store investigations. The system prepares for synthetic analysis by capitalizing on conceptual selectiveness, comparability, and completeness. As the method is new, there is no common word for it. It is called a finding-browser.
The database allows selection of findings by a) indicator used, b) public, time and place, c) methodology of the investigation. The correlational findings can also be found on subject.
The system prepares for synthetic studies, in particular for reviews and meta-analyses; it facilitates comparisons across time and nations. When applied on a well-defined field, it allows a better accumulation of available knowledge and a better focusing of new research.
The data-system serves to cope with the following problems of research integration, a) chronic confusion of tongues, b) growing mass of research findings, c) scattered publication of findings, and d) selective reviewing and retrieval of findings. The database is freely available on the web. The Internet address is: http:// www. eur. nl/fsw.eur.nl/research/happiness.
The theory that happiness is relative is based on three postulates: (1) happiness results from comparison, (2) standards of comparison adjust, (3) standards of comparison are arbitrary constructs. On the basis of these postulates the theory predicts: (a) happiness does not depend on real quality of life, (b) changes in living-conditions to the good or the bad have only a shortlived effect on happiness, (c) people are happier after hard times, (d) people are typically neutral about their life. Together these inferences imply that happiness is both an evasive and an inconsequential matter, which is at odds with corebeliefs in present-day welfare society.Recent investigations on happiness (in the sense of life-satisfaction) claim support for this old theory. Happiness is reported to be as high in poor countries as it is in rich countries (Easterlin), no less among paralyzed accident victims than it is among lottery winners (Brickman) and unrelated to stable livingconditions (Inglehart and Rabier). These sensational claims are inspected but found to be untrue. It is shown that: (a) people tend to be unhappy under adverse conditions such as poverty, war and isolation, (b) improvement or deterioration of at least some conditions does effect happiness lastingly, (c) earlier hardship does not favour later happiness, (d) people are typically positive about their life rather than neutral.It is argued that the theory happiness-is-relative mixes up overall happiness with contentment. Contentment is indeed largely a matter of comparing life-as-it-is to standards of how-life-should-be. Yet overall hapiness does not entirely depend on comparison. The overall evaluation of life depends also on how one feels affectively and hedonic level of affect draws on its turn on the gratification of basic bio-psychological needs. Contrary to acquired standards of comparison these innate needs do not adjust to any and all conditions: they mark in fact the limits of human adaptability. To the extend that it depends on need-gratification, happiness is not relative.
The ‘Easterlin paradox’ holds that economic growth does not add to the quality-of-life and that this appears in the fact that
average happiness in nations has not risen in the last few decades. The latest trend data show otherwise. Average happiness
has increased slightly in rich nations and considerably in the few poor nations for which data are available. Since longevity
has also increased, the average number of happy life years has increased at an unprecedented rate since the 1950s.
In this new edition of his landmark book, Richard Layard shows that there is a paradox at the heart of our lives. Most people want more income. Yet as societies become richer, they do not become happier. This is not just anecdotally true, it is the story told by countless pieces of scientific research. We now have sophisticated ways of measuring how happy people are, and all the evidence shows that on average people have grown no happier in the last fifty years, even as average incomes have more than doubled. In fact, the First World has more depression, more alcoholism and more crime than fifty years ago. This paradox is true of Britain, the United States, continental Europe, and Japan. What is going on? Now fully revised and updated to include developments since first publication, Layard answers his critics in what is still the key book in 'happiness studies'.
This article describes the gologit2 program for generalized ordered logit models. gologit2 is inspired by Vincent Fu’s gologit routine (Stata Technical Bulletin Reprints 8: 160–164) and is backward compatible with it but offers several additional powerful options. A major strength of gologit2 is that it can fit three special cases of the generalized model: the proportional odds/parallel-lines model, the partial proportional odds model, and the logistic regression model. Hence, gologit2 can fit models that are less restrictive than the parallel-lines models fitted by ologit (whose assumptions are often violated) but more parsimonious and interpretable than those fitted by a nonordinal method, such as multinomial logistic regression (i.e., mlogit). Other key advantages of gologit2 include support for linear constraints, survey data estimation, and the computation of estimated probabilities via the predict command.
To date the literature on subjective well-being has focused on the developed economies. We provide empirical evidence from two emerging market countries, Peru and Russia. Our results - and in particular a strong negative skew in the assessments of the respondents with the greatest income gains - support the importance of relative rather than absolute income differences. Among other factors, we attribute our results to shifts in reference norms and to macroeconomic volatility. Relative differences seem to matter more for those in the middle of the distribution than for the very wealthy or the very poor. Our respondents were more critical in assessing their progress vis-a-vis others in their country versus those in their community. The large and consistent gap we find between objective income trends and the subjective assessments of the upwardly mobile may have implications for the future economic and political behaviour of a group that is critical to the sustainability of market policies.
Happiness scholars have tried to resolve the seeming paradox that as Americans’ wealth increased substantially over the last
few decades, their happiness did not. This article questions whether the paradox is real. Demonstrations of the paradox almost
always rely on GDP per capita as the measure of wealth, but that is a poor measure of a people’s well-being. It is heavily
and increasingly skewed; it does not account for effort. Using instead measures of household income, male income, and average
wages eliminates the paradox; these indicators of affluence have grown only slowly or declined in the same period, paralleling
the changes in happiness scores. Moreover, using these indicators reveals a modest but real correlation between material well-being
and national happiness.
Previous longitudinal studies of personality in adulthood have been limited in the range of traits examined, have chiefly made use of self-reports, and have frequently included only men. In this study, self-reports (N = 983) and spouse ratings (N = 167) were gathered on the NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1985b), which measures all five of the major dimensions of normal personality. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses on data from men and women aged 21 to 96 years showed evidence of small declines in Activity, Positive Emotions, and openness to Actions that might be attributed to maturation, but none of these effects was replicated in sequential analyses. The 20 other scales examined showed no consistent pattern of maturational effects. In contrast, retest stability was quite high for all five dimensions in self-reports and for the three dimensions measured at both times in spouse ratings. Comparable levels of stability were seen for men and women and for younger and older subjects. The data support the position that personality is stable after age 30.
It is argued that researchers' reliance on "objective" mental health scales and disregard for clinical judgment has led to many mistaken conclusions. Specifically, standard mental health scales appear unable to distinguish between genuine mental health and the facade or illusion of mental health created by psychological defenses. Evidence is presented indicating that (a) many people who look healthy on standard mental health scales are not psychologically healthy, and (b) illusory mental health (based on defensive denial of distress) has physiological costs and may be a risk factor for medical illness. Clinical judges could distinguish genuine from illusory mental health, whereas "objective" mental health scales could not. The findings call into question the conclusions of many previous studies that rest on standard mental health scales. They suggest new ways of understanding how psychological factors may influence health. Finally, they suggest that clinical methods (which researchers often malign) may have an important role to play in meaningful mental health research.
The validity of self‐report measures of subjective well‐being (SWB) was examined and compared with non‐self‐report measures using a sample of 136 college students studied over the course of a semester. A principal axis factor analysis of self‐ and non‐self‐report SWB measures revealed a single unitary construct underlying the measures. Conventional single‐item and multi‐item self‐report measures correlated highly with alternative measures, with theoretical correlates of SWB, and with a principal axis factor underlying five non‐self‐report measures of well‐being. Comparisons of family versus friend informant reports demonstrated the considerable cross‐situational consistency and temporal stability of SWB. Evidence of the discriminant validity of the measures was provided by low correlations of the various SWB measures with constructs theoretically unrelated to well‐being. It was concluded that conventional self‐report instruments validly measure the SWB construct, and that alternative, non‐serf‐report measures are useful for providing a comprehensive theoretical account of happiness and life satisfaction.
The links between income, sexual behavior and reported happiness are studied using recent data on a sample of 16,000 adult Americans. The paper finds that sexual activity enters strongly positively in happiness equations. Higher income does not buy more sex or more sexual partners. Married people have more sex than those who are single, divorced, widowed or separated. The happiness-maximizing number of sexual partners in the previous year is calculated to be 1. Highly educated females tend to have fewer sexual partners. Homosexuality has no statistically significant effect on happiness. © The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. Published by Blackwell Publishing.
This paper investigates whether individuals feel worse off when others around them earn more. In other words, do people care
about relative position, and does “lagging behind the Joneses” diminish well-being? To answer this question, I match individual-level data
containing various indicators of well-being to information about local average earnings. I find that, controlling for an individual's
own income, higher earnings of neighbors are associated with lower levels of self-reported happiness. The data's panel nature
and rich set of measures of well-being and behavior indicate that this association is not driven by selection or by changes
in the way people define happiness. There is suggestive evidence that the negative effect of increases in neighbors' earnings
on own well-being is most likely caused by interpersonal preferences, that is, people having utility functions that depend
on relative consumption in addition to absolute consumption.
This paper examines trends in the effects of children on adults' psychological well- being between 1957 and 1976. Several
indicators of well-being are examined, including measures of quality of life (happiness, satisfaction, worries), psychological
distress, and perceptions of parenthood. The findings indicate that parenthood was more stressful in the 1970s than it was
in the 1950s and that much of the trend among women was due to changes in employment and marital status. Although fathers
experienced a similar decline in well-being, our model does not account for the trend among men. The analysis is based on
the two “Americans View Their Mental Health Surveys” conducted in 1957 and 1976.
Cross-sectional studies show that adults who grew up in conflict-ridden two-parent families or who experienced parental divorce
report lower levels of psychological and marital well-being than do other adults. However, previous research has been unable
to determine how parental marital conflict, divorce, and children's long-term outcomes are related. Using a 12-year longitudinal
study, we find that the consequences of parental divorce depend on parental marital conflict prior to divorce. In high-conflict
families, children have higher levels of well-being as young adults if their parents divorced than if they stayed together.
But in low-conflict families, children have higher levels of well-being if their parents stayed together than if they divorced.
In marriages that do not end in divorce, parental marital conflict is negatively associated with the well-being of offspring.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: This work was supported by NSF grant # 0549718 to
The relative income or income status hypothesis implies that people should be happier when they live among the poor. Findings on neighborhood effects suggest, however, that living in a poorer neighborhood reduces, not enhances, a person's happiness. Using data from the American National Election Study linked to income data from the U.S. census, the authors find that Americans tend to be happier when they reside in richer neighborhoods (consistent with neighborhood studies) in poorer counties (as predicted by the relative income hypothesis). Thus it appears that individuals in fact are happier when they live among the poor, as long as the poor do not live too close.
The hypothesis tested is that variations in rates of urban criminal violence largely result from differences in racial inequality in socioeconomic conditions. Data on the 125 largest American metropolitan areas (SMSAs) are used to ascertain whether this hypothesis can account for three correlates of violent crime differently interpreted in the literature. Criminal violence is positively related to location in the South, which has been interpreted as the result of the Southern tradition of violence. It is positively related to the proportion of blacks in an SMSA, which has been interpreted as reflecting a subculture of violence in ghettos. And it is positively related to poverty, which has been interpreted as the emphasis on toughness and excitement in the culture of poverty. The analysis reveals that socioeconomic inequality between races, as well as economic inequality generally, increases rates of criminal violence, but once economic inequalities are controlled poverty no longer influences these rates, neither does Southern location, and the proportion of blacks in the population hardly does. These results imply that if there is a culture of violence, its roots are pronounced economic inequalities, especially if associated with ascribed position.
Resting anterior brain electrical activity, self-report measures of Behavioral Approach and Inhibition System (BAS and BIS) strength, and general levels of positive and negative affect (PA and NA) were collected from 46 unselected undergraduates on two separate occasions Electroencephalogram (EEG) measures of prefrontal asymmetry and the self-report measures showed excellent internal consistency reliability and adequate test-retest stability Aggregate measures across the two assessments were computed for all indices Subjects with greater relative left prefrontal activation reported higher levels of BAS strength, whereas those with greater relative right prefrontal activation reported higher levels of BIS strength Prefrontal EEG asymmetry accounted for more than 25% of the variance in the self-report measure of relative BAS-BIS strength Prefrontal EEG, however, was not significantly correlated with PA or NA, or the relative strength of PA versus NA Posterior asymmetry was unrelated to the self-report measures
The effect of extremely low doses of oxytocin (vapor) on the perception of pain (pricking of the finger) is studied on 48
healthy volunteers. Inhalation of oxytocin vapor from the standard solution in doses producing a sensation of smell lowers
pain threshold by 56.5%. Inhalation of oxytocin vapor creating no sense of smell has a lower hypalgesic effect. The oxytocin-induced
hypalgesia is consistent with reduction in the heart reactivity to pain.
Data from six U.S. national surveys, conducted from 1973 through 1978, are used to estimate the effects of having had offspring on the global happiness and five dimensions of satisfaction of persons age 50 and older who have no children under age 18 living at home. Separate estimates are provided for each sex-race subpopulation and, for whites, each sex-education and sex-marital status subpopulation. All estimated effects on global happiness are either negligible or negative, the strongest evidence for negative effects being for high-education white males. The estimated effects on the dimensions of satisfaction are mixed and generally moderate in magnitude, being most distinctly negative for black males and high-education white males and most distinctly positive for unmarried white females. Overall, there is little evidence that important psychological rewards are derived from the later stages of parenthood.
Pleasures of the mind are different from pleasures of the body. There are two types of pleasures of the body: tonic pleasures and relief pleasures. Pleasures of the body are given by the contact senses and by the distance senses (seeing and hearing). The distance senses provide a special category of pleasure. Pleasures of the mind are not emotions; they are collections of emotions distributed over time. Some distributions of emotions over time are particularly pleasurable, such as episodes in which the peak emotion is strong and the final emotion is positive. The idea that all pleasurable stimuli share some general characteristic should be supplanted by the idea that humans have evolved domain-specific responses of attraction to stimuli. The emotions that characterize pleasures of the mind arise when expectations are violated, causing autonomic nervous system arousal and thereby triggering a search for an interpretation. Thus pleasures of the mind occur when an individual has a definite set of expectations (usually tacit) and the wherewithal to interpret the violation (usually by placing it in a narrative framework). Pleasures of the mind differ in the objects of the emotions they comprise. There is probably a
What is happiness? Why are some people happier than others? This new edition of The Psychology of Happiness provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of research into the nature of happiness. Major research developments have occurred since publication of the first edition in 1987 - here they are brought together for the first time, often with surprising conclusions. Drawing on research from the disciplines of sociology, physiology and economics as well as psychology, Michael Argyle explores the nature of positive and negative emotions, and the psychological and cognitive processes involved in their generation. Accessible and wide-ranging coverage is provided on key issues such as: the measurements and study of happiness, mental and physical health; the effect of friendship, marriage and other relationships on positive moods; happiness, mental and physical health; the effects of work, employment and leisure; and the effects of money, class and education. The importance of individual personality traits such as optimism, purpose in life, internal control and having the right kind of goals is also analysed. New to this edition is additional material on national differences, the role of humour, and the effect of religion. Are some countries happier than others? This is just one of the controversial issues addressed by the author along the way. Finally the book discusses the practical application of research in this area, such as how happiness can be enhanced, and the effects of happiness on health, altruism and sociability. This definitive and thought-provoking work will be compulsive reading for students, researchers and the interested general reader
We use survey data to provide some empirical information about concerns regarding relative standing. Respondents chose between a world where they have more of a good than others and one where everyone's endowment of the good is higher, but the respondent has less than others. Questions asked about education, attractiveness and intelligence for one's child and oneself, income, vacation time, approval and disapproval from a supervisor, and papers to write. Half of the respondents preferred to have 50% less real income but high relative income. Concerns about position were strongest for attractiveness and supervisor's praise and weakest for vacation time.
This . . . book is the first to present a unified theory of human mating behavior. [It] is based on the most massive study of human mating ever undertaken, encompassing more than 10,000 people of all ages from thirty-seven cultures worldwide.
If we all want love, why is there so much conflict in our most cherished relationships? To answer this question, we must look into our evolutionary past, according to David M. Buss.
The book discusses casual sex and long-term relationships, sexual conflict, the elusive quest for harmony between the sexes, and much more.
Buss's research leads to a radical shift from the standard view of men's and women's sexual psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This reference-book presents a collection of empirical research-findings on happiness. It lists correlational findings. These findings are presented in small standard-abstracts, which briefly describe variables, measurement, population, sampling and statistics. The abstracts are ordered according to subject-matter. The collection is limited to studies that measure happiness in the sense of overall appreciation of one's life as-a-whole.
These findings concern a great variety of subject matters: e.g. environmental characteristics, psychological qualities, socioeconomic background and life history. Zero-order correlations as well as multiple order correlations are involved, and transversal as well as longitudinal observations.
This catalogue presents data pre-organized for synthetic study; for literature review, meta-analysis as well as for trend-analysis. It elaborates the preliminary phase that is typically neglected in research-analysis. The catalogue provides the multitude of heterogeneous data on happiness in a surveyable way. Identification of cause and effect is facilitated by standard pre-categorization of relevant data for that purpose. Comparison across time and culture is eased by ordering of the findings by time and nation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This second volume (see
24: 790) in the report of studies made by the Research Branch of the Information and Education Division of the War Department contains 13 chapters entitled (1) attitudes before combat and behavior in combat, (2) general characteristics of ground combat, (3) combat motivations among ground troops, (4) problems related to the control of fear in combat, (5) the combat replacement, (6) attitudes of ground combat troops toward rear echelons and the home front, (7) morale attitudes of combat flying personnel in the Air Corps, (8) objective factors related to morale attitudes in the aerial combat situation, (9) psychoneurotic symptoms in the Army, (10) problems of rotation and reconversion, (11) the point system for redeployment and discharge, (12) the aftermath of hostilities, and (13) the soldier becomes a veteran. An appendix gives the survey designation, location, date, principal topics and approximate sample size of the surveys conducted by the Research Branch and its overseas counterparts. The index is for Volume 1 as well as this volume of the series. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
During emerging adulthood, relationships with close friends may be particularly important and influential, yet most research on communication about sex-related topics focuses on emerging adults' communication with parents. Two hundred and five college students (61% female, mean age = 20.5) completed surveys about the frequency and quality of their sex-related conversations with same-sex best friends, and their sexual attitudes and behaviors. These conversations were more frequent between females, and between less religious youth. Sexually active youth discussed most topics more frequently than abstinent youth, although abstinent youth discussed abstinence more frequently. More frequent and comfortable conversations were generally associated with more liberal sexual attitudes, and more positive condom-related attitudes. Differential associations between the specific topics discussed and attitudes about sexuality, HIV, and condoms highlight the importance of examining multiple dimensions of sex-related communication rather than the unidimensional measures typically employed.
The validity of self-report measures of subjective well-being (SWB) was examined and compared with non-self-report measures
using a sample of 136 college students studied over the course of a semester. A principal axis factor analysis of self- and
non-self-report SWB measures revealed a single unitary construct underlying the measures. Conventional single-item and multi-item
self-report measures correlated highly with alternative measures, with theoretical correlates of SWB, and with a principal
axis factor underlying five non-self-report measures of well-being. Comparisons of family versus friend informant reports
demonstrated the considerable cross-situational consistency and temporal stability of SWB. Evidence of the discriminant validity
of the measures was provided by low correlations of the various SWB measures with constructs theoretically unrelated to well-being.
It was concluded that conventional self-report instruments validly measure the SWB construct, and that alternative, non-self-report
measures are useful for providing a comprehensive theoretical account of happiness and life satisfaction.
A number of subjective well-being scales were compared and evaluated. The Satisfaction With Life Scale emerged as a good measure of general life satisfaction and the Affective Intensity Measure appeared to adequately assess the characteristic level of emotional intensity. Most other scales seemed to reflect both life satisfaction and duration of positive versus negative affect. Of the single item measures, those created by Fordyce were the strongest, whereas for the multi-item scales, several performed at adequate levels. The widely used Bradburn scales showed several undesirable psychometric properties and alternative scales are suggested.
Recent work suggests that a person’s subjective well-being (SWB) depends to a large degree on relative-income. Focusing on the underlying identification, this paper makes four contributions to this literature: it describes the aggregation problem with past studies, implements an estimation strategy to overcome this problem, finds micro-level evidence in support of the hypothesis that relative-income does matter in individual assessments of SWB, and uses cross-section estimates to replicate the aggregate time-series. The evidence further indicates that relative-income effects may be smaller at low income levels. The results are obtained from ordered probit techniques and the general social survey (GSS).
There is increasing interest in the “economics of happiness”, reflected by the number of articles that are appearing in mainstream economics journals that consider subjective well-being (SWB) and its determinants. This paper provides a detailed review of this literature. It focuses on papers that have been published in economics journals since 1990, as well as some key reviews in psychology and important unpublished working papers. The evidence suggests that poor health, separation, unemployment and lack of social contact are all strongly negatively associated with SWB. However, the review highlights a range of problems in drawing firm conclusions about the causes of SWB; these include some contradictory evidence, concerns over the impact on the findings of potentially unobserved variables and the lack of certainty on the direction of causality. We should be able to address some of these problems as more panel data become available.
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
The relative income or income status hypothesis implies that people should be happier when they live among the poor. Findings on neighborhood effects suggest, however, that living in a poorer neighborhood reduces, not enhances, a person's happiness. Using data from the American National Election Study linked to income data from the U.S. census, the authors find that Americans tend to be happier when they reside in richer neighborhoods (consistent with neighborhood studies) in poorer counties (as predicted by the relative income hypothesis). Thus it appears that individuals in fact are happier when they live among the poor, as long as the poor do not live too close.
With characteristic modesty Herbert Hyman has described his presidential address as “reflections.” Opinion researchers have
learned to listen intently when he reflects out loud, for he has few equals in the range and profundity of his intellectual
explorations. He delivered his address to the members of the American Association for Public Opinion Research and their guests
at the Fifteenth Annual Conference on May 7, 1960, in the Traymore Hotel in Atlantic City. The Proceedings of the Conference
over which he presided appear elsewhere in this issue.
This paper investigates whether individuals feel worse off when others around them earn more. In other words, do people care about relative position, and does "lagging behind the Joneses" diminish well-being? To answer this question, I match individual-level data containing various indicators of well-being to information about local average earnings. I find that, controlling for an individual's own income, higher earnings of neighbors are associated with lower levels of self-reported happiness. The data's panel nature and rich set of measures of well-being and behavior indicate that this association is not driven by selection or by changes in the way people define happiness. There is suggestive evidence that the negative effect of increases in neighbors' earnings on own well-being is most likely caused by interpersonal preferences, that is, people having utility functions that depend on relative consumption in addition to absolute consumption. © 2005 MIT Press
A comprehensive review of research from several disciplines regarding long-term effects of divorce on children yields a growing consensus that significant numbers of children suffer for many years from psychological and social difficulties associated with continuing and/or new stresses within the postdivorce family and experience heightened anxiety in forming enduring attachments at later developmental stages including young adulthood. Different conceptual models in the field are explicated. Major lacunae in research, particularly around issues of public policy, are identified. The critical importance of expanding clinical research to enhance understanding of the child's perspective and experience is proposed.
The proportional odds model for ordinal logistic regression provides a useful extension of the binary logistic model to situations where the response variable takes on values in a set of ordered categories. The model may be represented by a series of logistic regressions for dependent binary variables, with common regression parameters reflecting the proportional odds assumption. Key to the valid application of the model is the assessment of the proportionality assumption. An approach is described arising from comparisons of the separate (correlated) fits to the binary logistic models underlying the overall model. Based on asymptotic distributional results, formal goodness-of-fit measures are constructed to supplement informal comparisons of the different fits. A number of proposals, including application of bootstrap simulation, are discussed and illustrated with a data example.
Facial expression, EEG, and self-report of subjective emotional experience were recorded while subjects individually watched both pleasant and unpleasant films. Smiling in which the muscle that orbits the eye is active in addition to the muscle that pulls the lip corners up (the Duchenne smile) was compared with other smiling in which the muscle orbiting the eye was not active. As predicted, the Duchenne smile was related to enjoyment in terms of occurring more often during the pleasant than the unpleasant films, in measures of cerebral asymmetry, and in relation to subjective reports of positive emotions, and other smiling was not.
New research uncovers some anti-intuitive insights into how many people are happy--and why.
To test hypotheses about positive emotion, the authors examined the relationship of positive emotional expression in women's college pictures to personality, observer ratings, and life outcomes. Consistent with the notion that positive emotions help build personal resources, positive emotional expression correlated with the self-reported personality traits of affiliation, competence, and low negative emotionality across adulthood and predicted changes in competence and negative emotionality. Observers rated women displaying more positive emotion more favorably on several personality dimensions and expected interactions with them to be more rewarding; thus, demonstrating the beneficial social consequences of positive emotions. Finally, positive emotional expression predicted favorable outcomes in marriage and personal well-being up to 30 years later. Controlling for physical attractiveness and social desirability had little impact on these findings.