Psychology 765

Subjective Well-Being

Fall 2005

Wednesdays 3:30 to 6:00pm at 081, Gilmer Hall

 

Instructor: Shige Oishi, Ph.D.

Office: 315 Gilmer

Phone: 243-8989

E-mail: soishi@virginia.edu

 

Textbook: "Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology" (Edited by Kahneman,Diener, & Schwarz, published by Russell Sage Foundation, 1999); Additional readings will be provided.

 

Course Description:

This course explores various issues in the emerging field of well-being research. It is

designed to expose you to different research perspectives, methodologies, and most recent developments in this area. Topics covered in this course include conceptual issues in well-being research, measurement, judgmental processes, goals and values, adaptation, close relationships, culture, psychophysiology, temperaments, and personality. After taking this course, you should know diverse arrays of research conducted by well-being researchers and should be able to develop research idea and design experiments to test your idea.

 

Assignments:

1. Write two 1-page research proposals based on the papers you read in class (each paper is worth 40 points; due respectively on Oct 21st and Dec. 9th).

2. Write two 3-page papers based on data you collected on yourself (a. 3-day experience sampling method; b. EMG and/or saliva sampling method; each paper is worth 40 points; due respectively on Sep 30th, and Nov. 18th).

  3. Class participation: 40 points

 

Grading

A = 180-200; B = 160-179; C = 145-159; D = 130-144; F < 130

 

Part 1: Conceptual and Methodological Issues: Objective vs. Subjective Well-Being

Week 1 (8/24) Introduction

Week 2 (8/31) Moral philosophy of Happiness (Aristotle; Martha Nussbaum)

 Week 3 (9/7) Ch 1: Objective Happiness (Kahneman); Eudaimonic well-being, Ryan & Deci (2000); Buddhism, Ekman et al. (2005)

 

Part2: Objective Reality, Life Events, Adaptation

Week 4 (9/14): Income (Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2002), Physical Attractiveness (Diener et al., 1995), Occupation; Biswas-Diener & Diener (2001)

Week 5 (9/21):  Adaptation, Ch. Loewenstein & Fredrick; Lucas et al. (2004); Brickman et al. (1978)

 

Part 3: Cognitive Processes Underlying Judgments of Well-Being

Week 6 (9/28); Ch 4: Judgmental Processes (Schwarz & Strack), Diener et al. (1993)

Week 7 (10/5); Robinson et al. (2004, Psych Science); Wirtz et al. (2003); Lyubormirsky & Ross (1999)

 

Part 4: Motivational Factors

Week 8 (10/12): Haidt (in press)

Week 9 (10/19): absolute vs. relative values, Kasser & Ryan (1993), Oishi et al. (1999), Sheldon & Elliot (1999, JPSP)

 

Part 5: Biological Perspectives (Genes, Immunology, & the Brain)

Week 8 (10/26): Lykken & Tellegen (1996); Caspi et al. (2003, Science); Segerstrom & Miller (2004)

Week 9 (11/2): Singer et al. (2004, Science), Eisenberger et al. (2003, Science), Ryff et al. (in press?)

 

Part 6: Social Relations, Community, and Society

Week 12 (11/9): Schimmack et al. (2005); Toni Antonuci or Kawachi; Buss (2000)

Week 13 (11/16): Sampson et al. (1997, Science); Fukuyama (2000); Helliwell (2003)

Week 14 (11/30): Kitayama & Markus (2000); Diener & Seligman (2004)

 

Aristotle (translated in 1955).  Ethics.  Penguin Classics.

Biswas-Diener, R., & Diener, E. (2001): Making the best of a bad situation: Satisfaction in the slums of Calcutta. Social Indicators Research, 55, 329-352.

Brickman, P., Coates, D., Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 917-927.

Buss, D. M. (2000). The evolution of happiness. American Psychologist, 55, 15-23.

Caspi, A., Sugden, K., Moffitt, T. E., Taylor, A., Craig, I. W., Harrington, H., McClay, J., Mill, J., Martin, J., Braithwaite, A., & Poulton, R. (2003). Influence of life stress on depression: Moderation by a polymorphism in the 5-HTT gene. Science, 301, 386-389.

Diener, E., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2002). Will money increase subjective well-being? Social Indicators Research, 57, 119-169.

Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Beyong money: Toward an economy of well-being. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 5, 1-31.

Diener, E., Wolsic, B., & Fujita, F. (1995). Physical attractiveness and subjective well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 120-129.

Eisenberger, N., Lieberman, M.D., & Williams, K. D. (2003). Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion. Science, 302, 290-292.

Ekman, P., Davidson, R. J., Ricard, M., & Wallace, B. A. (2005). Buddhist and psychological perspectives on emotions and well-being. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 59-63.

Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings vs. burdens. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 377-389.

Fukuyama, F. (2000). Social capital. In L. E. Harrison & S. P. Huntington (Eds), Culture matters (pp. 98-111). New York: Basic Books.

Haidt, J. (in press). The Happiness Hypothesis.

Helliwell, J.F. (2003). How’s life? Combining individual and national variables to explain subjective well-being. Economic Modelling, 20, 331-360.

Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1993). A dark side of the American dream. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 410-422.

Kitayama, S., & Markus, H.R. (2000). The pursuit of happiness and the realization of sympathy. In E. Diener & E. M. Suh (Eds). Culture and subjective well-being (pp. 113-161). Cambridge, MA: MIT press.

Lipset, S. M., & Lenz, G. S. (2000). Corruption, culture, and market. In L. E. Harrison & S. P. Huntington (Eds), Culture matters (pp.112-1124). New York: Basic Books.

Lucas, R. E., Clark, A. E., Georgelis, Y., & Diener, E. (2004). Unemployment alters the set point for life satisfaction. Psychological Science, 15, 8-13.

Lykken, D., & Tellegen, A. (1996).  Happiness is a stochastic phenomenon. Psychological Science. Vol 7(3), 186-189. 

Lyubomirski, S., & Ross, L. (1999). Changes in attractiveness of elected, rejected, and precluded alternatives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 988-1007.

Nussbaum, M. (1986).  Fragility of goodness.  Cambridge University Press.

Oishi, S., Diener, E., Suh, E. & Lucas, R. E. (1999). Value as a moderator in subjective well-being. Journal of Personality. Vol 67(1), 157-184. 

Robinson, M.D., Vargas, P. T., Tamir, M., & Solberg, E.C. (2004). Using and being used by categories. Psychological Science, 15, 521-526.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000).  On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 141-166.

Ryff, C. D.

Sampson, R. J., Raudenbush, S. W., & Earls, F. (1997). Neighborhoods and violent crime: A multilevel study of collective efficacy. Science, 277, 918-927. 

Schimmack, U.

Segerstrom, S. C., & Miller, G. E. (2004). Psychological stress and human immune system: A meta-analytic study of 30 years of inquiry.  Psychological Bulletin, 130, 601-630.

Singer, T., Seymor, B., O’Doherty, J., Kaube, H., Dolan, R. J., & Frith, C. (2004). Empathy for pain involves the affective but not the sensory components of pain. Science, 303, 1157-1162. 

Sheldon, K. M. (in press). Achieving sustainable gains in happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies.

Sheldon, K. M., & Elliot, A. J. (1999). Goal string, need-satisfaction, and longitudinal well-being: The self-concordance model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 482-497.

                Wirtz, D., Kruger, J., Scollon, C. N., & Diener, E. (2003). What to do on spring break. Psychological Science, 14, 520-524.