Perceived meaning of life and satisfaction with life: A research synthesis using an online finding archive.

Introduction: "Meaning" and "happiness" are leading topics in positive psychology, but their relationship is not well understood. The first step to better understanding is to inspect the pattern of correlations found in the research literature. Specifically, we seek answers to the following questions of fact: (1) Is there a correlation between perceived meaning of life and satisfaction with life? (2) If so, is that correlation positive or negative? (3) How strong is this correlation? (4) How variable is this correlation across persons and situations? (5) Do the correlations differ across components of happiness? (6) What aspects of meaning are most/least associated with happiness? (7) What sources of meaning are most/least associated with happiness? (8) Does seeing meaning relate differently to happiness than searching for meaning?

Method: We took stock of the available research findings, using the World Database of Happiness, which holds standardized descriptions of 171 observed relations between perceived meaning of life and satisfaction with life.

Why Studies in the Effect of Positive Psychological Interventions Should Use Life-Satisfaction as an Outcome.

The effect of positive psychological interventions (PPIs) is mostly assessed using self-report measures of positive mental health. These measures are problematic because (1) the content addressed is often not clear, (2) different scales are used to assess different notions of positive mental health, which impedes comparability, (3) the concept of positive mental health involves objective capabilities which are not well measurable using subjective self-estimates, and (4) the concept behind the measures denotes presumed chances for adaptation to life rather than adaptation as such. Therefore, we should also measure the effect of PPIs using life-satisfaction, which is (a) a clear-cut concept and as such tells us what an intervention brings about, (b) is well measurable using self-reports, since it is a subjective concept, (c) it allows better comparability across studies, and (d) it indicates actual adaptation to life instead of strengthening of presumed of chances for adaptation.

Will Happiness-Trainings Make Us Happier? A Research Synthesis Using an Online Findings-Archive.

Most people want to be happy and many look out for opportunities to achieve a more satisfying life. Following a happiness training is an option, but the effectiveness of such training is being questioned. In this research synthesis we assessed: (1) whether happiness training techniques add to the happiness of their users, (2) how much happiness training techniques add to happiness, (3) how long the effect of happiness training lasts, (4) what kinds of training techniques work best, and (5) what types of groups of people profit from taking happiness training.

What is animal happiness?

Today, we see a growing concern for the quality of life of nonhuman animals and an accompanying call for viable means of assessing how well animals thrive. Past research focused on minimizing negatives such as stress, while more recent endeavors strive to promote positives such as happiness. But what is animal happiness? Although often mentioned, the term lacks a clear definition.

Co-development of Happiness Research: Addition to "Fifty Years After the Social Indicator Movement".

Social Indicators Research covers many topics, which each have their own history. Happiness research is one of these included topics. Longstanding interest in happiness revived since the 1960s together with the emergence of the social indicator movement.

Contextual correlates of happiness in European adults.

Objectives: We aimed to examine the associations of both objectively assessed and perceived physical and social neighborhood characteristics with happiness in European adults. In addition, we aimed to study how these associations differed among subgroups.

Methods: Participants (N = 6037) of the cross-sectional SPOTLIGHT survey reported on their level of happiness using a 5-point Likert scale, and on perceived physical and social environmental neighborhood characteristics.

The '10 Excess' Phenomenon in Responses to Survey Questions on Happiness.

Happiness in nations is typically measured in surveys using a single question. A common question is: 'all things considered, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your life as-a-whole these days on a scale from 0 to 10?'. The responses typically follow a uni-modal distribution with highest frequencies between 5 and 8.

Greater Happiness for a Greater Number: Did the Promise of Enlightenment Come True?

In the eighteenth century 'Enlightened' thinkers challenged the belief that happiness exists only in Heaven. They claimed that happiness is possible in earthly life and foresaw that greater happiness would be achieved using reason. Did this promise of greater happiness come true? Several scholars doubt that we have become any happier and some claim that happiness has declined.

Pooling Time Series Based on Slightly Different Questions About the Same Topic Forty Years of Survey Research on Happiness and Life Satisfaction in The Netherlands.

Survey research on subjective wellbeing in The Netherlands started in the early 1970s. The time series happiness and life satisfaction that have emerged since then are unfortunately based on slightly different survey items of which one part uses verbal response scales and another part uses numerical response scales. The diversity of the survey items and a number of other measurement issues, such as the effects of changes in survey mode, hamper comparison over time and make it difficult to establish whether life became any better over the last forty years.

Happy Protest Voters: The Case of Rotterdam 1997-2009.

Protest parties are on the rise in several European countries. This development is commonly attributed to a growing dissatisfaction with life and associated with declining quality of life in modern society of the lowest social strata. This explanation is tested in a cross-sectional analysis of voting and life-satisfaction in 63 districts of the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where the share of protest voters increased from 10 % in 1994 to 31 % in 2009.

Conversion of Verbal Response Scales: Robustness Across Demographic Categories.

Happiness and life satisfaction have traditionally been measured using verbal response scales, however, these verbal scales have not kept up with the present trend to use numerical response scales. A switch from a verbal scale to a numerical scale, however, causes a severe problem for trend analyses, due to the incomparability of the old and new measurements. The Reference Distribution Method is a method that has been developed recently to deal with this comparison problem.

Social conditions for human happiness: A review of research.

Empirical research on happiness took off in the 1970s and accelerated after the emergence of positive psychology by 2000. Today this has resulted in some 23,000 research findings. In this article, I take stock of the findings on social conditions for happiness and distinguish between conditions at the macro level of society, the meso level of organisations and the micro level of individual conditions.

Mental health care and average happiness: strong effect in developed nations.

Mental disorder is a main cause of unhappiness in modern society and investment in mental health care is therefore likely to add to average happiness. This prediction was checked in a comparison of 143 nations around 2005. Absolute investment in mental health care was measured using the per capita number of psychiatrists and psychologists working in mental health care.

Homogenizing Responses to Different Survey Questions on the Same Topic: Proposal of a Scale Homogenization Method Using a Reference Distribution.

Survey data are often used for comparison purposes, such as comparisons across nations or comparisons over time. To be effective, this would require equivalent questions and equivalent responses options to the questions. Yet there is a lot of variation in the response scales used, which, for example, differ in the number of response options used and the labeling of these options.

Biological pathways and genetic mechanisms involved in social functioning.

Purpose: To describe the major findings in the literature regarding associations between biological and genetic factors and social functioning, paying special attention to: (1) heritability studies on social functioning and related concepts; (2) hypothesized biological pathways and genetic variants that could be involved in social functioning, and (3) the implications of these results for quality-of-life research.

Methods: A search of Web of Science and PubMed databases was conducted using combinations of the following keywords: genetics, twins, heritability, social functioning, social adjustment, social interaction, and social dysfunction.

Results: Variability in the definitions and measures of social functioning was extensive.

The medicine is worse than the disease: Comment on Delhey and Kohler's proposal to measure inequality in happiness using 'instrument-effect-corrected' standard deviations.

Inequality of happiness in nations can be measured using the standard deviation of responses to surveys questions. The standard-deviation is not quite independent of the mean, being zero when everybody is maximally happy or unhappy while the possible value of the standard deviation is highest when the mean is in the middle of the response scale. Delhey and Kohler see this intrinsic dependency as a problem and propose two ways to compute 'corrected' standard deviations.

Finding the key to happy aging: a day reconstruction study of happiness.

Objectives: The main aim of this study was to examine the roles of physical passivity and extraversion in the relationship between daily engagement in activities and daily happiness among older adults.

Method: A day reconstruction method was used to accurately examine day-to-day activities and happiness. In total, 438 participants completed a monthly electronic diary survey over a 2-year period, generating 79,181 reported activities and momentary happiness scores.

Which patient will feel down, which will be happy? The need to study the genetic disposition of emotional states.

Purpose: In quality-of-life (QL) research, the genetic susceptibility of negative and positive emotions is frequently ignored, taken for granted, or treated as noise. The objectives are to describe: (1) the major findings of studies addressing the heritable and environmental causes of variation in negative and positive emotional states and (2) the major biological pathways of and genetic variants involved in these emotional states.

Methods: Literature overview.

Life is Getting Better: Societal Evolution and Fit with Human Nature.

Human society has changed much over the last centuries and this process of 'modernization' has profoundly affected the lives of individuals; currently we live quite different lives from those forefathers lived only five generations ago. There is difference of opinion as to whether we live better now than before and consequently there is also disagreement as to whether we should continue modernizing or rather try to slow the process down. Quality-of-life in a society can be measured by how long and happy its inhabitants live.

Vacationers Happier, but Most not Happier After a Holiday.

The aim of this study was to obtain a greater insight into the association between vacations and happiness. We examined whether vacationers differ in happiness, compared to those not going on holiday, and if a holiday trip boosts post-trip happiness. These questions were addressed in a pre-test/post-test design study among 1,530 Dutch individuals.

The establishment of the GENEQOL consortium to investigate the genetic disposition of patient-reported quality-of-life outcomes.

To our knowledge, no comprehensive, interdisciplinary initiatives have been taken to examine the role of genetic variants on patient-reported quality-of-life outcomes. The overall objective of this paper is to describe the establishment of an international and interdisciplinary consortium, the GENEQOL Consortium, which intends to investigate the genetic disposition of patient-reported quality-of-life outcomes. We have identified five primary patient-reported quality-of-life outcomes as initial targets: negative psychological affect, positive psychological affect, self-rated physical health, pain, and fatigue.