What exactly does it mean to be "happy"? Can we measure it? And if individuals are happy, does this necessarily make for a more content and healthy society? In answering these questions and others, The Psychological Wealth of Nations reviews the range of scientific research related to individual and societal happiness.

Autorentext

Shigehiro Oishi is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. He has been researching well-being since 1995 when he started his Ph.D. work in personality and social psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has published numerous articles on this topic at premier journals such as Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Annual Review of Psychology, and Perspectives in Psychological Science.

Inhalt
Contents. .Ch. 1. Introduction.Here I will provide a background of well-being research. I will describe the history of well-being research, beginning with Aristotle's "Ethics" and continuing through the contemporary well-being research in psychology, sociology, and economics. I will discuss the definition of well-being both at the individual level and at the collective level, and I will review the universality and culture-specificity of the concept of well-being..Ch. 2. Individuals and Society: Historical Analyses.In this chapter, I will conduct historical analyses on the relation between individuals and society, drawing on evolutionary psychology (e.g., Brewer & Caporael, 2006; Buss, 2000; Dunbar, 1994), comparative psychology (e.g., De Wall, 1996), cultural psychology (e.g., Cohen, 2001; Fiske et al., 1998), sociology (e.g., Nisbet, 1966), and philosophy (Taylor, 1986). These divergent lines of research show that human beings used to live in small, relatively stable groups, where people were mutually dependent (what the sociologist Ferdinad Tonnie called "Gemeinschaft" or "community consisting of strong ties"). At that time, the well-being and survival of an individual was heavily dependent on the well-being and survival of the group. With industrialization and modernization, however, people began to live in larger, more permeable groups (what Ferdinad Tonnie called "Gesellschaft" or "society" consisting of loose ties). With this shift, the relation between the individual and society has changed from "obligatory, mutual interdependence," where security is given in exchange for loyalty, to "free agency," where freedom is given in exchange for security. I will discuss the implications of these historical changes for the well-being of individuals and society: namely, this change to "free agency" allowed individuals to pursue personal happiness more easily than before but made it difficult for society to maintain stability and harmony..Ch. 3. The Pursuit of Happiness and American Individualism.Next, I will focus on American individualism as a case study of the pursuit of personal happiness and societal well-being. I will draw heavily from the writings of Tocqueville (1835/2003), Turner (1920), Bellah et al. (1985), Putnam (2000), Pink (2002), and Florida (2002). Here I will develop the argument that residential mobility played a key role in the development of American individualism and in the pursuit of happiness. I will also touch on American social relationships (e.g., friendship) in this context and highlight the differences between relationships in the U.S. and those in more traditional societies (e.g., France in early 19th century, Japan). I will highlight the co-evolution of American individualism and residential mobility from these analyses and will contrast it with other civilizations (e.g., China). Although I will focus primarily on the role of residential mobility, other important factors (e.g., natural resources, industrial revolution, the Protestant work ethic, freedom) will also be discussed in this chapter..Ch. 4. Residential Mobility, Personal Happiness, and Society.In this chapter, I will summarize recent empirical findings on residential mobility and well-being in psychology, sociology, political science, and economics (e.g., Brighton, 2001; Oishi et al., 2007; Sampson et al., 1997; Sampson et al., 1999). Since Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations," many economists believe that the pursuit of self-interest will result in the best outcome at the societal level, as well. I will summarize examples in support of this claim from the field of economics. However, contrary to Smith's view, sociologist Robert Sampson has shown that individuals' pursuit of self-interest (e.g., changing residence) does in some cases result in unstable, poorly functioning communities. Specifically, communities where many residents come and go suffer from a higher crime rate. In addition, residential mobility is negatively associated with civic engagement, such as voting and attending local political meetings. My own research ha