Adaptation and Subjective Well - being Yannis Georgellis ONS, - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

ONS, Technical Advisory Group, 26 January 2012 “Adaptation and Subjective Well - being” Yannis Georgellis

ONS, Technical Advisory Group, 26 January 2012 • Happiness Research • Measuring National Well-being • Subjective well-being: Stable or unstable? – Set point theory – Adaptation

ONS, Technical Advisory Group, 26 January 2012 Adaptation in Psychology  Baseline hypothesis and set-point theory • Wellbeing predetermined by personality traits. • Events/experiences affect wellbeing, but only temporarily (rapid adaptation) Brickman, P., Coates, D., and Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978), "Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative?", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology . Lykken, D. and Tellegen, A. (1996), "Happiness is a stochastic phenomenon", Psychological Science .  Cross-sectional or experimental evidence, small samples

ONS, Technical Advisory Group, 26 January 2012 Adaptation in Psychology and Economics  Large-scale panel data, longitudinal design GSOEP : 40,000 obs., 20 years Lucas, R., Clark, A., Georgellis, Y. and Diener, E. (2003), "Reexamining adaptation and the set point model of happiness: Reactions to changes in marital status", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology . Lucas, R., Clark, A, Georgellis, Y. and Diener, E. (2004), "Unemployment alters the set point of life satisfaction", Psychological Science. Clark, A., Diener, E., Georgellis, Y. and Lucas, R. (2008), "Lags and leads in life satisfaction: A test of the baseline hypothesis", Economic Journal

ONS, Technical Advisory Group, 26 January 2012 Adaptation in the GSOEP

ONS, Technical Advisory Group, 26 January 2012 Adaptation in the GSOEP

ONS, Technical Advisory Group, 26 January 2012 Adaptation in the GSOEP

ONS, Technical Advisory Group, 26 January 2012 Adaptation in the GSOEP

ONS, Technical Advisory Group, 26 January 2012 Adaptation in the GSOEP

ONS, Technical Advisory Group, 26 January 2012 Adaptation: A challenge for economics A challenge for measuring well-being „ Weak link between long-run well- being and one’s circumstances or opportunities, contravening economic intuition and doctrine ‟ [Kahneman, D. and Krueger, A. (2006), "Developments in the measurement of subjective well-being", Journal of Economic Perspectives ]

ONS, Technical Advisory Group, 26 January 2012 Beyond the Hedonic Treadmill Diener, Lucas & Scollon (2006) • Adaptation is not inevitable [ Lucas, R. (2007), "Adaptation and the set-point model of subjective well-being: Does happiness change after major life events?", Current Directions in Psychological Science ] • Heterogeneity • Adaptation – a nonlinear process • SWB does change!

ONS, Technical Advisory Group, 26 January 2012 Carry on Measuring... • WHAT? Social change and SWB • HOW? Cohort studies(?)

ONS, Technical Advisory Group, 26 January 2012 Carry on Measuring... Happiness regressions Happiness = f(age, gender, income, education, marital status, health, other personal characteristics, country characteristics)

ONS, Technical Advisory Group, 26 January 2012 Composite Happiness Index ( Yannis’s Seven Secrets to Happiness ) 1. Develop a happy personality (at childhood), if you can help it. 2. Learn to adapt. 3. Be inspired by the successes of others (ambition instead of jealousy). 4. Keep learning. 5. Stay healthy. 6. Keep giving (volunteering). 7. Always remember: income does not buy happiness but it helps.