The Language of Happiness Research

A hat-tip to Will Wilkison of Happiness Policy for the publication of two happiness papers in the Journal of Economic Perspectives [behind a pay-wall]. Both look interesting but it is Developments in the Measurement of Subjective Well-Being by Kahnemann and Krueger that is of particular comfort to me. It seems as if I am not the only person whose writing style goes badly awry when writing about happiness-related issues.

A duration-weighted measurement of affect will uncover that conditions such as paraplegia or marriage are not full-time states; they are experienced part-time.

Outstanding stuff! Tortured prose aside, given our need to sleep - do we experience anything full-time? Sadly, exactitude seems to be the enemy of readable material. And then, nothing is ever exact enough.

When I can afford it, I will purchase the papers because I am uneasy about relying on self-reports of subjective well-being when it comes to measuring the outcome of happiness or resilience projects. It would be good to read about advances in measuring neurological or hormonal correlates although I believe that there are controversies about their reliability and clinical significance.

The prose is collapsing again. Time to sign off.

Copyright 2006, Tony Plant Happystance Project