The Origins of Happiness
：The Science of Well-Being over the Life Course
Publication subTitle ：The Science of Well-Being over the Life Course
Author： Clark Andrew E.;Flèche Sarah;Layard Richard
Publisher： Princeton University Press
Publication year： 2018
E-ISBN: 9781400889129
P-ISBN(Paperback): 9780691177892
Subject： B842.6 情绪与情感
Keyword： 基础医学,心理学,心理学派别及其研究,政治理论,社会学,经济学
Language： ENG
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Description
What makes people happy? Why should governments care about people’s well-being? How would policy change if well-being was the main objective? The Origins of Happiness seeks to revolutionize how we think about human priorities and to promote public policy changes that are based on what really matters to people. Drawing on a uniquely comprehensive range of evidence from longitudinal data on over one hundred thousand individuals in Britain, the United States, Australia, and Germany, the authors consider the key factors that affect human well-being.
The authors explore factors such as income, education, employment, family conflict, health, childcare, and crime—and their findings are not what we might expect. Contrary to received wisdom, income inequality accounts for only two percent or less of the variance in happiness across the population; the critical factors affecting a person’s happiness are their relationships and their mental and physical health. More people are in misery due to mental illness than to poverty, unemployment, or physical illness. Examining how childhood influences happiness in adulthood, the authors show that academic performance is a less important predictor than emotional health and behavior, which is shaped tremendously by schools, individual teachers, and parents. For policymakers, the authors propose new forms of cost-effectiveness analysis that places well-being at center stage.
Groundbreaking in its scope and
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