1 / 17

Wellbeing and Measures of Subjective Wellbeing

Wellbeing and Measures of Subjective Wellbeing. Dan Weijers 14 December 2011. NZGSS. The NZGSS 2010 provides information on the wellbeing of New Zealanders aged 15+

julius
Télécharger la présentation

Wellbeing and Measures of Subjective Wellbeing

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Wellbeing and Measures of Subjective Wellbeing Dan Weijers 14 December 2011

  2. NZGSS • The NZGSS 2010 provides information on the wellbeing of New Zealanders aged 15+ • This includes objective information about their circumstance, such as their labour force status and income, as well as their assessment of different aspects of their lives. • Includes a life-satisfaction question

  3. Don Farmer – Wairarapa Times Age • “happiness survey… revealed 87[% is] ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with their lives overall.” • “But I can’t for the life of me figure out how 87[%] of us keep smiling when many of us are either hungry, cold, fearful, neglected, or… suffering from all five afflictions.” • 5 November 2011

  4. Wellbeing • A broad concept about how a life is going for the person living it • Does wellbeing = happiness? • Intrinsic vs. instrumental bearers of value

  5. Measuring Wellbeing (WB) Subjective WB Objective WB Overall Domain-Specific Quality of Life Indicators Traditional Economic Indicators Happiness HAPPINESS Brain scan Mental state/ hedonism Life Satisfaction theories Objective List/ Flourishing Health/ healthcare Freedom Trust Safety Environ-ment Education Equality Employ-ment Income Behav-ioural Wealth • Survey • Pager • Day reco-nstruction • Survey • “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life?” • Survey • Rate agreement “I have good friends” Production

  6. Mental State Theories • Folk: get pleasure now! • Philosophers: maximise pleasure over your entire life • Key: All that matters is how you feel (your mental states) Wellbeing Happiness +ve net balance of good over bad mental states Especially hedonism

  7. What about Truth & Freedom? • Compare two lives • Same experiences • Different reality • Double agent partner • Sponsored children all died • Whose life is better? • What should we do about a happy slave?

  8. Measuring Mental State Happiness • Survey Questions • “How happy are you these days?” • Pager method • “What are you doing now and how are you feeling?” • Day reconstruction method • Note down activities and mood from previous day

  9. Life Satisfaction Theories Having most or more of your desires satisfied • Based on desire/preference-satisfaction • Informed: adequately informed desires only • Ideal: desires that fit some objective criteria only • Key: All that matters is getting what you want Happiness Wellbeing Sometimes

  10. Is the Satisfaction of Our Desires Good for us? • What to do about dissatisfaction? • Earn more • Want less • We choose to desire things because we think that their satisfaction will provide us with some value or meaning • D-S accounts put the value in the satisfaction, not the ultimate reason for having the desire

  11. Measuring Life Satisfaction • Questions • “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole?” • “Compared to what it could have been, how satisfied are you with your life?” • Scales • 4 point to 11 point • Some labelled very differently • Delighted, Pleased, Mostly satisfied, Mixed, Mostly dissatisfied, Unhappy, Terrible

  12. Flourishing Theories • Developing excellencies in one or all of your species’ fundamental traits • Only some versions include or require happiness/enjoyment of life • Key: All that matters is being the best you can be (given that you’re a human) Wellbeing Flourishing Developing & expressing natural capacities

  13. Flourishing = Objective List • But, which traits do you prioritise? • Is excellence in reasoning or long-distance running better for us? • Unnatural things can be good for us too! • E.g. Pacemakers, wings etc. • We end up with a list of things that are good for us • E.g. WD Ross: Knowledge, Pleasure, Virtue and the proper apportionment of pleasure to virtue

  14. Measuring Objective List/Flourishing Well-Being • Survey Questions: • “Rate the extent to which you agree with the following statements” • I maintain many good friendships • My life is meaningful • I am a virtuous person • I am rarely deceived • I am very knowledgeable • I am free to act as I please (when not harming others) • I live in a pristine environment

  15. Policy-making Sustainability Fairness ↑ Well-being (WB) Equality Justice Subjective WB Objective WB Overall Domain-Specific Quality of Life Indicators Traditional Economic Indicators Happiness HAPPINESS Brain scan Mental state/ hedonism Life Satisfaction theories Objective List/ Flourishing Health/ healthcare Freedom Trust Safety Environ-ment Education Equality Employ-ment Income Behav-ioural Wealth • Survey • Pager • Day reco-nstruction • Survey • “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life?” • Survey • Rate agreement “I have good friends” Production

  16. Some Complicating Factors • Subjective vs. objective measures of flourishing/capabilities/quality of life • Positivity bias on self-reports • Expectations and reference groups • Survey Question wording: • “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole?” • “Compared to what it could have been, how satisfied are you with your life?”

  17. So what should we measure? • What do we want to know? • How are NZers are doing and why? • What is the best measure of Nzers wellbeing? • Some relevant factors: • Best captures wellbeing • Easy/cheap/fast to measure • Reliable results • Can compare with other surveys

More Related