Science of Well-Being

Ed Diener is the Joseph R. Smiley Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois. He received his doctorate at the University of Washington in 1974, and has been a faculty member at the University of Illinois for the past 34 years. Dr. Diener was the president of both the International Society of Quality of Life Studies and the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. Currently he is the president of the International Positive Psychology Association. Dr. Diener was the editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and the Journal of Happiness Studies, and he is the founding editor of Perspectives on Psychological Science. Diener has over 240 publications, with about 190 being in the area of the psychology of well-being, and is listed as one of the most highly cited psychologists by the Institute of Scientific Information with over 12,000 citations to his credit. He won the Distinguished Researcher Award from the International Society of Quality of Life Studies, the first Gallup Academic Leadership Award, and the Jack Block Award for Personality Psychology. Dr. Diener also won several teaching awards, including the Oakley-Kundee Award for Undergraduate Teaching at the University of Illinois.

• Introduction—The Science of Well-Being: Reviews and Theoretical Articles by Ed Diener.- Subjective Well-Being.- In Pursuit of Happiness: Empirical Answers to Philosophical Questions.- Personality and Subjective Well-Being.- Beyond the Hedonic Treadmill: Revising the Adaptation Theory of Well-Being.- Will Money Increase Subjective Well-Being?: A Literature Review and Guide to Needed Research.- The Well-Being of Nations: Linking Together Trust, Cooperation, and Democracy.- The Optimum Level of Well-Being: Can People Be Too Happy?.- Beyond Money: Toward an Economy of Well-Being.- Conclusion: The Well-Being Science Needed Now.

From the reviews: "The Science of Well-Being, is a potpourri of papers-literature reviews and theory pieces-that overview the field that Diener helped establish. ... Certainly academic researchers interested in well-being will find them extremely useful. ... The audience should extend beyond research psychologists and include policy makers as well as interested members of the general public. ... the collected works of Ed Diener are timely, impressive, and useful." (Christopher Peterson, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 54 (50), 2009)