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Racing from Subjective Well-Being to Public Policy: A Review of The Origins of Happiness

By Andrew E. Clark, Sarah Flèche, Richard Layard, Nattavudh Powdthavee and George Ward, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 2018, pp. viii + 325

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Notes

  1. The Eudaimonic School of well-being draws on literatures in clinical psychology and continental and classical philosophy, in particular the writings of Aristotle and the Existentialists. The School emphasises 6 items that are relevant to well-being and typically overlooked in the hedonic conceptions of well-being that have dominated the SWB literature: autonomy, competence, social relations, meaning, values and identity. Autonomy refers to how volitional ones feels in one’s life. Competence refers to one’s sense that one is effective at the activities one cares about. Social relationships refers to the health of one’s bonds with people in one’s community, family and intimate circle. Meaning refers to purpose in life. Values refers to whether one feels like one has access to authoritative norms and ethics that guide one’s life. And identity refers to whether one has a strong sense of self and one’s goals.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Carol Graham, Robert Breunig, Jeff Borland, Dorottya Fabian, Madeline Goldie and Jan Ott for helpful comments and suggestions.

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Fabian, M. Racing from Subjective Well-Being to Public Policy: A Review of The Origins of Happiness. J Happiness Stud 20, 2011–2026 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-018-0019-7

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