Happiness is not Well-being

This paper attempts to explain the conceptual connections between happiness and well-being. It first distinguishes episodic happiness from happiness in the personal attribute sense. It then evaluates two recent proposals about the connection between happiness and well-being: (1) the idea that episodic happiness and well-being both have the same fundamental determinants, so that a person is well-off to a particular degree in virtue of the fact that they are happy to that degree, and (2) the idea that happiness in the personal attribute sense can serve as a ‘‘proxy’’ for well-being, i.e., that a person’s degree of deep or robust happiness approximates their degree of well-being. It is argued that happiness in both these senses is conceptually, metaphysically, and empirically distinct from well- being. A new analysis of welfare, well-being as agential flourishing, can explain welfare’s real connection to happiness in both the episodic and personal attribute senses. It predicts that such happiness is only directly beneficial when it is valued, when it is a form of valuing, or when it underwrites (i.e., serves as the causal basis for) the disposition to realize one’s values. It is therefore a necessary—but not sufficient—condition for especially high levels of well-being. This analysis of welfare integrates many insights from the eudaimonic tradition of welfare and happiness research in psychology, and also addresses common criticisms of these eudaimonic models

A Study of the Relationships Between Attitudes of Student Nurses and Graduate Nurses Toward Death and the Type of Care Student Nurses and Graduate Nurses Give or Would Give Dying Patients

There are two events that every human being experiences, birth and death. In our society we talk freely about birth and the birth process. However, many sociologists and psychologists have labeled death and the act of dying as taboo topics in American society

The effects of post-harvest residue on plantation forest soils and early growth of redwood and Douglas-fir seedlings in Humboldt County California

Forest harvest residue (slash) usefulness has been up for debate among private timberland owners, public land managers, and the timber industry for decades. The disposal of slash, viewed as having low ecological value, has received considerable attention as wildfire risk has made burning it harder. In recent years, forest scientists and ecologists have recognized the importance of decaying wood and its relationship to forest growth and regeneration. At this site in Northern California, we looked at whether forest harvest residue enriches soil near slash windrows through soils coring and lab analyses, looking for primary limited nutrients nitrate (NO3-N) and ammonium (NH4-N). This study looks at the growth responses of newly planted Douglas-fir seedlings and clonal redwood nursery stock, with respect to their distance to slash piles. In our findings, there was no clear relationship to distance to piles in terms of soil nutrients, however there was an increase in basal area of planted Douglas-fir and redwood farther away from slash piles. Soil analyses showed no clear relationship to early slash decay and soil nutrient replenishment, however this study only looked at the early stages between one year after harvest and the second year. Further research is needed over a longer timeframe to determine if and when slash piles might affect soil chemistry, and we recommend including a range of sites to expand the scope of inference beyond our two study sites that were close together and located outside redwood’s natural range

Troubling the notion of satisfied students

This paper investigates whether students’ personal happiness is different from student satisfaction and considers if this may have consequences for university policy and management. It does this by comparing happiness and satisfaction in two cohorts of students from two United Kingdom universities. One is a distinctive research university and the other a university whose heritage has been in the polytechnic sector prior to its charter, referred to as a post-1992 university. The results, although preliminary, do appear to show that satisfied students are also happy students. However, what contributes to these states of being is different. The implication for institutional policy is discussed and a warning that to assume satisfaction (measured by satisfaction survey results) as happiness might be problematic in addressing improvement in the student experience

Lake Chautauqua Fish Production Study, 1996

Progress ReportReport issued on: October 1997INHS Technical Report prepared for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island Distric