AH Brayfield

AM Rose

B Kutner

E Diener

G Gurin

J Bentham

KC Land

M Jahoda

MR Mauzi

R Easterlin

R Layard

R Veenhoven

Ruut Veenhoven

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Co-development of Happiness Research: Additionto ‘‘Fifty Years After the Social Indicator Movement’’Ruut Veenhoven1,2Accepted: 3 January 2017 / Published online: 25 February 2017 The Author(s) 2017. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.comAbstract Social Indicators Research covers many topics, which each have their ownhistory. Happiness research is one of these included topics. Longstanding interest inhappiness revived since the 1960s together with the emergence of the social indicatormovement. Happiness became a prominent issue in the movement and the movement hasfostered the development of happiness research in several ways.Keywords Science history  Happiness  Life satisfaction1 IntroductionSocial Indicators Research (SIR) can be seen as a rope, consisting of several strands. Thismetaphor nicely illustrates: (1) that Social Indicators Research covers many topics, (2) thatthese topics are intertwined, (3) that they strengthen each other and (4) that together theyare stronger than each strand taken separately.What are these constituting ‘strands’? In their lucid review of the last 50 years of SocialIndicators Research Land and Michalos (2017) mention topics such as ‘inequality’,‘poverty’, ‘safety’ and ‘social cohesion’. ‘Social’ indicators have been used to cover allqualities of life that are not typically ‘economic’, since the movement emerged in the1960s in reaction to the limitations of mere economic indicators, which dominated researchand policy at that time.& Ruut VeenhovenVeenhoven@ese.eur.nl1 Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam,The Netherlands2 Opentia Research Program, North-West University, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa123Soc Indic Res (2018) 135:1001–1007https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1554-z‘Happiness’ is one of the strands in Social Indicators Research. Below I will add somedetail about this particular research line and sketch the role of happiness research in thewider movement.2 Common RootsSocial Indicators Research roots in the view that human society can be improved usingscientific knowledge. This view emerged in the eighteenth century as part of the European‘Enlightenment’. This intellectual movement contested several views common in the‘dark’ middle ages.One of these contested views was that society is a moral order given by God, whichhumans cannot and should not change. Enlightened thinkers saw society to be a result ofhuman contracts, which can be revised and should be changed if these appear to involveundesirable consequences. Taking a, still prevalent, religious perspective, they emphasizeda moral obligation to perfect ‘God’s garden’ on earth and too weed out injustice.Another challenged view was that earthly life is not to be enjoyed, since man has beenexpelled from Paradise and that happiness will only be possible in an afterlife in Heaven, ifonly for the chosen. Enlightened thinkers rejected the view of a punishing God and ratherbelieved in a loving God, who likes to see his children enjoy his creation.A third ‘dark’ view that was contested was that human rationality is too limited to counton and that we would do better to rely on traditional wisdom and divine revelation.Enlightened thinkers advocated the use of reason and pressed for investment in science andeducation.This change of views had a great impact: it inspired revolutions and later practices for‘planned social change’ in more peaceful and incremental ways. These changes wereattended by a lively discourse on what is a good life and the social conditions required forit. The concept of happiness figured from the beginning in these discussions (Veenhoven2015).3 Philosophy of HappinessHappiness was a main topic in classical philosophy and interest in happiness revived in theeighteenth century Enlightenment (Mauzi 1960; Buijs 2007). The term ‘happiness’ wasmostly used as an umbrella for various notions of the good life, which today is denoted as‘quality of life’ and ‘well-being’. As such contemporary Social Indicators Researchextends on the Enlightened philosophy of happiness. Since most philosophers earned theirliving as moral advisors, many tended to equate the good life with a morally good life.Today that orientation is most visible in Positive Psychology.The term ‘happiness’, from the beginning, was also used in the more limited sense ofsubjective enjoyment of life, in other words as ‘life satisfaction’. Democritus (460-370 BC)was one of the Greek philosophers who addressed this meaning, while Jeremy Bentham(1748–1832) defined happiness as ‘the sum of pleasures and pains’.Bentham (1789) articulated the difference between a morally good life and a pleasantlife in his consequentionalistic ethic, which holds that good or bad should not be judged onfit with abstract moral principle, but by the reality of consequences on happiness, themorally best action being the one that produces the greatest happiness for the greatest1002 R. Veenhoven123number of people. In this view happiness should be the main aim of governments. Apresent day proponent of this view is Layard (2005).Though welcomed in Enlightened circles in the eighteenth century, this view wasrejected by the dominating ideologies of the nineteenth century and the first half of thetwentieth century. The strongest opposition came from the churches, which preached aprincipalistic morality based on the biblical Ten Commandments. The liberals of that timealso had reservations about the greatest happiness principle; in their power struggle withthe aristocracy they preferred to emphasize freedom. The socialists who entered the scenein the late nineteenth century prioritized social equality. Nationalism dominated in first halfof the twentieth century when the two world wars took place, and nationalists were moreinterested in national glory than in individual happiness.As a result, interest in happiness declined and one of the indications is a sharp drop inthe use of the word ‘happiness’ in book titles after 1800 (Buijs 2007). When I took a coursein social philosophy in the 1960s, I found happiness described as a historical concern, notas a contemporary issue. But change was coming, in the bookshops I saw ever more of the‘How to be happy’ type of self-help books and ‘happiness’ became a buzz-word in themedia.4 Emergence of Empirical Happiness Research in the 1960sThis renewed interest in happiness in the second half of the twentieth century was drivenby several factors. One of these is that many of the pressing ills had been overcome at thattime, at least in the West. The era was characterized by peace, democracy and anunprecedented rise in the standard of living. This gave way to more positive goals, such ashealth and happiness. Another factor was the development of a multiple-choice-society inwhich individuals could choose how to live their life and therefore get interested in whatway of life will be most satisfying. The rise of happiness on the political agenda was alsofacilitated by the weakening of the earlier ideological opposition mentioned above. Thechurches had declined in power, the liberals and the socialists achieved their main aims andnationalism had lost much of its appeal.The effect of these long-term ideological shifts was amplified by technical develop-ments and the development of empirical social science research, survey research in par-ticular. Life-satisfaction is something we have in mind and as such it can be measuredusing self-reports. Hence happiness of a great number can be measured by includingquestions on life-satisfaction in large scale surveys among a general population. This hasbecome common practice. Happiness is now a standard topic in many periodical socialsurveys, such as the American General Social Survey. This has yielded a lot of data on thebasis of which initial qualms about the quality of responses to such questions have beentested. Though not free of measurement error, these questions appeared to do quite well(Diener 1994).The first surveys on happiness date from the late 1940s in the USA and were part ofpublic opinion research (AIPO studies, cited in Easterlin 1974). In the 1950s happinessbecame a topic in research on successful aging (e.g. Kutner et al. 1956), in some studies onfamily life (e.g. Rose 1955) and in studies on work (e.g. Brayfield et al. 1957). In the 1960shappiness was used as an indicator in studies about mental health in the general population(e.g. Gurin et al. 1960). The number of scientific publications on happiness started to grow,as can be seen from Fig. 1. The numbers in Fig. 1 are not based on a count of publicationsCo-development of Happiness Research: Addition to ‘‘Fifty Years… 1003123that use the word happiness, but on publications that deal with the concept, howevernamed. Fit with the concept of happiness as ‘subjective enjoyment of life’ was ascertainedby close reading of the texts.5 Synergy of Happiness with Wider Social Indicators ResearchThe take-off of happiness research in the 1970s coincided with the emergence of the socialindicators movement, which linked several existing strands of research. The politicalclimate was favorable at that time, the post-war economic growth had resulted in the firstwave of the ‘limits to growth’ movement, which today fall under the name ‘Beyond GDP’.Paradoxically, the contested economic affluence also provided the funds for research onalternative measures of social progress.Institutes for Social Indicators Research appeared in most developed nations, sometimesgovernment offices and sometimes based in universities. These institutes initiated largescale social surveys, for most of which happiness was, and continued to be, a topic. Theresults of such surveys are typically well covered by the media, findings on happiness inparticular. While most strands in Social Indicators Research feed technocratic demand inthe first place, data on happiness typically serves the general interest.The simultaneous development of Social Indicators Research in various developednations created a demand for international cooperation. This demand has been met inseveral ways. Firstly by the founding of an international journal ‘Social IndicatorsResearch’ in 1974 by Alex Michalos. This journal paved the way for several more spe-cialized journals (see Table 1) and by a book series.Happiness research has profited much from these new outlets, and my personal expe-rience can serve as an illustration. When I entered the field in the 1980s several of myFig. 1 Number of scientific publications on happiness over time. Source: Bibliography of happiness(Veenhoven 2016)1004 R. Veenhoven123papers on happiness were rejected by sociological journals, typically because reviewersconsidered the subject unscientific. Fortunately, Social Indicators Research did acceptpapers on the matter. Likewise, my book ‘Conditions of Happiness’ (Veenhoven 1984, stillavailable), was initially rejected by Reidel Publishing (now Springer) on the advice of thephilosopher in charge, but was accepted when passed on to the advisor for Social IndicatorsResearch for comment.Happiness became an ever more prominent topic in the journal Social IndicatorsResearch and for that reason a more focused journal was established in 2000, the Journal ofHappiness Studies. Alex Michalos, founding father of Social Indicators Research, was oneof the founding editors.Happiness research has also profited from the organizational infra-structure thatdeveloped around the Social Indicator Movement. In 1988 Alex Michalos initiated the firstinternational research association, the Working Group Social Indicators (WG04) of theInternational Sociological Association (ISA), which was upgraded to a research committee(RG55) in 2008. In 1995 an interdisciplinary research association was founded, theInternational Society for Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS). The rapid institutionalizationof Social Indicators Research is described in more detail by Land & Michalos (2017).Happiness research now had a podium and organized channels of contacts and information.The brood chamber of Social Indicators Research also helped happiness research to keepits focus on social policy and curbed the tendency to become lost in spirituality.6 Place of Happiness in Related Social Scientific MovementsHappiness is a topic in three other tracks in the social sciences that developed parallel toSocial Indicators Research.The first of these is research on ‘Health Related Quality of Life’ (HQOL), that is,research on patient reported outcomes of disease and medical treatment. This research linedraws on inspiration similar to that of Social Indicators Research, in this case, ‘beyondmere survival’ instead of ‘beyond GDP’. ‘Quality’ of life is mostly measured usingindicators of health, but sometimes with happiness. Developments in the technique ofexperience sampling will probably make this topic more prominent in the future.Table 1 Publications on happiness in scientific journals on social indicators research and related move-ments. Source: Bibliography of happiness (Veenhoven 2016)YearestablishedName of journal Discipline Publications onhappiness1974 Social Indicators Research Social sciences 7021997 Quality of Life Research Health sciences 1312000 Journal of Happiness Studies Interdisciplinary 4502002 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes Health sciences 52003 Journal of Positive Psychology Psychology 272003 Applied Quality of Life Research Social sciences 392011 Psychology of Wellbeing Psychology 42011 International Journal of Wellbeing Interdisciplinary 82012 International Journal of Happiness and Development Interdisciplinary 15Co-development of Happiness Research: Addition to ‘‘Fifty Years… 1005123Another scientific track parallel to Social Indicators Research is ‘Positive Psychology’.Positive Psychology is about positive mental health and goes ‘beyond mental disorder’.The movement serves the counseling and education professions. Happiness is a topic inthis sphere, but not the most prominent one. The focus is not on life-satisfaction (called‘hedonic’ happiness in these circles), but on a fuzzy set of personality characteristicsdeemed desirable, such as autonomy and self-acceptance. This syndrome is called ‘eu-daimonic’ happiness, but in my view ‘positive mental health’ is a better word. The traitsinvolved fit the first description of positive mental health by Jahoda (1959). Happiness(hedonic) is on her list.The most recent development in happiness research is the emergence of ‘HappinessEconomics’, which can be seen as a social indicator movement within economics. A keyinsight in Happiness Economics is that the satisfaction we expect from a choice (expectedutility) does not always fit the satisfaction that actually results from the choice (experi-enced utility) and that we can choose more rationally if better informed about the probableeffects on satisfaction. In Happiness Economics the focus is typically on happiness in thesense of life-satisfaction.The place of happiness in Social Indicators Research and in parallel scientific move-ments is illustrated by the number of publications on this subject in related scientificjournals. See the overview given in Table 1. As for Fig. 1, the number of publications onhappiness is not assessed on the basis of use of the word ‘happiness’, but on close readingof the texts to assess whether the concept is addressed, that is, subjective enjoyment ofone’s life as a whole. The development of the field is also nicely illustrated by the years inwhich these journals were established. An overview of the research associations in whichhappiness is a topic is provided in Table 2 and illustrates the same development over time.Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inter-national License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution,and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and thesource, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.Table 2 Research associations in which happiness is a topicYearestablishedName Discipline1988 Research Committee on Social Indicators Research (RC55) of theInternational Sociological Association (ISA)Sociology1993 International Association for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL) Healthsciences1995 International Society for Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS) Socialsciences2002 European Network for Positive Psychology (ENPP) Psychology2007 International Association for Positive Psychology (IPPA) Psychology2016 Network for Happiness Economics Economics1006 R. Veenhoven123ReferencesBentham, J. (1789). Introduction to the principles of morals and legislation. London: Payne.Brayfield, A. H., Strate, M. W., & Wells, R. V. (1957). Interrelationships among measures of job-satis-faction and general satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 41, 201–220.Buijs, P. M. (2007). De eeuw van het geluk: Nederlandse opvattingen over geluk ten tijde van de verlichting1658–1835 (The age of happiness: Dutch opinions on happiness during the Enlightenment). Ph.D.dissertation University of Utrecht, Netherlands.Diener, E. (1994). Assessing subjective well-being: Progress and opportunities. Social Indicators Research,31, 103–157.Easterlin, R. (1974). Does economic growth improve the human lot? Some empirical evidence. In P.A. David & W. R. Melvin (Eds.), Nations and households in economic growth. New York: AcademicPress.Gurin, G., Feld, S., & Veroff, J. (1960). Americans view their mental health: A nationwide interview survey.New York: Basic Books.Jahoda, M. (1959). Current concepts of positive mental health. New York: Basic Books.Kutner, B., Fanshel, D., Langner, T. S., & Togo, A. M. (1956). Five hundred over sixty: A community surveyon aging. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Land, K. C., & Michalos, A. C. (2017). Fifty years after the Social Indicator Movement: Has its promisebeen fulfilled? An assessment and agenda for the future. Social Indicators Research. doi:10.1007/s11205-017-1571-y.Layard, R. (2005). Happiness: Lessons of a new science. New York: Penguin.Mauzi, M. R. (1960). L’ ide´e du bonheur dans la litte´rature et la pense´e Franc¸aise au 18e sie`cle (The idea ofhappiness in French literature and thought in the 18th century). Paris: Librarie Armand Colin.Rose, A. M. (1955). Factors associated with the life satisfaction of middle-class, middle-aged persons.Marriage and Family Living, 17, 15–19.Veenhoven, R. (1984). Conditions of happiness. Dordrecht: Springer.Veenhoven, R. (2015). Happiness: History of the concept. In J. Wright (Ed.), International encyclopedia ofsocial and behavioral sciences (2nd ed., Vol. 10, pp. 521–525). Oxford: Elsevier.Veenhoven, R. (2016). Bibliography of happiness. World Database of happiness, Erasmus UniversityRotterdam. Assessed April 15, 2016. http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/hap_bib/bib_fp.php.Co-development of Happiness Research: Addition to ‘‘Fifty Years… 1007123

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