Decades of scientific research on human happiness

Happiness has been empirically studied since the middle of the last century. This chapter provides a historical overview of decades of prior research, beginning with the social indicators movement in the 1950s, which advocated for augmenting economic indicators of how the U.S. was doing with subjective indicators of life quality, such a life satisfaction and positive and negative affect. Social gerontology emerged during the same period and focused on life satisfaction and morale as key indicators of successful aging. During the 70s, 80s, and 90s psychologists, working with smaller, nonrepresentative samples brought new topics to the study of subjective well-being (SWB), such how it is influenced by personality characteristics, goals, and coping strategies. These studies maintained the focus, largely atheoretical, on life satisfaction and affect as key indicators of happiness. A theory-guided perspective, built on the integration of ideas from clinical, developmental, existential, and humanistic psychology, along with insights from Aristotle, emerged in the 1990s. This eudaimonic formulation focused on different indicators of happiness, such as purposeful life engagement and personal growth. Since the turn of the century, there has been a return to population-based inquiries that assess both hedonic and eudaimonic aspects of well-being. Illustrative findings are summarized, concluding with emphasis on recent historical events (Great Recession, COVID-19 pandemic), which are undermining the well-being of disadvantaged segments of society.