Subjective Well-Being

Small-scale fisheries have been associated with
the subjective well-being of coastal communities through
their links with culture, identity, and social cohesion. But
although fish catches are usually considered the primary
ecosystem service that benefits fishers, little is known about
how subjective well-being is influenced by the fishing
activity itself. Here, we applied the experience sampling
method in two small-scale fisheries in Bangladesh to assess
the effects of fishing on fishers’ occurrence of positive and
negative affect, two measures of subjective well-being. We
found that fishing activities were not directly associated
with increased momentary affect and that the frequency of
positive affect actually decreased as the fishing trip
progressed. Furthermore, although very low catches were
associated with less positive affect, the highest frequency
of positive affect was achieved with relatively small
catches. Our results imply that the benefits provided by
small-scale fisheries to the momentary subjective wellbeing of fishers are not strongly related to the actual
catching of fish.

The aim of the current study was to empirically assess the satisfaction with one’s own life in Slovenia. In this framework the relationships between two indicators of material well-being (self-reported household income, GDP per capita) and subjective well-being (SWB) were analyzed. Results indicated relatively high levels of SWB in Slovenia, especially when Slovenia was compared to nine other post communist countries, which entered the EU by the year 2007; that the people who reported higher levels of their household income tended to report higher levels of SWB – a pattern that was discernable not only Slovenia, but also elsewhere. Results namely indicated that statistically significant correlation between SWB and self-reported household income existed in 58 countries out of 61 countries analyzed. The weakest link between the two variables was observed in economically most developed countries, which also showed the lowest standard deviations from the mean. Longitudinal analysis (1992-2005) indicated rise in mean levels of SWB in Slovenia, however the rise was statistically significant only in the 1995-1999 period.

La historia del Desarrollo desde mediados del siglo pasado muestra diversas alternativas de mayor o menor calado que se enfrentan a la comprensión estrecha y economicista del desarrollo entendido como crecimiento económico. En los últimos veinte años han surgido, en ese espacio alternativo, diversos enfoques entre los cuales encontramos los que entienden el Desarrollo como Bienestar.

Esta publicación, que explora las diferentes dimensiones del bienestar, significa para Educo un preludio al I Congreso Internacional de la organización que, bajo el título de El bienestar de la Infancia y sus derechos. La protección infantil a debate, se celebra en Madrid entre el 22 y 24 de octubre de 2015.

A su vez, se trata del cierre de un proceso de reflexión para la acción estratégica en el que se embarcaron, este último quinquenio, la Universitat de Barcelona, Icária Editorial y la Fundación Educo, conformando el proyecto Cambio social y cooperación en el siglo XXI. Los autores que participan en esta publicación que hoy presentamos han participado en dicho proyecto junto a otros profesionales de la cooperación internacional, el desarrollo y la transformación social.

El coordinador de estudios de la Fundación Educo, Gonzalo de Castro, presenta a modo de introducción a la temática general un artículo que da nombre a la publicación. Así, ‘El bienestar, una conversación actual de la humanidad’ presenta la consolidación de distintos enfoques de Bienestar Humano en el campo de los estudios y prácticas del Desarrollo. Esta publicación, permite una introducción a este campo del conocimiento y prácticas que se ha asentado en evidencias y metodologías que nos acercan a una concepción más amplia, más comprensiva y multidimensional del desarrollo.

De Castro, G. (2015) El bienestar, una conversación actual de la humanidad.  Col. ‘Cambio Social y Cooperación en el siglo XXI  (Vol. 4)’ ISBN: 978-84-9888-695-5. Ed. Icaria Editorial, Universitat de Barcelona, Fundación Educo. Barcelona, 2015.

Most of the aggregate-level analyses of the relationship between objective and subjective measures for well-being have limited themselves to the measures of national gross domestic product (GDP) and mean life satisfaction. We develop this line of research by embedding the analysis into the context of 289 NUTS (Nomenclature des Unités Territoriales Statistiques) regions in Europe and replacing the simple life satisfaction measure with measures of active human functioning. We suggest that the measures of personal and social well-being, as they are operationalized in the 6th Round of the European Social Survey (ESS) questionnaire, can be treated as subjective indicators for social and human capital and, thereby, can be associated with the regional level GDP in cross-sectional analysis. The empirical analysis shows that the indicator for 'social trust' appears to have a positive and significant correlation with regional GDP. The analysis also distinguishes another form of social capital; 'social contact and support', reflecting the relative frequency and quantity of social support, which also shows a positive relationship with regional GDP. Concerning subjective human capital, the strongest predictor for regional GDP appears to be the aggregated sense of 'competence and meaning' in the regions. These effects proved robust after including the objective control variables (population density, intramural research and development (R&D) expenditure, share of tertiary-educated population and employment).

Psychological capital (PsyCap) is personal power and autonomy in every person, which is one of the factors that affect an employee's well-being. PsyCap as the development of positive psychology could strengthen individuals in understanding their competency and enhancing their capabilities, as well as the concept of psychological empowerment. Furthermore, psychological empowerment is also a factor in the employee's well-being; therefore, this study purpose to find out whether the relationship of PsyCap and employee well-being has a role of psychological empowerment as a mediator. The total of respondents is 307 employees in the services company. The analysis technique applied the mediation regression analysis model no. 4 by Hayes. The results showed that the relationship between PsyCap and employee well-being, contained the role of psychological empowerment as a partial mediator. Wherein, PsyCap will have a more significant effect if through psychological empowerment first. This study like dew in the desert where this study seeks to cover the gap in previous research and, especially for psychology literature regarding these three variables.

Er is een toenemende hoeveelheid wetenschappelijk bewijs dat mensen die langer onderweg zijn van en naar het werk een lager welzijn hebben. Dat welzijn wordt gemeten aan de hand van subjectieve maatstaven, zoals zelf-gerapporteerde tevredenheid, of meer objectieve maatstaven, zoals het aantal scheidingen of het aantal dagen met ziekteverlof. Het verminderde welzijn als gevolg van lange reistijden wordt blijkbaar niet volledig gecompenseerd door de voordelen die de arbeidsbetrekking biedt. We hebben het dan over voordelen zoals het inkomen, carrièrekansen of aangename collega’s. Veel van het bestaande onderzoek naar de relatie tussen pendeltijd en welzijn kent helaas een beperkte focus. De studies werken met één maatstaaf, behandelen slechts één regio of missen belangrijke controle variabelen. In deze bijdrage werken we met vijf indicatoren voor subjectief welbevinden. Deze indicatoren zijn tevredenheid, vrolijkheid, opgewekt voelen, een interessant leven leiden, en relaxed zijn. Bovendien bestrijken we 34 Europese landen. Dat alles dankzij de studie naar de werkcondities in Europa, die ieder vijf jaar wordt gehouden, de EWCS. We ontwikkelen een mixed effect binominaal logistisch regressiemodel en controleren voor bekende factoren van verminderd welzijn, zoals laag inkomen, discriminatie, overbelasting en pesten. Onze resultaten tonen aan dat langere reistijden inderdaad een negatief effect hebben op het subjectieve welzijn. Vrijwel alle gebruikte indicatoren blijken significant en negatief. Pendelen heeft een negatief effect op het subjectieve welzijn. Echter, in geen geval is reistijd de voornaamste verklarende factor. Aparte analyses voor de situatie in Nederland en België leveren geen verassingen. Op basis van ons onderzoeksresultaat pleiten we voor het afbouwen van maatregelen die langere reistijden kunnen bevorderen. Immers, werkgever, werknemers en de overheid zijn hierbij gebaat. Bovendien strookt het met de ambities op het gebied van duurzame mobiliteit.

While psychological literature is familiar with the study of individual creativity, macro-level creative industries and economies have been studied only recently. Indices like the Global Creativity Index (GCI) and the Global Innovation Index (GII) compile information of over 130 economies to provide a snapshot of their creative and innovative behaviour. Given the positive association between creative occupations and subjective well-being (SWB), a study at the national level between these variables can provide valuable insights. Creative inputs, such as a tolerant environment, creative out-puts like number of patents filed nationally, and the monetization of creative activities, like the monetary value of creative good exports were used as predictors for SWB. Quantitative regression analyses of secondary data from various agencies, including the World Bank, International Labor Organization, and Gallup Poll, indicated that SWB was significantly explained by specific creativity parameters at the national level. In line with the assumptions that creativity and innovation will be the drivers of future economies and ideas will create economic value, relationships between creativity and SWB can provide meaning and motivation to countries looking to capitalize human resources.

Research indicates that spending money on others—prosocial spending—leads to greater happiness than spending money on oneself (e.g., Dunn, Aknin, & Norton, 2008, 2014). These findings have received widespread attention because they offer insight into why people engage in costly prosocial behavior, and what constitutes happier spending more broadly. However, most studies on prosocial spending (like most research on the emotional benefits of generosity) utilized small sample sizes (n < 100/cell). In light of new, improved standards for evidentiary value, we conducted high-powered registered replications of the central paradigms used in prosocial spending research. In Experiment 1, 712 students were randomly assigned to make a purchase for themselves or a stranger in need and then reported their happiness. As predicted, participants assigned to engage in prosocial (vs. personal) spending reported greater momentary happiness. In Experiment 2, 1950 adults recalled a time they spent money on themselves or someone else and then reported their current happiness; contrary to predictions, participants in the prosocial spending condition did not report greater happiness than those in the personal spending condition. Because low levels of task engagement may have produced these null results, we conducted a replication with minor changes designed to increase engagement; in this Experiment 3 (N = 5,199), participants who recalled a prosocial (vs. personal) spending memory reported greater happiness but differences were small. Taken together, these studies support the hypothesis that spending money on others does promote happiness, but demonstrate that the magnitude of the effect depends on several methodological features.

Our research aims to address the evidence gap by applying two broad classes of valuation techniques – stated preference methods and the wellbeing valuation approach – to the work of two of the UK’s premier cultural institutions, the Natural History Museum (NHM) and Tate Liverpool (TL), and drawing conclusions on the strengths and weaknesses of these methodologies as applied to culture.1 It is important to note that our aim here is not to come up with a total value for these institutions as such, but to uncover the value of some of the key non-market services they provide. Moreover, our study is not designed to compare the values derived across the two institutions and hence the values obtained are not comparable. Firstly, the NHM and TL are two very different institutions offering a different array of cultural services and our study focuses ondifferent subsets of these services in each case. Secondly, the valuation methods used for the two institutions are different in many respects. As we will discuss, even within the contingent valuation survey, for example, different scenarios, value elicitation methods and payment vehicles are used, and different samples of the UK population are surveyed.
A comparative analysis of stated preference and wellbeing valuation methods is important for a number of reasons. First, the cultural sector has generally been hesitant towards traditional economic approaches to valuation. There are valid questions about whether monetary values should ever be applied to culture. However, as discussed, the benefit of attaching monetary value to non-market goods, like culture, is that it increases the likelihood that these values will be considered in economic decision-making. Both stated preference and wellbeing valuation are endorsed by HM Treasury’s Green Book on cost-benefit analysis. A detailed comparison of the methods therefore holds out the promise of a more fit-for-purpose approach to economic valuation in the cultural sector that is also recognised by policymakers.
Second, the research is the first comparison of stated preference and wellbeing valuation methods in the cultural sector and amongst the first ever conducted in any sector. It also provides the first monetary valuation estimates of access to and services provided by the NHM and TL.
Finally, the study offers the first comprehensive subjective wellbeing investigation and valuation of NHM and TL visitation using a number of complementary wellbeing approaches.

This study used business units in different stages of the organizational lifecycle (OLC) and tested employee job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, and work engagement to understand the relationship between OLC and happiness at work.

Furthermore, this study investigated Person-Organization (P-O) fit by testing for a locus of control (LOC) as a moderator to this relationship. Based on the significance of LOC for accountants, online surveys were launched in an accounting firm across twelve locations in South Africa.

For the first survey, 32 partners (91%) positioned their business units onto specific stages of the OLC. In the second survey, employees (62%) completed self-evaluations of their level of job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, work engagement, and their LOC. Spearman’s rank-order correlations revealed the range of ρ of –1.22 at a 10% significance to –1.67 at a 5% significance, concluding earlier stages of OLC to support greater levels of happiness at work.

Additionally, hierarchal regression found R-squared changes of 2% to 4%, confirming LOC as a moderator. Simulation tests found the strongest correlations with early stages of OLC for externals (range of ρ of –0.374 to –0.352 at 5% significance), moderate for internals (range of ρ of –2.12 at 10% significance to insignificant), and no relationship for those with a balanced expectancy (all insignificant). Contrary to dominant voices
in the literature that support internality as a superior expectancy, this study concludes that those with a balanced LOC are more resilient to organizational factors for their happiness at work.

In this paper we show that a new problem is arising for users of digital
media, who deal with an overabundant flow of information and social relationship options throughout the day. They increasingly need specific skills to channel digital stimuli towards personal goals and benefit, avoiding excessive multi-tasking, fragmentation of daily time and overconsumption of new media. We argue that these side effects are starting to represent a menace for people’s well-being. We show that
existing frameworks of digital skills do not explicitly consider abilities to cope with this new problem. We also recognise that this question is not merely one of individual skills since the use of digital media is framed within social norms and expectations about what is “good” in the digital environment. Drawing from an interdisciplinary body of literature on the concept of “well-being”, we offer a definition of “digital well-being” as a state obtainable not only by the individual through his/her personal “digital well-being skills”, but also as a characteristic of a community whose norms, values and expectations contribute to its members’ comfort, safety, satisfaction and fulfilment. In the concluding section, we show the fruitfulness of the concepts of “digital well-being” and “digital well-being skills” for interdisciplinary social research and policy.

Research has indicated that elevated levels of mindfulness are often associated with positive effects on mental health, greater satisfaction in relationships including greater subjective well-being. The present investigation was undertaken to study the mediating role of emotional intelligence in the relationship between mindfulness and subjective well-being. A sample of 100 adolescents completed the short form of Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory, Assessing Emotions scale, also the Positive and Negative Affect scale and the Multidimensional Student's Life Satisfaction scale as an index of subjective well-being. Path analysis was used in order to assess the mediating influence of emotional intelligence on mindfulness and subjective well-being. The results revealed that higher level of mindfulness was positively correlated with greater emotional intelligence, life satisfaction, positive affect and lower negative affect. Emotional Intelligence also mediated between mindfulness and two indicators of subjective well-being i.e. Positive and negative affect and Life satisfaction. indfulness and Emotional Intelligence (EI) are two essential constructs of clinical psychology because of their positive influence on Subjective well-being (SWB). Correlational studies have likewise exhibited a positive relationship between these two mental constructs, driving one to ask in what way mindfulness, EI and SWB are related to each other. Mindfulness is defined as, "paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally" (Kabat-Zinn, 2012). The idea of mindfulness is unique; however, it might be less demanding to handle its application. Like in common places and everyday exercises like eating lunch or talking to a companion, mindfulness can be practiced. For instance, while talking with a companion, one can take care of the conversation occurring, duly noting the tone in all manner of the discussion. Also, while eating lunch, one can take care of the essence of food and the diminishing appetite (Brown and Ryan, 2003). It is also plausible to evaluate mindfulness as either a trait or state. Trait mindfulness, also known as dispositional mindfulness, is basically the amount of mindfulness required for daily activities. State mindfulness; refer to the quantity of mindfulness that can be attained with the help of exercises, meditation and other

Research background: Faculties of private universities are under immense working pressure, which causes stress and burnout. The job burnout triggers the psychological pressure, which increases the turnover intention. Purpose of the article: The undertaken study aims to evaluate the scale of burnout with its threeelement model, which affects faculty members of private universities of Pakistan. This research also aims to examine the mediating effect of organizational commitment (e.g., affective, normative & continuance commitments), and moderating influence of subjective vitality in a relationship of job burnout and its constituents, for example exhaustion, efficacy & cynicism, and the turnover intention. Methods: The 712 responses were collected through a structured questionnaire from the junior and senior faculty members of private universities of Pakistan. The data was examined by using second order partial least square-structural equation approach-PLS-SEM. Findings & value added: The research findings exhibited that emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy have a direct significant influence on job burnout. The findings further demonstrated that the job burnout has a cogent and negative impact on faculty turnover intention. The findings demonstrated that elements of organizational commitment (e.g., normative, affective & continuance commitments) have a forceful serial mediating influence between burnout & its constituents for example exhaustion, efficacy & cynicism, and turnover intention. Finally, the findings have revealed that subjective vitality has a significant and positive impact as a moderating variable in a relationship between job burnout and turnover intention. This research has a long-term theoretical contribution, as it provides a novel conceptual framework, which can be replicated in different industries. Thus, this unique model provides the solution to reduce employees' turnover for other industries as well.