Abstract
Reviewed by: Rodger Narloch, Psychology Department, College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University, USA
This lengthy handbook is a multi-faceted overview of research and theory on the topic of happiness. It gives the reader the background needed to consider how to foster happiness in society as a whole. Therefore, it is a scholarly review, but with an eye towards application.
The handbook is comprehensive in two important dimensions: disciplinary perspective and phase of the research process. First, whereas most reviews of research literature are confined to a particular disciplinary perspective, this handbook covers happiness in “its broadest sense, treating it as an umbrella concept for notions such as well-being, subjective well-being, psychological well-being, hedonism, eudaimonia, health, flourishing, and so on” (p. 3). Although many of these conceptions are within the psychological realm, the handbook also discusses happiness from philosophical, spiritual, economic, evolutionary, and organizational perspectives. Yet, when moving beyond psychology, it does so in a style that is comfortable and accessible for psychologists at the professional, graduate, and perhaps advanced undergraduate levels. Second, the handbook addresses happiness along all phases of the research process. In particular, it discusses issues and assumptions related to the definition and measurement of happiness, the relationship of happiness with other constructs, and ways in which the empirical research findings may be applied.
Thus, this handbook is a marvellous resource to facilitate an integrated understanding of happiness that is difficult to glean from the individual literatures on each of those more specific realms. Although the tremendous scope of the handbook could lead to a dauntingly complex read, its impeccable organization makes it user-friendly. Its 79 chapters are divided into 10 sections with about seven or eight chapters per section. An introductory chapter by the handbook’s editors describes the purpose of each section. Each section’s editor then provides an overview of the chapters in the section. This enables the reader to efficiently grasp the full scope of the handbook for a comprehensive understanding of the field when read in its entirety. Alternatively, the organization also allows the reader to quickly identify specific topics of particular interest and read just those chapters.
A succinct summary and evaluation of each chapter is impossible given the scope of the book. Therefore, I will share my response to the nature of the chapters as a whole and then provide an overview of the handbook’s sections. Each chapter contains a solid foundation in its area with extensive citations that are valuable for future investigation. Despite the density of information, the chapters are exceptionally readable. Each of them left me feeling that I understood the essence of the subject and stimulated my thinking about connections with other concepts. Below I review particular sections and chapters that convey the emphases of the handbook.
The first two sections address happiness in ways most familiar to psychologists. Section 1 on Psychological Approaches to Happiness encompasses topics such as the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, the endowment-contrast model, flow, emotional intelligence; religious engagement, and subjective well-being (SWB). It also includes an interesting review by Katherine Jacobs Bao and Sonja Lyubomirsky of the ways in which happiness leads to success rather than success leading to happiness. Despite the book’s inclusion of many diverse perspectives, there does seem to be a greater emphasis on SWB and the set-point theory of happiness (although the Bruce Headey chapter later in the book is an interesting critique of the set-point paradigm).
Section 2 on Psychological Definitions of Happiness covers dimensions of happiness such as hedonia versus eudaimonia; autonomy; functional well-being as well as SWB. I thought the gem of this section was Ruut Veenhoven's chapter, Notions of the Good Life, which delineates a taxonomy that can be used to compare and contrast the many facets of happiness. A word of warning, however, that this section, as well as Section 3 on Philosophical Approaches to Happiness, are places where having some background on major philosophical schools of thought (e.g., Aristotle, Utilitarians, Stoics, Kant, Nietzsche) does facilitate one’s reading. Although the text provides some basic context, it might be difficult to follow if this was one’s only exposure to such philosophies. Despite that warning, the Philosophical Approaches section covers a wide range of perspectives and is an excellent complement to thinking about this topic through only a psychological lens. As a novice to Confucianism and Daoism, I found the treatment of these perspectives particularly informative, especially in the way the author compares them to Aristotelean and Utilitarian approaches. I also appreciated Valerie Tiberius's chapter explaining philosophical research methodology and how it can work together with the empirical method of psychology.
Section 4 on Spiritual Approaches to Happiness continues to epitomize the unique value of this handbook in integrating disparate perspectives of Buddhism, Hinduism, as well as a more western view of sanctification. Whereas most of the psychological perspectives focus on happiness as a form of increased arousal, the spiritual approaches tend to view happiness as the moderation of emotion achieved through practices such as meditation and mindfulness.
Section 5 focuses on “ways in which happiness is influenced by the social, economic, and environmental forces that operate beyond the level of the individual” (p. 428). This is an interesting contrast to the theme of rest of the handbook which emphasizes views of happiness that allow for greater individual control.
The final sections discuss how we can systematically increase happiness as part of childhood education, organizations, relationships, and psychotherapy. The chapters in these sections include enough treatment of the definition and measurement of happiness to be read independently, but they are greatly enriched by the content in the earlier sections of the handbook.
In conclusion, the strength of this handbook is its breadth of perspective. Written for psychologists, it does not confine itself to analysis only through a psychological lens but reviews philosophical, spiritual, economic, evolutionary, and organizational perspectives. Furthermore, it covers the gamut from definitions and measurements of happiness to its applications and interventions. Thus, the handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the study of happiness if read in its entirety, yet one could use isolated chapters when teaching courses at advanced undergraduate or graduate levels.