Product Description

This new edition provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of research into the nature of happiness. Drawing on research from sociology, physiology and economies as well as psychology, the author explores the nature of positive and negative emotions, and the psychological and cognitive processes involved in their generation.

Accessible and wide-ranging coverage is provided on key issues such as: the measurement and study of happiness; the effect of friendship, marriage and other relationships on positive moods, happiness, mental and physical health; the effects of work, employment and leisure and the effects of money, class, and education. The importance of individual personality traits such as optimism, purpose in life, internal control and having the right kind of goals is also analysed. New to this edition is additional material on national differences, the role of humor, and the effect of religion.

Finally the book discusses the practical application of research in this area, such as how happiness can be enhanced, and the effects of happiness on health, altruism and sociability. This definitive and thought-provoking work will be compulsive reading for students, researchers and the interested general reader.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #315343 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review

`An impressive testimony to (Argyles) enthusiasm, energy, eclecticism and grasp of the subject. - Times Higher Education Supplement

This new edition is an excellent updated synthesis of the research in what has been a very successful area of advance in social psychology, due in no small measure to Michael Argyle’s own work in the field. – W. Peter Robinson, Professor of Social Psychology, University of Bristol.

This book is bigger and better than the first edition. The author has definitely kept up with progress in the field and has summarised it well. – Adrian Furnham, Professor of Psychology, University College London.

Michael Argyle’s book gives an excellent broad overview of the scientific field of subjective well-being – the study of happiness, life satisfaction, and positive affect. Readers will discover many interesting, and even exciting, new facts about happiness. At the same time, this is not a difficult read… Argyle has done an outstanding job of introducing readers to an exciting new scientific field in the study of human behaviour. – Ed Diener, Professor of Psychology, University of Illinois.

Customer Reviews

On the way ... to happiness
This book was written in style and order to talk both to beginners in psychological studies and more advanced analysts. It is a source for basic classifications as well as useful references to selected scientific litterature. Planners of related psycho-social experiments might get extra benefit if looking at it before starting.