Work and Leisure

172 John T. Haworthnow a key element in the Economic and Social Research Council’sLifecourse, Lifestyle, and Health Thematic Priority 2000.A series of seminars has been funded by the ESRC on ‘Wellbeing: socialand individual determinants’ (Haworth et al. 2001–2002). Reports can befound on the website www.wellbeing-esrc.com. Research into subjective wellbeingemphasises the need to understand the complex interplay betweensocial, personal and environmental factors, and the need to develop newtheories and methods of research. This subject, though receiving a great dealof contemporary interest, is by its nature trans-disciplinary, with many disciplinesplaying their part in determining the processes and circumstancesthat generate well-being in individuals, groups, communities and societies.The seminar series aims to generate research interest in the processes andcircumstances that facilitate well-being (including positive mental and physicalhealth) in different individuals, groups, communities and societies. Theobjective is not to replace, but provide an alternative to, and to complement,the overwhelming harm-based focus of much social scientific research intohealth. Well-being offers a paradigm that allows those in the academic, policyand user fields to focus on positive outcomes, and how best to realise them.Yet the investigation of well-being is very much marginalised in comparisonwith the investigation of stress and ill-health. The US PositivePsychology programme is very praiseworthy, and will stimulate much neededresearch in other countries as well as in the United States. The programmecould be enhanced by the study of the influence of social institutions onbehaviour and well-being, as instigated by Jahoda (1982). Prilleltensky (2001)argues from extensive studies undertaken in Canada and Australia that wellnessis achieved by the simultaneous and balanced satisfaction of personal,interpersonal and collective needs. The ‘Wellness Promotion Unit’ in thePsychology Department at the Victoria University, Melbourne, works withcommunities and government to promote healthy behaviour and preventproblems, as opposed to treating the problem after the damage has beendone.Quantitative measures of well-beingWell-being can be studied using both quantitative and qualitative measures.The continued development of quantitative measures parallels the increasingsophistication of concepts of well-being. The work of Bradburn and Caplovitz(1965) and Herzberg (1966) indicated that negative and positive well-beingare not on the same continuum, and that different factors may influence eachaspect. The need to recognise the multifaceted nature of subjective well-beinghas also been advocated by Brief et al. (1993). Diener (2000) advocates thatresearchers need to use measures of both pleasant and unpleasant affect,since both are major components of affective well-being which often correlatewith different variables. He notes that good life events and extroversion