The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies. By Robert E. Lane. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000. 466p. $42.00 cloth, $19.00 paper.

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-186
Author(s):  
Conrad P. Waligorski
Keyword(s):  
Medical Research ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Marginal Utility ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
New Haven ◽  
Yale University ◽  
Market Experience ◽  
Or Economics ◽  
And Behavior

Happiness, unhappiness, and depression are not the usual foci of political science or economics, but Robert Lane demonstrates their importance. The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies is a worthy companion to and extension of Lane's earlier work, especially The Market Experience (1991). Lane employs psychology, genetics, evolutionary theory, and medical research to convince economists and democratic theorists that biological and psychological research can enrich their often unrealistic assumptions about well-being and behavior. He argues that in affluent societies there is growing unhappiness, growing depression, and declining marginal utility of income to produce happiness. These are accompanied by mistrust and increasing political negativity, which further undermine happiness. The dominant Western image of individualism ignores that people often do not know what makes them happy, which undermines prevailing market and democratic premises (p. 284).

scholarly journals Evolution, the Menstrual Cycle, and Theoretical Overreach

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 1113-1130
Author(s):  
Jeff Kiesner ◽  
Tory Eisenlohr-Moul ◽  
Jane Mendle
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Menstrual Cycle ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Internal Validity ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
And Behavior

A considerable amount of recent psychological research has attributed a variety of menstrual-cycle-related changes in social behavior to evolutionarily adaptive functions. Although these studies often draw interesting and unusual conclusions about female emotion and behavior within evolutionary theory, their significant limitations have not yet been addressed. In this article, we outline several methodological and conceptual issues related to the menstrual cycle that constitute threats to the internal validity and theoretical integrity of these studies. We recommend specific guidelines to address these issues and emphasize the need to apply more comprehensive and sophisticated theoretical structures when considering menstrual-cycle-related changes in emotion and behavior.

Status-Based Identity

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mesmin Destin ◽  
Michelle Rheinschmidt-Same ◽  
Jennifer A. Richeson
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Psychological Effects ◽  
Downward Mobility ◽  
Relevant Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Directions ◽  
And Behavior

Psychological research on socioeconomic status (SES) has grown significantly over the past decade. In this article, we build upon and integrate existing approaches to direct greater attention toward investigating the subjective meaning and value that people attach to understanding their own SES as an identity. We use the term status-based identity to organize relevant research and examine how people understand and make meaning of their SES from moment to moment in real time. Drawing from multiple areas of research on identity, we suggest that even temporary shifts in how people construe their status-based identities predict changes in thought, affect, motivation, and behavior. This novel focus is positioned to examine the psychological effects of status transitions (e.g., upward or downward mobility). Further, in initial empirical work, we introduce a new measure to assess uncertainty regarding one’s SES (i.e., status-based identity uncertainty) and offer evidence that greater uncertainty regarding one’s status-based identity is associated with lower individual well-being. In sum, we argue that insight from the literature on identity will both expand and serve to organize the burgeoning literature on the psychology of SES and, in so doing, reveal promising new directions for research.

scholarly journals Psychology in the function of the well-being of the individual and society - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grupa Autora
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Scientific Basis ◽  
Theoretical Explanation ◽  
Hierarchical Organization ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Societal Welfare ◽  
And Behavior

As the guidelines of human attitudes and behavior, the values are extremely important for individuals and for the society. All major societal flaws (violence, war, aggression, criminal, delinquency, lawlessness, corruption, ecological devastation, terrorism, totalitarianism, exploitation, misery, poverty, hunger, starvation, ignorance, fanaticism and others) are result of behavior that is as odd with basic human values. Thus, a value-congruent behavior is a necessary condition for stable and successful society and the strengthening of value-aligned behavior is a planetary task. Psychological research convincingly demonstrated that the values represent and occupy a great field of attitudes and beliefs, one of the three great domains of the psychological trilogy (personality; attitudes, beliefs and values; cognitive abilities). In psychology, we need a clear and elaborated theoretical explanation of values. A comprehensive theoretical model of values (CTV) was therefore developed in last decades. It comprises all important aspects of the values: the structure, hierarchical organization, development, cross-cultural validity and differences, connections to other important psychological and behavioral domains and the role of values in our life. The knowledge of values is necessary, yet it is not enough in order to cope with all risks of individual and societal welfare. Another requirement is therefore crucial, namely the abovementioned alignment of values and behavior. Values that are not accomplished or realized in our behavior are useless. Thus, the research of value–behavior relations is extremely important in psychology. It is one of essential pillars in the scientific basis of a stable society and has therefore tremendous practical consequences. It also brings us closer to the perennial question connected with the role of values in our life: does the behavior that is aligned and congruent with values make us happier or not. Thus, the final part of my lecture will be focused on the empirical answers to that question. And, as research results are proving, the life and behavior which are congruent with the values factually correlate with the happiness and general wellbeing.

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