“Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth” shares the results of three decades of research on our notions of happiness covers the most important advances in our understanding of happiness. The book offers readers unparalleled access to the world’s leading experts on happiness as it provides “real world” examples that will resonate with general readers.
The book explores the research findings that are related to each of the components of psychological wealth:
- Life satisfaction
- Spirituality and meaning in life
- Positive attitudes and emotions
- Loving social relationships
- Engaging activities and work
- Values and life goals to achieve them
- Physical and mental health
- Material sufficiency to meet our needs
Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener define psychological wealth as “your true net worth, and includes your attitudes toward life, social support, spiritual development, material resources, health, and the activities in which you engage.” Hence psychological wealth incorporates more than just one’s finances. The components of psychology wealth help us understand why some people may be financially poor but are rich in terms of psychological wealth and happiness while others can be fantastically financially wealthy but have very little psychological wealth and are miserable.
Ed Diener. Ph.D., is Psychology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is also a senior scientist for the Gallup Organization.
Robert Biswas-Diener, Program Director at the Center for Applied Positive Psychology (UK) and part-time lecturer at Portland State University, lives in Milwaukie, Oregon. He is known as the “Indiana Jones of positive psychology” for his research on subjective well-being in remote cultures around the world.
