169
Happiness, Well-Being and Health
Happiness, Well-Being and Health
Thursday, 14 July 2016: 09:00-10:30
Location: Hörsaal BIG 2 (Main Building)
RC13 Sociology of Leisure (host committee) Language: English
Edward Diener (2000) has argued that happiness and subjective well-being are the same and that these two come with having good health, reasonable prosperity, and in general, being routinely happy and content. But this is long-term happiness (Stebbins, in press). Nevertheless, some observers describe happiness as momentary: “[it] is considered to reflect a person’s more temporary affective feelings of the present moment” (Mannell and Kleiber, 1997). Let us label this short-term happiness, so-called because the “present moment” might last a few minutes or even a few days.
Leisure plays a central role in both types, though that role is highly complicated and by no means sufficiently examined. Can health and well-being result from (short-term) happiness consisting of, say, an afternoon of rides at a carnival midway, evening of gossip at the bar after work, or weekend of sun and sand in the Caribbean? If so, what is the nature of this kind of happiness? What sort of health and well-being flows from the long-term variety, for example, gained from a deeply satisfying marital relationship, successful leisure career as a painter or collector, or dedicated volunteer service on a non-profit board of directors?
This session invites theoretical and empirical papers along these lines and others that bear on the trilogy of happiness, well-being and health. In particular this session focuses on the many ways that good health and the leisure experience in all their variety generate happiness and well-being, both long- and short-term.
Session Organizer:
Co-Chair: