Conclusion: Future Directions in Measuring Well-Being

Abstract

The studies in the present volume point to several facts that we have learned about defining and measuring well-being. First, we know with a degree of certainty that there are separable components of well-being, such as life judgments versus positive emotions, and we know some of the factors that are more likely to be more associated with certain components versus others. Lucas, Diener, and Suh (1996) showed clearly in a multi-trait multi-method study that several types of wellbeing are discriminable, and the Diener, Kahneman, et al. chapter in this volume shows that these types of well-being are sometimes predicted by very different factors.