Affiliated with the Social-Personality Division

Professor Diener's research focuses on several areas: the measurement of subjective well-being; temperament and personality influences on SWB; theories of well-being; demographics and well-being (e.g., income, sex, and age); and most recently his work has emphasized cultural influences on subjective well-being. Diener uses experience-sampling methodology for recording subjective well-being, but also has conducted laboratory studies as well as large-scale surveys across many cultures. Ed Diener has edited three recent books on SWB: Well-being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology (with Kahneman and Schwarz), Advances in Quality of Life Studies (with Don Rahtz), and Culture and Subjective Well-Being (with Eunkook Suh). He is currently heading up a program designed to advance national indicators of well-being to complement economic indicators or quality of life. With Robert Biswas-Diener and Richard Lucas he is writing a popular book on well-being, Beneficial Happiness.

Representative Publications:

• Diener, E., & Suh, E. M. (Eds.). (2000). Culture and subjective well-being Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. An edited book with chapters on various aspects of subjective well-being across nations.
• Pavot, W., & Diener, (1993). Review of the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Personality Assessment ,5, 164-172. A review of the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and its validity and reliability
• Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin ,95 , 542-575. An early review of the research literature and theoretical approaches to happiness