Understanding and Improving the Social Context of Well-Being

Abstract

The paper first attempts to demonstrate the fundamental importance of the social context. The related evidence is drawn from recent theoretical and empirical advances in the study of subjective well-being. Treating people's self-assessments of the quality of their lives as valid measures of well-being exposes the importance of the social context and suggests new ways to design better policies.The paper starts with demonstrations of the unexpectedly great well-being consequences of social and pro-social behavior. In addition, evidence is advanced to show an evolutionary fitness for social and pro-social behaviors above and beyond those flowing through their direct consequences for subjective well-being. This is followed by discussion of specific measures of the social context, of the fundamental importance of trust as social glue, and of several experiments designed to improve subjective well-being.

Social Capital and Psychological Capital as Predictors of Performance and Wellbeing in the Indian Context

“…In other words, bonding social capital enhances performance, as the density of the network or the relative number of ties in the network that link individuals together significantly affect performance outcomes 72 . There are evidence to support that psychological capitals need family, good parenting and lots of support from others i.e., social capital to develop and flourish 30,32,33 . Xizhou and Xiaoyan 73 also have pointed that the human, psychological and social capital have synergistic effect on improving organisaal effectiveness.…”

“…Hope has been found to be rooted in positive family functioning and the development of healthy individual was strongly related to parental hope 31 . Recent studies by Helliwell [32][33] and Helliwel & Wang 34 showed the importance of others in experiencing happiness and they also established that resilience flourishes in the trusting environment based on a very large pool of data. These studies provide some glimpse that various forms of capital (human, social and psychological) are indeed related to each other in impacting outcome variables.…”

Hamlet without the prince: the capital approach to development, the New Zealand Treasury’s Living Standards Framework and policy making

“…20. See Helliwell (2012) on the importance of the social context for SWB, and the implications for the management of public and private institutions. 21.…”

How do people feel while walking in the city? Using walking-triggered e-diaries to investigate the association of social interaction and environmental greenness during everyday life walking

“…In addition, social interactions, especially at social events during which individuals are physically active, showed a robust relation with high positive affect (Clark and Watson, 1988). Also, both weak and strong social ties and the social context in general (e.g., social cohesion and social interaction) are associated with individuals' well-being, with improved social interactions inducing better wellbeing (Helliwell and Putnam, 2004;Helliwell, 2012;Schwanen and Wang, 2014). In conclusion, the results show that factors from the social-and physical environment play an important role in the relationship and context of everyday life walking routes and wellbeing and affect.…”