Are You Happy Enough? with Robert Biswas-Diener

Making Positive Psychology Work

Robert Biswas-Diener, as we remember and savor the incredible research and life of his father, Ed Diener, who recently passed away. Over the last 40 years, Ed published hundreds of articles, amassing more than 250,000 citations. Ed’s earliest work focused on defining and establishing measures for happiness, and his satisfaction with life scale is the most widely used measure of wellbeing today. And has been cited 30,000 times. Ed’s w- later work focused on the relation of personality and of income to happiness, the cultural dimensions of happiness, the consequences of happiness, and happiness policies. Ed won the highest prize in psychology, The Distinguished Contribution to Science Award, was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. And was a founder of Perspectives of Psychological Science, and The Journal of Happiness Studies.

In this week's episode, we honor and savor the research of Dr. Ed Deiner and discover what his 40 years of happiness research can teach us.

Connect with Robert Biswas Diener:

• http://www.intentionalhappiness.com/

You’ll Learn:

• [02:34] - Robert explains how Ed Diener came to be known as Dr. Happiness and what made him such a highly respected researcher.
• [04:21] - Robert outlines Ed’s theoretical approach to happiness.
• [06:33] - Robert shares some of Ed’s conclusions about happiness based on his 40 years of research.
• [09:19] - Robert explains what Ed learned about how happiness can be measured and what this means practically for us as researchers and practitioners.
• [13:52] - Robert shares Ed’s concerns about the happiness pie and how we can help people to think more intelligently about what shapes their wellbeing.
• [18:24] - Robert explains how our happiness set point range works and why our happiness ebbs and flows over time.
• [22:40] - Robert explains how happiness policy can be enacted by governments.
• [24:55] - Robert challenges us to consider if we are happy enough.
• [26:53] - Robert shares Ed’s favorite happiness practices.
• [29:25] - Robert shares some of Ed’s favorite questions about happiness.
• [31:46] - The lightning round with Robert.

Thanks for listening!

• MPPW Podcast on Facebook

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review for the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care! Thank you, Robert!