What is Positive Psychology

transforming our consumer culture, by John R. Ehrenfeld, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2008, 272 pp., £18-00 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-30013-749-1 This book takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the roots of a vision that holds potential to change existing habits, beliefs and activities and create new ones for sustainability. Ehrenfeld reminds us that sustainability is an ‘essentially contested concept’, much like freedom or liberty, where we understand their meaning but lack wisdom and capabilities to make them real. Much of this book sets out our common understanding of sustainability, and as Ehrenfeld defines it as ‘the possibility of flourishing’. He interweaves ideas from a range of disciplines to produce a narrative, which highlights what we do (badly), why we do such things and what we need to change. Also and importantly, he highlights how a design for sustainability approach can be fostered through reawakening our awareness of how we should care for ourselves, for others and for the world in which we inhabit. Broadly speaking, Ehrenfeld makes the useful distinction between the meta-concept of sustainability, on the one hand, and current action, on the other hand, that is predominantly focused on micro-managing efficiency gains in existing products, services and infrastructures. He terms this type of activity as ‘reducing unsustainability’ and emphasises that reducing unsustainability will not create sustainability as sustainability and unsustainability are not two sides of the same coin. Sustainability is not the result of making the present slightly better; it, he argues, belongs to a new world served by a different language, cultural habits and stories – and until we find ourselves in that new world we must be able to hold on to these multiple realities and use design to develop new language, tools, institutions and strategies that aid our transitional journey. Ehrenfeld’s is a thought-provoking approach that calls for the need to think differently. His ambition is not for a revolution but rather for a series of small changes that can make a big difference over time; and it is in the seeding of such change that design is accorded a key role, in achieving a transition of minds rather than technological innovation. Ehrenfeld suggests that through over-reliance on technology to solve problems, modern society has lost sight of some basic principles, namely: our sense of place within and as part of nature; our understanding of what it is to be a human being; and our ethical ability to act responsibly. He suggests that although it is beyond the reach of an individual or group to quickly alter the fundamental patterns of unsustainability, it is within our grasp to challenge our understanding of reality and adopt different perceptions of the world and different ways of behaving in it. A key phenomenological theme of the book is that humans have the unique capacity of Being-in-the-world; of leading meaningful lives. Our ability to do this though, according to Ehrenfeld, will be dependent on our ability to substitute traditional market satisfiers intrinsic to our culture of consumption for a more subversive design strategy that creates meaningful products and services ‘that can transparently restore the human capability for caring and coping in all dimensions of living’. Ehrenfeld points out that this could happen in many ways: from inscribing instructions through product semantics that inhibit normal routine behaviours; to engagement strategies which involve users more deeply in understanding product identity and function; to participatory design activity where users are intimately involved in reframing problem and design outcomes. He believes that sustainable cultures evolve through new paradigmatic elements; and the capacity of design to understand, and build on, these elements (new beliefs and norms) and to reimagine a world that is authentically sustainable.

Sustainability by design: a subversive strategy for transforming our consumer culture

Our empirical analysis on the determinants of self-declared happiness on more than 100 000 individuals from representative samples in 82 world countries does not reject the hypothesis that the time spent for relationships has a significant and positive impact on happiness. This basic nexus helps to understand new unexplored paths in the so-called ‘happiness-income paradox’. To illustrate them we show that personal income has two main effects on happiness. The first is a positive effect which depends on individual's ranking within domestic income quintiles. The second is determined by the relationship between income and relational goods. In principle, more productive individuals may substitute (if the income effect prevails over the substitution effect) worked hours with the nonworking time made free for enjoying relationships, when they have strong preferences for them. The problem is that these individuals tend to have ties with their income class peers who share with them a high opportunity cost for the...

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Income, relational goods and happiness

Social leisure is generally found to be positively correlated with life satisfaction in the empirical literature. We ask if this association captures a genuine causal effect by using panel data from the GSOEP. Our identification strategy exploits the change in social leisure brought about by retirement, since the latter is an event after which the time investable in (the outside job) relational life increases. We instrument social leisure with various measures of the age cohort specific probability of retirement. With such approach we document that social leisure has a positive and significant effect on life satisfaction. Our findings shed some light on the age-happiness pattern. Policy implications are also discussed.

The Relationship Between Social Leisure and Life Satisfaction: Causality and Policy Implications

The Will to Happiness

This paper empirically investigates the impact of relational goods on individual life satisfaction. By relational goods we indicate the affective/expressive, non instrumental, side of interpersonal relationships. The homo oeconomicus view of human nature is questioned by the recent upsurge of empirical studies on the determinants of self declared happiness, that show that an increasing income does not always lead to more subjective well being (Easterlin's famous (1974) paradox of happiness). The theoretical literature on relational goods has isolated various mechanisms which may induce an under-consumption and under- production of relational goods. The hypothesis we test is that people with a more intense relational life are less affected by this relational poverty trap and are therefore happier. Our findings does not disprove our hypothesis: relational goods turn out to have significant and positive effects on self declared life satisfaction, when other determinants isolated in the literature as important are taken into account and when the inverse causality nexus i.e. from more happiness to a more intense relational life is also taken into account. Finally, we show that gender, age and education matter and in particular that the effects of sociability on happiness are stronger for women, older and less educated individuals. These findings can be useful in designing and evaluating public policies with a direct or indirect effect on the quality and quantity of relational goods.

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Enhancing collective happiness in the city: Felicitas publica and the availability of relational goods

The symbolic meaning of a product can contribute to people’s well-being. Previous research (Casais et al., 2016) has identified six distinct well-being enhancing symbolic meanings in products (based on Ryff, 1989): positive relations with others, personal growth, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and self-acceptance. To support design activities with a focus on symbolic meaning, the current paper introduces 16 design directions that can be used for ideation and conceptualisation. These directions were developed in a two-stage process. First, 50 product examples were selected for their ability to encourage one or more of the six symbolic meanings. Second, these examples were used as stimuli in individual sessions with seven designers and design researchers. Participants analysed the product examples to infer the underlying design intentions, which were used to formulate the 16 symbolic meaning-focused ‘design for subjective well-being’ strategies.

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Objects with symbolic meaning: 16 directions to inspire design for well-being

Hope is a timeless phenomenon that has witnessed a re-emergence in recent times and has been conceptualized and measured in many different ways. The Perceived Hope Scale (PHS) intends to measure hope in an unbiased way, asking people directly about their experienced levels of hope. This paper presents the validation and psychometric evaluation of the PHS in the Portuguese context. It evaluates the reliability and the factorial structure via exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, as well as convergent validity and predictive/incremental utility using two samples of 452 adult individuals and 266 university students. Results suggest that the Portuguese version of the PHS exhibits robust psychometric properties: a one-dimensional structure with high internal consistency, as well as convincing convergent validity and predictive power. The PHS was found to relate highly to other psychological dimensions, such as harmony in life, vitality, and flourishing (positively), and negatively with depression and anxiety, adding to their prediction beyond dispositional hope and optimism. Overall, the scale presented here proved to be a useful instrument for assessing perceived hope in the Portuguese context. This study is part of a yearly cross-cultural and cross-sectional internet survey entitled Hope Barometer.

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The value of hope: Validation of the perceived hope scale in the Portuguese population

For a positive global future, it is fundamental to tackle the existing web of psychological, economic, sociological, and cultural processes reflected in current education systems. Confronted with complex issues that are essential to the stability of civilizations, we need more voices addressing a critical analysis of education in its key role. This can result in more people participating as happy, informed, and engaged citizens. This paper introduces the argument for education to promote public happiness (Felicitas Publica) and support global peace, addressing the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) #3, #4, and #16. It begins by mapping the landscape of promising education-related practices supporting these SDGs and provides recommendations for research and actions. In addition, it presents the work of the UNESCO Chair on Education for Global Peace Sustainability, based at the Universidade de Lisboa, in Portugal, as an illustrative example. With this paper, we hope to convey the input of different branches of psychology that have the common good as their aim and address the positive transformation of our current educational processes.

Educating for Public Happiness and Global Peace: Contributions from a Portuguese UNESCO Chair towards the Sustainable Development Goals

The act of saving money can connect one’s present state to a meaningful future state, especially if we consider money not as a direct source of happiness, but as a resource for engaging in meaningful activities. To explore how design can contribute to making the act of saving more meaningful, we conducted two studies. The first consisted of questionnaires and interviews about saving. The second was a study on the BILLEGAS piggy bank design case, in which we sought to determine success factors, and evaluate them among three groups in different levels, during a four-week period. The study indicated that design could stimulate empathy with the product, a meaningful saving experience with a relevant contribution to well-being, and an increase in the amount of money saved. The study culminated with new insights to enrich the meaningfulness of the saving experience in other contexts, and to increase the user’s well-being

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Mafalda Casais

Papers

Enhancing collective happiness in the city: Felicitas publica and the availability of relational goods

Objects with symbolic meaning: 16 directions to inspire design for well-being

The value of hope: Validation of the perceived hope scale in the Portuguese population

Educating for Public Happiness and Global Peace: Contributions from a Portuguese UNESCO Chair towards the Sustainable Development Goals

Feeding your piggy bank with intentions: a study on saving behaviour, saving strategies, and happiness