Subjective Wellbeing

Subjective wellbeing (SWB) is a commonly used term to describe an individual’s self-reported evaluation of their general life satisfaction. As such it is like emotional intelligence, an umbrella term designed to capture a range of personal, social, relational, physical, cognitive and emotional judgements as to how one’s life is progressing. These judgements can be both affective, the presence of positive affect and the absence of negative affect and cognitive, a self-appraisal of how one’s life measures up so far. The term SWB, particularly in the media, is often used alongside or interchangeably with happiness but this often serves to only add a further conceptual confusion to what is already an ambiguous concept. Over the past thirty years interest in SWB has grown considerably and measures of life satisfaction are now regularly featured in public and media discourses and form an integral part of the policy process at both national and transnational levels. This entry presents an overview of SWB, identifying where it came from, what it is, measurement models, critical responses and its current use.