Critically examine the argument behind a scholar's manifesto

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Marks, Nic and Hetan Shan. “A Well-Being Manifesto for a Flourishing Society,”New Economics Foundation, 2004, pp. 4-20. September 23, 2017. http://b.3cdn.net/nefoundation/813660812dc0c82af5_vkm6vve98.pdf Marks, Nic and Hetan Shan. “A Well-Being Manifesto for a Flourishing Society.” Journal of Public Mental Health, Vol. 3, Issue 4 (2004), pp. 9-15. Marks, Nic and Hetan Shah. “A Well-Being Manifesto for a Flourishing Society.” In The Science of Well-Being, edited by Felicia A. Huppert, Nick Baylis and Barry Keverne (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

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a well-being manifesto for a flourishing society For most of human history, trying to understand what led to well-being was the stuff of

philosophy or poetry. Recently, however, some psychologists and sociologists have

finally turned away from studying illness and dysfunctionality and begun to study well-

being, happiness, and flourishing. The results have profound implications for individuals

and for government. This well-being manifesto seeks to answer the question “what would

politics look like if promoting people’s well-being was one of government’s main aims?”

One of the main way sin which governments in developed countries try to promote well-

being is through increasing economic growth. The logic to this is that by increasing

national and individual incomes, people have more choices about how they should lead

their lives. Psychologists, however, have thrown a large spanner in the works. The

relationship between economic prosperity and both individual and social well-being in

developed countries seems to have broken down. For example, whilst economic output

has almost doubled in the UK in the last 30 years, life satisfaction has remained

resolutely flat (see Figure 1). Meanwhile depression has risen significantly over the last

50 years in developed countries. 1 In order to make better judgements about what

government should be doing in response to this situation, we should consider the lessons

from well-being research.

Well-being research

What is well-being? Some academics argue that well-being is best understood in terms of

our overall happiness or satisfaction with life. But evidence shows that there is much

more to life than satisfaction; people also want to be leading rich and fulfilling lives –

developing their capabilities, fulfilling their potential, and leading socially useful lives. 2

Therefore, nef’s (the new economics foundation’s) model of well-being has two personal

dimensions and a social context:

 People’s satisfaction with their life which is generally measured by an indicator called life satisfaction: this captures satisfaction, pleasure and enjoyment.

 People’s personal development for which there is not yet one standard psychological indicator – the concept includes being engaged in life, curiosity,

‘flow’ (a state of absorption where hours pass like minutes), personal

development and growth, autonomy, fulfilling potential, having a purpose in life,

and the feeling that life has meaning. 3

 People’s social well-being – a sense of belonging to our communities, a positive attitude towards others, feeling that we are contributing to society and engaging

in pro-social behavior, and believing that society is capable of developing

positively. 4

For people to lead truly flourishing lives, they need to feel they are personally satisfied

and developing as well as functioning positively in regard to society. Unfortunately too

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many people are instead languishing – living unhappy, unfulfilled lives as well as lacking

social and community engagement. Estimates from the US suggest that less than 20 per

cent of the population are flourishing and over 25 per cent are languishing, with the rest

being somewhere in between. 5

There has been some recent interest by policy-makers in life satisfaction, but this only

tells part of the story. Whilst life satisfaction seems strongly (and inversely) related to

mental health and depression, personal development seems to be more strongly linked to

overall health, longevity, resilience, and the ability to cope with adverse circumstances

and ‘thrive’ in life. For example, older people who score highly on the personal

development dimension have a different biological profile and are therefore less likely to

develop serious illnesses in later life. 6

This dimension of personal development is also closely related to the kind of individual

characteristics that underpin government agendas around active citizenship or enterprise.

Well-being is not just about a passive happiness; it is also about an active engagement

with life and with others. Promoting well-being is a ‘good’ in itself as well as a

contributor to other ends. 7

The basic findings of well-being research

Where does our well-being come from? There is more research on the satisfaction and

happiness elements of well-being than on the personal development and social well-being

aspects. Nevertheless, what we know is fascinating. US research suggests that there are

three main influences: 8

1. Genetics. We have a predisposition to a certain level of happiness. Researchers argue that it is the largest influence on our happiness level and it explains about 50

per cent of the variation in people’s current happiness. There is, of course,

interaction between genetic predispositions and our upbringing and environment. 9

We call this ‘influence by our parents.’

2. Life circumstances. These include factors such as our income, material possessions, and marital status, as well as contextual circumstances such as our

neighborhood, whether we have just moved jobs or home, and indeed our favourite

British obsession: the weather. People tend to adapt to changes in circumstances

quite quickly and so these factors have only a small influence on people’s happiness

– researchers estimate it explains only 10 per cent of the variation. But, as a society,

we tend to spend a disproportionate amount of time focused on this aspect of our

lives. In particular, money is often seen as a key to happiness, but it is not necessarily

so. We call this ‘influence by our circumstances.’

3. Intentional activities. These are pursuits that we actively engage in and they account for 40 per cent of the variation in our happiness. They include actual

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behaviours and aims such as working towards our goals, socializing, exercising,

doing engaging and meaningful work; they also include cognitive activities such as

appreciating and savouring life or looking at the bright side of things. Adaptation

rarely occurs for these kinds of activities, as they are impermanent or can be

infinitely varied. It is clear that this is the area where we can make the most

difference to our own well-being. We call this influence by our activities and our

outlook.’

So where does well-being come from? Is it from money? The short answer is “not after

our basic needs are met.” Whilst there is some correlation across nations between wealth

and satisfaction, 10

many developing countries have very high levels of happiness (see

Figure 2). People in developed countries don’t seem happier than they were 40 or 50

years ago, despite rising living standards (see Figure 1). Within countries, however, very

rich people tend to be a little bit happier than the moderately well off, both of whom are

happier than the seriously impoverished. How do we make sense of these seemingly

contradictory findings? The evidence suggests that after our basic needs are met, we

adapt very quickly to the material gains which come from increases in income. We also

compare ourselves to others and, unless we are at the top of the pile, this can lead to

dissatisfaction (see Box 1). 11

Not only does economic growth not bring happiness, but many of the things associated

with growth can reduce our well-being. By focusing purely on economic indicators, we

have missed the negative side effects of economic growth and efficiency. These might

include the depletion of environmental resources, the stress from working long hours, and

the unravelling of local economies and communities when the out-of-town supermarket

settles nearby. Research also shows that people who are materialistic are less happy than

those who value other things, 12

and it is undeniable that we live in a culture that promotes

materialism. Perhaps it is no surprise that alongside a near doubling of economic output

in the last 30 years, we have seen depression and mental illness rise 13

-- the Office of

National Statistics (ONS) estimates that 10 per cent of the population is depressed at any

given time. 14

Trust (responses to the question “do you think most other people can be

trusted”) has fallen from around 60 per cent today. 15

The economically efficient society is

not necessarily a society which promotes high well-being.

So what else affects our well-being?

One of the most important factors which promotes well-being is our personal

relationships. Marriage and long-term cohabiting relationships have a beneficial effect on

well-being. Having intimate friendships and family networks is also an important

contributor to well-being 16

as is belonging to some kind of community or social group.

The biggest message of the whole body of well-being research is that as a society we now

devote too much time to increasing our standard of living and not enough time to

fostering our relationships.

Box 1: Why our circumstances don’t make us happier One of the insights of well-being psychology has been to explore why circumstances have such little effect on our happiness. The answer is two-fold: adaptation and comparison. Human beings are phenomenally adaptable, and we tend to learn very quickly to view our current position as normal. Within a year, lottery winners are a little happier, or even less happy, than they were before they won the big prize. As we adapt, our expectations about what will make us happy rise. We are also creatures of comparison. We compare ourselves to where we want to be, and to other people. As we achieve our goals, we change we compare ourselves to and find a new source of unhappiness! The goalposts are always moving.

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While unemployment is one of the biggest sources of unhappiness, good quality work can

be an important source of well-being. In particular, it can bring ‘flow’ – a state of

absorption where hours pass like minutes. The most important condition for creating flow

at work is for the job to be challenging and for the level of challenge to be matched to the

skills and capabilities of the worker.

In terms of health, how we perceive our condition is the crucial factor – our objective

health status matters less. Those people who see themselves as healthy are happier than

those who do not, even when their objective level of health is the same. So

hypochondriacs are right to complain – but it is their unhappiness that makes them sicker!

And as your mother told you, exercise brings happiness both in the short and longer

term. 17

Education has little effect on life satisfaction in itself but it is an important factor in our

personal development 18

and in promoting social well-being.

Our physical environment appears to have some limited independent effect on our well-

being. For example, living close to open green space has been shown to enhance people’s

well-being, 19

while ugly or toxic environments can diminish well-being. We adjust very

quickly to many environmental factors, including our climate. So the dream of moving to

sunnier climes is unlikely to deliver permanent well-being enhancement with survey

showing that people living in sunny California are no happier than those living in the

frozen Midwestern US. 20

What can government do?

It is obvious that government cannot and should not attempt to make us happy but that

the impacts of the government can have profound effects on the culture within which we

live. Are we a materialistic society focused on individual gain? Or are we a companion-

iable, sustainable society which has the time to enjoy the fruits of its economic

prosperity?

Government already does a great deal to promote well-being; the fact that we live in a

democratic and stable state is an important prerequisite to our well-being. This is

highlighted by the other extreme: the low well-being of unstable ex-Soviet states (see

Figure 2) and the fact that the lowest ever national score of life satisfaction was 1.6 on a

10-point scale, which occurred after the government of the Dominican Republic was

overthrown. 21

As well as providing a secure base for people to get on and live flourishing

lives, the UK Government has recognized through recent legislation that there is indeed

Figure 2: An international

comparison of the life satisfaction

and GDP of nations. (Veenhoven, R (2003) World Database of

Happiness, Catalog of Happiness

Queries. Available at www.eur.nl/fsw/research/happiness.)

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potential for the further promotion of well-being. In the Local Government Act 2000, all

local authorities were given a new power of well-being which enables them to do

anything that promotes social, economic and environmental well-being. nef has carried

out a pilot project with Nottingham City Council building trans-departmental well-being

indicators – supporting the Council in the twin aims of working towards ‘joined-up

government’ and shedding light on policies that would enhance the well-being of young

people in the city. 22

This manifesto provides some ways of thinking about policy to promote well-being. It is

by no means the final word, rather a space to begin the debate and push forward the

directions of the thinking. To do this, we suggest that there are eight inter-related areas

where government could take action to promote well-being:

1. Measure what matters: produce a set of national well-being accounts. 2. Create a well-being economy: employment, meaningful work and environmental

taxation.

3. Reclaim our time through improving our work-life balance. 4. Create an education system to promote flourishing. 5. Refocus the NHS to promote complete health. 6. Invest in early years and parenting. 7. Discourage materialism and promote authentic advertising. 8. Strengthen civil society, social well-being and active citizenship.

This is not to say that the only aim of government is to maximize personal well-being.

Other goals such as promoting social justice or sustainable development, are also crucial

and may conflict with individual well-being. For example, our desire for cheap flights –

subsidized by the lack of tax on aviation fuel 23

-- is clearly in conflict with environmental

sustainability. However, well-being can often go hand in hand with social justice or

environment sustainability. Improving social conditions can have well-being effects for

the worst off; environmental sustainability can be interpreted partly about balancing the

well-being needs of future generations against those of today’s generation. In practice,

well-being research opens up new arguments and potential solutions for creating an

economy which is environmentally sustainable. Since it shows that well-being is not

necessarily linked to growing consumption and economic growth, it is possible that we

can both reduce our environment impacts and improve our quality of life.

1. Measure what matters: produce a set of national well-being accounts. 24

Government spends hundreds of millions of pounds on measuring economic and social

indicators. 25

One of the big surprises of well-being research, however, is the disjunction

between people’s standard of living and their happiness. As we have seen, indicators of

economic growth such as GDP (gross domestic product) are poor measures of well-being

(see Figure 1). 26

Therefore, with the exception of surveys regarding the prevalence of

mental illness, we have little systematic knowledge of how people in the UK are really

faring psychologically.

A set of national well-being accounts should be created which covers the main

components of individual well-being – life satisfaction and personal development – as

well as a range of components of well-being as a range of components of well-being

including engagement, meaningfulness, trust and measures of ill-being, such as stress and

depression. The indicators should also include measures of well-being beyond the

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personal, what we call social and ecological well-being --- in other words, how we feel

about and how engaged we are with the society and the environment in which we live.

Well-being is not purely an individual phenomenon: it is rooted in our broader

communities.

A set of national well-being accounts would help to focus the minds of policy-makers on

the true end of policy. In particular, it would help identify the worst off in well-being

terms. Policy tends to think of the worst off as the income poor. We need to supplement

this with broader definitions of poverty and ill-being and what we might call the opposite

of flourishing – languishing. Whilst, on average, the income poor may have lower well-

being, there will be many individual cases where those who are languishing are not

financially poor. It may be that to tackle their problems the best interventions are, for

example, in the fields of mental health, education, or finding meaningful work.

A set of national well-being accounts would help us to understand which kinds of

economic growth enhance well-being and which reduce it. More well-being research

would help individuals make better choices about their own lives. This would rebalance

the media coverage focused on economic and financial indicators. At present, for

example many people put too much weight on financial considerations when choosing

what sort of work to do. In order to rebalance this, the public needs to have more

systematic knowledge about, for example how pleasurable or engaging or meaningful

different kinds of work tend to be.

In addition to national well-being accounts, all local authorities should carry out well-

being audits of their areas. This would create a single set of indicators that all

departments would connect with, as ultimately most of their purposes concern the well-

being of their population. Nottingham City Council, together with nef, has already begun

to develop some of these indicator for young people with important implications for

policy.

2. Create a well-being economy: employment, meaningful work and environmental taxation.

One of the biggest messages coming from the whole literature on well-being is that

increasing economic growth and efficiency does not necessarily improve well-being. So

what new directions should well-being economy move in?

Work if often characterized by economists as a necessary evil so that we can have income

to enjoy our leisure time. Well-being research shows that work is far broader in its effects

than this narrow view suggests. Good work can profoundly affect our well-being by

providing us with purpose, challenge, and opportunities for social relationships; it can

constitute a meaningful part of our identity. Thus the well-being economy needs to be

concerned with the quality of work in which we engage.

It should be noted that work is broader than employment. It includes unpaid work:

voluntary work or work at home, such as caring for children and the elderly as well as

domestic chores. We tend not to value unpaid work in our society, even though our

economy depends on it. The value of unpaid work at home in the UK has been estimated

as approximately 150,000 million pounds in 2002 – the equivalent of an extra 15 per cent

on GDP that year. 27

A recent nef survey found that people rated their voluntary work as

significantly more meaningful and satisfying than their paid work. 28

Thus, as well as

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considering the quality of work in the economy, we should recognize and support unpaid

work through valuing it in the national accounts, increasing opportunities for

volunteering, and consider institution a participation income or a citizen’s service.

Well-being literature provides many insights into what makes a good work. It is in the

self-interest of business to promote good work as there are linkages between quality

work, productivity, and worker retention. Some of the key lessons emerging from

research about quality work are:

 Jobs should be redesigned as far as possible to fit people’s particular strengths and interests.

 Workers should be given more autonomy – the ability to make decisions and control over their work.

 Work should promote ‘flow’ – it should be designed to challenge, but not be so challenging that it provokes anxiety and stress.

29

 There should be opportunities for interpersonal contact and friendship at work. 30

 There should be opportunities for workers to develop their skills and capabilities at work.

 Generally, workers should not be relocated unless it is absolutely necessary, as it destroys both their and their families’ social relationships and prevents them

from forming community ties.

There are many models of good workplaces whose lessons need to be drawn out and

disseminated to employers. Government itself is the largest employer in the UK; thus it

should also take on board the well-being research and explicitly seek to promote the well-

being of its employees.

Focusing just on paid work, research shows that unemployment has terrible effects on

well-being. 31

This goes far beyond the affect loss of income has and includes the loss of

identity, meaning, and social relationships. Research also shows that even the employed

are unhappier in an economy with high unemployment, partly due to the lack of

security. 32

Thus the well-being research reinforces the case for a full-employment

economy, even if this not the most efficient or highly productive macroeconomic

scenario. At present, UK unemployment is relatively low, but this is, in part, due to the

hidden unemployment of those people who are claiming incapacity benefits but are still

capable of work. Recent research suggests unemployment figures would double if they

included people on incapacity benefits who were capable of working. 33

Government,

therefore, needs to help these often hard-to-reach groups to find meaningful work and to

support the creation of appropriate work opportunities. This can be done through, for

example, supporting organisations such as intermediate labour markets and social firms.

Research shows that material gain has little impact on well-being once basic needs are

met. Hence a pound in the pocket of a poorer person is worth more in well-being terms

than a pound to a rich person. In Europe, there is also a relationship between social

inequality and lower well-being: in other words we do not like to live in a unfair

society. 34

This is an instance where well-being research strengthens the existing social

justice case for material redistribution. The case is even stronger in relation to promoting

overseas development through measures such as debt cancellation, reduction of UK trade

barriers, and increased aid.

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The well-being of future generations depends on protecting our environment from

climate change, resources depletion, and other environmental problems. One of the most

important changes that policy-makers can make to move us towards this is to

fundamentally change the incentives system. For example, the Treasury needs to follow

through its Statement of Intent on Environmental Taxation of 1997 and its 2002 paper

Tax and the Environment with action. We need to start moving towards a system of

taxing environmental bad’s, such as fossil fuels, and reducing the tax burden on good’s,

such as work. Such a shift would have to be implemented with measures to prevent it

from having regressive effects and hitting the worst off. Increasing environmental taxes

and simultaneously reducing payroll taxes could have a small but positive effect on

employment if the payroll tax cuts aimed at lower-income groups. 35

3. Reclaim our time

Economic prosperity has not necessarily brought us stronger families, better relationships

or more resilient and vibrant communities. In fact, it appears that economic pressures

have diverted us from these things which really matter.

The single most important shift we need to make a society to promote well-being is to

improve our work-life balance. Whilst, as discussed above, we need to structure work in

such a way that it produces well-being, the evidence shows that overall we are spending

too much time at work and not enough time doing other things. Research shows clearly

that individuals consistently mistake how much happier an increase in income will make

them. In the US, research which has tracked people across time shows that at any given

stage most people believe that 20 per cent more income would make them happier. But

measuring their life satisfaction a few years later when they have achieved that rise in

come shows that they are no happier – they have adapted to the new level of income. 36

So, we work too hard to bring in the extra income to consume more but it makes us no

happier. In the process we are left with less and less time to spend with our children,

family and friends, exercise, engage in voluntary work, or to pursue recreational interests,

which the evidence shows are some for the real sources of well-being. We do not adapt to

our relationships and activities in the same way that we adapt to our levels of income.

Economists argue that our choices reveal what makes us most happy. The evidence

suggests otherwise: our choices -- “revealed preferences” – do not always show what

makes us happiest. We make systematic mistakes about where to allocate our time.

There may be a case, therefore, for action at the collective level.

For some decades, as a society, we have tended to take our productivity gains in the form

of income. The former trend of our moving towards a seven-hour day has now swung in

the opposite direction back towards the 10-hour day of a century ago. But as our

increasing income isn’t making us any happier, well-being data suggests we should start

taking our income gains in the form of that really scarce resource: time. But this is a

problem which is difficult to tackle at the individual level. We don’t want to be left

behind our neighbours; we don’t want people to think we are not committed to our work;

and what is the point of downshifting if everyone else is still working long hours

anyway?

One way to restore the adequate balance between work and life in society is for the UK to

end individual opt-outs to the EU Working Time Directive and thus institute a maximum

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48-hour working week. If we wanted to go further, we could then reduce this maximum

working week an hour each year until we reach a 35-hour week. This gradual approach

would also give business time to make plans, rather than being given little real transition

period as in the French case. If we took our productivity gains in the form of time,

assuming annual labour productivity gains of two per cent, we could be working an

average 30-hour week 37

with an unchanged standard of living in a decade. 38

This would need to be accompanied by appropriate pensions reform, re-engagement of

those on incapacity benefits into the labour market, and managed migration. 39

This policy

is likely to be popular as suggested by a recent European Union survey on attitudes at

work – over 50 per cent of workers want to reduce their working week to an average of

only 34 hours. Indeed the report also noted that people “remarkably, would even accept a

corresponding drop in income to achieve this.” 40

Economic analysis suggests that this

policy should not have a negative effect on employment. 41

In fact, reducing the working

week for the majority might also offer more work opportunities for the unemployed and

underemployed.

Reducing working hours could also reduce commuting which would have important well-

being benefits, as well as lowering environmental impacts. Recent research shows that

“people who commute one hour (one way) would have to earn 40% more [than they do]

in order to be fully compensated” for the loss in well-being that they suffer. 42

In other

words, we don’t’ fully factor into our thinking (and pay bargaining) the truth about just

how awful the daily commute is. Once more the research shows we make systematic

errors about predicting our well-being.

A reduction in working hours would need to be accompanied by redistributive measures

for the poorest, who are working long hours to survive. This could e done through

increasing progressive taxation. Another way to address this and some other wider issues,

such as the ‘benefits’ trap’, is through institution a Universal Citizens’ Income (see Box

2) 43

. Such a basic income would enable all citizens to create a life of meaningful paid and

unpaid work. We should explore in detail the feasibility of such an income.

(Box 2 44

)

Regardless of how much we lower working hours through regulation, it is clear that we

should, in any event, increase flexible working provisions. All employees should be

entitled to ask for flexible working patterns including flexibility around working hours,

job sharing, taking pay rises in the form of time rather than income, increased parental

Box 2: Citizen’s Income A Citizen’s Income would be a tax-free income paid to all people (including children) by the state regardless of employment status or social circumstances. It would enable people to make wider choices about how to allocate their time between employment, unpaid work, parenting, and leisure. The principle of a Citizen’s Income is already recognized in the form of child benefit and pensions. It could be financed through a mixture of reduced expenditure on exiting benefits and administration, and anew taxation. Present benefit administration costs are extremely high and would be significantly reduced as there would be far less means testing required and fewer benefits in existence. The basic income would have important redistributive effects. It would also promote employment as it would reduce the level at which paid work becomes worthwhile: The present benefits system discourages work as moving from unemployment to paid work may bring very little rise in disposable income after travel costs, childcare etc., are taken into account. A Citizen’s Income could be introduced through a transitional system which could begin as tax neutral, with the basic income replacing the existing system of tax allowances, benefits, and state pension over time.

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leave and elder care, compressed working weeks and tele-working. In addition to flexible

working patterns, there is a need for flexibility over the whole of a person’s working life.

Patterns of breaks from may emerge as people choose to take time off for education,

parenting, or to pursue leisure activities. A redistribution of work may allow a more

positive role to emerge for older people so that they can continue to engage with th

employment market.

Finally, as part of the move towards a more convivial society, we could also raise the

number of bank holidays in the UK from eight, closer towards the European average of

11. We could even have a vote for when these might be held and what they would

celebrate – one option might be a day to spend time in the local community.

4. Create an education system that promotes flourishing.

The purpose of our education system is unclear in the eyes of most children, parents and

teachers. Research nef shows that between primary and secondary school there is a huge

drop in young people’s well-being. This both in terms of their overall well-being as

assessed by life satisfaction and curiosity (a proxy measure for personal development in

this context) and specifically their well-being whilst at school.

This result suggests that our secondary education system is not supporting young people

to naturally grow and flourish, which implies that they have lower well-being, both

currently and across their lives, than they might done if the education system was

different.

The purpose of the education system should be explicitly to promote individual and

societal well-being both now, and in the future. It should aim to create capable and

emotionally well-rounded young people who are happy and motivated. To this end, all

schools should have a strategy to promote emotional, social and physical well-being. This

is not just about rethinking the curriculum – important as that is. This should be a ‘whole

school’ approach which considers a range of matters including the school culture and

environment, giving pupils a say, the methods of teaching and assessment, and school

governance. 45

Whilst various initiatives are taking forward some aspects of these ideas,

they need to be integrated into a comprehensive well-being strategy.

At its heart, education policy must acknowledge that the best way of enabling people to

realise their potential is to value them for who they are rather than for their performance

against targets. There is evidence to show that focusing heavily on testing can destroy

learning, innovation, experimentation, and original thinking. 46

Creative learning requires creative teaching. The heavy regime of targets and centralised

policy prescriptions is destroying the natural curiosity and imagination of teachers.

Teachers need more space to explore with each other the challenges they face.

The curriculum also needs to be broadened to promote well-being in order to meet the

full range of needs of young people in our society. As well as the obvious need to

broaden the vocational elements of the curriculum and to focus on life skills, there are

some wider issues. We need to cultivate the variety of ‘intelligences’ we have – including

musical, spatial, physical, interpersonal and intrapersonal. 47

Therefore, we need to

refocus the curriculum to induce more opportunities around sports, arts and creativity.

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There should be a commitment to enhancing social and emotional intelligence as much as

academic intelligence. We can, for example., build on the work done in the UK on

emotional literacy 48

and the pilots I the US which are looking at how far optimism (a

well-established buffer against depression and low well-being) and character strengths

can be encouraged. 49

As discussed earlier, we systematically make errors in relation to choices about our well-

being. Early on in their lives, young people should be exposed to the evidence about the

kinds of satisfaction derived from different sorts of life choices, perhaps through broader

study of the good life: questions around how we should lead our lives, and what well-

being is. nef has run two successful summer schools on well-being for 16-year olds that

enabled them to radically change their views on what the good life is. Broader education

of this kind will enable young people to become more autonomous and make better

decisions about their lives rather than be led by scripts forced on them by peers, the

media, and advertising

An education system that promotes flourishing is likely to lead to higher productivity, a

more entrepreneurial society, and greater active citizenship, as well as less anti-social

behviour and fewer mental health problems.

5. Refocus the NHS to promote complete health

There are obvious links between promoting health and well-being. It is becoming

increasingly clear that psychological factors influence people’s physical health to a very

large degree. One of the most astonishing findings is the huge positive influence of

happiness on longevity (see Box 3). 50

Even after allowing for all sorts of other influences

– such as income levels, marital status and even loneliness – researchers on the effects of

positive aging have found that happy people live up to seven-and-a-half years longer. The

positive effects from well-being were even larger than the effects for body mass, smoking

and exercise. 51

Other studies show that unhappy people are more likely to regard

themselves as ill, which obviously crates pressures from the ‘unhappy-well’ on the

current health system. 52

In addition, risks of cardiovascular illnesses have been estimated

to be twice as high for people with depression, or mental illnesses, and one-and-a-half

times for those who are more generally unhappy. 53

The health service should consider its purpose to be the promotion of complete health,

which is defined by the WHO as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-

being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” 54

More integration between

physical health provision and the promotion of personal and social well-being is required

Box 3: The nun study – happiness and longevity In the 1930s, a group of young nuns were asked to write a short autobiography. These papers were recently analysed in terms of the amount of positive emotions expressed in the writing. A strong relationships was found to exist between the amount of positive emotion expressed (taken as a proxy for well-being) and the longevity of the nuns (who have had very similar lifestyles with regard to, for example, diet and living standards). Ninety per cent of the quarter who had expressed the most positive emotion in their autobiographies were still alive at the age of 85 compared to just 34 per cent of the quarter who had express the least positive emotion. There is discussion about how the relationship between happiness and age actually operates: are happy people less stressed, for example do they after their bodies better? What is clear, however, is that there is a strong relationship between well-being and longevity.

12

to make this happen. An incredible amount is spent on our ‘health’ service, but most of it

focuses on dealing with physical symptoms of sickness. It is acknowledged amongst

policy makers that there is a need to shift they system from being treatment oriented to

being more prevention oriented. Whilst we are taking some steps towards this, we need to

accelerate this process and od a great deal more. We need to invest and commit to disease

prevention and public health promotion rather than focusing on technical solutions to ill-

health.

The system itself could express the values it promotes by being more personable, socially

engaging, and empowering. In part, this could be achieved through putting more

emphasis on smaller-scale health enterprises. ‘Cottage-hospital’-style approaches are

more popular with patients and more successful in developing working partnerships with

local communities. Institutions should also have more freedom to set locally agreed

health targets in response to local need frontline staff could be given discretionary powers

and budgets that allow them short circuit long-term bureaucracy, if necessary. At the

local level, government could further encourage and resource community-based

institutions such as healthy living centres to take forward a ‘complete health’ agenda.

The research also suggests that any well-being health policy needs to think of illness in

more than just physical terms. In part, this through recognising the importance of mental

health. The evidence shows that it is our self-perceived health rather than our objective

health which matters for our well-being. Mental health is therefore by definition, crucial

tour well-being. Up to one in six people in the UK suffer from depression, anxiety, or

phobias at any given time. 55

Depression has risen substantially during a period of growing economic prosperity, and

whilst there are distributional effects, the problems are by no means confined to the

financially poor. We need to tackle mental health far more systematically, both by

dealing with its causes and also through a range of interventions such as strengthening

medical care, providing increase support for families and carers and communities, and

giving the mentally ill more opportunities to work.

Given the importance of close relationships to our well-being, the health service should

explore how it could help deal with relationships issues. Greater provision of relationship

and personal counseling, as well as targeted support for groups vulnerable to acute

stresses, such as new parents, are likely to be central to this.

Treating people holistically also means that health professionals need to go beyond just

treating the biomedical causes of disease to thinking about the social and psychological

aspects of how patients are treated. Research shows that when medical staff are ‘patient

centred’ and have empathy, involved patients in decision-making, and treat them as real

human beings this has profound consequences for their health. One study notes that when

physicians supported clients to be involved in the decision-making and were empathetic

“patients showed improved maintenance of healthy behviour change, greater satisfaction,

better adherence to medication, better physical and mental health, fewer healthcare visits.

…” 56

There is an increasing recognition that patients are ‘co-creators’ of their health and

this needs to be taken on board across the system. To this end all health institutions

should have some system I place to involved patients as partners in the business of

delivering health and there needs to be investment in training frontline staff on good

practice around this. 57

13

6. Invest in the very early years and parenting.

It is increasingly recognized in policy circles that the earliest years of a child’s life are

very important for their long-term well-being. Cost-benefit analyses show that investment

in the area will pay itself back many times over both financially and non-financially

through increased academic achievement, enhanced health outcomes, and reduced social

disruption. The majority of attention, however, has been focused on the provision of pre-

school childcare for the over-three’s – for example through Sure Start. Whilst in no way

challenging the importance of this policy, it is vital that an equal amount of attention and

money is invested in the first three years of a child’s life. The UK is a low spender in this

area with only 0.3 per cent of GDP spent on childcare as compared to two per cent in

Sweden.

There is a need for a balance between the well-being needs of the child, the parents and

also the boarder issue of future impacts on social well-being. Children need responsive

individual attention in their first years, and they need a lot of it. Whilst they often do the

best they can, day nurseries can rarely offer this in a consistent manner. They suffer from

high turnover of staff and, for both legal and economic reasons, have to have one adult

looking after up to three babies. 58

Recent research has begun to suggest that children

suffer well-being impacts by spending too much time at day nurseries; with the finding

that if children spend more than 12 hours per week in nursery day care, they are more

likely to become insecure and aggressive in later childhood. 59

Whilst it is possible that

high-quality nurseries could exist if we were prepared to pay for the quality and quantity

of staff, the costs would be very similar to the cost of extending parental leave or

supporting child-minders to provide one-to-one care.

A recent report commissioned by the national Audit Office notes “In Sweden in the

1980s childcare in the first year of life and later was extremely common due to the

extensive availability of state funded provision. However with the extension of parental

leave, parents voted with their feet and the use of childcare in the first 18 months of life

decreased dramatically. 60

As well as sensing that hands-on parenting is better for their

own children, Swedish parents might also be responding to the fact that being with their

child is good for their own personal well-being. For although having children is an

enormously stressful time, with many well-being indicators tending to fall (particularly

satisfaction with one’s relationship with one’s partner), in-depth studies show that of all

the activities that parents have to do it is spending time with their new child which is the

most intrinsically rewarding. 61

It would seem that the best well-being solution for both parents and children is for paid

parental leave to be extended to cover at least the whole of a child’s first two years of

life. This could be taken by either parent, or potentially shared between them (a desirable

option for many couples). The Swedish system provides 18 months of paid leave between

a couple, with a further three months available on the payment of a token sum. Whilst

such a system might appear difficult to institute from a cost perspective, investment in

this area is estimated to pay handsomely for itself in detailed cost-benefit analyses. 62

This

solution, however, will clearly not suit all, and for those parents who need or wish to

work, high-quality childcare should be subsidized. This may take unconventional forms

such as subsidies for grandparents as well as registered child minders and day nurseries.

The role of au pairs and nannies, and the qualifications they require may need to be

examined, too.

14

There is also a need to support people to be the best parents they can be. The social

environment of the family setting is vital to the future personal well-being of the growing

child, and can affect the social well-being of the whole community. Children brought up

in ‘risky families’ – characterised by conflict, aggression and relationships that are cold,

unsupportive and neglectful – are far more likely to suffer from future mental illness and

also be more socially disruptive. 63

It is well known that bringing up young children is stressful and increased conflict

between parents is a widely observed phenomenon, in well-being terms this often called

the parenting paradox: Adults with young children often report lower satisfaction with

their lives and particularly with their relationships with their partners. This may be

partially a classic trade-off between more pleasure-oriented satisfaction and more

meaningful-oriented growth. 64

There are, however, possible policy interventions that

could soften the drop in well-being for parents, thereby enhancing the child’s future well-

being and also reducing the risk of future socially disruptive behavior. These might

include:

 Pre-natal parenting (and relationship) skills classes oragnised through the NHS.

 Supportive home visits for new parents from community midwives or nurses whose purpose could be extended to the well-being of the whole family rather

just the health of the infant. 65

 More support for community services, such as parent and toddler groups, where parents self organise activities and provide support for each other.

 Greater support for intergenerational exchanges, so that younger parents could have mentors who are older members of the community – surrogate

grandparents, as it were.

It has also been shown that children suffer adverse effects if their caregiver suffers

depression. There needs to be more targeted work tackling depression amongst parents,

with a particular focus on postpartum depression. This kind of radical investment in the

very early years is likely to yield significant well-being dividends both for the individual

and for society.

7. Discourage materialism and promote authentic advertising.

We live in a highly materialistic society. By ‘materialistic’ here we mean a value set

which believes that material goods will lead to well-being to the exclusion of focusing on

other factors. The evidence shows, however, that materialistic people are less happy. 66

Material consumption is also the primary driver of many of our environmental problems.

It is obviously extremely difficult for policy to intervene to change cultural norms.

One area which is open for policy change, however, is advertising. Most advertising rests

on the pretense that material goods or services will deliver a variety of non-material

benefits, and ultimately happiness. This is patently untrue. Advertising raises the standard

of what we consider to be normal, inducing unrealistic comparison. We need more

authentic advertising – products should not pretend to deliver any more than they can.

Research shows that young children lack the critical capacity to filter out the subtle

selling messages of advertising and in fact often cannot distinguish between the

advertising and the program they are watching. In nef’s survey of young people in

15

Nottingham it was clear that materialistic values took an early hold on children –

particularly the boys – with over 60 per cent of children thinking it ‘is very important to

make a lot of money when I grow up” and nearly 70 per cent wanting “to have a really

nice house filled with all kinds of cool stuff.”

For these reasons it is worth considering a ban on commercial advertising aimed at the

under-eights’s and a strong code of conduct for commercial advertising to the tweenager

group (9-12) and teenagers. Sweden has a ban on TV advertising aimed at the under-12’s

and a prohibition against direct marketing aimed at children under the age of 16. These

laws are limited, of course; for example, the TV advertising ban cannot extend to cable

television channels which broadcast from outside the country; and materialism has more

sources than just advertising. Nevertheless, curbing commercial advertising aimed at

young people would be an important step in creating a well-being society.

Research shows that a major source of well-being is engaging in challenging activities.

The nation’s favourite pastime of gardening during the 1970s and ‘80s, however, has

been replaced by a new, more materialistic, favourite pastime – shopping. We also spend

a great deal of our time watching television; research shows that the state induced by

passively watching television is similar to that of a mild form of depression! The well-

being society is one which spends less time shopping and in front of the television, and

more time engaging in active pastimes such as sports, arts and other hobbies.

Research suggests that whilst we get more well-being from these kinds of activities than

‘easy’ behavior like shopping and watching TV, we do not always work up the will to do

the more demanding activity. Therefore, society should endeavor to make the well-being

choice the easy choice. Policy could intervene to increase the amount of cheap, local

leisure provision, such as sports centres and arts venues, as well as informal open spaces

and parks. A society more engaged in meaningful pastimes is likely to be less focused on

the illusion that material goods will bring it happiness.

As suggested earlier, the education system could also give young people the opportunity

to question where their values come from, and think about concepts such as the good life.

This would also provide an important buffer against materialistic values.

8. Strengthen active citizenship, social well-being and civil society.

Research shows clearly that we derive well-being from engaging with one another and in

meaningful projects. In particular, the personal development aspect of well-being is likely

to be linked with engaging actively with life and our communities. These findings have

implications for policy in relation to civil society, active citizenship and public-service

delivery.

Well-being research comes together with work which has been done on social capital 67

to

show the profound importance of our communities and relationships to our quality of life.

Community engagement not only improves the well-being of those involved but also

improves the well-being of others. 68

The relationship is positive in both directions:

involvement increases well-being and happy people tend to be more involved in their

community. Therefore, interventions in this area should lead to a positive upward spiral.

16

This evidence bolsters the case for government to support different sorts of community

engagement, civil society organisations and spaces. This could be done partly through

setting up a Citizen’s Service – extending the Jury Service concept to a range of other

activities such as volunteering, citizen’s panels, environmental juries, etc. There is also a

particular need for younger and excluded groups to have more opportunities to engage in

the community and in politics. 69

Time banks and reward card schemes are ways in which

marginal groups can be attracted into community engagement, through a form of

‘mutuality’ where they gain clear benefits from what they are doing. 70

Government can

also intervene where people are unable to engage due to financial circumstances for the

regulations of the benefits regime. A means-tested ‘participation income’ could be paid to

those who would otherwise have been unable to carry out voluntary, community or caring

activities. 71

These kinds of interventions would increase active citizenship throughout

society and, in particular, would help to involved people who have traditionally been on

the margins of political engagement. Well-being research has some implications for the

way that citizens are involved in public-service delivery. There is increasing focus on the

use of choice in public services, but of this is restricted to choice over service providers.

This suffers from a range of well-documented problems: Sometimes individual choice

does not lead to optimum outcomes at the collective level. We cannot always choose

what we want as individual but only in the collective (e.g. in relation to a better global

environment). 72

We may not have the information to make the best choices: It is often

difficult to know what constitutes a good school or hospital. In the end it is those schools

or hospitals with good reputations which end up able to choose the people they take on

due to increased demand – the very reverse of what choice was said to deliver.

Psychologist Barry Schwartz has shown that too much choice can lower our well-being

as we feel overwhelmed. 73

Choice in public services can be far broader than the choice of public service provider. 74

It is being increasingly recognized through concepts such as personalization and co-

production that it can be very productive to involve people in the design and delivery of

the services that they receive. 75

Increasing movement towards this kind of choice in

public services will give the public-service user autonomy of the sort that is closely

linked to well-being in many other contexts, such as in the workplace, and therefore, is

likely to increase well-being. It also builds on the Swiss research which shows that there

is a strong link between democratic involvement and happiness.

In particular, the governance of public services is presently dominated by a plethora of

targets and indicators, usually set by central government. As part of a move to put users

in the centre of public services, we should move away from this command-and-control

model towards a model based on accountability to stakeholders. One way to do this

would be to drop the swathes of targets and replace them with a process of stakeholder

engagement and accountability as recommended by corporate standards such as

AA1000. 76

This leads to measurement of what matters in the eyes of stakeholders, and

the publication of an externally verified report of these factors.

Well-being research has pioneered the use of subjective indicators. To build on the

learning that has emerged from this, public-service deliverers could monitor users’

satisfaction with services and focus on this as a key indicator to improve in conjunction

with more ‘objective’ indicators. 77

The Canadian Government has set user satisfaction as

the most important indicator across public-service delivery. 78

This method focuses on one

of the main ends of public services, but allows flexibility in the means to promote the

17

satisfaction. Our present system has it the wrong way around: the centre tends to specify

the means rather than the ends.

Call for a flourishing society

Well-being research points the way to a society which could be profoundly different. If

we take the right steps we could move towards a happier, more vibrant society, where

people are actively engaged in their communities. A flourishing society would be

healthier, more productive, entrepreneurial, creative, and engaged.

Well-being research is still fairly new. Whilst striking lessons have emerged already from

the research, we need to understand better what well-being is and what brings it about. In

particular, there needs to be more research about the second dimension of well-being ---

that of personal development – and the policy implications which emerge from it, rather

than the current interest which focuses solely on life satisfaction. Similarly, we need to go

beyond just looking at individual well-being to consider social well-being to consider

social well-being how we feel about, and contribute to, our broader society.

Lack of research should not prevent us from acting where we can to move towards a

flourishing society. Therefore, all policy-makers should ask “What would policy look like

if it were seeking to promote well-being?” This should be one of the defining questions of

politics in developed countries.

1 Depressions rates are difficult to track over long periods of time due to changes in diagnosis and in how

people perceive depression. Diener and Seligman, however, cite strong evidence that young people are

experiencing more depression, and that “people born earlier in this century have experienced much less

depression in their lifetime than people born later”; Diener, E and Seligman, M (2004) ‘Beyond Money:

Toward an economy of well-being,” Psychological Science in the Public Interest Vol 5 issue 1 (American

Psychological Society, Washington, DC). 2 Life satisfaction data tends to remain relatively stable at the country level. It partly suffers from the fact

that people adapt to their circumstances. Therefore it is important to supplement life satisfactions with other

measures. Foo a fuller explanation of, and justification for, a two-dimensional model of personal well-

being see Marks, N. Shah, H and Westall, A (2004) The Power and Potential of Well-being indicators (nef,

London) www.neweconomics.org) 3 See, for example, Ryan, R and Deci, E (2001) ‘On happiness and human potentials: A review of research

on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in S Fiske (ed.), Annual Review of Psychology (Annual Reviews

Inc., Palo Alto, CA.) Vol. 52: pp. 141-166. 4 Adapted from Corey Keyes’ classification of Social Well-being; Keyes, C and Haidt, J (2003)

Flourishing: positive psychology and the life well-lived (APA, Washington DC). 5 Flourishing and languishing as scientific concepts have been developed by Corey Keyes. Whilst we do not use

them in their strictest sense here (as Keyes assesses positive personal functioning and we favour assessing personal

development) the data quoted uses Keyes methodology. Keyes, C (2002) ‘The mental health continuum: from

languishing to flourishing in life’ Journal of Health and Social Behavior (American Sociological Association,

Washington DC) 43, pp. 207-222. 6 See, for example, Singer, B and Ryff, C (eds) (2001) New Horizons in Health: An Integrative Approach (National

Academies Press, Washington). 7 Lyubomirsky, S, Iing, L and Diener, E (2004) Is Happiness a Strength? (forthcoming)

8 Lykken, D (1999) Happiness: the nature and nurture of Joy and Contentment (St Martin’s Press, New York) and

Sheldon, Lyubomirsky and Schkade (2003) Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change, to appear

in Review of General Psychology. 9 This does not mean everything is determined. Genes create a pre-disposition, but they sometimes require

environmental conditions which would activate them. Therefore, there is an important interaction between genes and

the environment, and thus the environment can be moulded to facilitate positive pre-dispositions and prevent the

activation of negative pre-dispositions. 10

For the international comparison data presented in Figure 2 – the correlation is 0.49, which suggests that GNP can

explain about 25 per cent of the variation in happiness between nations. 11

Whilst people gain status from facors other than their income level, the dominance of economic comparisons is

probably reflected in the finding that the very wealthy are a little happier than those who are closer to average

income levels – i.e. it is the status gained from income rather than the income itself. See Diener, E, Horwitz, J and

Emmons, R (1985) ‘Happiness of the very wealthy’ Social Indicators Research (Kluwer Academic Publishers, New

York) 16 pp 263-274. For a more philosophical inquiry into the role of status in our society see de Botton, A (2004)

Status Anxiety (Pantheon, UK). 12

Kasser, T (2002) The High Price of Materialism (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA). 13

See note 1 above. 14

ONS (2001) Psychiatric morbidity among adults living in private households 20000,

www.statistics.gov.uk. Interestingly, the lowest prevalence rates of mental disorders were amongst older

people aged 65-74, perhaps supporting Diener and Seligman’s hypothesis that those born earlier in the

twentieth century are less prone to depression. 15

Performance and Innovation Unit (2002) Social Capital – a discussion paper (Cabinet Office, London). 16

Diener, E and Seligman, M (2002) “Very Happy People’ Psychological Science (APS , Washington DC)

Vol 13 pp 81-4. There are many other studies which validate this point. 17

Sarafino, E (2002) Health Psychology (Wiley, New York). 18

Satisfaction with school was shown to be the most important influence on young people’s personal

development in nef’s recent report on assessing young people’s well-being in Nottingham. Marks et al,

op.cit.

19

Maller, C et al (2002) Healthy Parks, Healthy People (Deakin University and Parks Victoria, Victoria,

Australia). 20

Schkade, D and Kahneman, D (1998) ‘Does living in California make people happy? A focusing illusion

in judgments of life satisfaction,’ Psychological Science (APS, Washington DC) 9:340-6. 21

Diener and Seligman (2004) op.cit. 22

Marks, N et al (2004) op.cit. 23

Simms, A (2000) Collision Course: 24

This section is based partly on ideas from Diener and Seligman (2004) op.cit. 25

For example, the Office for National Statistics spent over 142 million pounds in 2002/3 on collecting

social and economic statistics – but this doesn’t include costs from the Treasury or the Audit commission.

ONS (2004) Annual Report and Accounts 2002-3, available online at www.statistics.gov.uk. 26

Jackson, T (2004) Chasing progress: Beyond measuring economic growth. (nef. London). 27

This figure is from the new Measure of Domestic Progress indicator developed by Tim Jackson,

professor of sustainable development at Surrey University. 28

As yet unpublished data from an online sample sample of over 100 people. 29

Csikszentmihalyi, M (1997) Finding Flow: the psychology of engagement in everyday life (Perseus

Books, New York). His research suggests that around 15 per cent of people have never experience ‘flow’,

whilst around 20 per cent say they feel it every day, with others somewhere in between. For a slightly

different more detailed approach to assessing flow and engagement see Delle Fave, A and Massimini F

(2004) “Parenthood and the quality of experience daily life’, Social indicators Research (Kluwer Academic

Publishers, New York) 67: pp 75-106. 30

Harter, Schmitt and Hayes (2002) quoted in Diener and Seligman (2004) op.cit. 31

Argyle, M (2001) The Psychology of Happiness (Routledge, London) p103. 32

Di Tella, R, MacCulloch, R and Oswald, J(2003) “The Macroeconomics of happiness” The Review of

Economics and Social Statistics (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA) Vol. 85 Issue 4, pp 807-27.

http:mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?tid=11119&ttype=6 33

Beatty, C and Fothergill, S (2004) The Diversion from “Unemployment” to “Sickness” across British

Regions and Districts, (Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University). 34

See, for example, Alesina, A, Di Tella, R, and MacCulloch, R (2001) Inequality and Unhappiness: are

Europeans and Americans different? (National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA) NBER

Working Paper 8198. 35

Turner, A (2001) Just Capital (Pan Books, London) p310. 36

Easterlin, R A (2003) Explaining Happiness Proceedings of National Academy of Science (National

Academy of Science, Washington DC) Vol 100, No. 19: pp11,176-11,183. 37

At present Britons work an average of 37.3 hours per week, but this mixes both full- and part-time

workers and also hides the large differences between men and women, especially when they have children

at home. Men with children work an average of 46.9 ours. Source: European Foundation for improvement

of Living and Working Conditions (2003) A new organisation of time over working life, available on line

from www.eurofound.ie. 38

Hamilton, C (2004) Growth Fetish (Pluto Press, London) p218. 39

Given the shrinking population the reducing number of workers will offset the labour productivity gains.

Thus there is a need to maintain or increase the workforce through appropriate work opportunities for those

on incapacity benefits and managed migration. 40

European Foundation for improvement of Living and Working Conditions (2003) A new organisation of

time over working life; available on line from www.eurofound.ie. See www.citizensincome.org for more

details about the Citizen’s Income. 41

In of itself a reduced working week is unlikely to increase unemployment. As Adair Turner notes,

“Across the board ‘labour standards’ – such as the French thirty-five hour week . . . amount to a diversion. .

. of potential post-tax income towards greater leisure but hey have no necessary long-term impact on total

labour costs per hour . . . [T]he idea that such rights will have any sustained impact on employment levels

is wrong.” Turner, A (2001) Just Capital (Pan Books, London). 42

Stutzer, A & Frey, B (2003) Stress that doesn’t pay: the community paradox; Working Paper series 151

(Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich). 43

See www.citizensincome.org for more details about the Citizen’s Income.

44

Brickman, P et al (1978) ‘Lottery winners and accident victims: is happiness relative?’, Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology (APA, Washington DC) No. 36, pp 917-927. 45

A briefing from the National Healthy School Standard outlines some of the main ways to take this

forward. Promoting Emotional Health and Wellbeing through the National Healthy Schools Standard

(Health Development Agency) available from www.had-online.org.uk. 46

Deci, E and Ryan, R (2002) “Longevity increased by positive self perceptions of age” Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology 83; cited on p56 Lyubominsky et al (2004) op.cit. 47

Garnder, H (1993) Frames of Mind: the theory of multiple intelligences (Basic Books). 48

For example the work of Antidote – www.antidote.org.uk. 49

These pilots are being led by Christopher Peterson and Marty Seligman as part of the ‘values in action’

programme fun by the positive psychology network. www.viastrengths.org. 50

Danner, D, Snowdon, D and Friesen, W (2001) “Positive dmotion in early life and longevity: findings

from the nun study” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 80, pp. 804-813 quoted in Seligman, M

(2002) Authentic Happiness (Nicholas Breasley Publishing London). 51

See, for example Levy B et al (2002) “Longevity increased by positive self perceptions of age’ Journal

of Personality and Social Psychology, 83; cited on p56 Lyubominsky et al (2004) op.cit. 52

“Unhappy people have a low threshold for pain or minor symptoms, and are ready to decide that they are

ill” p219; Argyle M (2001) op.cit. 53

Keyes, C (2004) “The nexus of cardiovascular disease and depression revisited: the complete mental

health perspective and the moderating role of age and gender’ Aging & Mental Health(Brunner-Routledge,

London) May 2004: 8(3): 266-274. 54

Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health

Conference, New York, 19-22 June, 1946 signed on 22 July 1948 by the representatives of 61 States

(Official Records of the World Health Organization, no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force on 7 April 1948.

The definition has not been amended since 1948. 55

Social Exclusion Unit (2004) Mental Health and Social Exclusion (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister,

London). 56

Williams, G. Frankell, R, Campbell, T, and Desci, E (2000) “Research on relationship-centred care and

healthcare out comes from the Rochester biopsychosocial program: a self-determination theory integration”

Families, Systems & Health (APA, Washington DC), Vol 18, No.1 (2000). 57

Boyle, D, Conisbee, M and Burns, S (2004) Towards an asset-based NHS (nef, London) 58

The legal requirement for ratios of adults to children is 1-3 for under-two’s, 1:4 for two-year-olds rising

to 1:8 for three-year-olds and over. SureStart (2003) National Standards for under 8s day care and child

minding. (DIES, London). www.childcarelink.gov.uk. 59

Melhuish, E (2004) Literature Review of the impact of early years provision on young children (National

Audit Office) p56. Available online www.nao.org.uk/pulbications/nao_reports 60

ibid. p55. 61

Delle Fave, A and Massimini, F (2004) “Parenthood and the quality of experience in daily life’. Social

Indicators Research (Kluwer Academic Publishers, New York) 67 pp 75-106. 62

Melhuish (2004) op.cit. p56. 63

Repetti, R, Taylor, S and Seeman, T (2002) ‘Risky Families: family social environments and the mental

and physical health of offspring” Psychological Bulletin (APA, Washington DC) Vol 128, No 2: pp 330-

366. 64

See, for example, MacGregor, 65

Mueller, G (2003) Parental Stress and Marital Satisfaction: Some Results from a Home Visiting

Experiment for Maintaining the Quality of Life of Young Families (University of Fribourg, Switzerland). 66

Kasser, T (2002) The High Price of Materialism (MIT Press, New York). 67

Putnam, R (2000) Bowling Alone: the collapse and revival of American community (Simon and Schuster,

New York). 68

Helliwell, J and Putnam, R (2004) The Social Context of Well-being (forthcoming). 69

For example in one study it was noted that “Young people ... consistently referred to their feelings of

powerlessness and the limited opportunities for them to engage in politics until the age of 18.” Joseph

Rowntree Foundation (2000) Young people’s politics: Political interest and engagement amongst 14- to 24-

year-olds, (York Publishing, York).

70

See, for example, Burns, S and Smith, K (2004) Co-production Works!” (nef, London). For discussion

about reward cards, see Holdsworth, M and Boyl, D (2004) Carrots not Sticks – the possibilities of a

sustainable reward card for the UK (National Consumer Council, London). 71

See, for example, Atkinson, T (1996) ‘The Case for a Participation Income’ Political Quarterly

(Blackwell Publishing, Oxford). 72

See for example Levett, R et al (2003) A better choice of choice (Fabian Society, London). 73

Schwartz, B (2004) The paradox of choice (HarperCollins, New York). 74

See for example Leadbetter, C (2004) Personalisation through participation (Demos, London) Frey, B

and Stutzer, A (2002) Happiness and Economics (Princeton University Press, Princeton). 75

Burns et al (2004) op.cit. 76

Institute of Social Ethical Accountability (www.accountabilty.org.uk) 77

Objective indicators here mean those which do not relate to subjective perceptions. Whilst subjective

indicators are important as a supplement to today’s focus on objective date, they don’t capture everything

because people sometimes mitigate negative experiences, and therefore express satisfaction even where

service are objectively of low quality. Private email exchange with Richard Eckersley. Eckersley, R (2004)

Well and Good: how we feel and why it matters (Text Publishing, Melbourne Australia). 78

http://www.cio-dpl.gc.ca/si-as/index_e.asp