Social network engagement and subjective well‐being: a life‐course perspective

Social networking is a digital phenomenon embraced by billions worldwide. Use of online social platforms has the potential to generate a number of benefits including to well‐being from enhanced social connectedness and social capital accumulation, but is also associated with several negative behaviours and impacts. Employing a life‐course perspective, this paper explores social networking use and its relationship with measures of subjective well‐being. Large‐scale UK panel data from wave 3 (2011–12) and 6 (2014–15) of Understanding Society reveals that social network users are on average younger, aged under 25, but that rising use is reported across the life‐course including into old age. Probit, multinomial logistic, and ANCOVA and change‐score estimations reveal that membership, and greater use, of social networks is associated with higher levels of overall life satisfaction. However, heavy use of social networking sites has negative impacts, reflected in reductions in subjective well‐being. Socio‐economic disadvantage may drive these impacts among young (in education), unemployed and economically inactive heavy SNS users.     

顺民之欲富民而治

所谓“人欲”,不外乎饮食男女、穿衣吃饭、生老病死的事,是民众求生存、求发展、求富裕的基本需求,是与生俱来的“天性”,并非与“天理”不相容。“天理”就在“人欲”之中,二者是统一的,不可分离的。作为官吏,无论是讲廉政,还是讲勤政,首先要理解和尊重民众的基本欲望,顺民之欲,富民而治。要“宽以养民,严以治吏”。     

语文教育——病树前头万木春

目前的初等语文教育存在着课堂模式化、学生误读作品、教师讲课僵化等弊病,论文提出了相应的对策:一是发挥学生的主观能动性,二是重视朗读,三是教会学生学习语文的基本方法。     

现代绘画的抽象性

现代绘画的抽象性表现在现代绘画各流派之中,侧重主观表现,而非客观反映。画家运用抽象性的线和块面及非描绘性的色彩表现事物的内涵和艺术家的主观情感。这种抽象性也就是画家对理念与感觉进行探索,并使之昭显的最完美的载体,是艺术家运用绘画自身的形式语言(包括色彩、线条、块面等)表现其内心需要的一种方式或手段,并将其看作是适合自己创作的主题。     

Three Ways to Be Happy: Pleasure,Engagement, and Meaning—Findings from Australian and US Samples

This study examined the contributions of orientations to happiness (pleasure, engagement and meaning) to subjective well-being. A sample of 12,622 adults from the United States completed on-line surveys measuring orientations to happiness, positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction. A sample of 332 adults from Australia also completed these surveys as well as a measure of the big five factor personality traits. Hierarchical regressions generally supported the hypothesis that the three orientations to happiness predict subjective well-being (satisfaction with life, positive affect and negative affect) beyond sociodemographic variables and personality. Meaning and engagement explained the greatest variance in all three components of subjective well-being. Overall, these findings support the importance of a eudaimonic approach in addition to the hedonic approach to achieving happiness. Moreover, findings were relatively consistent in both the Australian and US samples. Some of these data were presented at the 8th Australian Centre on Quality of Life Conference, Melbourne, Australia.     

Measuring Well-being Across Europe: Description of the ESS Well-being Module and Preliminary Findings

It has become customary to judge the success of a society through the use of objective indicators, predominantly economic and social ones. Yet in most developed nations, increases in income, education and health have arguably not produced comparable increases in happiness or life satisfaction. While much has been learned from the introduction of subjective measures of global happiness or life satisfaction into surveys, significant recent progress in the development of high-quality subjective measures of personal and social well-being has not been fully exploited. This article describes the development of a set of well-being indicators which were included in Round 3 of the European Social Survey. This Well-being Module seeks to evaluate the success of European countries in promoting the personal and social well-being of their citizens. In addition to providing a better understanding of domain-specific measures, such as those relating to family, work and income, the design of the Well-being Module recognises that advancement in the field requires us to look beyond measures which focus on how people feel (happiness, pleasure, satisfaction) to measures which are more concerned with how well they function. This also shifts the emphasis from relatively transient states of well-being to measures of more sustainable well-being. The ESS Well-being Module represents one of the first systematic attempts to create a set of policy-relevant national well-being accounts.

Are They Frigid to the Economic Development? Reconsideration of the Economic Effect on Subjective Well-being in Japan

The question about the contribution of economic growth to subjective well-being has caused long-standing debate in the literature on subjective well-being, and Japan is often mentioned as a typical case of no contribution. With a careful examination of the survey text, nevertheless, this study provides a completely opposite result. In other words, the average score of subjective well-being is significantly associated with the level of national income per capita. The study also finds that not only the level of national income per capita but also its growth rate is a significant explanatory variable. However, it is also suggested that a structural subsidence of subjective well-being occurred in the late 1990s, when many Japanese people lost confidence in their traditional economic system.