HOME / OUR RESEARCH / RESEARCH /

Promotion of Flourishing

Promotion of Flourishing

The promotion of flourishing project seeks to (i) develop and evaluate the properties of a new measure of human flourishing drawing upon happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, and close social relationships, (ii) evaluate major determinants of flourishing thus conceived, and (iii) promote policy and research aimed at the promotion of human flourishing. The flourishing project aims to encourage the measurement and tracking of these various aspects of flourishing in workplace, medical, educational, and governmental settings. It will also gather, compare, and evaluate various philosophical and theological traditions on human flourishing and well-being, while serving as an umbrella for the other research projects of the program.

Publications on the Promotion of Flourishing

Promotion of Flourishing:

VanderWeele, T.J. and Brooks, A.C. (2023). A public health approach to negative news media: the 3-to-1 solution. American Journal of Health Promotion, 37:447–449.

VanderWeele, T.J. and Lomas, T. (2023). Terminology and the well-being literature. Affective Science, 4:36-40.

Lomas, T. Cowden, R., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2021). Befriending the butterfly: a multidimensional review of strategies to facilitate happiness and wellbeing. European Journal of Applied Positive Psychology, 5, 22:1-23.

VanderWeele, T.J. (2020). Activities for flourishing: an evidence-based guide. Journal of Positive Psychology and Wellbeing, 4:79-91.

VanderWeele, T.J., Chen. Y., Long, K.N., Kim, E.S., Trudel-Fitzgerald, C., and Kubzansky, L.D. (2020). Positive epidemiology? Epidemiology, 31:189-193.

Trudel-Fitzgerald, C., Millstein, R., von Hippel, C., Howe, R., Tomasso, L. P., Wagner, G., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2019). Psychological well-being as part of the public health debate? Insight into dimensions, interventions, and policy. BMC Public Health, 15;9(12):e033697.

VanderWeele, T.J., McNeely, E., and Koh, H.K. (2019). Reimagining health: flourishing. Journal of the American Medical Association, 321(17):1667-1668.

VanderWeele, T.J. (2017). On the promotion of human flourishing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 31:8148-8156.

Measurement:

Lee, M., Kubzansky, L.D., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2021). Measuring Well-Being: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from the Social Sciences and the Humanities. Oxford University Press.

VanderWeele, T.J., Fulks, J., Plake, J.F., and Lee, M.T. (2021). National well-being measures before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in online samples. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 36:248–250.

VanderWeele, T.J., Trudel-Fitzgerald, C., Allin, P., Farrelly, C., Fletcher, G., Frederick, D.E., Hall, J., Helliwell, J.F., Kim, E.S., Lauinger, W.A., Lee, M.T., Lyubomirsky, S., Margolis, S., McNeely, E., Messer, N., Tay, L., Viswanath, V., Węziak-Białowolska, D., and Kubzansky, L.D. (2020). Current recommendations on the selection of measures for well-being. Preventive Medicine, 133:106004.

VanderWeele, T.J., Trudel-Fitzgerald, C., Allin, P., Farrelly, C., Fletcher, G., Frederick, D.E., Hall, J., Helliwell, J.F., Kim, E.S., Lauinger, W.A., Lee, M.T., Lyubomirsky, S., Margolis, S., McNeely, E., Tay, L., Viswanath, V., Węziak-Białowolska, D., and Kubzansky, L.D. (2020). Brief well-being assessments, or nothing at all? Preventive Medicine, 135:106095.

VanderWeele, T.J. (2019). Measures of community well-being: a template. International Journal of Community Well-Being, 2:253-275.

Węziak-Białowolska, D., McNeely, E., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2019). Flourish index and secure flourish index – validation in workplace settings. Cogent Psychology, 6 (1598926): 1-10.

Węziak-Białowolska, D., McNeely, E., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2019). Human flourishing in cross cultural settings: evidence from the US, China, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Mexico. Frontiers in Psychology, 10 (Article 1269): 1-13.

VanderWeele, T.J. (2017). Discussion of: "New statistics for old? - measuring the wellbeing of the UK." Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A, 180:38-39.

Other Well-Being Research

Lomas, T., Bartels, M., Van De Weijer, M., Pluess, M., Hanson, J., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2022). The architecture of happiness. Emotion Review, in press.

Lomas, T. and VanderWeele, T.J. (2022). The complex creation of happiness: multidimensional conditionality in the drivers of happy individuals and societies. Journal of Positive Psychology, in press.

Lomas, T., Case, B.W., Cratty, F.J., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2021). A global history of happiness. International Journal of Wellbeing, 11:68-87.

Nakamura, J.S., Delaney, S.W, Diener, E., VanderWeele, T.J., and Kim, E.S. (2021). Are all domains of life satisfaction equal? Differential associations with health and well-being in older adults. Quality of Life Research, 31:1-14.

Kim, E.S., Delaney, S.W., Tay, L., Chen, Y., Diener, E., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2021). Life satisfaction and subsequent physical, behavioral, and psychosocial health in older adults. Milbank Quarterly, 99:209-239.

Lee, M.T., Weziak-Bialowolska, D., Mooney, K.D., Lerner, P.J., McNeely, E., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2021). Self-assessed importance of domains of flourishing: demographics and correlations with well-being. Journal of Positive Psychology, 16:137-144 .

VanderWeele, T.J. (2020). Challenges estimating total lives lost in COVID-19 decisions: consideration of mortality related to unemployment, social isolation, and depression. JAMA, 324:445-446.

Białowolska, P., Węziak-Białowolska, D., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2019). The impact of savings and credit on health and health behaviours: an outcome wide longitudinal approach. International Journal of Public Health, 64:573-584.