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The Subjective Object of Well-Being Studies: Well-Being as the Experience of Being Well

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Metrics of Subjective Well-Being: Limits and Improvements

Part of the book series: Happiness Studies Book Series ((HAPS))

Abstract

This chapter addresses conceptualization issues in the study of people’s well-being. The chapter states that the object of well-being studies is the experience of being well people have; as such, the object of study is inherently subjective because it cannot exist without the specific person who is experiencing it. Thus, subjectivity in well-being studies does not emerge from the reporting of the experience but from the experience itself. Objective variables can be used to measure many explanatory factors of well-being; however, these explanatory factors—and the variables measuring them—should not be confused with the experience of being well itself, and the nature of their relationship should not be presumed but empirically corroborated. Building upon the notion of well-being as the experience of being well people have the chapter then advances eleven considerations for well-being studies; such as: well-being is inherently subjective, there is no objective well-being, there are risks and limitations in working with academic constructs of well-being, the experience of being well is universal, researchers should not confuse well-being with its potential drivers, and there is a multiplicity of explanatory factors but this does not imply for well-being to be multidimensional.

I would like to express my gratitude to Borja Lopez Noval, Gaël Brulé, and an anonymous reviewer for comments and recommendations that have allowed the enhancement of this chapter.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Sede México, Mexico City, Mexico

    Mariano Rojas

  2. Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, Mexico City, Mexico

    Mariano Rojas

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  1. Mariano Rojas
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Correspondence to Mariano Rojas .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Happiness Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam Happiness Studies, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Gaël Brulé

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze Statistiche, Università di Roma "La Sapienza" , Roma, Italy

    Filomena Maggino

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Rojas, M. (2017). The Subjective Object of Well-Being Studies: Well-Being as the Experience of Being Well. In: Brulé, G., Maggino, F. (eds) Metrics of Subjective Well-Being: Limits and Improvements. Happiness Studies Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61810-4_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61810-4_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-61809-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-61810-4

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