The Evolution of Eupathics: The Historical Roots of Subjective Measures of Well-Being

Abstract:     
In this paper, I explore the history of subjective measures of well-being. While it is often suggested that these measures are a fairly modern invention, I argue that they have a long and rich history. Subjective measures appear to have emerged as a result of studies into educational psychology, marital success studies, and personality psychology in the 1920's and 30's, and evolved under the influence of the epidemiology of mental health, gerontology, and the social indicator movement in the 1960's and 70's. The story confirms the main conclusions drawn by Theodore Porter (1995) in his general discussion of measurement in the social and behavioral sciences: these measures emerged in applied rather than theoretical branches of social science, and they did so not as a result of physics envy, but rather as a result of a moral impulse to improve society; quantification was intended to make up for perceived deficiencies in unaided human judgment; and radical disagreements about the nature of well-being did not impede efforts to measure it.

Keywords: Measurement, Subjective Well-Being (SWB), Positive Psychology, History, Porter

JEL Classifications: A13, B20, D60, H00, I31

Working Paper Series