The variety and the number of ways of measuring individual wellbeing has increased over the past two decades. In addition to all self-reported measures, researchers also consider a wide variety of objectively-measured indicators of wellbeing (e.g., blood pressure, pulse rate, and the pattern of activity in different parts of the brain). However, it has not yet been established if the analysis of one only of these measurement concepts suffices, or rather whether more can be learnt from the joint analyses of both subjective and objective adult wellbeing indicators. This chapter briefly reviews this question, focussing on cortisol (as a potential objective measure) and life satisfaction (as a subjective measure), and suggests directions for future research.

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30 August 2024

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Published in Encyclopedia of Happiness, Quality of Life and Subjective Wellbeing (2024), Edited by Hilke Brockmann and Roger Fernandez-Urbano, pp. 125a??133, Edward Elgar Publishing

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Link To Website

DOI: 10.4337/9781800889675.00024

This Chapter is part of the centre's Community Wellbeing programme.