Yang Yang on the Dynamics of , and Heterogeneity in , Subjective Well - Being across the Life Course and over Time in the United States

AND OVER TIME IN THE UNITED STATES: Editor’s Note: One of the contemporary foundations of quality-of-life and social indicators research is studies of subjective well-being in general and happiness in particular. In this issue, I review two recent contributions to this subject. The first is a recent article by Yang Yang in the American Sociological Review. This article sets new standards for the socio-demographic analyses of variations in happiness across demographic and socio-economic groupings and temporal trends therein by age, time period, and birth cohort. The second is a new book on the psychology of happiness by Ed Diener and Rober Biswas-Diener. This book summarizes, for a general audience, much of the research literature on happiness, especially research conducted from a psychological disciplinary base. SINET readers will want to be aware of both of these contributions. The study of subjective well-being, as measured by responses to questions about life satisfaction and happiness is a key component of quality-of-life studies and social indicators research in these early years of the 21st century. One branch of happiness studies derives from the discipline of psychology (see the review in this issue of the recent Diener and Diener book). Another branch derives its primary motivation from broader sociological studies of the variation in happiness across social and demographic groupings, societies, and time. A recent article in this latter tradition, “Social Inequalities in Happiness in the United States, 1972 – 2004: An Age-Period-Cohort Analysis,” by Yang Yang was published in the April 2008 issue of the American Sociological Review (Volume 73, pp. 204-226). Because its sets new standard in sophistication of analysis, and because it appeared in a journal that might not be frequented by many members of ISQOLS, the contents of this article merit review.