The document discusses the concepts of well-being and happiness. It summarizes research conducted in Bolton, UK in 1938 and again in 2014 measuring factors important for happiness. The three most important factors in 1938 were security, knowledge, and religion, while in 2014 they were security, good humor, and equality. The document also discusses various definitions and approaches to measuring well-being.

1. What is wellbeing and what does it
mean for science communication?
Saamah Abdallah
John Haworth
Chair: Amy Sanders
#SciComm14Free #SciComm14

2. Happiness and Well-being
John Haworth. Visiting Professor in Well-being, University
of Bolton & Visiting Research Fellow, Manchester
Metropolitan University. UK
www.haworthjt.com
haworthjt@yahoo.com
British Science Association
Science Communication Conference
1st
- 2nd
May. University of Surrey, Guildford. UK

3. Mass Observation
WORKTOWN
www.worktown.bolton.ac.uk/worktown.

4. Bolton was chosen as “representative of the industrial life pattern which
prevails for the majority of people in Britain”
More can be seen about Mass Observation and Worktown at The Centre
for Worktown Studies, University of Bolton. www.bolton.ac.uk/worktown.
And Humphrey Spender’s Worktown at
http://spender.boltonmuseums.org.uk
The research used photography very innovatively, in particular by
Humphrey Spender, to record the life and times of Bolton, and written
accounts of life and happiness made by the people of Bolton, responding
to a “Competitions” Survey organised by the Bolton Evening News.
The survey has been repeated recently by the Bolton News, in
collaboration with Sandie McHugh and Jerome Carson at the Department
of Psychology, University of Bolton. It included a request for respondents to
rank in order 10 factors important for true happiness. Explanations of the
original wording were included.

5. 1938 – 10 aspects of happiness1938 – 10 aspects of happiness
discourse /explanation for 2014discourse /explanation for 2014
More equality More politics
More equality in wealth More say in political
decisions
More beauty More religion
More attractive living &
working environment
More religious influence in
society
More leadership More good humour
More direction from local &
national decision makers
More smiling and laughter
for myself & those around
me
More leisure More knowledge
More time to do the things I
enjoy
More access and
opportunities to learn new
things
More economic security More action
More certainty for
maintaining & maybe
improving my living
standards
More action to solve not
shelve my problems

6. The survey also included a question on enjoyment, similar to the
one used by the ONS.
280 completed questionnaires are on the Bolton News website
(awaiting analysis). 86 completed paper questionnaires have
been given an initial analysis by Sandie McHugh, and compared
with the1938 survey. This showed that
The three most important aspects of happiness in Worktown
1938 2014
More Security Security
More Knowledge Good Humour
More Religion Equality

7. Worktown to Cottonopolis
The Centre for Worktown Studies, Directed by Bob Snape,organised a day long
workshop, open to the general public,on the 29 March 2014.
This included presentations on the Mass Observation Worktown Archive; and
the Bolton News Happiness Research.
It also involved repeating the original journey from Bolton to Cottonopolis
(Manchester), with the award winning cartoonist Tony Husband (Private Eye,
The Times), with participants invited to become a Mass Observer for the Day.
Participants were also invited to complete a ‘Hands On’ project, involving
drawing round their hand on a piece of A4 paper, and writing the number of
each of six questions on subjective well being, including Happiness, and the
numerically coded answer. A poster will be made and placed on the website
www.creativity-embodiedmind.com It will be similar to one made at a Workshop
at an invited Conference on ‘Aesthetics and Embodied Mind’ at Delmenhorst,
Germany, organised by Alfonsina Scarinsi. The poster can be seen in the
gallery at the above website.
A presentation was also made at the Manchester Histories Festival
Celebration Day.

8. Well-being has been viewed variously as happiness, satisfaction, enjoyment,
contentment, engagement, fulfilment, resilience, and flourishing. Well-being is also
viewed as a process, something we do together, and as sense making, rather than
just a state of being. It is acknowledged that in life as a whole there will be periods
of ill-being, and that these may add richness to life. It has also been recognised that
well-being and the environment are intimately interconnected.
Certainly, well-being is seen to be complex and multifaceted, and may take different
forms (Haworth, J.T. & Hart, G. (eds) (2012) Well-Being: Individual, Community and
Social Perspectives. Basingstoke UK: Palgrave Macmillan).
Happiness and well-being are now crucial topics for research and policy in many
countries; and a movement for happiness has been established
www.movementforhappiness.org/movement-manifesto
The New Economics Foundation www.neweconomics.org considers that sustainable
well-being should be at the forefront of government policy.
BOLTON WELL-BEINGBOLTON WELL-BEING
Well-BeingWell-Being
While the results for Bolton of the National Well-being Survey by the ONS do not feature in some of the worst in England, there are greater percentages of people in the lower (negative) end of the scale
for Life Satisfaction, Happiness, and Feeling Things in Life are Worthwhile, than in Greater Manchester and the UK taken as a whole.
• For Life Satisfaction and Happiness there is a greater percentage in the positive end of the scales for Bolton than for Greater Manchester and the UK.
• The Life Satisfaction and Happiness scales are thus more unequal in Bolton than for Greater Manchester and the UK.
• There is a greater percentage of people with very low anxiety in Bolton than in Greater Manchester and the UK
The monthly Opinion Survey conducted in August 2011 by the ONS included a measure
of enjoyment, which has been shown to be important for well-being (Haworth and
Hart 2012), and other aspects of experience, as well as the four overall measures of
wellbeing.
The question on enjoyment asked: ‘Overall how much enjoyment did you experience
yesterday?’ answered on a 10 point scale from 0 no enjoyment at all to 10 as much
enjoyment as possible.
The mean rating was 6.4, compared to a mean rating of 7.4 to the question ‘Overall how
happy did you feel yesterday’. Enjoyment correlated 0.58 with happiness.
For enjoyment, nearly 20% had a rating of under 5, while 35% or more had a rating of
between 8 and 10.
Obviously there are significant differences in enjoyment amongst sections of the
population. It would be valuable to analyse in more detail how enjoyment is
distributed amongst the population by variables such as age, gender,
employment/unemployment, income, and geographical place.
Results for BoltonResults for Bolton
Measuring National Well-BeingMeasuring National Well-Being EnjoymenEnjoyment
Currently in the UK, at the behest of the UK Government, the Office of National
Statistics (ONS) (www.ons.gov.uk) is developing new measures of national well-
being. The aim is that these new measures will cover the quality of life of people in
the UK, environmental and sustainability issues, as well as the economic
performance of the country. The ONS has added four questions to its annual
Integrated Household Survey. These are:
•Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
•Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday
•Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday
•Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?
The questions are answered on a scale from 0-10. Smaller surveys addressing other
aspects of well-being are being conducted each month. Initially, results will be
regarded as experimental to see if the questions work, and that they meet public
policy and other needs, including international developments.
Children’s Graffiti
Bolton Open
Bolton Lads and Girls
Club
Atlantic Rowers Arriving Antigua
John Haworth Visiting Professor of Well-Being University of Bolton
Bowls Bolton Open Bolton Shopping
Market
West Pennine moors
Bolton Museum’s Humphrey Spender’s Worktown Collection
Bolton Town Hall
Happiness Questionnaire 2014University of Bolton

9. HANDS ON

10. Several key concepts relating to well-being have been
identified in the introduction to book by Haworth and Hart
2007/ 2012, available on the website www.wellbeing-
esrc.com
These include the following:
Well-being has been viewed variously as happiness, satisfaction,
enjoyment, contentment; engagement, fulfilment and
flourishing
Well-being is also viewed as a process, something we do
together, and as sense making, rather than just a state of
being.
Well-being is seen to be complex and multifaceted, and may take
different forms.
Well-being is now being investigated in the UK by the Office for
National Statistics www.ons.gov.uk/ drawing on national and
local surveys using questions comparable with research in
other countries.

11. An empirical model of well-being.
Nine situational or environmental factors, termed Principal Environmental
Influences (PEI’S) have been proposed by Warr, (1987) as important for
well-being. They include the five categories of experience identified by
Jahoda, provided as latent consequencies of employment, showing the
importance of social institutions for well-being.
These features of the environment, such as opportunity for control,
externally generated goals, opportunity for interpersonal contact, are
considered to interact with characteristics of the person to facilitate or
constrain psychological well-being or mental health.
Research by Haworth and colleagues shows strong associations
between each of the nine factors and measures of mental health.
An important development of the model shows the importance of
enjoyment for well-being.
The research is published in Journals referenced in the book:
J.T. Haworth (1997) Work, Leisure and Well-being. London: Routledge;
Taylor and Francis (2006).

12. The book has been republished by Taylor and Francis (2006).
The research was done using the Experience Sampling Method, and path analysis. The
study suggested that enjoyment and feelings of control might enhance locus of control,
which in turn may lead to enhanced well-being either directly or through greater access
to PEIs. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) in the UK in its ‘Approach to
measuring well-being’ is ‘Aiming to build a deeper understanding of how internal
psychological factors and personal attributes can mediate external determinants
and contributions of individual well-being’.

13. The ESM traditionally uses questionnaire diaries and electronic pagers
which are pre-programmed to bleep at randomly selected times during
the day to indicate response times, though recent research has used
mobile phones (see later).
The ESM in this project, conducted over seven consecutive days,
involved a series of short questions answered on a card, at a signal from
the pager eight times during the day. The questions were on activity,
enjoyment, interest, challenge, skills, and happiness.
Questionnaires are used to measure the PEI’S and some aspects of
well-being, and Locus of Control.
The results from the study by Haworth, Jarman, and Lee (1997) showed
that several of the PEIs were associated with measures of well-being; and
that locus of control was associated with measures of well-being, with
internal locus of control individuals having better scores. Internal locus of
control individuals also had better scores on several PEIs; and also
greater levels of enjoyment, interest and control, and wished to be doing
activities more than external locus of control individuals, measured over
the week of the study. Path analysis showed that for some measures of
well-being, locus of control had a greater indirect effect on well-being
through the PEIs than a direct effect.

14. Rotter (1966,1990) emphasises that locus of control is a learned expectancy, rather
than a fixed trait. Furnham and Steele (1993) note that while locus of control beliefs
may influence experience, the reverse may also be true. They suggest that positive
successful life experiences probable increase internal locus of control beliefs
through optimistic attributions. These may increase confidence, initiative and
positive motivation, and thus lead to more successful experiences.
Rotter (1982) indicates the possible importance of ‘enhancement behaviours’, which
he viewed as ‘specific cognitive activities that are used by internals to enhance
and maintain good feelings’.
However, Uleman and Bargh (1989) also indicate the importance of subconscious
processes in wellbeing
Merleau-Ponty (1962) in his Embodiment theory of consciousness indicates the
importance of both non-reflective and reflective interactions in Being (see Haworth 2000)
This is reflected in current theories of ‘situated cognition’ emphasising the intertwining of
the situation and cognition. ( e.g. M. Wilson (2002) Six Views of Embodied Cognition.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, Volume 6, Issue 4, pp625-636
Conceivably, positive subjective states could influence person factors, such as
dispositions, coping styles and life themes etc, through both reflective and non
-reflective interactions. In turn, person factors could influence well-being directly,
or indirectly through access to situational factors important for well-being.

15. Enjoyment, Flow and Well-being, in Work and Leisure
Haworth, J.T.(2004) Work, Leisure and Well-Being in (eds) J.T. Haworth, and
A.J.Veal. Work and Leisure. London: Routledge.
Haworth, J.T. (2014) ‘Leisure, Life, Enjoyment and Well-Being’ In (eds) S. Elkington
and J. Gammon. Contemporary Perspectives in Leisure: Meanings, Motives and
Lifelong-Learning’ Oxford: OUP
Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) distinguish between pleasure and enjoyment . They note that
‘--- Enjoyment, rather than pleasure, is what leads to personal growth and long term happiness’
In a pioneering study, Csikszentmihalyi (1975) set out to understand enjoyment in its own terms and to
describe what makes an activity enjoyable. He found that when artists, athletes and creative
professionals were asked to describe the best times experienced in their favourite activities they all
mentioned a dynamic balance between opportunity and ability as crucial. Optimal experience, or ‘flow’
as some of the respondents’ described it, could be differentiated from states of boredom, in which there
is less to do than what one is capable of, and from anxiety, which occurs when things to do are more
than one can cope with.
Extensive research has shown that enjoyable flow, where activities of moderate to high challenge are
met with equal skill, can come from both work and leisure, and that this correlates with measures of
well-being. High enjoyment can also come from low challenge activities, and be important for well-being

16. Well-being and the
public
Science Communication
Conference
University of Surrey,
2nd
May 2014
Saamah Abdallah
Centre for Well-being
nef (the new economics foundation)

17. Dynamic model of well-being
Good feelings
day-to-day and overall
e.g. happiness, joy,
contentment, satisfaction
Good functioning and
satisfaction of needs
e.g. to be autonomous,
competent, safe and
secure, connected to
others
Personal
Resources
e.g. health, resilience,
optimism, self-esteem,
External
Conditions
e.g. material conditions,
work and productivity,
income (levels and
stability)
Adapted from Foresight (2008)

18. Understanding progress
Happy Planet Index, 2006

19. Top four factors associated with
well-being
• Material deprivation
• Health & disability
• Work-life balance
• Social relationships
Based on European Quality of Life Survey 2011

20. Five ways to wellbeing
Evidence-based
actions that are
memorable, easy to
understand and have
a wide variety of
possible applications

21. So what’s the
problem?

22. When folk science gets
involved

23. Psychology – the challenges of
telling people about themselves

24. Sciencewise – Embedding
Well-being in policy making
• Workshops with groups of the
public about real policy issues
• Informed by well-being science,
but light on use of term ‘well-being’
• Two workshop process – one
where options are opened, one
where they are closed down by
policy constraints
• Three topics:
– Community Rights
– Loneliness
– Active Labour Market Policy
• Different contribution in different
contexts

25. Saamah Abdallah
www.neweconomics.org
saamah.abdallah@neweconomics.org
@nefwellbeing

26. The perfect policy?
Well-being =