Life satisfaction (January 2008)

The search for individual happiness appears to be as old as humanity itself. One look at the shelves of a decent bookstore shows how this has lost little of its appeal over time. There are titles like “Glück! Eine etwas andere Gebrauchsanweisung” (Happiness! A new method) (W. Schneider, 2007), “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” (D. Carnegie, 1948) or “Das Einmaleins der Zufriedenheit” (The ABCs of satisfaction) (J. Wilker, 2007) packing the bookshelves, each, in their own way, promising the way to happiness and satisfaction.

Yet the topic of life satisfaction catches not only the attention of popular science but is also closely examined in numerous social science studies. Terms such as life satisfaction and “happiness,” “subjective well-being,” or “quality of life” define, by now, their own research fields within the social sciences. This edition from Research Special contains the latest literature and research references on life satisfaction. The references are taken from the GESIS databases SOLIS and SOFIS as well as the six social science English language databases produced by Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA).

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