The National Academy of Sciences has appointed
Stony Brook Distinguished Professor Arthur A. Stone, PhD to chair an
advisory panel to evaluate methods for measuring subjective well-being
for potential use in official government surveys that inform social and
economic policy. The project is attracting the attention of high-level
officials and the national press. It is sponsored by the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, National Institute on Aging, and the U.K.
Economic and Social Research Council.
The panel has met twice —
in December 2011 and March 2012 — to review the current state of
research and to discuss the role that measures of subjective well-being
might play in key national statistics and indicators. The panel will
consider whether research has advanced to a point that warrants the
federal government collecting information about the population’s
subjective well being — both positive and negative — and associating it
with changing conditions over time. “We will meet at least five times,”
Dr. Stone said, “and issue a position paper which will be published as a
report from the National Academies.” Among those attending the open
portions of the meetings have been the Director of the U.S. Census
Bureau, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and the Chief
Statistician of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
Although
the panel’s primary focus is on the inclusion of self-reported
well-being in U.S. government surveys, it will also consider similar
surveys in the United Kingdom and European Union, to
facilitate cross-national comparisons. On April 2, Dr. Stone was invited
to a United Nations conference on Happiness and Well-being.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon introduced the program by noting that the
United Kingdom, the European Union, the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) and others are developing measures of
well-being. “Gross National Product has long been the yardstick by
which economies and politicians have been measured,” the
Secretary-General said, “Yet it fails to take into account the social
and environmental costs of so-called progress. We need a new economic
paradigm...”
Dr. Stone, who is a specialist in behavioral
medicine and in the measurement of patient experience, is a
Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at Stony Brook
University. He is Vice Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Science and Director of the Applied Behavioral Medicine
Research Institute.
