The Origins of Happiness

Chapter 16

behavior strongly affects other people, and vice versa. The

adult also evaluates many of his or her achievements like

income and education in relation to what others have also

achieved. So the overall picture of life we try to describe is

that shown in Figure 16.1.

So the tables that summarize our findings proceed in the

following order. First we look at how adult happiness can

be changed by directly changing adult outcomes. Then we

look at how it can be changed by changing child outcomes,

and then at how these in turn can be changed by altering

families or schools.

In this book we have used a multiplicity of data from

four main countries (Britain, the United States, Germany,

and Australia), which give broadly similar results. In this

summary chapter we shall concentrate mainly on three Brit-

ish surveys: the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS),^5

which interviews a sample of adults of all ages every year;

the British Cohort Study (BCS) of people born in 1970 and

Family

and schooling

Child outcomes

Intellectual

Behavioral

Emotional

Adult behavior

and other

outcomes

Others’

behavior and

other outcomes

Own adult

happiness

Happiness of

other adults

Figure 16.1. The life course of the individual