Wellbeing research

Find out about some of the latest and most high profile wellbeing research we’ve come across in each of the areas of our CANBE model. Of course research is constantly being updated and we’ll keep this page as current as we possibly can. If you know of research that you think we should be aware of please let us know.

At Improveon we take an approach which balances research with common sense, experience, emotions and even our own gut feelings.  After all research can be extremely useful in supporting our decision making but it can also be inconclusive, misguided or even plain wrong!

General wellbeing research

• LSE Wellbeing Programme – research into the causes and effects of wellbeing, wellbeing policy and mental health
• Vitality Insurance – Britain’s Healthiest Workplace – studies the links between wellbeing and productivity
• Reward & Employee Benefits Association – The evolution of workplace wellbeing in the UK – Assessing the effectiveness of workplace wellbeing initiatives
• World Database of Happiness – a collection of findings on happiness in the sense of ‘the subjective enjoyment of one’s life as-a-whole’.

Creating meaning

Research which supports the benefits of having meaning and purpose

• Meaning in the workplace – HRO Today
• The Importance of Meaning in the Workplace – Chief Learning Officer
• Seligman et al. (2005). Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5):410-421
• Lavy & Littman-Ovadia (2017). My better self: Using strengths at work and work productivity, organizational citizenship behavior, and satisfaction. Journal of Career Development, 44(2) 95-109
• Harzer & Ruch (2012). When the job is a calling: The role of applying one’s signature strengths at work. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 7,362-371.

Achieving potential

This research emphasises the benefits of focusing on wellbeing to our success. In essence it suggests that a focus on wellbeing brings success but a focus on success won’t necessarily bring us greater wellbeing!

• Happiness and Productivity – Andrew J. Oswald, Eugenio Proto, Daniel Sgroi.
• The Role of Psychological Well-Being in Job Performance: A Fresh Look at an Age-Old Quest – Thomas A Wright, Russell Cropanzano
• High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being – Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton
• Whillans et al. (2016). Valuing time over money is associated with greater happiness. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(3), 213-222

Nurturing Relationships

Research that demonstrates the importance of relationships to our overall wellbeing.

• Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network: longitudinal analysis over 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study – J.H. Fowler and N.A. Christakis
• Myers (2000). The funds, friends, and faith of happy people. American psychologist, 55(1), 56.
• Epley & Schroeder (2014). Mistakenly seeking solitude. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(5), 1980.

Building Resilience

This research shows the importance of resilience to wellbeing.

• Employee resilience and leadership styles: The moderating role of proactive personality and optimism – Quyen Nguyen, Joana R.C. Kuntz, Katharina Näswall, Sanna Malinen
• All about resilience – Psychology Today
• Killingsworth & Gilbert (2010). A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science, 330(6006), 932–932.
• Brewer et al. (2011). Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(50), 20254-20259.
• Hillman et al. (2008). Be smart, exercise your heart: exercise effects on brain and cognition. Nature reviews neuroscience, 9(1), 58-65.
• Huffington Post. Lose Sleep, Lose Your Mind and Health

Enriching Lives

Explores the impact on our wellbeing and the wellbeing of others through how we think, feel and subsequently behave.

• Happy People Live Longer: Subjective Well-Being Contributes to Health and Longevity – Ed Diener, Micaela Y. Chan
• Estimating the influence of life satisfaction and positive affect on later income using sibling fixed effects – Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and Andrew J. Oswald
• Jose et al. (2012). Does savoring increase happiness? A daily diary study. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 7(3), 176-187.
• Emmons et al. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of personality and social psychology, 84(2), 377.
• Koo et al. (2008). It’s a wonderful life: Mentally subtracting positive events improves people’s affective states, contrary to their affective forecasts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(5), 1217–1224.
• Kurtz (2008). Looking to the future to appreciate the present: The benefits of perceived temporal scarcity. Psychological Science, 19(10), 1238-1241.
• Otake et al. (2006). Happy people become happier through kindness: A counting kindnesses intervention. Journal of happiness studies, 7(3), 361-375.
• Dunn et al. (2008). Spending money on others promotes happiness. Science,319 (5870), 1687-1688.
• Self-Confidence: 9 Essential Ways to Become More Self-Confident Positive Psychology Programme

Using wellbeing research to back up our thinking is important but it’s not the whole story. Just like most things sometimes we just need to use our common sense and experience. Improveon provides consulting, coaching and training services based on a combination of research, common sense and experience to help design, develop and deliver the most effective solutions to meet the needs of individuals, managers, leaders, teams, brands and organisations.

If you’d like a conversation about how Improveon can help you, your team or organisation get in touch using the contact/schedule now button and book a free consultation. Alternatively:

• Email da***@im*******.uk
• Phone 07753 430 557
• Leave a message on our contact page and we’ll be back in touch

Let’s link up

If you think this page contains some useful information about wellbeing research why not share a link to it with others.  After all sharing makes us feel good and helps build our wellbeing!