Wellbeing
Research theme
Our research focuses on the causes and consequences of human wellbeing as they relate to human behaviour, and how insights from our understanding of wellbeing can be used to design better policies to improve our lives.
In pursuit of greater knowledge of human behaviour and how it can be effectively changed, understanding the causes and consequences of human wellbeing is crucial. Wellbeing plays a major role in our experience of the world and our interactions with it. It underpins many if not all of our behaviours. Experiencing higher wellbeing after a change in behaviour, for example, makes it more likely that people change their behaviour for good. Thus, understanding, measuring, and improving wellbeing and its causes, in particular mental health, social relations, or trust, are of the utmost importance. For behavioural science to help people live happier, healthier lives, we must have a good understanding of wellbeing.
In the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, researchers are working to help design and evaluate policies with wellbeing in mind. This relationship is bidirectional – how do policies shape our wellbeing, and how can our understanding of wellbeing help design better policies? Improved wellbeing is to the benefit of each individual as well as communities and societies more broadly – socially, economically, and politically.
Our researchers form one of the leading groups on wellbeing worldwide. Members of our group are at the forefront of developing new metrics and methods to put wellbeing into policy practice, with considerable impact around the world. Applying a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods, our researchers are studying a wide range of topics, including the relationship between mental health and economic outcomes like unemployment, how the community in which we live affects our wellbeing and mental health, pro-social behaviour like volunteering, how our environment and environmental quality impact on wellbeing, non-cognitive skills and their relation to wellbeing and mental health, large societal events, the effects of COVID-19 on wellbeing, and many more.
Expertise
Below you can find experts, research and media focussed on the role of wellbeing in policy, economics and community health in variety of settings.
Teaching
Our group is also at the forefront of teaching wellbeing. In particular, we teach the Wellbeing specialism in the MSc in Behavioural Science, which gives students the option to graduate with an MSc in Behavioural Science (Wellbeing). The Wellbeing specialism is unique worldwide, and it teaches students the science of wellbeing and how to use wellbeing for policy design, appraisal, and evaluation, with an innovative, real-world assessment strategy. Find out more about our Wellbeing specialism and our MSc Behavioural Science programme.