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Topic · Social Psychology

Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction

Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction is a research topic within Social Psychology. Science Explorer counts 35k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the role of positive emotions, well-being, and mental health, encompassing topics such as positive psychology, happiness, subjective well-being, resilience, gratitude, and eudaimonia. It explores the impact of positive emotions on individual flourishing and the broader implications for mental health and societal well-being.

  • Positive Psychology
  • Well-Being
  • Positive Emotions
  • Happiness
  • Subjective Well-Being
  • Resilience
  • Gratitude
  • Mental Health
  • Eudaimonia
  • Life Satisfaction
Research works
35k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+33%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
28% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction

Which countries lead Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1.9k and 1.2k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.9k works
  2. 2 China 1.2k works
  3. 3 India 766 works
  4. 4 Türkiye 593 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 564 works
  6. 6 Italy 481 works
  7. 7 Indonesia 368 works
  8. 8 Germany 365 works
  9. 9 Canada 325 works
  10. 10 Spain 297 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 27.7%China: 18.0%India: 11.1%Türkiye: 8.6%6 others listed: 34.7%28%largest
United States1,919 · 27.7%China1,247 · 18.0%India766 · 11.1%Türkiye593 · 8.6%6 others listed2,400 · 34.7%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction research?

By volume in 2022-now, Sapienza University of Rome publishes the most Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction research, followed by Islamic Azad University, Tehran and Beijing Normal University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Sapienza University of RomeItaly 238 works
  2. 2 Islamic Azad University, TehranIran 52 works
  3. 3 Beijing Normal UniversityChina 48 works
  4. 4 Harvard UniversityUnited States 37 works
  5. 5 University of TorontoCanada 37 works
  6. 6 The University of MelbourneAustralia 36 works
  7. 7 University College LondonUnited Kingdom 32 works
  8. 8 Christ UniversityIndia 29 works
  9. 9 Erasmus University RotterdamNetherlands 29 works
  10. 10 University of Hong KongChina 29 works

Who are the leading researchers in Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction include George Davey Smith, Ali H. Mokdad and Daniel J. Kahneman.

  1. 1 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  2. 2 Ali H. Mokdad United States 429k citations
  3. 3 Daniel J. Kahneman United States 395k citations
  4. 4 Richard M. Ryan United States 395k citations
  5. 5 Albert Bandura United States 370k citations
  6. 6 Ronald C. Kessler United States 360k citations
  7. 7 Cyrus Cooper United Kingdom 342k citations
  8. 8 Edward L. Deci United States 325k citations
  9. 9 Mika Kivimäki United Kingdom 318k citations
  10. 10 Dan J. Stein South Africa 306k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction?

The most cited paper in Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction is "A Global Measure of Perceived Stress" (Sheldon Cohen, Tom Kamarck, Robin J. Mermelstein, 1983), with 33,209 citations. Next come "Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales." (31,676) and "Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis." (17,584).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 A Global Measure of Perceived Stress Sheldon Cohen, Tom Kamarck, Robin J. Mermelstein · Journal of Health and Social Behavior Dec 1983 33,209
2 Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. David Watson, Lee A. Clark, Auke Tellegen · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1988 31,676
3 Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Sheldon Cohen, Thomas A. Wills · Psychological Bulletin Sep 1985 17,584
4 The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Barbara L. Fredrickson · American Psychologist Open access Mar 2001 14,780
5 The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Kirk Warren Brown, Richard M. Ryan · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003 13,566
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction research done?

The largest centres of Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction research in 2022-now are Rome (Italy), Beijing (China), London (United Kingdom) and Istanbul (Türkiye). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Tai Po.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 RomeItaly 274 works
  2. 2 BeijingChina 210 works
  3. 3 LondonUnited Kingdom 145 works
  4. 4 IstanbulTürkiye 120 works
  5. 5 Hong KongChina 92 works
  6. 6 ShanghaiChina 86 works
  7. 7 SeoulSouth Korea 84 works
  8. 8 TokyoJapan 77 works
  9. 9 MelbourneAustralia 76 works
  10. 10 AnkaraTürkiye 75 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Tai PoCN · 22.0 works13×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction than the world average.

See Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction on the map

Where is the best place to study Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction?

Among universities, judged by research, Sapienza University of Rome, Harvard University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 20.98%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of SurreyHarvard UniversityHong Kong Polytechni…Sapienza University …
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Sapienza University of RomeItaly 66.29.7%20.9×238 +1504.4%
2Harvard UniversityUnited States 65.227.5%1.2×37 +29.4%
3Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 64.926.8%2.9×24 +29.0%
4University of SurreyUnited Kingdom 63.638.5%3.4×8 +81.5%
5University College LondonUnited Kingdom 60.418.7%2.0×32 +20.7%
6The University of MelbourneAustralia 59.720.1%3.3×36 +23.6%
7Utrecht UniversityNetherlands 56.822.7%1.9×13 +39.2%
8Stanford UniversityUnited States 56.017.1%1.5×22 +27.4%
9University of Hong KongChina 54.816.2%3.1×28 +27.7%
10Beijing Normal UniversityChina 54.512.5%6.1×48 +119.0%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction, country by country

Is Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 33% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.046% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction0.045% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction10.2% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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