MSU researcher chosen for major 鈥榟appiness, well-being鈥 study
Contact: Karyn Brown
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擜 亚洲色吧视频 faculty member is part of a three-year international investigation into the variables that affect human happiness and well-being.
Assistant Professor Alicia Hall of the university鈥檚 Department of Philosophy and Religion recently was selected for the $5.1 million interdisciplinary research project.
Titled 鈥淗appiness and Well-Being: Integrating Research Across the Disciplines,鈥 the project is being led by philosophy professor Dan Haybron of St. Louis University.
As part of this project, Hall鈥檚 research focuses on finding a pragmatic approach to measuring the impact of well-being specifically in health care and public policy. The grant is funded largely by the prestigious John Templeton Foundation, a Pennsylvania-based philanthropy, with additional support from SLU.
According to Hall, there is a high interest in both healthcare and public policy organizations to determine as specifically as possible how certain public policies, diseases and medical treatments affect happiness and well-being. While many of the measures are subjective, many researchers long have been interested in determining how various interactions affect individual human satisfactions with their lives as a whole.
Hall is a 2008 doctoral graduate of the University of Minnesota, where her dissertation was titled 鈥淜nowing the Good Life: A Narrative Approach to Subjective Well-Being.鈥
As she explained, life satisfaction typically is measured by personal standards and priorities. As priorities change over time, these same interventions also may change how individuals assess their own levels of life satisfaction.
鈥淚鈥檓 going to be examining how medical and policy interventions can lead to changes in people鈥檚 values and expectations for their lives, in order to come up with a practical framework for determining when these changes are likely to be beneficial or maladaptive in the long term,鈥 Hall said.
鈥淭his can then be used to better understand how specific policies and treatments affect people鈥檚 well-being and provide better guidance for decisions about which policies and medical interventions are most successful in terms of promoting an individual鈥檚 well-being,鈥 she added.
Hall said that of some 300 letters of intent and 55 full grant proposals submitted from around the world, hers was among less than two dozen chosen.
In addition to having a very special opportunity to work with a distinguished list of international colleagues, 鈥淚 feel privileged to be able to participate in a grant like this that allows me to develop my understanding of issues that are so relevant to all of our lives, and to be able to share these insights with my students at 亚洲色吧视频,鈥 Hall said.
The university鈥檚 philosophy and religion department is a part of MSU鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences.
Associate Dean Giselle Thibaudeau said the college takes great pride that one of its faculty members has been chosen for such a complex investigation. 鈥淲e pride ourselves on our faculty successes in collaborative research," she said.
Thibaudeau said the Templeton Foundation award is a prime example of such successes, adding that she and other college leaders 鈥渓ook forward to seeing and experiencing the results of Dr. Hall and her colleagues in bringing the sciences and humanities together to improve happiness and well-being.鈥
The 138-year-old land-grant institution鈥檚 largest academic unit, the College of Arts and Sciences includes more than 5,000 students, 300 full-time faculty members, nine doctoral programs and 24 academic majors offered in 14 departments.
Home to the most diverse units for research and scholarly activities鈥攊ncluding natural and physical sciences, social and behavioral sciences, and the humanities鈥攊ts scholarly output in the humanities has helped place MSU in the National Science Foundation鈥檚 top 50. The NSF also ranked MSU among the top 25 for research expenditures in the social sciences. For more, visit .
Information on the philosophy and religion department is found at .
Complete details on the research project is found at , and on the Templeton Foundation, at .
MSU is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at .