Speaking Topics

The 2009 Gallup Well-Being Forum will feature the following topics.

Unlocking the Secrets of Happiness

Dan Buettner

A careful examination of surveys of subjective well-being indicates that cross-national variation and cultural differences seem to explain at least as much of the variance in well-being as do genetic factors and significantly more than education levels, marital status, or wealth. Working with Gallup, the World Values Survey, and the World Database of Happiness, Dan Buettner and his team found the three pockets around the world where people report the highest level of well-being. Then, on assignment for National Geographic, Buettner researched each of these hotspots and distilled down the common denominators in each place. Through high quality images, his presentation coveys what lesson from the world's "happiest" people and suggests some universal strategies on how to maximize happiness our personal happiness.

Personal Agendas & Personal Health: How Business can Acquire Employee Mind Space for Wellness

Joseph Coughlin, Ph.D.

"If you have your health, you have everything" - but is everything getting in the way of your health? The greatest barrier to individual well-being may be "everything" else. Today's employee and family must juggle the escalating volume, velocity and complexity of the now, while being asked to worry about their health tomorrow. How are personal agendas set, what is given priority, how do employers engage employees and their families to invest their attention in wellness? Learn how people decide what receives attention and what is filtered out, the new role of technology, social networks and emerging business models to place wellness on the personal agenda.

Who in the World is Religious, and What Good Does it do Them?

Angus Deaton, PH.D.

The Gallup World Poll provides an unequalled opportunity to examine patterns of religiosity and worship among the population of the world. In almost all of the countries of the world, women are more religious than men and the elderly are more religious than the young. Among countries with high life evaluation some, such as the United States, Ireland, and Italy, are religious, while others, such as the Scandinavian countries, are not. Within each country, religious people usually do better on a wide range of emotional, life evaluation, and health-related indicators, but there are many exceptions around the world.

Psychosocial Prosperity of the World

Ed Diener, Ph.D.

Measures of social prosperity and psychological well-being, such as those employed in the Gallup World Poll, are important adjuncts to the standard economic approaches of assessing the quality of life of nations and organizations. The surveys of psychosocial prosperity should be used by governmental and business leaders to improve decision making. Societies and organizations will flourish if they add surveys of psychosocial prosperity to their ongoing measures of performance. Findings from the Gallup World Poll will be presented, which show which areas of the world are flourishing, which are floundering, and why. It will be shown that although economic growth usually accompanies psychosocial prosperity, the two sometimes diverge in important ways.

Integrative Medicine: From Madness to Mainstream

Archelle Georgiou, M.D.

Integrative medicine is health care that addresses the mental, emotional, and physical aspects of the healing process -- care that is designed to treat the person, not just the disease. As ongoing evidence supports the power of the mind-connection and the impact on well-being, prominent academic health centers are incorporating integrative practices into their curriculum. This session will provide an overview of integrated medicine and the evidence that supports this approach as a mainstream approach in the delivery of care.

Well-Being and the Role of the Workplace

Jim Harter, Ph.D.

Dr. Harter will discuss recent research on the key determinants of well-being, based on study of international data, and the role the workplace can play on impacting individual well-being.

What I Have Learned From the Gallup Well-Being Polls

Daniel Kahneman, Ph.D.

This presentation will describe the similarities and differences between the ladder and the affect measures, both in the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index and the Gallup World Poll data.

The Well-Being of American Youth: Findings from the Gallup Student Poll

Shane J. Lopez, Ph.D.

The Gallup Student Poll is a landmark new measure that will track for 10 years the hope, engagement, and well-being of students across the United States. Through a web-based survey administered in America's schools, cities and school districts are partnering with Gallup and America's Promise Alliance to gather sound, actionable data about how today's youth are thinking about and experiencing life. The inaugural poll data suggests that evaluative well-being varies little across grade levels. However, there is a downward experienced well-being trend (across grades) when positive daily experiences associated with well-being are considered (treated with respect yesterday, smiled or laughed a lot yesterday, learned or did something interesting yesterday, had enough energy to get things done yesterday). Data trends and implications will be discussed.

The Power of Purpose

Haley Rushing

With a Purpose in place, decision making becomes easier, alignment happens naturally, performance soars and the well-being of both the individual and organization is enhanced. This presentation will share firsthand accounts of the transformational effect that Purpose has had in some of America's most legendary organizations.

Subjective Well-Being and Economic Growth

Betsey Stevenson, Ph.D.

Early research has suggested that there is no link between a society's economic development and its average level of happiness. We have re-assessed this paradox, analyzing multiple rich datasets spanning many decades. Using recent data on a broader array of countries, we establish a clear positive link between average levels of subjective well-being and GDP per capita across countries and find no evidence of a satiation point beyond which wealthier countries have no further increases in subjective well-being. We show that the estimated relationship is consistent across many datasets and is similar to the relationship between subjective well-being and income observed within countries. Finally, examining the relationship between changes in subjective well-being and income over time within countries, we find economic growth associated with rising happiness. Together these findings indicate a clear role for absolute income and a more limited role for relative income comparisons in determining happiness.

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