The happiness turn? Mapping the Emergence of “Happiness Studies” Using Cited References.

The study analyzes “happiness studies” as an emerging field of inquiry throughout various scientific disciplines and research areas. Utilizing four operationalized search terms in the Web of Science; “happiness”, “subjective well-being”, “life satisfaction” and “positive affect”, a dataset was created for empirical citation analysis. Combined with qualitative interpretations of the publications, the results show how happiness studies have developed over time, in what journals the citing papers have been published, and which authors and researchers are the most productive within this set. The conclusion is that “happiness studies” have emerged in many different disciplinary contexts and progressively been integrated and standardized. Moreover, beginning at the turn of the millennium, happiness studies have even begun to shape an autonomous field of inquiry, in which happiness becomes a key research problem for itself, and we may even speak of a “happiness turn”.

Purpose:

The study aims at drawing a more precise map of the scientific research contexts in which happiness studies have become a core activity, an integrated part of research, or a peripheral side-activity to normal science within a pre-existing discipline. The aim is to show how a new research field - ‘‘happiness studies’’ - has emerged, consolidated and become integrated into practices of research.

本研究将"幸福研究"作为跨多科学学科与研究领域的新兴探究领域展开分析。研究依托Web of Science（Web of Science）数据库中4个经操作化定义的检索词——"happiness"（幸福）、"subjective well-being"（主观幸福感）、"life satisfaction"（生活满意度）与"positive affect"（积极情感），构建了用于实证引文分析的数据集。结合对相关文献的质性解读，研究结果揭示了"幸福研究"的时序发展脉络、引证文献的刊载期刊分布，以及该领域内高产作者与研究人员的构成情况。研究结论表明，"幸福研究"已涌现于众多不同的学科语境中，并逐步实现整合与标准化。此外，自千禧年之交起，"幸福研究"甚至开始塑造出一个自主的探究领域，幸福本身成为核心研究议题，我们甚至可以称其为"幸福转向"。

研究目的：本研究旨在更精准地勾勒"幸福研究"所处的科学研究语境图谱，明确"幸福研究"作为核心研究活动、研究组成部分，或是既有学科内常规科学的边缘附属活动的分布形态。本研究的目标在于阐明"幸福研究"这一新兴研究领域如何诞生、巩固并融入科研实践体系。