Dr. Ulrich Schimmack

RESEARCH

Why are some people happier than others? Ulrich Schimmack and his students work on answering this fascinating question. They define happiness as subjective well-being (SWB). SWB has two components: affective well-being (AWB) is the balance of positive versus negative emotional experiences. Cognitive well-being (CWB) is an evaluation of one's live based on one's own criteria. Their main research examines environmental and social influences on SWB by means of dyadic studies (i.e., pairs of participants) of different social groups (romantic couples, friends, parent-child, roommates). Their research uses self-reports and informant ratings (i.e., ratings of the partner in a dyad) to measure SWB and potential causes of SWB. Schimmack and his students also use experience-sampling methodology (i.e., repeated assessments of events and feelings for a couple of weeks). Their main methodological approach is to make inferences about causes of SWB based on correlations between SWB and other variables using advanced statistical methods. They also started to conduct intervention studies that aim to increase an individual's happiness. In one recent study, friends kept a gratitude diary, and Schimmack and his students examined whether a more grateful attitude increases SWB. Students interested in joining Schimmack's laboratory should be interested in emotions, happiness, individual differences, and correlational research.