SUBJECTIVE WELLBEING AND SUBJECTIVE ASPECTS OF WELLBEING: METHODOLOGY AND THEORY

The necessity to consider the individual perspective, completely ignored by the traditional GDP approach, in measuring countries’ well-being is broadly urged and accepted (Stiglitz et al., 2009). Many point out that the most important dimension of the individual perspective is represented by the subjective perception, defined in terms of subjective well-being, which should play an important role in the policy making process. The idea that observing subjective well-being has a high informative and analytic value is widely acquired. Perceptions and evaluations influence the way persons face life and benefit from opportunities. However, focusing on the individual perspective is affected by some risk. This contribution aims at exploring the conceptual issues related to those risks, which refer to some dualisms around well-being (subjective vs. objective, happiness vs. subjective experience, individual vs. community, present vs. future).