Registration is open for the November 7 Westwood Lecture on Assessing the Happiness of Societies

Westwood Residence (Purdue University photo)

Registration is open for teachers to attend the Westwood Lecture Series on November 7th

Louis Tay, William C. Byham Chair in Industrial and Organizational Psychology in the College of Health and Human Sciences, will present “Assessing Societal Well-Being: Emerging Opportunities and Challenges” in Westwood from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. hold Purdue’s President’s Residence.

The Westwood Lecture Series is an opportunity for Purdue faculty and staff working on the research topic to engage with colleagues about scholarly work. The program aims to strengthen the intellectual vibrancy of the Purdue West Lafayette campus.

Space is limited to the first 50 teachers to register online.

“Assessing Societal Well-Being: New Opportunities and Challenges”

Louis Tay

William C. Byham Chair in Industrial and Organizational Psychology

College of Health and Human Sciences

Abstract. As global interest grows beyond pure economic indicators, nations and intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development are increasingly focusing on measuring societal well-being. This presentation examines advances, challenges, and key considerations in assessing societal well-being, with a particular focus on psychometric and methodological perspectives. While survey data remains fundamental, recent innovations in data science—such as social media analysis, Google search trends, and video data—offer new opportunities for real-time well-being assessments. However, these approaches also present significant methodological challenges. The talk ends with a critical reflection on the limitations of happiness as a sole indicator of well-being and suggests future research directions and possible collaborations to enrich the assessment of societal well-being.

Organic. Louis Tay is the William C. Byham Professor of Industrial and Organizational Psychology in the College of Health and Human Sciences. Tay’s research focuses on assessing and improving human well-being using innovative methodological and technological approaches. He is co-editor of several books, including Big Data in Psychological Research (American Psychological Association), Handbook of Well-Being (DEF Publishers), Handbook of Positive Psychology Assessment (Hogrefe), and The Oxford Handbook of The Positive Humanities (Oxford University Press), Technology and Measurement around the Globe (Cambridge University Press) and Handbook of Well-Being in Higher Education (Oxford; forthcoming). His research has been published in various media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Scientific American Mind, Psychology Today and MSNBC. He has contributed to United Nations research reports on well-being and is the technology founder of Purdue-based startup ExpiWell.

Upcoming Westwood Lecture Series events in fall 2024

Dec 5: Mohit Tawarmalani, executive associate dean of the faculty and Allison and Nancy Schleicher Chair in Management at the Mitch Daniels School of Business, will discuss Optimization Beyond Convexity: Applications in Process Design, Networking, and Pricing. Tawarmalani’s research interests lie at the intersection of computer science, optimization and operations research with applications in business and engineering.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution that demonstrates excellence at scale. Purdue is ranked in the top 10 public universities and, with two colleges, in the top 4 in the United States. Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge at a quality and scale that is unparalleled. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, including nearly 50,000 in person at the West Lafayette campus. For reasons of affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition for 13 consecutive years. Watch as Purdue never stops in its persistent pursuit of the next big leap – including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the Mitch Daniels School of Business, Purdue Computes and the One Health initiative