My personal website - www.christopherboyceresearch.com

My personal blog - Adventures in Happiness - www.adventuresinhappinessblog.wordpress.com

I am currently a Research Fellow with Behavioural Sceince Centre at the University of Stirling

ABOUT MY RESEARCH

My research is concerned with human happiness. What contributes to our happiness, and why? I combine ideas from psychology and economics to help our understanding of how life events, such as a promotion, income changes or unemployment influence our well-being.

Research Papers:

2014 and in press

Boyce, C. J., Wood, A. M., Daly, M, & Sedikides, C. (in press). Personality change following unemployment. Journal of Applied Psychology. ( - pdf)

Daly, M., Boyce, C.J., & Wood, A.M. (in press). A social rank explanation of how money influences health. Health Psychology. Download. ( - pdf)
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Ostafo, H., Wood, A. M., Boyce, C. J., & Dunn, G. (in press). An existential-humanistic view of personality change: Co-occurring changes with psychological well-being in a ten year cohort study. Social Indicators Research. ( - pdf)
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Wood, A. M., & Boyce, C. J. (2014). Personality, an overview. In A. Michalos [ed.], Encyclopedia of Quality of Life Research. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, pp 4773-4775. ( - pdf)

2013

Boyce, C. J., Wood, A. M., Banks, J, Clark, A. E., & Brown, G. D. A. (in press). Money, well-being, and
loss aversion: Does a loss in income have a greater effect on well-being than an equivalent income gain? Psychological Science. ( - pdf)

Boyce, C.J., Wood, A. M., & Powdthavee, N. (2013). Is personality fixed? Personality changes as much as "variable" economic factors and more strongly predicts changes to life satisfaction. Social Indicators Research, 111, 287-305. ( - pdf)

2012

Boyce, C. J., & Oswald, A. J. (2012). Do people become healthier after being promoted?. Health Economics, 21, 580-596.  ( - pdf)

Wood, A. M., Boyce, C. J., Moore, S. & Brown, G. D. A, (2012). An evolutionary based social rank explanation of why low income predicts mental distress: A 17 year cohort study of 30,000 people. Journal of Affective Disorders. ( - pdf)

2011

Boyce, C. J., & Wood, A. M. (2011). Personality prior to disability determines adaptation: Agreeable individuals recover lost life satisfaction faster and more completely. Psychological Science, 22, 183-191. ( - pdf)

Boyce, C. J., & Wood, A. M. (2011). Personality and the marginal utility of income: Personality interacts with increases in household income to determine life satisfaction. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 78, 183-191. ( - pdf)

2010

Boyce, C. J. (2010). Understanding fixed effects in human well-being. Journal of Economic Psychology, 31, 1-16. ( - pdf)

Boyce, C. J., Brown, G. D. A., & Moore, S. C. (2010). Money and happiness: Rank of income, not income, affects life satisfaction. Psychological Science, 21, 471-475. ( - pdf)  (additional analyses - pdf)

Boyce, C. J., & Wood, A. M. (2010). Money or mental health: The cost of alleviating psychological distress with monetary compensation versus psychological therapy. Health Economics, Policy and Law, 5, 509-516. ( - pdf)

Boyce, C.J., Wood, A. M., & Brown, G. D. A. (2010). The dark side of conscientiousness: Conscientious people experience greater drops in life satisfaction following unemployment. Journal of Research in Personality, 44, 535-539. ( - pdf)

Phd thesis:

Subjective well-being: An intersection between economics and psychology ( -pdf)

Some thoughts on getting a PhD

Biographical Details: Christopher is currently a Research Fellow at Stirling Management School at the University of Stirling. He also holds an Honarary position as a Research Associate in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Manchester. Christopher graduated from the University of Surrey with a BSc in Economics in 2005. He then moved to the University of Warwick to complete an MSc in Economics. At Warwick he then became interested in psychology and in 2009 completed a PhD in Psychology on the topic of subjective well-being. After his PhD he held positions as a Research Fellow at the Paris School of Economics, the University of Manchester, and at the Institute of Advanced Studies. His current research crosses the boundaries of economics and psychology and he tries to unite ideas from both disciplines. Specifically he is concerned with understanding how an individual's health and happiness is influenced by the world around them.

Christopher Boyce

Contact Me