For a long time, American well-being has been measured by GDP. By personal income. By cold, hard numbers. Not anymore.

Now, a field of economic study — the measurement of happiness — is coming of age. It’s providing new insights into who we are, and the roots of what really makes us happy. Money, politics, family, faith, work, our daily routines. All factors in our evolving understanding of national well-being.

It’s real food for thought — for how we might reorder our lives, and truly pursue happiness.

This hour, On Point: Measuring our gross national happiness.

-Jane Clayson

Guests:

Alan Krueger, professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, he is former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor and co-author of a landmark eight-year study on contributors to national well-being

Arthur Brooks, professor at Syracuse University, visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and author of “Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America–and How We Can Get More of It”

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly

So much has been written about the search for happiness — in songs and poems and countless self-help books — much of it straight from the heart.

But it turns out there’s also a science of happiness, and in her new book a psychologist lays out the cold, hard facts, based on decades of research.

Did you know you have a happiness “set point”? What do you really need to be happy?

Her book is part science, part self-help, with questionnaires and exercises. We’ll give it a try.

This hour, On Point: mapping happiness

-Jane Clayson

Guests:

Sonja Lyubomirsky, professor of psychology at the University of Riverside and author of “The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want.”

Eric Wilson, professor of English at Wake Forest University and author of “Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy.”