ABSTRACT
What would happen if, in addition to using psychological research and theory to explain political outcomes, we also used political psychological theory and research to explain psychological outcomes? Political scientists might say that thereby they forsook their mission, but I do not think this is true. Some psychological outcomes, in fact, represent the speciWcation of what, as political scientists, we have always been interested in. In my opinion, indeed, turning political psychology upside down has the beneWt of dealing with what can be called the true ends of our inquiries, instead of the means that traditionally served as the subject of our research. This chapter is an inquiry into the risks and beneWts of devoting some of our talents in political psychology to a study of two such psychological outcomes, subjective well-being (SWB) and human development.
