The thesis investigated the impact of critical life events (marriage, divorce, birth of child, widowhood, and unemployment) on dynamics of subjective well-being (SWB). It contributed to specification of the hedonic treadmill theory by a) addressing the issue of events timing, b) exploring inter-individual differences in adaptation, and c) analyzing differences in adaptation across countries. The work comprised 3 empirical studies. The first study estimated the effect of life events not with a temporal precision of 12 months (as is common in (...) the literature) but of 3 months. As expected, higher precision of events' timing allows a clearer view on hedonic adaptation, in particular following negative events (divorce, widowhood, unemployment). The second study analyzed inter-individual differences in adaptation to divorce. The findings confirmed that a) the reaction to divorce is not uniform, b) adaptation pattern depends on resources that are available to the individual. The third study compared the impact of divorce on SWB in Russia and West Germany and showed that the divorce-related dynamics, as well as the relevance of particular resources, are contingent on the larger socio-economic and cultural context a person lives in. (shrink)

Is society an organic whole with each of its many components working together like the organs in a body? Like organisms, societies are composed of many parts which seem to work together enhance their survival. Different people fulfill different, necessary role—subsistence, reproduction, coordination, and defense. Regular exchange of matter and energy guarantees that each component has the resources it needs. Norms, laws and customs regulate virtually every aspect of social interaction, who may marry who, how disputes are resolved, and how (...) verbs should be conjugated. Ritual and religion provide comfort to the sick and fearful, maintain a feeling of solidarity and belonging, and serve to preserve and transmit knowledge through time. Even the simplest human societies seem like complex machines designed for growth and survival. (shrink)

We use tools from evolutionary game theory to examine how power might influence the cultural evolution of inequitable norms between discernible groups in a population of otherwise identical individuals. Similar extant models always assume that power is homogeneous across a social group. As such, these models fail to capture situations where individuals who are not themselves disempowered nonetheless end up disadvantaged in bargaining scenarios by dint of their social group membership. Thus, we assume that there is heterogeneity in the groups (...) in that some individuals are more powerful than others. Our model shows that even when most individuals in two discernible sub-groups are relevantly identical, powerful individuals can affect the social outcomes for their entire group; this results in power by association for their in-group and a bargaining disadvantage for their out-group. In addition, we observe scenarios like those described where individuals who are more powerful will get less in a bargaining scenario because a convention has emerged disadvantaging their social group. (shrink)