Adaptive Preferences and Capabilities

Some Preliminary Conceptual Explorations

Bibliographic Data

ID5815212
AuthorsMiriam Teschl (Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques), Flavio Comim (0000-0003-0941-734X, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul)
Year2005
Volume63
Issue2
Pages229-247
Publication date2005-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueReview of Social Economy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0034-6764 • E-ISSN: 1470-1162
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00346760500130374
OpenAlexW2077083765
LanguageEN
Citations received87
References cited13

The Capability Approach (CA) as developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, has in part been a response to the problem of adaptive preferences. Their argument says that people might adapt to certain unfavorable circumstances and any self-evaluation in terms of satisfaction or happiness will in this case necessarily be distorted. To evaluate people's well-being in terms of functionings and capabilities guarantees a more objective picture of people's life. Next to this strong criticism on subjective measurements of well-being, we observe an increasing interest in Subjective Well-Being (SWB) or Happiness studies that are included in the broader field of Hedonic Psychology. In this paper, we thus revise the original critique of adaptive preferences and compare it with a more detailed analysis of adaptation as it is presented in hedonic psychology. It becomes clear that adaptation can be a positive as well as a negative phenomenon and that the adaptive preference critique had a particular narrow view on adaptation. However, this does not mean SWB-research is not any longer susceptible to this critique. An alternative way to assess people's subjective well-being, but which could be considered to be more in line with the CA, is proposed by Daniel Kahneman's Objective Happiness. These are all relatively new considerations, especially in economics. Therefore much more research needs to be done on the positive and negative aspects of adaptation to understand its consequences on well-being - especially when evaluated within the capability-space

Argument (complex analysis · Capability approach · Criticism · Economics · Epistemology · Happiness · Life satisfaction · Microeconomics · Phenomenon · Political science · Positive economics · Positive psychology · Preference · Sociology · Subjective well-being · Well-being · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Law · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction · Psychology · Social Psychology

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