Facing the limitations to self-reported well-being: Integrating the facial expression and well-being literatures

Theorists, such as Darwin and Aristotle, have long argued that facial expressions communicate information about a person's emotional state. Recently, validated coding strategies for facial expressions have been developed, which enable researchers to reliably assess a person's affect. Although social, health, and clinical psychologists have regularly employed these objective measures of facial expressions (OMFE), occupational stress and well-being researchers are yet to benefit from this method. The subsequent chapter integrates the facial expression and occupational well-being literature. Specifically, we discuss the advantages of OMFE over self-reports and implications of OMFE for future research on occupational well-being.