Latin America is a vast region with Spanish and Portuguese as the predominant languages, a shared common history, similar interests, values, culture, and relatively-high levels of happiness. But it is the latter that represent a paradox considering the low levels of income and other social indicators in this region. “The handbook of happiness research in Latin America” aims at determining the measures based on social-indicators that could explain the happiness of Latin Americans and demonstrate that there is no paradox. The structure, the extended explanation of the subject and the language used to present the information allow for easy understanding. Therefore, the book offers novice researchers as well as students in the field of subjective well-being and/or decision-makers who are interested in this area a fresh perspective, both well-informed and contextually relevant, that even experts might find quite interesting. In the introductory chapter, Mariano Rojas, a Ph.D. in economics from Ohio State University and professor of economics at the Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP), Mexico, expresses that what people are truly looking for is not happiness as an ultimate achievement but intermediate goals to increase it, such as income, schooling, and life expectancy (p. 1). Actually, this perception has been widely accepted since these goals were the measurement reference for researchers and policy makers until the last few decades, when a new conception entered into the study of happiness. The main change proposed in this conception is that happiness should be understood as a life experience people have. Therefore, happiness research must ask people directly about it, instead of trusting in the external judgments of experts who define observable variables for

中文翻译：

---

拉丁美洲幸福研究手册

拉丁美洲幅员辽阔，以西班牙语和葡萄牙语为主要语言，有着共同的历史、相似的兴趣、价值观、文化和相对较高的幸福水平。但考虑到该地区的低收入水平和其他社会指标，后者代表了一个悖论。《拉丁美洲幸福研究手册》旨在确定基于社会指标的衡量标准，这些指标可以解释拉丁美洲的幸福并证明不存在悖论。结构、主题的扩展解释和用于呈现信息的语言便于理解。因此，本书为主观幸福感领域的新手研究人员以及学生和/或对该领域感兴趣的决策者提供了一个全新的视角，消息灵通且上下文相关，即使是专家也可能会觉得很有趣。在介绍性章节中，马里亚诺·罗哈斯 (Mariano Rojas) 是博士。俄亥俄州立大学经济学博士、墨西哥普埃布拉人民自治大学 (UPAEP) 经济学教授表示，人们真正寻求的不是作为最终成就的幸福，而是增加幸福的中间目标，例如收入、学校教育和预期寿命 (p. 1)。事实上，这种看法已被广泛接受，因为这些目标一直是研究人员和政策制定者的衡量参考，直到最近几十年，当一个新的概念进入幸福研究时。这一概念提出的主要变化是，幸福应该被理解为人们所拥有的一种生活体验。所以，