Psychologist and human development scholar Michael Kaufman develops a fundamentally new understanding of how elite undergraduate educations and careers play out in lives, and of what shapes happiness among the prizewinners in America. In so doing, he exposes the myth at the heart of the American Dream. Leveraging biography-length clinical interviews and quantitative evidence unmatched even by earlier landmark studies of human development, Redefining Success in America redefines the conversation about the nature and origins of happiness, and about how adults develop.

The study of success and happiness -- Patterns in lives -- Brightness and darkness -- The varieties of experience -- Observations and longitudinal models -- The qualitative assessment of well-being: an innovation in happiness -- Research -- The stability model -- Stability tested quantitatively -- The change model -- Beyond success: the relationship between career and happiness -- Comparisons and summary -- A conventional measure of happiness: a reexamination -- A paradigm for understanding adult life -- The developmental forces shaping our well-being.