Children appearing to experience/exhibit well-being after an art class
Well-being is what is ultimately good for a person. Also called prudential value and welfare, it is a measure of how good a person's life is going for them, both in a positive and a negative sense.[1] In its positive sense, well-being is sometimes contrasted with ill-being as its opposite.[2] The term "subjective well-being" denotes how people experience and evaluate their lives, usually measured in relation to self-reported well-being obtained through questionnaires.[3][4][5]
Well-being is what is ultimately good for a person or in their self-interest. It is a measure of how well a person's life is going for them.[6] In the broadest sense, the term covers the whole spektrum of quality of life as the balance of all positive and negative things in a person's life. More narrowly, well-being refers specifically to positive degrees, while ill-being denotes negative degrees.[7] Individual factors contributing to overall well-being are either benefits, if they increase it, or harms, if they decrease it.[8]
As a person-specific[a]value, well-being contrasts with impersonal value or value simpliciter. A thing has impersonal value if it is good for the world at large by making it a better place, without being restricted to one specific person. Well-being, by contrast, is what is good for or relative to someone.[10] While personal and impersonal value often align, they can diverge, for example, if an individual seeks a personal gain that is bad from a wider perspective. The exact relation between these two types of value is disputed. According to one proposal, impersonal value is the sum of all personal values.[11]
Well-being is typically understood as an intrinsic or final value, meaning that it is good in itself, independent of external factors. Things with instrumental value, by contrast, are only good as means leading to other good things, like the value of money.[12] Well-being is further distinguished from moral, religious, and aesthetic values. For instance, donating money to a charity may be morally good, even if it does not increase the donor's well-being.[13]
The terms quality of life, good life, welfare, prudential value, personal good, and individual utility are often used interchangably with well-being.[14] Similarly, the words pleasure and happiness are employed in overlapping ways with well-being, although their precise meanings differ in technical contexts like philosophy and psychology. Pleasure and its opposite, pain, are experiences about what is attractive and aversive. They are sometimes limited to bodily sensations, but in their widest sense, they encompass any experience that feels good or bad.[15] One perspective characterizes happiness as the balance of pleasure over pain.[16] A different view understands happiness as a positive attitude a person has towards their life as a whole, termed life satisfaction.[17] Pleasure, pain, and happiness are central to the subjective side of well-being, and some philosophers assert that they are the only components of well-being.[18]
Well-being is a crucial goal of many human endeavors, both on individual and societal levels.[19] Various attitudes and emotions are directed at well-being, like caring for someone or experiencing pity, envy, and ill will. Well-being is the state that egoists seek for themselves and altruists aim to increase for others.[20] Many disciplines examine or are guided by considerations of well-being, including psychology, ethics, economics, medicine, and law.[21]
The word well-being comes from the Italian term benessere. It entered the English language in the 16th century.[22]
Overview
Different forms of well-being, such as mental, physical, economic, or emotional[23] are often closely interlinked. For example, improved physical well-being (e.g., by reducing or ceasing an addiction) is associated with improved emotional well-being.[24] And better economic well-being (e.g., possessing more wealth) tends to be associated with better emotional well-being even in adverse situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic.[25][26] Well-being plays a central role in ethics since what a person ought to do depends, at least to some degree, on what would make someone's life get better or worse.[23] According to welfarism, there are no other values besides well-being.[1]
Theories of well-being try to determine what is essential to all forms of well-being. Hedonistic theories equate well-being with the balance of pleasure over pain. Desire theories hold that well-being consists in desire-satisfaction: the higher the number of satisfied desires, the higher the well-being. Objective list theories state that a person's well-being depends on a list of factors that may include both subjective and objective elements.[27][28]
Well-being is also scientifically dependent on endogenous molecules that impact feelings of happiness such as dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, oxytocin, cortisol and more[29][30] "Well-being related markers" or "Well-being bio markers"[31] play an important role in the regulation of an organism's metabolism, and when not working in proper order can lead to malfunction.[30]
Well-being is the central subject of positive psychology, which aims to discover the factors that contribute to human well-being.[32]Martin Seligman, for example, suggests that these factors consist in having positive emotions, being engaged in an activity, having good relationships with other people, finding meaning in one's life and a sense of accomplishment in the pursuit of one's goals.[33]
Types
Types of well-being can be categorized by how they are measured, who they belong to, and which domain of life they affect. Some researchers limit their inquiry to one specific type while others investigate the interrelations between different types.[34]
Subjective and objective well-being
Subjective well-being is the measure of how people feel about and evaluate their own lives. It encompasses both affective and cognitive components. A person has high affective well-being if they have many pleasant experiences and few unpleasant ones. High cognitive well-being occurs when a person evaluate their life positively, making a global assessment that things are going well.[35]
Subjective well-being is measured using questionnaires in which individuals report the quality of their experiences. Single-item measures provide the most simple approach, focusing on a single scale, like asking participants to rate how content they are with their lives on a scale from 1 to 10. Multi-item scales include questions for distinct aspects of subjective well-being, with the advantage of reducing the influence of the wording of any single question. They have separate questions for domains such as the presence of positive affects, the absence of negative affects, and overall life satisfaction, which they combine into a comprehensive index.[36]
Objective well-being encompasses objective factors that a person's life is going well. Unlike subjective well-being, these factors can be assessed and quantified from an external perspective. They include personal, social, economic, and environmental aspects such as health, education, income, housing, leisure, and security.[37]
By relying on objective data, measures of objective well-being are less affected by cultural and personal biases influencing self-reports.[38] However, it is not universally accepted that objective well-being is a form of well-being in the strictest sense. This doubt is based on the idea that well-being is essentially a subjective phenomenon tied to a person's experience. According to this view, objective factors influence and indicate well-being but are not themselves forms of well-being.[39]
Some researchers focus only on subjective or objective well-being. Others combine both perspectives in their inquiry, including questions about how the two are related. It is possible for subjective and objective well-being to diverge. For example, a person may feel subjectively happy despite scoring low on objective measures, like low income and frail health.[40]
Individual and community well-being
Individual well-being concerns the quality of life of a particular person and is the main focus of disciplines like psychology and philosophy. Community well-being applies the concept of well-being to the state of a group of people. It encompasses a broad range of economic, social, environmental, and cultural aspects that influence how the community functions and thrives while ensuring that the community's needs are fulfilled.[41]
One view sees community well-being as the sum of individual well-beings while others emphasize that the relation between the two is more complex. Individual and community well-being often support each other. For instance, high subjective well-being can lead a person to contribute more to their community, and a well-functioning community can make its members happy. However, there can also be tensions, like when changes necessary for community well-being conflict with the individual well-being of certain members.[42]
Closely related to community well-being are categories of well-being defined for specific demographic groups. For instance, child well-being emphasizes health, education, material security, and social development in a loving and nurturing environment. Other examples include women’s, elderly, student, and employee well-being.[43]
Others
Various types of well-being are categorized based on the domain of life to which they belong. Physical well-being concerns the domain of the body as the capacity to engage in physical activities and the absence of illness and bodily pain. It includes general health considerations and the ability to perform one's social role without being hindered by physical limitations.[44]
Psychological well-being, also called mental health, is a state of mind characterized by internal balance.[b] It involves the absence of disorders and disturbances, together with the abilities to cope with challenging situations, maintain positive relationships, and cultivate personal growth.[46] It is closely linked to intellectual, spiritual, and emotional well-being. Intellectual well-being encompasses well-functioning cognitive abilities and traits, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and curiosity.[47] Spiritual well-being is a state in which people find purpose in life and have inner peace, self-confidence, and a sense of identity.[48] Emotional well-being involves the capacities to comprehend, articulate, and regulate emotions, together with an overall positive mood.[49][c]
Hedonic well-being refers to a life rich in pleasurable experiences and devoid of suffering. Eudamonic well-being is a form of personal fulfillment in which an individual flourishes by striving for excellence and actualizing their innate potentials.[51]
Social well-being concerns the quality and number of interpersonal connections, including how well a person functions in their social environment and the level of social support available to them.[52] Economic well-being refers to the economic situation of a person, such as the resources and skills they have in regard to income, job opportunities, and financial stability.[53] Further types of well-being include financial, cultural, political, and environmental well-being.[54]
The well-being of a person is what is good for the person.[55] Theories of well-being try to determine which features of a state are responsible for this state contributing to the person's well-being. Theories of well-being are often classified into hedonistic theories, desire theories, and objective list theories.[1][56][57] Hedonistic theories and desire theories are subjective theories. According to them, the degree of well-being of a person depends on the subjective mental states and attitudes of this person. Objective list theories, on the other hand, allow that things can benefit a person independent of that person's subjective attitudes towards these things.[27][58]
For hedonistic theories, the relevant mental states are experiences of pleasure and pain. One example of such an account can be found in Jeremy Bentham's works, where it is suggested that the value of experiences only depends on their duration and the intensity of pleasure or pain present in them.[59] Various counterexamples have been formulated against this view. They usually involve cases where lower aggregate pleasure are intuitively preferable, for example, that the intellectual or aesthetic pleasures are superior to sensory pleasures[60] or that it would be unwise to enter Robert Nozick's experience machine.[61] These counter-examples are not necessarily conclusive, yet the proponent of hedonistic theories faces the challenge of explaining why common-sense misleads us in the problematic cases.[citation needed]
Desire theories can avoid some of the problems of hedonistic theories by holding that well-being consists in desire-satisfaction: the higher the number of satisfied desires, the higher the well-being. One problem for some versions of desire theory is that not all desires are good: some desires may even have terrible consequences for the agent. Desire theorists have tried to avoid this objection by holding that what matters are not actual desires but the desires the agent would have if she was fully informed.[1] Thus, desire theories can incorporate what is plausible about subjective theories of well-being with the lack of personal bias of objective list theories.
Objective list theories state that a person's well-being depends on many different basic objective goods. These goods often include subjective factors like a pleasure-pain-balance or desire-satisfaction besides factors that are independent of the subject's attitudes, like friendship or having virtues.[56] Objective list theories face the problem of explaining how subject-independent factors can determine a person's well-being even if this person does not care about these factors.[1][57] Another objection concerns the selection of the specific factors included. Different theorists have provided very different combinations of basic objective goods. These groupings seem to constitute arbitrary selections unless a clear criterion could be provided why all and only the items within their selections are relevant factors.[citation needed]
Philosopher Michael Bishop developed a causal network account of well-being in The Good Life: Unifying the Philosophy and Psychology of Well-being.[63] The causal network account holds that well-being is the product of many factors—feelings, beliefs, motivations, habits, resources, etc.—that are causally related in ways that explain increases in well-being or ill-being. More recently causal network theories of ill-being have been applied to depression[64] and digital technology.[65] Network approaches have also been applied to mental health more generally.[66]
Diener's tripartite model of subjective well-being is one of the most comprehensive models of well-being in psychology. It was synthesized by Diener in 1984, positing "three distinct but often related components of wellbeing: frequent positive affect, infrequent negative affect, and cognitive evaluations such as life satisfaction".[67]
Cognitive, affective and contextual factors contribute to subjective well-being.[68] According to Diener and Suh, subjective well-being is "...based on the idea that how each person thinks and feels about his or her life is important".[69]
Carol Ryff's multidimensional model of psychological well-being has philosophical foundation based on Aristotle's eudaimonia.[5] It postulates six factors which are key for well-being with smaller subsections for each minor school of thought:[70]
According to Corey Keyes, who collaborated with Carol Ryff, mental well-being has three components, namely emotional or subjective well-being (also called hedonic well-being),[71] psychological well-being, and social well-being (together also called eudaimonic well-being).[72] Emotional well-being concerns subjective aspects of well-being, in concreto, feeling well, whereas psychological and social well-being concerns skills, abilities, and psychological and social functioning.[73]
Keyes' model of mental well-being has received extensive empirical support across cultures.[73][71][74][75]
Well-being is a central concept in positive psychology. Positive psychology is concerned with eudaimonia, "the good life", reflection about what holds the greatest value in life – the factors that contribute the most to a well-lived and fulfilling life. While not attempting a strict definition of the good life, positive psychologists agree that one must live a happy, engaged, and meaningful life in order to experience "the good life". Martin Seligman referred to "the good life" as "using your signature strengths every day to produce authentic happiness and abundant gratification".[76]
PERMA-theory
Simple exercise, such as running, is cited as key to feeling happy.
In Flourish (2011) Seligman argued that "meaningful life" can be considered as five different categories. The resulting acronym is PERMA: Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and purpose, and Accomplishments. It is a mnemonic for the five elements of Martin Seligman's well-being theory:[78][79]
Positive emotions include a wide range of feelings, not just happiness and joy.[80] Included are emotions like excitement, satisfaction, pride and awe, amongst others. These emotions are frequently seen as connected to positive outcomes, such as longer life and healthier social relationships.[81]
Engagement refers to involvement in activities that draws and builds upon one's interests. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi explains true engagement as flow, a feeling of intensity that leads to a sense of ecstasy and clarity.[82] The task being done needs to call upon higher skill and be a bit difficult and challenging yet still possible. Engagement involves passion for and concentration on the task at hand and is assessed subjectively as to whether the person engaged was completely absorbed, losing self-consciousness.[80]
Relationships are all important in fueling positive emotions, whether they are work-related, familial, romantic, or platonic. As Christopher Peterson puts it simply, "Other people matter."[83] Humans receive, share, and spread positivity to others through relationships. They are important not only in bad times, but good times as well. In fact, relationships can be strengthened by reacting to one another positively. It is typical that most positive things take place in the presence of other people.[84][85]
Meaning is also known as purpose, and prompts the question of "why". Discovering and figuring out a clear "why" puts everything into context from work to relationships to other parts of life.[86] Finding meaning is learning that there is something greater than one's self. Despite potential challenges, working with meaning drives people to continue striving for a desirable goal.
Accomplishments are the pursuit of success and mastery.[80] Unlike the other parts of PERMA, they are sometimes pursued even when accomplishments do not result in positive emotions, meaning, or relationships. That being noted, accomplishments can activate the other elements of PERMA, such as pride, under positive emotion.[87] Accomplishments can be individual or community-based, fun- or work-based.
The Biomedical approach was challenged by George Engel in 1977 as it gave little importance to various factors like beliefs, upbringing , trauma, etc. and put main emphasis on biology.[88]
The biopsychosocial model replaces the Biomedical model of wellbeing. The Biopsychosocial model of well being emphasises the modifiable components needed for an individual to have a sense of wellbeing. These are:
healthy environments (physical, social, cultural, and economic)
developmental competencies (healthy identity, emotional and behavioural regulation, interpersonal skills, and problem-solving skills)
sense of belonging
healthy behaviours (sleep, nutrition, exercise, pleasurable and mastery activities)
as having 10 broad dimensions which have been shown to matter most to people in the UK as identified through a national debate. The dimensions are:
the natural environment,
personal well-being,
our relationships,
health,
what we do,
where we live,
personal finance,
the economy,
education and skills, and
governance.
Personal well-being is a particularly important dimension which we define as how satisfied we are with our lives, our sense that what we do in life is worthwhile, our day to day emotional experiences (happiness and anxiety) and our wider mental wellbeing.
The ONS then introduced four questions pertaining to wellbeing in their 2011 national survey of the UK population, relating to evaluative well-being, eudemonic well-being, and positive and negative affect. They later switched to referring to the construct being measured as "personal well-being".[90]
In various fields
Well-being is relevant to many fields of inquiry as a central phenomenon of human life. Grouped under the umbrella term science of well-being, some disciplines investigate the nature and components of well-being directly. Others study its causes and effects in specific domains of life, such as physical and mental health, social relationships, altruism, tolerance, income, and productivity.[91] Although philosophical research on well-being dates back millennia, interest in the topic within the empirical sciences has only intensified since the 2nd half of the 20th century. Earlier approaches in the social and biomedical sciences focused more on identifying, treating, and preventing negative outcomes rather than exploring and promoting factors of positive functioning.[92]
A central motivation of academic inquiry is the belief that well-being can be improved through appropriate measures. Some of these measures focus on individual lifestyle changes. Others take the form of societal interventions to alter how economic, medical, educational, workplace, and political institutions function.[93]
Positive psychology
Positive psychology is the branch of psychology dedicated to the study of well-being and related phenomena, like happiness and flourishing. It examines the factors and conditions of optimal human functioning. This inquiry focuses both on individual factors, like the experience of pleasure and pain and the role of character traits, and on societal factors, such as the way social institutions influence human well-being.[94]
On the affective level, positive psychologists examine the different types of positive emotions, such as joy, amusement, serenity, and love. They identify distinct components associated with mental evaluations, physiological changes, facial expressions, experience, and action tendencies. Investigated topics include the conditions under which positive emotions arise, how they contribute to overall well-being, and how they differ from negative emotions.[95]
On the cognitive level, positive psychology studies how intelligence, wisdom, and creativity improve quality of life. It further explores the relation between cognitive and affective processes, for example, how cognitive interpretations evoke emotions and how emotions prompt thought processes.[96]
Another central subfield concerns the role of personality, in particular, how individuals differ regarding personality traits and how these traits impact well-being. The VIA model, an influential framework in positive psychology, analyzes personality based on six main virtues: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence.[97] A closely related topic focuses on the role of the self, which encompasses the way a person conceptualizes and imagines themselves. Important factors for well-being are self-esteem, or how a person evaluates themselves, and authenticity, or the degree to which a person's behavior is subjectively consistent with their sense of self.[98]
A further area explores the role of social and physical circumstances. This includes the effects of trust and cooperation on group well-being and dilemmas in which self-interest conflicts with group interest. Having close relationships and engaging in altruistic behavior are generally beneficial to a person's well-being.[99]
In addition to the study of the different components and causes of well-being, positive psychologists also seek to understand how well-being changes over time. They are especially interested in the effects of major negative events, like the death of a child or bankruptcy, and aim to discern the psychological features that help people maintain their level of well-being, like self-regulation and an optimistic outlook.[100]
Philosophy
Philosophy examines the nature, function, and theoretical foundations of well-being. Philosophers explore its essential features by developing and comparing theories of well-being, such as hedonistic theories, desire theories, and objective list theories.[101] They also investigate the foundational principles of the scientific study of well-being. Considering that well-being has both subjective and evaluative aspects, they seek to determine whether scientific objectivity is possible and to what extent well-being can be quantified and compared between individuals.[102]
Some philosophers challenge the concept of well-being, understood as what is ultimately good for someone. For instance, G. E. Moore rejects the idea that something can be good relative to a person, asserting instead that all values are impersonal.[103] Another criticism suggests that the concept of well-being is incoherent, arguing that it groups together diverse elements without a shared essence.[104]
Despite these criticisms, well-being plays a central role in ethics and value theory. Welfarism is the view that well-being is the only basic source of value. It holds that everything else, like intelligence and health care, is only valuable to the extent that it promotes well-being and reduces ill-being.[105] Pure welfarists argue that the raw sum of everyone's[d] well-being is all that matters. Impure welfarists consider additional factors, such as ensuring that well-being is distributed equally among people. This modification aims to avoid situations in which some people have abundantly good lives at the expense of others who experience severe deprivation.[107][e]
Another topic concerns the relation between moral virtue and well-being. According to one view, the two always accompany each other, meaning it is in everyone's self-interest to act virtuously. An alternative perspective denies this close connection, stating that, at least in some cases, a virtuous person has to compromise their own well-being for the greater good.[109] Philosophers further explore the relation between well-being and death. One position questions the common-sense idea that death is generally bad for a person. It argues that since death marks the end of a person's existence, there is nothing that can benefit or harm the person anymore.[110]Animal ethicists apply the concept of well-being to non-human animals, examining what animal well-being consists in and how it affects the moral obligations of humans toward non-human animals.[111]
Others
Welfare economics studies the influence of economic activity on well-being. One of its primary goals is to develop standards for evaluating and choosing between competing policy proposals based on their potential benefit to well-being. This field uses metrics such as distribution of income, gross domestic product, consumer surplus, and compensating variation. For example, distributing income more equally is usually beneficial for well-being but needs to be balanced against potential negative side effects, such as a decline in productivity.[112] The economics of happiness, a closely related field, focuses specifically on the connection between economic phenomena and individual happiness.[113] One of its findings is the Easterlin paradox: within a given country, people with higher income tend to be happier than those with lower income, yet overall happiness does not trend upward as the average income of everyone increases.[114]
The growing academic interest in well-being is also reflected in the political sphere, challenging the gross domestic product as the main indicator of national success. As a result, indices to track, compare, and promote the well-being of populations and related phenomena have been established at both national and international levels. Examples are Bhutan's Gross National Happiness, the UK Measures of National Well-being, and the World Happiness Report. Following this trend, policymakers are increasingly relying on well-being metrics and related factors to inform their decision-making processes.[116] It also affects the field of law, where considerations about how to protect and promote well-being can influence legislation.[117]
The problem of well-being plays a central role in medicine since medical interventions typically aim to restore, secure, and enhance patient well-being.[120] Considerations of well-being also affect the treatment of incurable diseases, like Parkinson's disease. In such cases, therapies aim to minimize negative effects, helping patients lead productive and fulfilling lives despite their illness.[121] However, well-being is not the only consideration governing medical interventions and the commitment to patient autonomy is another core principle. This can lead to conflicts when patients act against their self-interest and reject treatments that would improve their well-being.[122]
Sociologists examine the relation between well-being and social phenomena, such as race, socioeconomic status, and education. They use both subjective and objective metrics, with some studies dedicated to well-being in general, while others focus on specific domains, such as work, family, and housing, or on particular demographic groups, such as employees or the elderly.[123]
Anthropologists are interested in the concept of well-being in different cultures. They seek to understand what people at different times and places associate with a good life, such as the culture-specific norms, values, and practices for achieving personal well-being. A key assumption in this field is that the concept of well-being involves a commitment to what is desirable and an evaluative framework for guiding behavior and assessing lifestyles. Anthropologists compare these commitments and frameworks across different cultures, like the differences between Western and non-Western conceptions of well-being. They describe the similarities and differences, typically without taking a position on which view is superior.[124]
Diverse perspectives on well-being are also found in religious and other traditional belief systems, where well-being often serves as a goal of spiritual practice. In various traditional forms of Hinduism, the highest kind of well-being is not determined by objective external conditions. Instead, it depends primarily on experiential knowledge of the self, brought about through practices like self-inquiry and meditation.[125]Buddhism identifies suffering as a central aspect of all existence. It aims to produce well-being by eliminating the causes of suffering, such as desire and ignorance, achieved through the practice of Buddhist virtues, like compassion, loving-kindness, and equanimity.[126] From the perspective of Confucianism, well-being consists in virtuous activity as a process leading to sagehood.[127] According to Taoism, a life high in well-being is characterized by effortless action that is in harmony with nature and guided by spontaneous dispositions.[128] The Christian tradition holds that the personal connection to God is a central factor of well-being, which may manifest in virtuous activity or contemplation of God.[129] According to the teachings of Islam, well-being is achieved by dedicating one's life as much as possible to worshiping Allah and fulfilling His will, as expressed in the Quran.[130]
Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied ethics, and metaethics.
Hedonism is a family of philosophical views that prioritize pleasure. Psychological hedonism is the theory that the underlying motivation of all human behavior is to maximize pleasure and avoid pain. As a form of egoism, it suggests that people only help others if they expect a personal benefit. Axiological hedonism is the view that pleasure is the sole source of intrinsic value. It asserts that other things, like knowledge and money, only have value insofar as they produce pleasure and reduce pain. This view divides into quantitative hedonism, which only considers the intensity and duration of pleasures, and qualitative hedonism, which holds that the value of pleasures also depends on their quality. The closely related position of prudential hedonism states that pleasure and pain are the only factors of well-being. Ethical hedonism applies axiological hedonism to morality, arguing that people have a moral obligation to pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Utilitarian versions assert that the goal is to increase overall happiness for everyone, whereas egoistic versions state that each person should only pursue their own pleasure. Outside the academic context, hedonism is a pejorative term for an egoistic lifestyle seeking short-term gratification.
Value theory is the systematic study of values. Also called axiology, it examines the nature, sources, and types of values. As a branch of philosophy, it has interdisciplinary applications in fields such as economics, sociology, anthropology, and psychology.
Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns".
Happiness is a complex and multifaceted emotion that encompasses a range of positive feelings, from contentment to intense joy. It is often associated with positive life experiences, such as achieving goals, spending time with loved ones, or engaging in enjoyable activities. However, happiness can also arise spontaneously, without any apparent external cause.
Personality is any person's collection of interrelated behavioral, cognitive, and emotional patterns that comprise a person’s unique adjustment to life. These interrelated patterns are relatively stable, but can change over long time periods.
Positive psychology is a field of psychological theory and research of optimal human functioning of people, groups, and institutions. It studies "positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions... it aims to improve quality of life."
Motivation is an internal state that propels individuals to engage in goal-directed behavior. It is often understood as a force that explains why people or animals initiate, continue, or terminate a certain behavior at a particular time. It is a complex phenomenon and its precise definition is disputed. It contrasts with amotivation, which is a state of apathy or listlessness. Motivation is studied in fields like psychology, neuroscience, motivation science, and philosophy.
The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes.
The term eustress means "beneficial stress"—either psychological, physical, or biochemical/radiological (hormesis).
The economics of happiness or happiness economics is the theoretical, qualitative and quantitative study of happiness and quality of life, including positive and negative affects, well-being, life satisfaction and related concepts – typically tying economics more closely than usual with other social sciences, like sociology and psychology, as well as physical health. It typically treats subjective happiness-related measures, as well as more objective quality of life indices, rather than wealth, income or profit, as something to be maximized.
Phenomenology or phenomenological psychology, a sub-discipline of psychology, is the scientific study of subjective experiences. It is an approach to psychological subject matter that attempts to explain experiences from the point of view of the subject via the analysis of their written or spoken words. The approach has its roots in the phenomenological philosophical work of Edmund Husserl.
A goal or objective is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan, and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.
Despite a large body of positive psychological research into the relationship between happiness and productivity, happiness at work has traditionally been seen as a potential by-product of positive outcomes at work, rather than a pathway to business success. Happiness in the workplace is usually dependent on the work environment. During the past two decades, maintaining a level of happiness at work has become more significant and relevant due to the intensification of work caused by economic uncertainty and increase in competition. Nowadays, happiness is viewed by a growing number of scholars and senior executives as one of the major sources of positive outcomes in the workplace. In fact, companies with higher than average employee happiness exhibit better financial performance and customer satisfaction. It is thus beneficial for companies to create and maintain positive work environments and leadership that will contribute to the happiness of their employees.
Subjective well-being (SWB) is a self-reported measure of well-being, typically obtained by questionnaire.
Cultural differences can interact with positive psychology to create great variation, potentially impacting positive psychology interventions. Culture differences have an impact on the interventions of positive psychology. Culture influences how people seek psychological help, their definitions of social structure, and coping strategies. Cross cultural positive psychology is the application of the main themes of positive psychology from cross-cultural or multicultural perspectives.
Optimism is an attitude reflecting a belief or hope that the outcome of some specific endeavor, or outcomes in general, will be positive, favorable, and desirable. A common idiom used to illustrate optimism versus pessimism is a glass filled with water to the halfway point: an optimist is said to see the glass as half full, while a pessimist sees the glass as half empty.
Second-wave positive psychology is a therapeutic approach in psychology that attempts to bring out the best in individuals and society by incorporating the dark side of human existence through the dialectical principles of yin and yang. This represents a distinct shift from focusing on individual happiness and success to the dual vision of individual well-being and collective humanity. PP 2.0 is more about bringing out the "better angels of our nature" than achieving optimal happiness or personal success. The approach posits that empathy, compassion, reason, justice, and self-transcendence will improve humans, both individually and collectively. PP 2.0 centers around the universal human capacity for meaning-seeking and meaning-making in achieving optimal human functioning under both desirable and undesirable conditions. This emerging movement is a response to perceived problems of what some have called "positive psychology as usual".
Well-being is a multifaceted topic studied in psychology, especially positive psychology. Biologically, well-being is highly influenced by endogenous molecules that impact happiness and euphoria in organisms, often referred to as "well-being related markers". Related concepts are eudaimonia, happiness, flourishing, quality of life, contentment, and meaningful life.
Dov Shmotkin is Professor Emeritus in the School of Psychological Sciences and former head of the Herczeg Institute on Aging at Tel Aviv University.
References
Notes
↑ Some theorists also use the term to also talk about the state of a group of people.[9]
↑ In a slightly different sense, the term is also used as a synonym for subjective well-being.[45]
↑ There are various alternative definitions of emotional well-being and it is sometimes used as an umbrella term including many other types of well-being.[50]
↑ Some definitions are limited to the well-being of humans while others take the well-being of all sentient creatures into account.[106]
↑ A closely related discussion is between atomists and holists about well-being. Their disagreements touch on questions like whether momentary well-being is more basic than well-being over extended periods of time and whether the temporal order of episodes of well-being matters.[108]
Citations
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↑ Seligman, Martin (2 May 2011). "1. What Is Well-Being? - The Elements of Well-Being". Flourish. Penguin Random House Australia. ISBN978-1-86471-299-5.
↑ Sumner, L. W. (2005). "Happiness". Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Macmillan Reference. Archived from the original on 16 January 2021. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
1 2 Tiberius, Valerie (2015). "9. Prudential Value". The Oxford Handbook of Value Theory. Oxford University Press USA. Archived from the original on 17 August 2021. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
↑ Bishop, M. (2015). The Good Life: Unifying The Philosophy and Psychology of Well-being. Oxford University Press.
↑ Hakulinen, C., Fried, E. I., Pulkki-Råback, L., Virtanen, M., Suvisaari, J., & Elovainio, M. (2020). Network structure of depression symptomology in participants with and without depressive disorder: The population-based Health 2000–2011 study. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-020-01843-7
↑ Byrd, Nick (2020). "Causal Network Accounts of Ill-Being: Depression & Digital Well-Being". In Burr, Christopher; Floridi, Luciano (eds.). Ethics of Digital Well-Being: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Philosophical Studies Series. Vol.140. Springer: Philosophical Studies Series (volume 140). pp.221–245. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-50585-1_11. ISBN978-3-030-50584-4. S2CID226641114.)
↑ Fried, E. I., Borkulo, C. D. van, Cramer, A. O. J., Boschloo, L., Schoevers, R. A., & Borsboom, D. (2016). Mental disorders as networks of problems: A review of recent insights. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-016-1319-z
↑ Tov, William; Diener, Ed. Subjective Well-Being. Research Collection School of Social Sciences. Paper 1395. Archived from the original on 5 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
↑ Iolanda Costa Galinha & José Luís Pais-Ribeiro (2011), Cognitive, affective and contextual predictors of subjective wellbeing, International Journal of Wellbeing, 2(1), 34–53. doi:10.5502/ijw.v2i1.3
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