Positive psychology Lecture 2: Hedonic and eudaimonic views of happiness and wellbeing Flashcards
Hedonism and Eudaimonism are attempts to answer questions about the nature of the good life or the life well-lived - What is the respective focus that makes them differ from one another?
- Hedonic theories: focus on happiness as pleasure, enjoyment, and absence of discomfort understood as subjective affective states (e.g. Ed Diener).
- Eudaimonic theories: focus on happiness as activity reflecting virtue, excellence, the full development of our potentials, etc. (e.g., Riff, Ryan and Deci, Seligman)
What is included in the definitions of hedonia?
- Pleasure
- Positive affect, subjective wellbeing, emotional wellbeing - Enjoyment
- Life satisfaction
- Feelings of happiness
- Low distress/comfort/relaxation
What is included in the definitions of eudaimonia:
- Growth/self-realization/development of potentials (…)
- Meaning/long-term perspective/contributing to a broader context (…)
- Authenticity/autonomy/integrity (…)
- Virtue/using the best in oneself (…)
- Positive relationships/social well-being (…)
- Competence/environmental mastery/flow(…)
- Awareness/contemplation/mindfulness
Key eudaimonic approaches in PP: PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING: Carol Ryff (1989) identified six characteristics as core to eudaimonia, what are they?
(a) self-acceptance,
(b) positive relations with others,
(c) personal growth,
(d) purpose in life,
(e) environmental mastery, and
(f) autonomy.
Key eudaimonic approaches in PP: SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY by Ryan and Deci. - what are the three fundamental/universal needs that amount to positive feelings?
Satisfying the three fundamental/universal needs for:
- Autonomy (choosing one’s life),
- Competence (trusting one’s capacities), and
- Relatedness (having close and safe social relations) (Ryan et al. 2008)
Sidenote:
… amounts to living well, and generates wellbeing (positive feelings).
“[L]iving well is expected to yield both the feelings of happiness and pleasure and a sense of meaning and fulfillment.” (Deci and Ryan, 2006)
Key eudaimonic approaches in PP: Describe: AUTHENTIC HAPPINESS: Martin Seligman (Authentic Happiness, 2002)
AUTHENTIC HAPPINESS: Martin Seligman (Authentic Happiness, 2002)
- The pleasant life (hedonic wellbeing) – POSITIVE EMOTION
- The good life (use virtues&strengths to feel flow – combined eudaimonic+hedonic wellbeing) - ENGAGEMENT
- The meaningful life (use virtues&strengths for something greater than yourself – eudaimonic wellbeing) - MEANING
Key eudaimonic approaches in PP: PERMA: Martin Seligman (Flourish, 2011). - What does PERMA stand for?
- [P]ositive Emotion
- [E]ngagement
- [R]elationships
- [M]eaning
- [A]ccomplishments
The term happiness is widely used and seems unproblematic… until one tries to analyze it. As a matter of fact it is very complex and problematic. - How can we conceptualize and measure happiness?
- Try to translate the term to other languages
- Use closely related synonymes.
- When studied scientifically, it is common to use less problematic - but related - terms, like “wellbeing”.
- Ed Diener proposed to use “subjective wellbeing” as a more useful scientific concept.
Happiness ≈ Subjective Well-being (Ed Diener) - Define the term Subjective Well-Being (SWB)?
Subjective Well-Being = SATISFACTION WITH LIFE + AFFECT
Describe the SATISFACTION WITH LIFE part of SWB?
The cognitive aspect of SWB: a judgment/assesment about how one’s life is going (a “thought”)
Assessment of one’s life. One is satisfied when there is little or no difference between our real life and our ideal life. One is dissatisfied when there is a large difference – or one believes one’s life is much worse that other people’s
Describe the AFFECT part of SWB?
The emotional aspect of SWB: a subjective experience (a “feeling”)
Positive and negative moods and emotions linked to everyday life.
Are there objective behavioral, physiological and/or neurophysiological correlates of these psychological states?
Yes, but we still lack a technology sophisticated enough to reliably measure them. However, there are advances in the neuroscience of positive psychology in some areas.
There are advances in the neuroscience of positive psychology, which are some areas of the advances?
- Meditation
- Social behavior
- Empathy and compassion
- Creativity
- Altruistic behavior
- Resilience…
Measuring Happiness; Describe how the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) work?
5 questions is asked:
•In most ways my life is close to my ideal.
•The conditions of my life are excellent.
•I am satisfied with my life.
•So far I have gotten the important things I want in life.
•If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing.
A point is set in alignement to each question: 7 - Strongly agree 6 - Agree 5 - Slightly agree 4 - Neither agree nor disagree 3 - Slightly disagree 2 - Disagree 1 - Strongly disagree
The score is calculated:
SCORE: 31 - 35 Extremely satisfied 26 - 30 Satisfied 21 - 25 Slightly satisfied 20 Neutral 15 - 19 Slightly dissatisfied 10 - 14 Dissatisfied 5 - 9 Extremely dissatisfied
Measuring Happiness; Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) how does it work?
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) is a self-report questionnaire. It contains two 10-item scales that measure both positive and negative affect.
