Eudaimonic Wellbeing

Eudaimonic Wellbeing

·         Eudaimonia is fulfilling one’s daimon or true nature

·         It occurs when people’s lives are most congruent with their deep values – Waterman

·         Also happens when developing one’s true self – Vitterso, 2004

·         Or it can mean engaging in activities for their own sake – Csikszentmihalyi, 2002

·         Another possibility: belonging to and serving institutions larger than oneself Huta, 2003

·         There has to be more to life than just pleasure and satisfaction

·         True happiness is found in the expression of virtue and what is worth doing

·         The realization of human potential is an ultimate goal – Aristotle

·         Seek and pursue happiness through prudence – John Locke and self-discipline - Epicurus

 

Psychological Wellbeing PWB consists of 6 components:

1.       Self-acceptance – positive evaluation of oneself and one’s life

2.       Personal growth

3.       Purpose in life

4.       Positive relations with others

5.       Environmental mastery

6.       Autonomy

Authentic Happiness- Martin Seligman gave three routes to happiness:

1.       The Pleasant Life- enables high levels of positive emotion and gratification

2.       The Good Life – constant absorption, engagement and “FLOW”

3.       The Meaningful Life- use of strengths in the service of something higher than oneself

 

FLOW-

·         The theory was created by Mihalyi Csiksentmihalyi in the 1960s.

·         he noticed that all rewards of painting came from painting itself-

·         this is a theory now called intrinsic motivation

·         flow is the intense involvement in moment-to-moment activity

·         attention is fully invested in the task

·         the person functions at her fullest capacity

·         flow is ideal for enhancing the positive effect

Conditions needed for the FLOW Experience:

·         Structured activity with clear goals and immediate feedback.

o   The activity must have rues and a clear outline

o   We must be able to get a sense of feedback

o   Without feedback, confusion will creep in

·         Balance of challenges versus skills

o   If the challenge is too far above our skill level, it will produce anxiety

o   If it is too low, we will be bored

o   If there’s no skill or challenge (TV) – apathy

·         Complete concentration – merging of action and awareness

o   All attention is within the activity

o   You lose a sense of yourself

o   Everything else is irrelevant at that point

·         Sense of Control

o   If the skill and the challenge match, we will feel a better sense of control

·         Transformation of Time

o   Time speeds up, hours feel like minutes

o   Or, like in dance, a minute feels like hours

o   There is a distortion of time

·         Activity for the sake of Activity

o   There is a wish to repeat

o   No rewards, no external forces

o   You like doing it and want to repeat it

·         Personality

o   Skills that enable curiosity, persistence

o   Autotelic personality, susceptible to flow