EUDAIMONIC

WELL-BEING
Prepared by: Prof Bernardo Fernandez II
 The definition and historical
roots of eudaimonia.
The concept of psychological
wellbeing (PWB).
The importance of meaning and
purpose in life.
The links between existential

Agenda psychology and positive

psychology.
Positive death and meaning.
The concept of flow and its
characteristics.
Self-determination theory (SDT).
The three basic
psychological needs.
 Question?

Is happiness enough
for a good life?

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 Eudamonia
Eudaimonic wellbeing - argues that wellbeing lies in the
actualization of human potential. Researchers within the
eudaimonic framework argue that happiness and ‘the good life’
are not simply the experiences of feeling good. There has to be
more to life than just pleasure and satisfaction.

Eudaimonic wellbeing - proposes that true happiness is found in

the expression of virtue and doing what is worth doing.
1. Thus, the realization of human potential is an ultimate goal
(Aristotle).
2. Individuals must therefore seek and pursue happiness through
prudence (John Locke) and self-discipline (Epicurus).

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 Eudamonia
Eudaimonia is defined as fulfilling or realizing one’s daimon or true
nature.
This occurs when people’s life activities are most
congruent with their deep values (Waterman, 1993) such as
developing one’s true self (Vitterso, 2004), engaging in activities
for their own sake (Csikszentmihalyi, 2002) and belonging to and
serving institutions larger than oneself (Huta et al., 2003).

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 Psychological well-being
Self-acceptance Positive evaluation of oneself and one’s life

Personal Growth Continually growing and developing yourself

Feeling that your life has a meaning both in the past, present, and
Purpose in Life
future
Positive Relations Creating satisfactory relationships, of quality, trust and closeness
with Others
Environmental Managing the opportunities and demands of the environment to
Mastery satisfy your capacities and needs
Autonomy Maintaining your personal independence and your convictions

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 Psychological well-being
“When I look at the story of my life, I am pleased with how things have
Self-acceptance
turned out.”
Personal Growth
“For me, life has been a continuous process of learning, changing, and
growth.”
Purpose in Life “Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them.”
Positive Relations “People would describe me as a giving person, willing to share my time with
with Others others.”
Environmental
Mastery
“In general, I feel I am in charge of the situation in which I live.”
“I have confidence in my own opinions, even if they are different
Autonomy
from the way most other people think.”
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Authentic Happiness 1. PLEASANT LIFE
Which enables high levels of positive
emotion and gratification

SELIGMAN’S THREE ROUTES

TO HAPPINESS

2. GOOD LIFE
Which enables constant absorption,
engagement, and flow

3. MEANINGFUL LIFE HEDONIC VS EUDAMONIC

Where one uses one’s strengths in A. hedonic, pleasant activities experience higher
the service of something greater levels of positive affect in the short term;
than oneself B. eudaimonic pursuits may give meaning and
value in the long term
 Csikszentmihalyi, 2009

Flow is defined as ‘the intense

experiential involvement in
moment-to-moment activity,
which can be either physical or
mental. Attention is fully
invested in the task at hand and
the person functions at her or
his fullest capacity.’

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 Conditions are needed to facilitate the flow experience:

1. STRUCTURED ACTIVITY WITH CLEAR GOALS AND IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK.

This means that the activity must have rules and a clear outline in order to help orientate
the person doing it. As we continue through the activity, we must be able to get a sense of
feedback – a sense that we are on the right track towards the desired goal. Without
feedback, confusion and consciousness will creep in.

2. BALANCE OF CHALLENGES VERSUS SKILLS.

If the challenge is too far above our current skill level, then this will produce anxiety. If it is
too low, it will produce boredom. Furthermore, if a person has no skill and there is no
challenge (such as TV watching) then they will exist in a channel of apathy.

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 Conditions are needed to facilitate the flow experience:

3. COMPLETE CONCENTRATION (MERGING OF ACTION AND AWARENESS).

The activity must initiate a complete merger of the activity and all consciousness. All attention
is within the activity and there is no room for consciousness. Also, you lose a sense of
‘yourself’ and become one with the activity you are completing. There is no time or room to
be self-conscious. Everything else but the activity is irrelevant at that point in time.
4. SENSE OF CONTROL.
This stems from the activity’s ability to allow us to lose self-consciousness, thereby gaining a
sense of control over what we are doing. This also ties in with the perception of skill
versus challenge; thus, if we perceive the skill and challenge to match, we will feel a better
sense of control.

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 Conditions are needed to facilitate the flow experience:

6. TRANSFORMATION OF TIME.
This element is the unique experience of where time speeds up, and before you know it,
you’ve been engaging in the activity for hours when it felt like minutes. Or, as in dance,
time can slow down, where a minute feels like hours, seconds like minutes. Basically, there
is a definite distortion of time from the reality of the clock.

7. ACTIVITY FOR THE SAKE OF ACTIVITY (AND A WISH TO REPEAT).

This component refers to the activity’s ability to make you want to do it all over again. No
rewards, no external forces. Simply, you like doing it and want to repeat it.

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 Conditions are needed to facilitate the flow experience:

8. PERSONALITY

If you are someone who enjoys life and appears to be intrinsically led in his or her daily
endeavors. You have skills that enable you to have an innate general curiosity in life,
persistence, low self-centeredness, and an ability to be motivated by intrinsic rewards.

These people would be described as having an autotelic personality and are more
susceptible to experiencing flow.

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 Who’s in flow?
Csikszentmihalyi and The activities in which we Activities that tend to
Larson (1984) found are most likely to inhibit flow (and
that teenagers tend to experience flow are: induce apathy and
feel their happiest, sports and activity, dance boredom) include
strong and motivated participation, creative housework, watching
when with friends, and arts, sex, socializing, TV and being idle.
the opposite when studying, listening to
alone. music, reading and
paradoxically working.
However, many other
activities can produce the
experience of flow.

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 Dangers of flow
In class, we get asked quite a lot whether flow is a morally good
phenomenon. This is an interesting question that challenges the
assumption that flow equals peak performance. The answer is
that flow can be found in activities that are both morally good
and bad (for example, gambling).

Research has also demonstrated a potential to become addicted

to flow-inducting activities (for instance, rock climbing, video
game playing), where the activity becomes necessary for daily
functioning (Csikszentmihalyi, 1992). Overall, engaging in flow-
inducing activities that challenge and stretch you as a person,
within reason, can have a tremendous positive affect on your
overall wellbeing.

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 Applying flow theory
1)Change environments to
facilitate flow and
2)Help others find flow

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 When we are no longer able to change a
situation – we are challenged to change
ourselves…
- Viktor Frankl (1905-1997)

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 Meaning and Purpose in Life

Researchers argue that when one is faced with

meaninglessness, one can encounter several
negative experiences. Thus, researchers would
argue that the search for meaning and purpose
is more relevant than the search for happiness
(Wong, 2009).

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 Meaning and Purpose in Life
Structural properties of personal
meaning systems,

1.Differentiation (how diverse the

sources of meaning are),
2.Elaboration (how people construct
their own links and connections
between events to give life purpose)
and
3.Coherence measures (how well do
all the features fit together)

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 Meaning and Purpose in Life
Developing a purpose in life and identifying reasons to live
help mediate between stress, coping and suicidal behaviour
(Mei-Chuan et al., 2007).

Individuals who report enhanced levels of depression,

hopelessness and suicidal thoughts are much more likely to
use emotion-oriented coping strategies. Avoidance coping
strategies, when used in a healthy way, can be a positive
approach to wellbeing, as they can channel negative
thoughts into other area of life, thereby potentially creating
reason for living (Mei-Chuan et al., 2007).

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 Self-determination Theory
Argues that there is an evolutionary adaptive function of
three basic psychological needs.

Autonomy is the tendency Competence is the tendency Relatedness is the

to self-regulate one’s to be interested and open, to
behavior in accordance tendency to feel
seek learning/mastery
with personal volition opportunities (promote
connection and caring
(rather than external with group members
control). It is also the acquisition of new skills). The
tendency to resist coercion, need for competence (it promotes group
pressure, and control; to manifests in early motor play, cohesion and mutual
regulate one’s behavior in manipulation of objects, and protection).
accordance with one’s own exploration of surroundings.
needs (and situational The tendency to experience
affordances), which satisfaction from learning for
promotes better survival its own sake – and the
than organizing behavior to tendency to explore and seek
meet external demands.
challenges.
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 Three Basic Psychological Needs

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 A new wave of existential positive
Existential and psychology aims to merge the two
Positive Psychology areas while endeavoring to find the
answers to life’s difficult questions
(death, freedom, isolation,
meaninglessness, identity and
Existential psychology focuses on happiness). Existential psychology
‘human existence and the human denotes that there are three types of
drama of survival and flourishing’ mature happiness:
(Wong, 2009: 361). Traditionally, ■ authentic happiness (comes from
existential psychology has been being an authentic individual);
deemed to be fixated on the darker ■ eudaimonic happiness (comes from
side of human life (such as the view doing virtuous deeds); and
that happiness is derived from ■ chaironic happiness (a spiritual gift of
accepting suffering as the essence of happiness that is bestowed; it is
the human condition). independent of our abilities and
circumstances especially within
suffering).
 Existential and Positive Psychology
Existential psychologists also accept
that contentment can actually be a
negative thing, leaving a void in a
person’s life with no goals or
achievements left to strive for.
Discontent has the potential for
personal growth. Ultimately, pursuing
happiness may not be the aim of life;
however, existential psychologists
deem that by pursuing meaning and
authenticity one will eventually
achieve happiness.

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 Happiness is a process – not an end result, ongoing, and the
result of forgoing self-interest and serving something higher
than the self. What we like about this is that it acknowledges
the importance of both negative and positive elements of
human functioning that are essential for personal growth.

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 Death and Positive Psychology
Even death, the most feared concept in human existence, is a potential
avenue for growth and development.
‘Positive death’ or ‘good dying’ is proposed to have a link with the good life.
By embracing death, we can live more authentically, thereby enhancing the
likelihood of self-actualization. There are three attitudes towards death:
Neutral Death When one accepts that death is a part of life and attempts to live life to the
Acceptance fullest;
Approach
Acceptance
When one accepts that there is an afterlife that will be pleasurable;

Escape Acceptance Which perceives death as the preferable option to a miserable life.

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THANK YOU!
From Positive
Psychology Family!

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