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Development of an integrated well-being scale

Development of an integrated well-being scale. Dr Ilona Boniwell Dr Evgeny Osin Dr Nash Popovic Dr Mark McDermott University of East London. Subjective Well-Being (SWB). SWB = SWL + high PA + low NA

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Development of an integrated well-being scale

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  1. Development of an integrated well-being scale Dr Ilona Boniwell Dr Evgeny Osin Dr Nash Popovic Dr Mark McDermott University of East London

  2. Subjective Well-Being (SWB) SWB = SWL + high PA + low NA • Life Satisfaction – cognitive component, rating the way one’s life turned out to be. Refers to discrepancy between the present situation and what is thought to be the ideal or deserved standard • Affect – emotional side of well-being. Refers to both moods and emotions associated with experiencing of momentary events

  3. Is there more to happiness than just feeling good? • Ryff & Keyes (1995): • Failure to answer the question of what does it actually mean to be well psychologically? • SWL and affect measures are data driven & not based on any conceptual framework • Meaning and purpose are ignored (also McGregor and Little, 1998; King & Napa, 1998) • Ryan and Deci (2001): • Questionable validity of SWB as an operational definition of well-being (rather than hedonism) • Types of activities and goals theorized to promote well-being may be misleading. • Vitterso (2003): • Ignorance of the complexity of philosophical conceptions of happiness • Failure to explain the dimension of personal growth

  4. Back to basics • Eudaimonia is the highest end worth pursuing by doing virtuous actions • Acting in accordance with one’s daimon • Acting in accordance with a universal law of respecting humanity that is embodied in oneself as well as in the other person

  5. Theoretical frameworks falling under the eudaimonic umbrella • Ryff (1989), Ryff & Keyes (1995): • Self-acceptance , personal growth, purpose in life, positive relations with others, environmental mastery and autonomy. • Csikszentmihalyi (1975; 1992; 2000) • Flow and autotelic personality • Seligman (2002) • Pleasant life, good life, meaningful life • McGregor and Little (1998); King & Napa (1998); Compton et al (1996): • Happiness (SWL, PA, NA) • Meaning or growth • Ryan and Deci (2000); Ryan, Deci & Huta (2008): • SDT: Three inherent psychological needs (competence, autonomy and relatedness). When satisfied, enhance motivation & well-being • Waterman (1993); Waterman, Schwartz & Conti (2008): • Personal expressiveness in intrinsically motivated activities • Vitterso (2009) • Involvement in challenging activities

  6. A new conception of EWB

  7. Effortful living in accordance with one’s values • Non-Attachment: an experience of self-sufficiency and relative independence from the objects of the outside world that are used to satisfy needs (Popovic, 2005) • Meaning is a cognitive construct, a general framework of values and goals that a person considers valuable, or a general direction one is following. (Ryff & Keyes, 1995; Seligman, 2002). • Self-regulation is a capacity to delay gratification and postpone immediate pleasure in favour of pursuing valuable goals. This capacity is necessary for effortful action and pursuit of long-term goals (Tangney, Baumeister & Boone, 2004).

  8. Growth, development • Engagement/vitality is a general emotional experience of living one’s life fully, being interested and intensely involved in one’s everyday activities (Scheier, et al, 2006; Peterson, Park, Seligman, 2005; Ryan & Frederick, 1997) • Need for cognition encompasses a number of cognitive characteristics necessary for vigorous cognitive functioning and development, such as openness to experience, tolerance towards ambiguous situations, acceptance of difficult problems, desire for a better knowledge of the world and of one’s self (Petty & Cacioppo, 1982) • Autonomy is an individual capacity to attribute the freedom of making choices to oneself and make one’s own choices of action rather than being determined by situational factors and social pressure (Sheldon, 1995; Ryan, Huta & Deci, 2008)

  9. Self-transcendence • Deep emotional experiences are similar to peak experiences proposed by Maslow, or mystical experiences. (Burton & King, 2001; Francis & Louden, 2000; Wong, 2006) • Perspective is an individual’s capability of locating their actions and experiences within a larger perspective, including temporal, ‘spatial’, social and personal perspective (Debats, 1998) • Contribution is an activity that implements values. When a person contributes to something larger than oneself: the well-being of other people, a society, the environment, or the world in general, it has a quality of self-transcendence.

  10. Method • Original item pool - 329 • Expert rated by 20 experts, item pool reduced to 158 items • Two samples: UEL student and Internet convenience samples • N=496 • Principal Component Analysis with Varimax Rotation revealed 9 factors explaining 38% of variance

  11. Resulting scales 1 Pleasure (9; .76) • Happiness is the ultimate goal of human life • One should enjoy the present day to the fullest, instead of putting pleasures aside Non-attachment (16; .79) • I find it hard to let go of things • A life without little daily luxuries seems to me barren and empty Self-regulation (9; .78) • I can easily postpone immediate pleasures in favour of pursuing important goals • I am able to put pleasure activities aside for the sake of completing my work

  12. Resulting scales 2 Growth (13; .76) • I am not satisfied unless I am doing something that challenges me and develops my abilities • It is important to have new experiences that may change the way you think about yourself and the world. • I would prefer an effortless life to a challenging one

  13. Resulting scales 3 Engagement (22; .94) • What I do every day is really fascinating to me • I feel intensely involved in my everyday activities • I feel that I live life to the full Alienation (17; .85) • I prefer to just let things happen rather than understand why they turned out that way • Changing the world is an impossible task, and trying it is pointless

  14. Resulting scales 4 Contribution (14; .79) • I feel responsibility for doing what I can to contribute to the world • One cannot be truly happy if one's life does not make other people happier Deep emotional experiences (13; .88) • I can remember moments of such beauty that I lost a sense of time, place and myself. • There are brief and intense moments when I suddenly see what life is really all about. Meaningful perspective (16; .92) • I feel that I am in this world for a purpose that I am trying to fulfil • I see my past, my present and my future as parts of a meaningful whole

  15. Demographic Differences • Men are higher in Non-Attachment (p<.01), but lower in Deep Emotional Experiences (p<.05) • Age differences found in Deep Experiences, Growth, Pleasure, Non-Attachment, Engagement, Alienation. • Education was associated with 8 out of 9 scales.

  16. Age differences

  17. Eudaimonia and work • Number of hours worked is associated with Engagement (.26***), Contribution (.18**), Meaning (.15*), Pleasure (-.19**), Alienation (-.14). • Volunteers show higher Engagement, Meaning, Contribution, and lower Alienation (p<.05). • The role of occupation in eudaimonia to be analyzed

  18. Eudaimonia and education

  19. Correlations with SWB variables

  20. Correlations with other WB variables

  21. Lets jump to conclusion • Eudaimonia is more than engagement + meaning • It requires effort and non-attachment to one’s basic needs • An integral part of eudaimonia is an active realisation of meaning – contribution • We began to map out the affective/phenomenological expressions of eudaimonia

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