UTS21440 Chap.9 Happiness and Wellbeing Theories
Happiness and Wellbeing Theories
Week 7 of 21440 Management Skills at University of Technology Sydney is the densest week in the subject and supplies the vocabulary the last chapters run on. The module names two senses of wellbeing, happiness as subjective wellbeing and wellbeing in the eudaimonic sense, and traces both to a classical argument between pleasure and the exercise of human capacity.
The chapter covers the three route theory and the entry conditions for flow, the measurement instruments and the evidence for their validity, the happiness budget of set range, circumstances and intentional activity, the move from happiness to a five element wellbeing theory with its own admission criteria, and four further frameworks needed by name.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Two senses of wellbeing named by the module
- 02
The classical argument: absence of pain against the exercise of virtue
- 03
Three orientations to happiness, and what the questionnaire reports about life satisfaction
- 04
Three routes: pleasure, engagement and meaning
- 05
Flow, and its two stated entry conditions
- 06
Why happiness is measured by self report, and the correlation that defends it
- 07
The five statement life satisfaction scale and its published bands
- 08
The happiness budget, and what sits in each share
- 09
Hedonic adaptation, and the two studies cited for it
- 10
Wellbeing theory, its three admission criteria and its elements
- 11
Psychological wellbeing, self determination, psychological capital and orientations to work
Answering the question of whether anything is missing from the wellbeing model
- +1Restate the admission criteria. An element has to contribute to wellbeing, be wanted in itself rather than as a way of getting something else, and be capable of definition and measurement on its own, apart from the other elements. Any proposed addition has to clear all three.
- +1Test the candidate the subject points at. Health is pursued for its own sake and is independently measurable, and the working version used by the employer case in this subject adds it as a sixth pathway, so it clears the criteria on their own terms.
- +1Test a candidate that fails. Wealth contributes, but the happiness budget places wealth beyond needs among circumstances at around a tenth of the variance, and hedonic adaptation predicts the gain will not persist. It also tends to be pursued as a means, which fails the second criterion.
- +1Close with the author's own position. The model is described by its author as a good start on a work in progress, so the question is not a trap: the theory invites addition, and the marks lie in whether the candidate was tested against the criteria rather than simply nominated.
Key terms
- Subjective wellbeing
- A person's cognitive and affective evaluations of their life, combining how they think about life satisfaction globally and in specific domains with their emotions, moods and feelings. It aligns with the hedonic perspective.
- Eudaimonia
- The classical position that happiness is an end in itself, achieved by pursuing what gives life meaning and cultivating the human capacity for virtue, where a virtue sits at the balance point between too little of something and too much of it.
- Flow
- The engagement route to happiness, described as challenging, engaging your strengths and giving immediacy of feedback. Its stated conditions are a challenge pitched to stretch the skill a person already has without exceeding it, plus clear near term goals and immediate signals about progress.
- Happiness formula
- The proposal that chronic happiness is composed of a genetic set range of about half, life circumstances of about a tenth, and intentional activity of the remainder, with the last named as the best route to sustainable change.
- Set range
- The share of variation in chronic happiness attributed to enduring traits, evidenced through twin studies. Raising it is described as an unfruitful avenue for sustainable increases in happiness.
- Intentional activity
- The share of the happiness budget covering deliberate behavioural, cognitive and volitional activity, listed as acts of kindness, gratitude, forgiveness, optimism, mindfulness, flow experiences, meaning, and putting strengths to use.
- Wellbeing theory
- The revision of authentic happiness theory that changes the object from happiness to flourishing, adding relationships and accomplishment to pleasure, engagement and meaning, with three admission criteria for any element.
- Psychological wellbeing
- The eudaimonic counterpart to subjective wellbeing, organised as six factors: purpose in life, personal growth, environmental mastery, positive relationships, autonomy and self acceptance.
- Psychological capital
- A framework naming hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism as four developable capacities, two of which are the subject of the previous teaching week.
- Calling orientation
- One of three orientations to work, in which the work itself carries meaning and is considered inherently fulfilling, distinguished from a job orientation motivated by material reward and a career orientation motivated by success.
Happiness and Wellbeing Theories FAQ
What is the difference between happiness and wellbeing in this subject?
The module names them as two senses and keeps them apart. Happiness, also called subjective wellbeing, is a person's own cognitive and affective evaluation of their life and sits on the hedonic side. Wellbeing in the eudaimonic sense is about meaning, purpose and the exercise of human capacity, and it is the side the later wellbeing theory is built on.
The classical argument between the two is two and a half thousand years old.
If happiness is self reported, why should anyone believe the number?
Because different methods converge. The evidence cited is that subjective ratings correlate at around a high level with expert ratings, with informant reports from family and friends, with the amount of time a person spends smiling, and with memory of positive and negative life events. That is what converging validity looks like, and it is the right answer to the objection that the measure is merely an opinion.
Does the happiness budget mean circumstances do not matter?
It means circumstantial change does not persist, which is a narrower claim. Hedonic adaptation is evidenced through a study of lottery winners who were no happier a year later and a study of patients with paraplegic spinal cord injuries who were only slightly less happy within a few years.
Note also that the circumstances share covers demographic and locational facts, not conditions of work, which appear in the intentional activity list through what they make possible.
Why was the earlier happiness theory revised?
Because the object changed. The later theory is about flourishing rather than happiness, and it adds two elements to the original three. It also publishes admission criteria: an element must contribute to wellbeing, be wanted in itself, and be defined and measured on its own.
Accomplishment earns its place by the second criterion, because people chase it even when no positive emotion, no meaning and no relationship follows from it.
How is engagement different from job satisfaction?
By activation. Job satisfaction is described as the pleasant emotional state that follows from appraising one's own job, while engagement additionally involves high activation and is described as a more positive workplace assessment. The subject contrasts engagement as energy, involvement and efficacy with burnout as exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy.
Assessment move
This week rewards structure over coverage. Fix the three routes, the five elements and the three admission criteria first, because everything else hangs off them and because the hardest reading question is answered by applying the criteria rather than by opinion. Learn the happiness budget as three proportions with contents attached, and notice that the intentional activity list is the table of contents for the subject.
Keep the two instruments as structures rather than as scores, and be able to state the validity evidence in one sentence, since it is the standard objection and the standard answer.
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