This chapter focuses on how psychologists understand and measure well-being and the related constructs, mental health and flourishing. For psychologists, well-being is about how people experience their lives, not the objective facts of their lives. Why does well-being matter? Although the instrumental benefits of well-being are frequently cited as the reason for its importance, it is argued here that they are merely a by-product of a high level of well-being. The real reason wellbeing matters is that well-being is an end in itself - an ultimate good. However, because there is as yet no agreed definition of well-being, there is no universally agreed method for measuring well-being. It is argued here that well-being is a combination of feeling good (the hedonic view) and functioning well (the eudaimonic view), and that in order to advance well-being science, we need a multi-dimensional approach to definition and measurement. Accordingly, at this early stage in the science of well-being, policymakers would be well advised to use measures which encompass a diversity of well-being constructs.
CITATION STYLE
Huppert, F. A. (2017). Challenges in defining and measuring wellbeing and their implications for policy. In Future Directions in Well-Being: Education, Organizations and Policy (pp. 163–167). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56889-8_28
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