Approaches to happiness, life
goals and well-being
Majda Rijavec – University of Zagreb, Croatia
Ingrid Brdar – University of Rijeka, Croatia
Dubravka Miljković – University of Zagreb, Croatia
Well-being
• hedonic conceptions of well-being
• eudaimonic conceptions of well-being
HEDONIC APPROACH EUDAIMONIC
APPROACH
• creating high
levels of happiness • expanding potentials
• finding and • cultivating personal
fostering positive growth
emotionality
Kahnemann, Diener & Ryan & Deci, 2001.
Schwartz, 1999.
Hedonic approach
Eudaimonic approach
Well-being
• subjective well-being – hedonic
aspects
• psychological well-being –
eudaimonic aspects
Precursors of well-being
• Approaches to happiness
• Life goals
Approaches to happiness
Seligman, 2002
• Pleasant life
• Engaged life
• Meaningfull life
Pleasant life
• consists of having as many
pleasures as possible and skills to
amplify the pleasures
Engaged life
• comes through deep engagement,
using one's strengths and virtues in
activities that one finds challenging
and rewarding
Meaningfull life
• consists of using one's strengths in
the service of something that one
believes is larger than oneself
Types of life goals
Extrinsic Intrinsic
• financial success • emotional intimacy
• physical attractiveness • community service
• social fame/popularity • personal growth
Intrinsic and extrinsic life goals
Kasser & Ryan, 1993, 1996, 2001
• intrinsic goals are associated with
enhanced well-being
• extrinsic goals do not enhance and
often detracts from well-being
Aim
To examine the relationship between
• approaches to happiness
• intrinsic and extrinsic life goals
• hedonic and eudaimonic well-being
Hypotheses
Pleasant life Extrinsic goals Hedonic well being
Engaged life
Intrinsic goals Eudaimonic well-
being
Meaningfull
life
Instruments
• Ways of life questionnaire (Peterson, Park &
Seligman, 2005)
• Aspiration Index (Kasser & Ryan, 1996)
• The Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener, 1985)
• The Scales of Psychological Well-Being
(Ryff, 1989)
Participants
• 776 students
• 286 males and 490 females
• aged from 15 to 20 years
EXTRINSIC
GOALS .10
.29
-.16
PLEASANT .14
LIFE HEDONIC
.13 WELL-BEING
MEANINGFUL .18
LIFE .17 .45
.52
ENGAGED .06 EUDAIMONIC
.12
LIFE WELL-BEING
.02
-.02
.20
INTRINSIC
GOALS
2
χ = 10.61, p = .03, RMSEA = .057 p > .05
• Pleasant life is positively related only to
hedonic well-being – directly and through
extrinsic life-goals
• Engaged life is directly positively related only
to eudaimonic well-being
• Meaningfull life is positively related to both
hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, and
postively to eudaimonic well-being through
intrinsic life-goals
Conclusions
• Different approaches to happiness
are related to different types of well-
being
• This relationship is to a certain extent
mediated by different kinds of life
goals
And that
would be
all, I guess!