Theoretical paper

Wellbeing – between specific and global

Author: Ştefan A. Feldmann
Psychotherapist, Mind Institute
Email: stefanfeldmann@gmail.com

Wellbeing includes two principle components – hedonic wellbeing and eudaimonic wellbeing. Broad analysis upon professional literature regarding wellbeing (Chen et al., 2013) show that the notions of subjective wellbeing and psychological wellbeing, along with the SBS components, are inter-correlated (Chen et al., 2013; Wood, Froh & Geraghty, 2010; Mitchell et al., 2009). Despite the fact that daily events can have an impact upon general wellbeing and specifically upon SBS, it has been noticed in longitudinal studies that the SBS level is relatively stable for most people (Pavot & Diener, 2013; Diener, 2000). An explanation of this phenomenon is described by the ”hedonic treadmill” principle (Lyubomirsky & Della Porta, 2010; Frederick, 2007; Diener, Lucas & Scollon, 2006; Diener, 2000; Diener et al., 1999), which is basically a top-down process (Sheldon, Boehm & Lyubomirsky, 2013).


Keywords: Wellbeing, happiness, hedonic, eudaimonic, cognitive component, Positive psychology interventions