+ What is happiness? Is it important?

+ What is well-being? Is it good health? Is it utility or welfare (e.g. access to economic resources, healthcare, family and community support)? Is it a feeling of happiness, satisfaction, contentment, and fulfillment?

+ While we have a good of idea of what suffering looks like…

+ …but what about flourishing?

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+ Well-being The UK’s Sustainable Development Strategy defines well-being as a positive physical, social and mental state requiring: basic needs are met individuals have a sense of purpose they feel able to achieve important personal goals and participate in society

+ A taxonomy of well-being? Different types of well-being include: (1) Basic needs (necessary prerequisites for human well- being; e.g. health, income, education, freedom) (2) Psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) (3) Flourishing (living the ‘good life’ – being able to reach your full potential) (4) Hedonic (an optimal positive affect balance) (5) Evaluative (a subjective appraisal of aspects of life and how it is going; that is, judgment about feelings)

+ Why should I care about flourishing? Gallup reported that lost productivity due to employee disengagement costs more than $300 billion. James Harter and his colleagues found that business sales and profits are predicted by employees’ feelings about the organization.

+ Social Rewards Better Work Performance Better Health More Creativity Benefits of Happiness

+ Learn about your happiness. BeyondThePurchase.Org helps people understand their own happiness. Your responses will also help researchers understand how happy people think and behave.

+ Discussion Questions Were your results on the Satisfaction with Life Scale what you expected? If not, why might that be the case? Which measure of well-being was your favorite? Which do you think is most accurate? What activities could you do to improve your well-being?