Abstract
This chapter discusses outcomes related to hedonic wellbeing, life satisfaction, and Eudaimonia. These outcomes include good health, high levels of achievement and work, good social relationships, prosocial engagement, trust, optimism, future happiness. The chapter also highlights research on how much happiness is optimal, how happiness is adaptive in life, and how it serves to buffer illbeing.
Keywords
- Hedonic wellbeing
- Life satisfaction
- Eudaimonia
- Subjective wellbeing
- Happiness
- Positive mental health
- Health
- Achievement and work
- Social relationships
- Prosocial behavior
- Trust
- Optimism
- Future happiness
- Optimal happiness
- Adaptive
- Illbeing
“Happiness is the highest form of health.”
—Dalai Lama (https://wisdomquotes.com/health-quotes/)
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- 1.
Also see Cross, Hofschneider, Grimm, and Pressman (2018) for a thought-provoking discussion of the effects of subjective wellbeing on physical health. The discussion is broken down by the different dimensions of the various constructs of wellbeing and positive mental health, namely hedonic constructs (positive affect and life satisfaction) and eudaimonic constructs (autonomy, self-esteem, perceived control, and life purpose). Additionally, Boehm (2018) reviews evidence that suggest that initially healthy individuals with high subjective well-being are less likely to have incident disease (e.g., coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis). A similar pattern exists for disease reoccurrence.
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Sirgy, M.J. (2021). Positive Outcomes of Wellbeing. In: The Psychology of Quality of Life. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 83. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71888-6_3
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