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Well-being is what is ultimately good for a person. Also called "welfare" and "quality of life", it is a measure of how well life is going for someone. It is a central goal of many individual and societal endeavors.
Subjective well-being refers to how a person feels about and evaluates their life. Objective well-being encompasses factors that can be assessed from an external perspective, such as health, income, and security. Individual well-being concerns the quality of life of a particular person, whereas community well-being measures how well a group of people functions and thrives. Various types of well-being are categorized based on the domain of life to which they belong, such as physical, psychological, emotional, social, and economic well-being.
Theories of well-being aim to identify the Essence features of well-being. Hedonism argues that the balance of pleasure over pain is the only factor. Desire theories assert that the satisfaction of desires is the sole source of well-being. According to objective list theories, a combination of diverse elements is responsible. Often-discussed contributing factors include feelings, emotions, life satisfaction, achievement, finding meaning, interpersonal relationships, and health.
Well-being is relevant to many fields of inquiry. Positive psychology studies the factors and conditions of optimal human functioning. Philosophy examines the nature and theoretical foundations of well-being and its role as a goal of human conduct. Other related disciplines include economics, sociology, anthropology, medicine, education, politics, and religion. Even though the philosophical study of well-being dates back millennia, research in the empirical sciences has only intensified since the second half of the 20th century.
As a person-specific value theory, well-being contrasts with impersonal value or value simpliciter. A thing has impersonal value if it is good for the world at large by making it a better place, without being restricted to one specific person. Well-being, by contrast, is what is good for or relative to someone. While personal and impersonal values often align, they can diverge, for example, if an individual seeks a personal gain that is bad from a wider perspective. The exact relation between these two types of value is disputed. According to one proposal, impersonal value is the sum of all personal values.
Well-being is typically understood as an intrinsic or final value, meaning that it is good in itself, independent of external factors. Things with instrumental value, by contrast, are only good as means leading to other good things, like the value of money. Well-being is further distinguished from Morality, religious, and Aesthetics values. For instance, donating money to a charity may be morally good, even if it does not increase the donor's well-being.
The terms quality of life, good life, welfare, prudential value, personal good, and individual utility are often used as synonyms of well-being. Similarly, the words pleasure, life satisfaction, and happiness are employed in overlapping ways with well-being, although their precise meanings differ in technical contexts like philosophy and psychology. Pleasure refers to individual feelings about what is attractive. Life satisfaction is a positive attitude a person has towards their life as a whole. Happiness is sometimes identified with life satisfaction or understood as a positive balance of pleasure over pain.
Well-being is a crucial goal of many human endeavors, both on individual and societal levels. Various attitudes and emotions are directed at well-being, like caring for someone or experiencing pity, envy, and ill will. Well-being is the state that Egoism seek for themselves and Altruism aim to increase for others. Many disciplines examine or are guided by considerations of well-being, including ethics, psychology, sociology, economics, education, public policy, law, and medicine. The word well-being comes from the Italian term benessere]]. It entered the English language in the 16th century.
Subjective well-being is measured using questionnaires in which individuals report the quality of their experiences. Single-item measures provide the most simple approach, focusing on a single scale, like asking participants to rate how content they are with their lives on a scale from 1 to 10. Multi-item scales include questions for distinct aspects of subjective well-being, with the advantage of reducing the influence of the wording of any single question. They have separate questions for domains such as the presence of positive affects, the absence of negative affects, and overall life satisfaction, which they combine into a comprehensive index.
Objective well-being encompasses objective factors that a person's life is going well. Unlike subjective well-being, these factors can be assessed and quantified from an external perspective. They include personal, social, economic, and environmental aspects such as health, level of education, income, housing, amount of leisure time, and security.
By relying on objective data, measures of objective well-being are less affected by cultural and personal influencing self-reports. However, it is not universally accepted that objective well-being is a form of well-being in the strictest sense. This doubt is based on the idea that well-being is essentially a subjective phenomenon tied to a person's experience. According to this view, objective factors influence and indicate well-being but are not themselves forms of well-being.
Some inquiries focus only on subjective or objective well-being. Others combine both perspectives in their investigation, including questions about how the two are related. It is possible for subjective and objective well-being to diverge. For example, a person may feel subjectively happy despite scoring low on objective measures, like low income and frail health.
One view sees community well-being as the sum of individual well-beings while others emphasize that the relation between the two is more complex. Individual and community well-being often support each other. For instance, high individual well-being can lead a person to contribute more to their community, and a well-functioning community can make its members happy. However, there can also be tensions, like when changes necessary for community well-being conflict with the individual well-being of certain members.
Closely related to community well-being are categories of well-being defined for specific demographic groups. For instance, child well-being emphasizes health, education, material security, and social development in a loving and nurturing environment. Other examples include women's, elderly, student, and employee well-being.
Psychological well-being, also called mental health, is a state of mind characterized by internal balance. It involves the absence or successful management of Mental disorder and disturbances, together with the abilities to cope with challenging situations, maintain positive relationships, and cultivate personal growth. It is closely linked to intellectual, spiritual, and emotional well-being. Intellectual well-being encompasses well-functioning cognitive abilities and traits, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and curiosity. Spiritual well-being is a state in which people find purpose in life and have inner peace, self-confidence, and a sense of identity. Emotional well-being involves the capacities to comprehend, articulate, and regulate emotions, together with an overall positive mood.
Hedonic well-being refers to a life rich in pleasurable experiences and devoid of suffering. Eudaimonia well-being is a form of personal fulfillment in which an individual flourishes by striving for excellence and actualizing their innate potentials.
Social well-being concerns the quality and number of interpersonal connections, including how well a person functions in their social environment and the level of social support available to them. Economic well-being refers to the economic situation of a person, such as the resources and skills they have in regard to income, job opportunities, and financial stability. Further types of well-being include financial, cultural, political, and environmental well-being.
One criticism of hedonism acknowledges that some pleasures have value but rejects that this is the case for all pleasures. According to this view, certain pleasures have no value and may even be bad for a person, such as Everyday sadism pleasures from torturing animals. Another objection questions whether pleasure is the only thing of value for individuals, citing things like virtue, achievement, friendship, and the satisfaction of desires as distinct sources. An influential counterexample to hedonism, proposed by philosopher Robert Nozick (1938–2002), imagines an experience machine that simulates a life filled with pleasures, which would be ideal from the perspective of hedonism. Pointing out that life in this virtual simulation lacks authenticity, Nozick argues that mere pleasure by itself is not the only source of value.
Critics of desire theories point out that people sometimes desire things that are bad for them. For example, a child's desire to eat nothing but candy could lead to serious health problems and diminish well-being rather than increase it. In response, some modified versions of desire theories have been proposed to avoid this counterexample. They argue that only the satisfaction of well-informed desires contributes to well-being, excluding desires in which individuals do not fully consider or understand the negative consequences. Another objection holds that desire satisfaction is only good in a derivative sense. It asserts that a person desires something because they believe that it is good, meaning that the value primarily resides in the desired object rather than in the satisfaction of the desire.
One criticism of objective list theories asserts that they define an incoherent concept of well-being by including diverse elements that have little in common. Another objection challenges the proposed objectivity of objective list theories, arguing that well-being is essentially a subjective phenomenon. According to this view, what is good for a person depends on their subjective attitude, and imposing an external definition of what is good leads to alienation.
A further distinction is between monist and pluralist theories. Monist theories hold that a single good is responsible for well-being, meaning that all types of well-being share the same essential features. Pluralist theories see well-being as a diverse phenomenon that manifests in many forms without a single essence characteristic of all of them. For instance, objective list theories are pluralist views, whereas hedonism and desire theories are monist views.
Perfectionism identifies well-being with excellence by fulfilling human nature. Perfectionists discern key human abilities, such as rationality, knowledge, health, and dignity, holding that mastering and exercising them results in a life well lived. As an objectivist perspective, perfectionism asserts that the value of these goods does not depend on what the person thinks about them. Eudaimonism is a closely related view, asserting that a person has high well-being or flourishes in life by actualizing their inborn potentials. This view emphasizes that well-being is not a passive state but an active process. It manifests in an engaged lifestyle where individuals exercise virtues and rely on practical rationality to guide their decision-making.
Value fulfillment theories see the fulfillment of evaluative attitudes as the basis of well-being. They are similar to desire theories but are not limited to desires and include other evaluative attitudes such as beliefs, feelings, and judgments about what is good.
Most theories assume that the definition of well-being applies equally to everyone. Variabilism rejects this assumption and argues that different conceptions of well-being apply to different individuals. For example, one form of variabilism asserts that the nature of well-being in children differs from that in adults. Similarly, some theories of well-being are species-relative, proposing that the essential features of well-being vary across distinct species.
Emotions are temporary states of arousal. They include subjective experiences of pleasure and pain alongside other psychological phenomena, such as the Evaluation of a situation and a disposition to engage in certain types of behavior. For example, fear evaluates a situation as dangerous and is associated with a behavioral disposition to flee. Additionally, emotions are linked to physiological changes, like sweating, and bodily expressions that signal the emotional state to others. High well-being is associated with frequent positive emotions and infrequent negative ones. Moods are a closely related factor of well-being. They typically last longer than emotions and have a less specific origin and evaluative assessment.
Life satisfaction is the subjective judgment of a person about how well their life is going. As an evaluation of a person's life as a whole, it is not limited to one particular area, like employment or financial status. Even though life satisfaction is influenced by the feelings and emotions a person currently has, it is not limited to them and encompasses a broader perspective. For example, a person may be overall satisfied with their life even if they are experiencing intense stomach pain at the moment. Individuals vary in how they arrive at their judgment of life satisfaction. For instance, some rely on instinctive gut feelings while others engage in deliberate and systematic reflections. Sometimes, individuals make inaccurate assessments and self-deception about their true quality of life, like cases of false happiness.
Finding purpose or meaning in life is a closely related factor of well-being. It involves a judgment about the role and value of one's life in a wider context, but its precise characterization is disputed. Subjectivists argue that meaning is a subjective phenomenon. They suggest that people actively create it and make their lives meaningful by dedicating themselves to what they love. Objectivists contend that meaning is an objective phenomenon achieved by engaging with concrete values, like truth, Good, and beauty. Some objectivists seek meaning in religious practice, arguing that a supernatural purpose is the source of meaning for individuals who work towards its realization. Other suggested sources of meaning include altruism, creativity, and self-actualization. The inability to find meaning in life can lead to an existential crisis, associated with anxiety and spiritual confusion.
Researchers often focus specifically on friendship, understood as a voluntary social relationship between people characterized by mutual concern, trust, and support. Friends tend to spend time with each other, enjoy each other's company, and know personal facts about one another. A central aspect of a friendship is its strength, distinguishing close friends from distant ones. Strength is determined by factors such as time spent together, trust, emotional intensity, and readiness to support each other in difficult times. The number of friends a person has is another relevant factor, and having many friends is usually beneficial. However, if a person already has numerous friends, making even more friends may not significantly impact their well-being. Some people prefer large friend networks with looser connections, while others have few but strong friendships.
Despite its general impact, health does not determine well-being and some individuals affected by severe illnesses and disabilities report high levels of subjective well-being. The availability of healthcare services can mitigate negative effects by providing treatments to restore health or manage and alleviate symptoms. Similarly, adopting a healthy lifestyle, like regular physical activity and a balanced diet, is associated with long-term benefits to well-being.
In addition to knowledge, many related epistemic goods contribute to well-being, such as intelligence, problem-solving skills, creativity, open-mindedness, understanding, and wisdom. The value of epistemic goods is reflected in the emphasis given to education to foster the development of the of students.
Autonomy and freedom are often-discussed factors of well-being. They concern the possibility to choose, the ability to make informed decisions without coercion, and the capacity to act without being constrained by external forces. Individuals with a high level of autonomy and freedom tend to be more satisfied by having control over their lives. This enables them to decide between important options and choose a life that reflects their desires, , and values. However, these conditions may not automatically lead to well-being and can sometimes have negative consequences. For example, a person lacking mental maturity and wisdom may freely engage in short-sighted egoism while ignoring negative long-term outcomes.
Eudaimonic conceptions of well-being stress the importance of character traits and . Character traits are stable and consistent aspects of personality that influence how people think, feel, and act. Traits associated with well-being include wisdom, courage, kindness, justice, temperance, and gratitude. Virtues are character traits that promote ethical excellence, such as dispositions to act morally and follow ethical principles. Virtue-based theories of well-being argue that virtue can be its own reward, for example, because living a morally upright life can be a fulfilling experience. However, virtue and well-being may also conflict, for instance, when altruistic service to a greater good requires personal sacrifice.
Various social factors influence well-being, such as income, quality of work, work-life balance, personal security, and schooling. Similarly, the physical environment plays a role, with factors like housing conditions, pollution, noise, and access to nature and areas. Relevant factors on the biological level include Genetics makeup, Ageing, , and .
Psychologist Martin Seligman (1942–present) articulated the PERMA model as a model of well-being in general. Its five elements are positive emotions, engagement by following one's interests, interpersonal relationships, finding meaning in life, and accomplishments in the pursuit of success and mastery. Psychologist Michael Bishop developed the network model of well-being, which includes components such as feelings, emotions, attitudes, traits, and interactions with one's environment. This model emphasizes that the different components form a causal network by influencing and reinforcing each other in complex ways.
A central motivation of academic inquiry is the belief that well-being can be improved through appropriate measures. Some of these measures focus on individual lifestyle changes. Others take the form of societal interventions to alter how economic, medical, educational, workplace, and political institutions function.
The study of well-being has a long history. Many of the main schools of thought originated in ancient philosophy, including hedonism, eudaimonism, and perfectionism. In the medieval period, philosophers built on and explored these ideas from a religious perspective. In the modern era and , the approach became more secular and empirical. Philosophers have examined the relation between well-being and morality and analyzed its conceptual framework. Although philosophical research on well-being dates back millennia, interest in the topic within the empirical sciences has only intensified since the second half of the 20th century. Earlier work in the Social sciences and biomedical sciences focused more on identifying, treating, and preventing Pathology rather than exploring and promoting factors of positive functioning. This shift in focus led to the emergence of positive psychology. At the same time, fields like economics, sociology, and anthropology began using their distinct methodologies to explore the causes, indicators, and effects of well-being.
On the emotional level, positive psychologists examine the different types of positive emotions, such as joy, amusement, serenity, and love. They identify distinct components associated with mental evaluations, physiological changes, facial expressions, experience, and action tendencies. Investigated topics include the conditions under which positive emotions arise, how they contribute to overall well-being, and how they differ from negative emotions.
On the cognitive level, positive psychology studies how intelligence, wisdom, and creativity improve quality of life. It further explores the relation between cognitive and affective processes, for example, how cognitive interpretations evoke emotions and how emotions prompt thought processes.
Another central subfield concerns the role of personality, in particular, how individuals differ regarding personality traits and how these traits impact well-being. The VIA model, an influential framework in positive psychology, analyzes personality based on six main : wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. A closely related topic focuses on the role of the self, which encompasses the way a person self-concept and self-image. Important factors for well-being are self-esteem, or how a person evaluates themselves, and authenticity, or the degree to which a person's behavior is subjectively consistent with their sense of self.
A further area explores the role of social and physical circumstances. This includes the effects of trust and cooperation on group well-being and dilemmas in which self-interest conflicts with group interest. Having close relationships and engaging in altruistic behavior are generally beneficial to a person's well-being.
In addition to the study of the different components and causes of well-being, positive psychologists also seek to understand how well-being changes over time. They are especially interested in the effects of major negative events, like the death of a child or bankruptcy, and aim to discern the psychological features that help people maintain their level of well-being, like self-regulation and an Optimism.
Some philosophers challenge the concept of well-being, understood as what is ultimately good for someone. For instance, philosopher G. E. Moore (1873–1958) rejects the idea that something can be good relative to a person, asserting instead that all values are impersonal. Another criticism suggests that the concept of well-being is incoherent, arguing that it groups together diverse elements without a shared essence.
Despite these criticisms, well-being plays a central role in ethics and value theory. Welfarism is the view that well-being is the only basic source of value. It holds that everything else, like intelligence and health care, is only valuable to the extent that it promotes well-being and reduces ill-being. Pure welfarists argue that the raw sum of everyone's well-being is all that matters. Impure welfarists consider additional factors, such as ensuring that well-being is distributed Social equality among people. This modification aims to avoid situations in which some people have abundantly good lives at the expense of others who experience severe deprivation.
Another topic concerns the relation between moral virtue and well-being. According to one view, already considered in ancient Greek philosophy, the two always accompany each other, meaning it is in everyone's self-interest to act virtuously. An alternative perspective denies this close connection, stating that, at least in some cases, a virtuous person has to compromise their own well-being for the greater good. Philosophers further explore the relation between well-being and death. One position questions the common-sense idea that death is generally bad for a person. It argues that since death marks the end of a person's existence, there is nothing that can benefit or harm the person anymore. Animal ethics apply the concept of well-being to non-human animals, examining what animal well-being consists in and how it affects the moral obligations of humans toward non-human animals.
The growing academic interest in well-being is also reflected in the political sphere, challenging the gross domestic product as the main indicator of national success. As a result, indices to track, compare, and promote the well-being of populations and related phenomena have been established at both national and international levels. Examples are Bhutan's Gross National Happiness, the UK Measures of National Well-being, and the World Happiness Report. Following this trend, policymakers are increasingly relying on well-being metrics and related factors to inform their decision-making processes. It also affects the field of law, where considerations about how to protect and promote well-being can influence legislation.
Well-being is also a topic in various biological sciences with a focus on the biological factors influencing the well-being. Research from twin studies suggests that Genetics composition is one of the most impactful factors. Other biological factors include and that impact positive feelings such as endorphin, dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and cortisol. In neuroscience, researchers try to uncover the neural correlates of well-being using neuroimaging techniques.
The problem of well-being plays a central role in medicine since medical interventions typically aim to restore, secure, and enhance patient well-being. Considerations of well-being also affect the treatment of incurable diseases, like Parkinson's disease. In such cases, therapies aim to minimize negative effects, helping patients lead productive and fulfilling lives despite their illness. However, well-being is not the only consideration governing medical interventions and the commitment to patient autonomy is another core principle. This can lead to conflicts when patients act against their self-interest and reject treatments that would improve their well-being.
Sociologists examine the relation between well-being and social phenomena, such as race, socioeconomic status, and education. They use both subjective and objective metrics, with some studies dedicated to well-being in general, while others focus on specific domains, such as work, family, and housing, or on particular demographic groups, such as employees or the elderly.
Anthropologists are interested in the concept of well-being in different . They seek to understand what people at different times and places associate with a good life, such as the culture-specific norms, values, and practices for achieving personal well-being. A key assumption in this field is that the concept of well-being involves a commitment to what is desirable and an evaluative framework for guiding behavior and assessing lifestyles. Anthropologists compare these commitments and frameworks across different cultures, like the differences between Western and non-Western conceptions of well-being. They describe the similarities and differences, typically without taking a position on which view is superior.
Diverse perspectives on well-being are also found in religious and other traditional belief systems, where well-being often serves as a goal of Spirituality practice. In various traditional forms of Hinduism, the highest kind of well-being is not determined by objective external conditions. Instead, it depends primarily on experiential knowledge of the self, brought about through practices like self-inquiry and meditation. Buddhism identifies suffering as a central aspect of all existence. It aims to produce well-being by eliminating the causes of suffering, such as desire and ignorance, achieved through the practice of Buddhist virtues, like compassion, loving-kindness, and equanimity. From the perspective of Confucianism, well-being consists in virtuous activity as a process leading to sagehood and is associated with harmonious relationships and social responsibility. According to Taoism, a life high in well-being is characterized by Wu wei that is in harmony with the Tao—the natural way of the universe—and guided by spontaneous dispositions. The Christianity tradition holds that the personal connection to God is a central factor of well-being, which may manifest in Seven virtues activity or Beatific vision. According to the teachings of Islam, well-being is achieved by dedicating one's life as much as possible to worshiping Allah and fulfilling His will, as expressed in the Quran.
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