PERMA to PERMA+4 building blocks of well-being: A systematic review of the empirical literature

ABSTRACT

One of the most recent influential constructs based on positive psychology is PERMA, a framework that articulates five major building blocks that contribute to well-being: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. In 2020, 4 additional building blocks were added – physical health, mindset, environment, and economic security – expanding the framework into PERMA+4 to describe 9 building blocks that contribute to well-being and positive functioning. The purpose of this systematic review is to determine if the empirical evidence supports the assertion that PERMA and PERMA+4 are strongly associated and predictive of well-being and positive functioning. While strong associations were found in this review, most of the published empirical research on PERMA was found to be correlational, cross-sectional, and based on a variety of self-report surveys. Implications and recommendations for future research using rigorous experimental designs as well as opportunities for improving the measurements of PERMA and PERMA+4 are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• PERMA
• PERMA+4
• well-being
• positive psychology
• systematic review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in 4TU.ResearchData at https://doi.org/10.4121/1fcd3c65-e38d-4bf1-a7ee-6f8b0239c3ed.v1.

Open scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badge for Open Data. The data are openly accessible at https://doi.org/10.4121/1fcd3c65-e38d-4bf1-a7ee-6f8b0239c3ed.v1