Reflections on unspoken problems and potential solutions for the well-being juggernaut in positive psychology

ABSTRACT

In an earlier paper (Goodman et al., 2018), we found that two models of subjective well-being demonstrated substantial overlap, with correlations between .85-.98. We concluded that these two models do not capture distinct types of well-being – a conclusion consistent with a growing list of studies that have found high correlations between various models of well-being. In response to our work, the developer of one well-being model wrote a commentary offering an alternative conclusion (Seligman, 2018). In this paper, we continue this important discussion by delineating areas of disagreement and common ground. We present our new hierarchical framework of well-being and illustrate how it can resolve long-standing points of contention in well-being measurement.

KEYWORDS:

• Well-being
• positive psychology
• subjective well-being
• measurement

Disclosure statement

We have no conflicts of interest to disclose.