Happiness, eudaimonia, and other holy grails: What can job loss teach us about ‘One-size-fits-all’ theories of well-being?

Abstract

Positive psychology has made significant advances in our understanding of well-being, yet agreement about the definition and nature of well-being remains elusive. This study explores the experience of well-being from a bottom-up, naturalistic point of view and compares these inductive notions with existing a priori theories. Using a qualitative-focused case study methodology, this paper explores how everyday people describe well-being in the context of job loss among a sample of 20 workers from the Ottawa, Canada technology sector. Findings support integrated conceptualizations of hedonia and eudaimonia while also potentially identifying new notions of well-being. Identified themes include (a) life evaluation, (b) transitory experiencing, (c) growth and grounding, (d) environmental mastery/stability, (e) mental ill-being/ill-health, and (f) motivational mindsets/conditions. This study shows well-being to be a rich, pluralistic construct which includes the non-dualistic notions of both subjectivity and objectivity as well as encompassing notions related to the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of well-being.

Keywords:

• Well-being
• hedonia
• eudaimonia
• qualitative research
• job loss

Acknowledgements

We would also like to acknowledge our research team volunteers, Ms. Anita Caputo, and Dr. Veronika Huta (for her comments on the manuscript).

Notes

1. This article is a part of a broader study that also explores well-being factors and processes.

2. This specific article does not report on quantitative questionnaire data, which will be reported in a further article which disseminates findings from the broader study.

3. The actual quantitative results were, however, used for the broader study.

4. As per Ethics Board approval, the book’s first author sent pre-approved recruitment materials to individuals featured in the book. The book’s author was blind to those who responded directly to the study’s first author.

5. The following participants were employed at the time of data collection (all names herein are pseudonyms): Eric, Pam, Todd, Karen, Jane, Alan, Lucy, Mike, Sharon, and Dawn. Single job loss was, by definition, confined to currently employed participants (with the exception of Heather who was unemployed due to voluntarily quitting her job).

6. All themes/subthemes refer to both positive and negatively valenced descriptions of well-being (e.g. both growth and lack of growth were singularly coded as growth).

7. ‘God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference’ (‘Reinhold Niebuhr,’ 2016, p. 1).