Vitality Revisited: The Evolving Concept of Flourishing and Its Relevance to Personal and Public Health

Alan C. Logan, Brian M. Berman and Susan L. Prescott ()
Additional contact information
Alan C. Logan: Nova Institute for Health, Baltimore, MD 21231, USA
Brian M. Berman: Nova Institute for Health, Baltimore, MD 21231, USA
Susan L. Prescott: Nova Institute for Health, Baltimore, MD 21231, USA

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: Human flourishing, the state of optimal functioning and well-being across all aspects of an individual’s life, has been a topic of philosophical and theological discussion for centuries. In the mid-20th century, social psychologists and health scientists began exploring the concept of flourishing in the context of health and high-level wellness. However, it is only in recent years, in part due to the USD 43 million Global Flourishing Study including 22 countries, that flourishing has entered the mainstream discourse. Here, we explore this history and the rapid acceleration of research into human flourishing, defined as “the relative attainment of a state in which all aspects of a person’s life are good” by the Harvard University’s Flourishing Program. We also explore the construct of “vitality”, which refers to a sense of aliveness, energy, and motivation; we contend that this has been neglected in the flourishing movement. We explore why incorporating measures of vitality, together with a broader biopsychosocial approach, considers all dimensions of the environment across time (the total exposome), which will greatly advance research, policies, and actions to achieve human flourishing.

Keywords: human flourishing; well-being; public health; high-level wellness; vitality; noncommunicable diseases; vitality; exposome (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/6/5065/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/6/5065/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:6:p:5065-:d:1096125

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().