An Integrated Look at Well-Being: Topological Clustering of Combinations and Correlates of Hedonia and Eudaimonia

Marta G. Pancheva (), Carol D. Ryff and Mario Lucchini
Additional contact information
Marta G. Pancheva: Sophia University Institute
Carol D. Ryff: University of Wisconsin - Madison
Mario Lucchini: Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca

Journal of Happiness Studies, 2021, vol. 22, issue 5, No 16, 2275-2297

Abstract: Abstract Subjective measures of well-being are increasingly seen by scholars and policy makers as valuable tools to assess quality of life. Hedonic accounts focus on people’s experience of life in positive ways while eudaimonic accounts are concerned with realization of personal potential. However, to what extent do an “enjoyable” and a “flourishing” life overlap? Using an innovative clustering-and-projection technique (Self-Organized Map), the joint distributional patterns of multiple hedonic and eudaimonic well-being indicators were examined in a nationally representative longitudinal study of US adults (MIDUS). Results show that the two accounts largely converged with about 70% of the sample observations registering high/low scores in both well-being dimensions. However, the remaining 30% of respondents experienced divergent well-being levels. Association between these combined profiles and a series of socio-demographic characteristics and social stratification factors were investigated. Findings showed that chances of uniformly high well-being increase with age, while higher income, educational level, marriage, and being a female are linked to lesser probabilities of experiencing joint low well-being patterns. Experiencing a combination of high hedonic/low eudaimonic well-being was more frequent for less educated individuals, and men. Finally, the persistence over time of these combined well-being profiles was more frequent in case of convergent hedonic/eudaimonic levels. For divergent patterns we revealed substantial changes over a 10-year period with respondents registering low hedonic/high eudaimonic well-being at time t having greater chances of upward movement toward improved well-being compared to individuals who experienced high hedonic/low eudaimonic levels in the first time period.

Keywords: Well-being; Hedonic; Eudaimonic; Longitudinal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10902-020-00325-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:jhappi:v:22:y:2021:i:5:d:10.1007_s10902-020-00325-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... fe/journal/10902/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10902-020-00325-6

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Happiness Studies is currently edited by Antonella Delle Fave

More articles in Journal of Happiness Studies from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().