PERMA – 5 elements of Wellbeing

Again, continuing Seligman’s Flourish resource, the 5 elements of wellbeing are as follows:

1. Positive emotion:  Happiness and life satisfaction are now merely one of the factors.

2. Engagement – again only subjective – though subjective state is only retrospective ie “ that was wonderful”

3. Relationships

4. Meaning: Subjective….. and objective

5. Accomplishment – often pursued for it’s own sake – eg some don’t mind winning ‘ugly’, some will even cheat. It is recognised that such a life is almost never seen in its pure state. The addition of the achieving life also emphasizes that the task of positive psychology is to describe rather than prescribe what people actually do to get well being.