Well Being Definitions

May 1, 2008

This page lists definitions of well-being, with a brief discussion of these definitions in terms of Sumner's (1996) taxonomy of well-being definitions.

The Well-Being Manifesto
"We often think of wellbeing as happiness, but it is more than that. It is about having meaning in our lives—developing as a person and feeling that our lives are fulfilling and worthwhile. Wellbeing comes from having a web of relationships and interests. Family and friends, work, leisure activities and spiritual beliefs can all increase our wellbeing. The intimacy, sense of belonging and support offered by close personal relationships are of greatest value. Material comforts are essential up to a point, and there is no doubt that poverty remains a serious problem in Australia." [This definition is an objective list definition of well-being. Well-being is defined as a life that has more of the listed aspects.]

Kraft.com.au
"What Is Well-Being? Well-being describes our happiness, confidence, physical condition and general outlook on life. It is about feeling good and taking care of yourself; responsibilities that can often be neglected when juggling the rigorous demands of every day living in the 21st century." [This is an objective list definition of well-being. It mainly defines well-being as feeling good and good physical health.]

Hooah 4 Health National Guard
"What is Well-Being? Well-Being is defined as "the personal -- physical, material, mental, and spiritual -- state of Soldiers, civilians, and their families that contributes to their preparedness to perform the Army's mission." Well-being is a condition resulting from a system of individual programs." [Here well-being is defined following Aristotele's approach of equating well-being with well-functioning, where the function is to perform the Army's mission.]

Participants of Tiberius's Symposium, University of Minnesota [click on link to see abstracts]

UNICEF - Children's Well-Being
To measure children’s well-being, researchers looked at six different things: child poverty (compared to others in their country); health and safety; education; relationships with family and friends; behaviours and risks, which includes issues like smoking, drug use and violence; and a section all about what young people themselves say about how they feel. [This measurement approach defines well-being as a list of six aspects.]

Buddhist Lecture
"Now let's touch on one part of our title, "well-being." What is well-being? Well-being means a principle. When you have a valid principle, and you center your entire physical, mental, and verbal activities around that principle, then I think that is the definition of well-being."

Workshop on this topic, August 2008

WikiAnswer [posted by myself]
" What is well being? Well-being is the realization of your preferences. In other words, you have well-being if your actual life matches your ideal life. It is reflected in frequent positive feelings, infrequent negative feelings, and your own judgment that your life is going well." [This is a subjective definition of well-being in terms of preference-satisfaction]

NEF Well-Being Manifesto, UK
"What is well-being? Some academics argue that well-being is best understood in terms of our overall happiness or satisfaction with life. But evidence shows that there is much more to life than satisfaction: people also want to be leading rich and fulfilling lives – developing their capabilities, fulfilling their potential, and leading socially useful lives." [This definition creates a falls dichotomy between satisfaction and other preferences. If people want to develop their capabilities and they cannot do this, they would not be satisfied.]

Veenhoven Chapter in WIDER book
"Best indicator is Happy Life Years. The most comprehensive measure of wellbeing is how long and happy people live." [subjective/objective definition, happiness is subjective, life-years is objective, can only be applied to completed lives, or at the national level as a combination of aggregated happiness and life expectancy]