Eudamonic wellbeing is focused on psychological wellbeing, and believes that wellbeing lies in the actualization of human potential. There are three different definitions or equivalent terms to the actualization of human potential: psychological wellbeing, authentic happiness, and the self-determination theory. Psychological wellbeing is made up of the ideas of self-acceptance, positive relations, personal growth, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and autonomy. It believes that a person must strive to satisfy these six areas in order live a fulfilling life. Seligmann argues for the theory of authentic happiness, which is made up of the pleasant life (hedonic happiness), the good life (flow) and the meaningful life. Finally, self-determination theory posits that a fulfilling life is created by fulfilling three areas: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. While these three theories believe that the actualization of human potential is created by different areas, there are several ideas that are common across theories. Some important ideas that appear in multiple theories are the importance of social relationships, competence in working with and affecting the environment, personal growth and finding a state of flow, finding purpose or meaning in life, and autonomy. Overall, it focuses on meaningful areas in life that promote self-actualization and fulfillment on a deeper level than hedonic happiness.
What is the different between hedonic and eudamonic happiness?
The main difference between the two ideas of happiness is that hedonic happiness is based on positive emotions, while eudamonic happiness is psychological states that support human actualization. This is illustrated in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, in that the bottom two layers of physiological needs and safety needs aid in hedonic wellbeing, while the top three layers of love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization are involved in eudamonic wellbeing.
In order to further understand hedonic and eudamonic happiness, we did five different activities exploring the ideas of the two types. In the first, we looked for quotes that represented either hedonic or eudamonic happiness. For the quotes regarding hedonic happiness, we wrote down those that focused on promoting happiness, such as "Don't worry, be happy." For the eudamonic quotes, we found those that included goals and purpose, as well as those that focused on personal relationships, since these were some important ideas regarding eudamonic happiness.
In another activity, we had to identify songs and movies that could represent hedonic and eudamonic happiness. For the hedonic music and movies, we put down "Down worry, be happy" and "Half-baked," since these focus on enjoying life and don't necessarily include much about meaning or purpose life. On the other hand, for the music and movies that represent eudamonic happiness, we put down "Firework" and "Toy Story," as these pieces include the aspect of finding one's identity and meaning.
Additionally, we needed to create concepts for reality shows that would demonstrate these two types of happiness. For a show that exhibits hedonic happiness, we described a show that would have couples competing to win a prize. The reasoning behind using a concept such as this to demonstrate hedonic happiness is that one main theory is hedonic happiness is the social comparison theory - that people feel happy when they compare favorably to others. This concept then includes the aspect of winning a prize as a couple, so that they are comparing well against others. For a eudamonic happiness show, we wrote down the concept of bringing a group of people into the wild to survive. We used this idea because it demonstrated the ideas of autonomy, competence, and social relatedness.
For a fourth activity, we had to write down three different workshop ideas that could be done at a camp for young kids. For one idea, we described an activity where people grab hands randomly to form a human knot and then they must work to form a circle of people. This activity would represent eudamonic happiness in that this activity would require competence and social connections. For the other two activities, we described an activity where everyone would write down three good things about each other person, and one where they would describe three good things that happened to them that day. The first activity would demonstrate both kinds of happiness in that it would promote positive affect for hedonic happiness, and it would also improve social relatedness for eudamonic happiness. The last activity would be hedonic, improving positive affect.
The last activity was a comparison between the two kinds of happiness. For this activity, we just jotted down the different main points for each, mentioned above, and criticisms. The main criticism for hedonic would that it would be shallow - only focusing on pleasure. The main criticism for eudamonic happiness would be that it doesn't take into account this emotional happiness.
In summary, eudamonic happiness focuses on deeper satisfaction in life through the actualization of human potential. This actualization could be achieved or supported by different areas in someones life, through competency, autonomy, social relations, as well as others. This then is in contrast to hedonic happiness, which focuses more on the happiness and pleasure in life.
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