Wellbeing definitions

Diener (1984)

Subjective Wellbeing (or hedonic wellbeing)

Components of Subjective Wellbeing

Life satisfaction + Affective balance = subjective wellbeing

Life satisfaction - Subjective Wellbeing

Global judgements of one’s life and make up the cognitive measure of wellbeing.

Affective balance - Subjective Wellbeing

Moods and emotions that make up the emotional measure of wellbeing.

Positive affect = pleasant emotions

Negative affect = unpleasant emotions

Equilibrium/Hedonic affective balance - subjective wellbeing

A global judgement of happiness is continually assessed by people comparing their negative affect with their positive affect.

Strengths of Diener’s theory

Applicable across multiple cultural contexts, as the two components of the theory can be applied to individuals of any culture = cultural universality.

Limitations of Diener’s theory

• Focuses on internal factors (emotions and personal experiences) and doesn’t consider the influence of external objective factors on a person’s wellbeing.

• Self-report model only records explicit attitudes.

• Explicit attitudes are conscious, and tend to be a less accurate representation of true attitudes (in comparison to implicit attitudes = unconscious judgements), an individual may exaggerate responses to seem socially desirable.

Real world applications of Diener’s theory

• Effectiveness of public health initiatives and policies can be guided and assessed using subjective wellbeing measures.

• A subjective wellbeing survey’s data can be used to compare a targeted population’s wellbeing before and after initiatives/policies have been put in place.

• Gathering data this way utilises a longitudinal study research design.