Flourishing
Encyclopedia
Flourishing is an area of study in the field of positive psychology
. Flourishing has been defined as: “to live within an optimal range of human functioning, one that connotes goodness, generativity, growth, and resilience.” Flourishing is the opposite of both pathology
and languishing, which are described as living a life that feels both hollow and empty.
Flourishing is a positive psychology
concept which a measure of overall life well-being and is viewed as important to the idea of happiness. Many components and concepts contribute to the overall concept of flourishing and the benefits of a life that can be characterized as flourishing. It exists as an umbrella concept because it includes and incorporates many other concepts in the positive psychology field such as cultivating strengths
, subjective well-being, positive work spaces, etc.
es and their negative psychological consequences. However, many are coming to realize that studying positive psychological consequences and positive experiences is also beneficial.Barbara Fredrickson
, who posited the broaden-and-build
theory of positive emotions, has helped to discover the wide variety of positive effects that positive emotions and experiences have on human lives.
Previous theories of emotion
stated that all emotions are associated with urges to act in particular ways, called action-tendencies. For instance, anger
creates the urge to seek retribution
or to attack, fear
creates the urge to escape
, guilt
creates the urge to make amends for actions, etc. People do not necessarily act on these urges when they experience these particular emotions, but rather people’s ideas about possible courses of action narrow to reflect these specific urges. These action-tendencies are not merely thoughts, but actions which also manifest physiologically, for example, when someone is afraid, blood flow
increases to major muscle
groups and pupils dilate, preparing the body to flee. Emotions have adaptive value, such as mobilizing and preparing our minds and bodies during times of danger. The reflexive action-tendencies that are associated with emotions probably developed over the course of humankind’s evolution
.
Fredrickson was one of the first to note that most positive emotions did not follow this model of action-tendencies Positive emotions do not usually occur in life-threatening circumstances and thus do not generally elicit specific urges. Fredrickson proposes that instead of one general theory of emotions, psychologists should develop theories for each emotion or for subsets of emotions. More specifically, Fredrickson notes two characteristics of positive emotions that differ from negative emotions. First, positive emotions do not seem to elicit specific action tendencies the same way that negative emotions do. Instead, they seem to cause some general, non-direction oriented activation. Second, positive emotions do not necessarily facilitate physical
action, but do spark significant cognitive action. For this reason, Fredrickson conceptualizes two new concepts: thought-action tendencies, or what a person will normally do in a particular situation, and thought-action repertoires, rather an inventory of skills of what a person is able to do.
The broaden-and-build
theory of positive emotions proposed by Fredrickson states that while negative emotions narrow thought-action tendencies to time tested strategies as handed down by evolution, positive emotions broaden thought-action repertoires. Positive emotions often cause people to discard time-tested or automatic action tendencies and pursue novel, creative, and often unscripted courses of thought and action. These positive emotions and thought-action repertoires can be seen as applicable to the concept of flourishing because flourishing children and adults have a much wider array of cognitive, physical
, and social
possibilities, which results in the empirical
and actual successes of a flourishing life.
that helps the social scientists and psychologists study and measure fulfillment, purpose, meaning
, and happiness
. Corey Keyes
, a famous researcher in flourishing, argues that mental health
does not imply an absence of mental illness
rather, mental health is a “separate dimension of positive feelings and functioning.” Therefore, Keyes has operationalized many of the symptoms of positive feelings and positive functioning in life by reviewing dimensions and scales of subjective well-being and, therefore, creating a definition of flourishing.
Keyes claims that flourishing is the epitome of mentally healthy adults having high levels of emotional well-being; they are happy and satisfied; they tend to see their lives as having a purpose; they feel some degree of mastery and accept all parts of themselves; they have a sense of personal growth in the sense that they are always growing
, evolving, and changing; finally, they have a sense of autonomy
and an internal locus of control
, they chose their fate in life instead of being victims of fate. Keyes says that only one third of Americans are actually flourishing and the rest, two-thirds, of Americans are languishing, which, as he states, does not imply that they are mentally ill, they just lack the required traits to flourish.
To complete, or operationalize, the definition of what it means to be functioning optimally, or flourishing, there has been diagnostic criteria created for a flourishing life:
. Subjective well-being, is an individual
’s perception
s of their own lives in terms of their affective states, psychological functioning, and social
functioning. Many social scientists study and measure flourishing through self-report measures. Individuals are asked to respond to structured scales measuring the presence of positive affect
, absence of negative affect
, and perceived satisfaction with life. Participants are specifically asked about their emotions and feeling
s because scientists theorize that flourishing is something that manifests itself internally rather than externally.
, and resilience
.
In another view, an important component of flourishing making it such a strong concept in positive psychology, is that it must be a true pursuit of human flourishing; it must be a genuine search for positivity that is grounded in the reality of current circumstances. When it is feigned positivity may be more negative than good. Flourishing and the pursuit of an optimal lifestyle is one that encourages a truly genuine and heartfelt pursuit.
. Cultivating flourishing does not eliminate depression
, instead depression
it is on the opposite side of the scale from flourishing. However, it is important to note how much more beneficial flourishing is in comparison to both depression and languishing, which can be considered as the midpoint between the two concepts.
A study by Keyes found that there are major costs of depression
, which 14% of adults experience annually: it impairs social roles; it costs billions each year due to work absenteeism, diminished productivity
, and healthcare costs; finally, depression
accounts for at least one-third of suicides. Therefore, it is important to study flourishing to learn about what is possible if issues such as depression
are tackled and how the ramifications of focusing on the positive make life better not for one person, but for others around them.
Flourishing has significant positive aspects magnified when compared to languishing adults and when languishing adults are compared to depressed
adults, as explained by Keyes. For example, languishing adults have the same amount of chronic disease
as those that are depressed whereas flourishing adults are in exceptionally better physical health. Languishing adults miss as many days at work as depressed
adults and, in fact, visit doctors
and therapists more than depressed adults.
s, and sentiments such as happiness
, carry more person
al and psychological benefits than just a pleasant, personal subjective experience. Flourishing widens attention
, broaden behavioral repertoires, which means to broaden one’s skills or regularly performed actions, increase intuition
, and increase creativity
. Secondly, good feelings can have physiological manifestations, such as significant and positive cardiovascular effects, such as a reduction in blood pressure
. Third, good feelings predict healthy mental and physical outcomes. Also, positive affect and flourishing is related to longevity
.
The many components of flourishing elicit more tangible outcomes than simply mental or physiological results. For example, components such as self-efficacy
, likability, and prosocial behavior encourage active involvement with goal pursuits and with the environment
. This promotes people to pursue and approach new and different situations. Therefore, flourishing adults have higher levels of motivation to work actively to pursue new goals and are in possession of more past skills and resources. This helps people to satisfy life and societal goals, such as creating opportunities, performing well in the workplace
, and producing goods, work and careers that are highly valued in American society. This success results in higher satisfaction
and reinforces Frederickson’s Broaden and Build model, for more positive adults reap more benefits and, are more positive, which creates an upward spiral.
Studies have shown that people who are flourishing are more likely to graduate from college, secure “better” jobs, and are more likely to succeed in that job. One reason for this success can be seen in the evidence offered above when discussing languishing: those that flourish have less work absenteeism, cited by Lyubomirsky as “job withdrawal” (6) Lyubomirsky, S., King, L. A., & Diener, E. (in press). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803-855. Finally, those that are flourishing have more support and assistance from coworkers and supervisors in their workplace.
Flourishing has been found to impact more areas than simply the workplace
. In particular community involvement and social relationship
s have been cited as something that flourishing influences directly. For example, those that flourish have been found to volunteer at higher levels across culture
s. Moreover, in terms of social support
and relationship
s, studies have shown that there is an association between flourishing and actual number of friends, overall social support
, and perceived companionship.
s of positive to negative affect
can distinguish individual
s that flourish from those that do not. Specifically, normal functioning is characterized by a ratio of positive to negative affect
near 2.5, however optimal
functioning, or flourishing, is characterized by a ratio of positive to negative of 4.3 The point at which flourishing changes to languishing is called the Losada line
and is placed at the positivity ratio of 2.9. Those with higher ratios, have broader behavioral repertoires, greater flexibility
and resilience
to adversity, more social resources, and more optimal functioning in many areas of their life. Those below the Losada line
can be characterized by languishing children or adults and suffer those consequences that studies have shown accompany a languishing life.
Research has also discovered there is an upper limit to happiness
and how positive
we can be. When humans reach the upper limit the dynamics of flourishing begin to disintegrate, which means that positive benefits such as higher productivity
and increased creativity
do not occur and actually regress at these high levels of positivity. This disintegration occurs at a positivity ratio of about 11.5. Therefore, problems do occur with too much positivity, which means that negativity plays an important role within flourishing. This specific type of negativity is termed appropriate negativity, which can be described as time-limited, soluble feedback
that is connected to specific circumstances. Appropriate negativity could also be renamed as constructive criticism. This feedback is important because it allows us as humans to modify our actions
, thoughts, and motivations and refocus or improve our pathways and continue to grow and develop in the adjusted, more positive way until we are offered appropriate negativity again, at which point we will readjust our strategies and pathways again
techniques aimed at increasing levels of emotional, social
, and psychological well-being Furthermore, as Keyes implies, in a world full of flourishing people, all would be able to reap the benefits that this positive mental state and life condition offers.
filled with flourishing teachers
. He emphasizes that this area of study, of where teachers
are on the scale of well-being, is very understudied and could benefit the school system. He states that we can not expose our children to languishing adults and expect them to flourish. Therefore, the application is far reaching into the depths of our school systems. While the children might not be directly attempting to flourish, they are feeling the benefits of those around them consciously attempting to flourish. Furthermore, if students can be made to flourish, then the benefits to the education process will be even greater, as flourishing can increase attention and thought-action repertoires.
. Keyes believes that most people do not focus enough on those aspects of life and focus instead on personal achievement. Keyes suggests that people should provide encouragement to children, and adults, to participate socially. People that exhibit flourishing are engaged in social participation and people that are engaged in social participation exhibit flourishing. Therefore, he suggests that people should give their kids a purpose, which will create a sense of contribution
and environmental mastery that will enhance feelings of well-being and fulfilment.
. A view generally known as Neo-Aristotelian comes from modernized theories incorporating doctrines of Aristotle
It claims that human flourishing offers a view of the human good that is objective, inclusive, individualized, agent-relative, self directed and social
. It views human flourishing objectively because it is desirable and appealing. Flourishing is a state of being rather than a feeling or experience. It comes from engaging in activities that both express and produce the actualization of one’s potential
.
but not the capacity for cognitive processing. Flourishing is still a newly-developing subject of study and, more tests need to be done to fully define, operationalize, and apply the concept of flourishing; this lack of research is also one criticism of the concept flourishing.
, but the consequences
of research
can be far reaching. People who experience and express positive emotions cope
more effectively with chronic stress
and other negative experiences. The benefits of flourishing extend beyond the individual and have implications for communities and society
as well. It has a role to be played in educational reform, greater workplace
productivity
and healthcare on a national scale. Further research in flourishing, and positive psychology in general, would greatly add to the applicable body of knowledge in the field of psychology beyond the specific field of abnormal psychology and help to improve oneself, one's community
, and one's world
.
Positive psychology
Positive psychology is a recent branch of psychology whose purpose was summed up in 1998 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: "We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise, which achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving in...
. Flourishing has been defined as: “to live within an optimal range of human functioning, one that connotes goodness, generativity, growth, and resilience.” Flourishing is the opposite of both pathology
Pathology
Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
and languishing, which are described as living a life that feels both hollow and empty.
Flourishing is a positive psychology
Positive psychology
Positive psychology is a recent branch of psychology whose purpose was summed up in 1998 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: "We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise, which achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving in...
concept which a measure of overall life well-being and is viewed as important to the idea of happiness. Many components and concepts contribute to the overall concept of flourishing and the benefits of a life that can be characterized as flourishing. It exists as an umbrella concept because it includes and incorporates many other concepts in the positive psychology field such as cultivating strengths
Virtue
Virtue is moral excellence. A virtue is a positive trait or quality subjectively deemed to be morally excellent and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being....
, subjective well-being, positive work spaces, etc.
The Study of Positive Emotions
Researchers have been interested in mental illnessMental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
es and their negative psychological consequences. However, many are coming to realize that studying positive psychological consequences and positive experiences is also beneficial.Barbara Fredrickson
Barbara Fredrickson
Barbara L. Fredrickson is a professor in the department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology....
, who posited the broaden-and-build
Broaden-and-build
The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions suggests that positive emotions broaden one's awareness and encourage novel, varied, and exploratory thoughts and actions. Over time, this broadened behavioral repertoire builds skills and resources...
theory of positive emotions, has helped to discover the wide variety of positive effects that positive emotions and experiences have on human lives.
Previous theories of emotion
Emotion
Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...
stated that all emotions are associated with urges to act in particular ways, called action-tendencies. For instance, anger
Anger
Anger is an automatic response to ill treatment. It is the way a person indicates he or she will not tolerate certain types of behaviour. It is a feedback mechanism in which an unpleasant stimulus is met with an unpleasant response....
creates the urge to seek retribution
Revenge
Revenge is a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. It is also called payback, retribution, retaliation or vengeance; it may be characterized, justly or unjustly, as a form of justice.-Function in society:Some societies believe that the...
or to attack, fear
Fear
Fear is a distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger...
creates the urge to escape
Flee
Flee is an album by British blues rock musician Jeremy Spencer, who was a member of Fleetwood Mac from 1967–71, and "The Jeremy Spencer Band" , with particularly strong input from Michael Fogarty...
, guilt
Guilt
Guilt is the state of being responsible for the commission of an offense. It is also a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes—accurately or not—that he or she has violated a moral standard, and bears significant responsibility for that...
creates the urge to make amends for actions, etc. People do not necessarily act on these urges when they experience these particular emotions, but rather people’s ideas about possible courses of action narrow to reflect these specific urges. These action-tendencies are not merely thoughts, but actions which also manifest physiologically, for example, when someone is afraid, blood flow
Blood flow
Blood flow is the continuous running of blood in the cardiovascular system.The human body is made up of several processes all carrying out various functions. We have the gastrointestinal system which aids the digestion and the absorption of food...
increases to major muscle
Muscle
Muscle is a contractile tissue of animals and is derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells. Muscle cells contain contractile filaments that move past each other and change the size of the cell. They are classified as skeletal, cardiac, or smooth muscles. Their function is to...
groups and pupils dilate, preparing the body to flee. Emotions have adaptive value, such as mobilizing and preparing our minds and bodies during times of danger. The reflexive action-tendencies that are associated with emotions probably developed over the course of humankind’s evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
.
Fredrickson was one of the first to note that most positive emotions did not follow this model of action-tendencies Positive emotions do not usually occur in life-threatening circumstances and thus do not generally elicit specific urges. Fredrickson proposes that instead of one general theory of emotions, psychologists should develop theories for each emotion or for subsets of emotions. More specifically, Fredrickson notes two characteristics of positive emotions that differ from negative emotions. First, positive emotions do not seem to elicit specific action tendencies the same way that negative emotions do. Instead, they seem to cause some general, non-direction oriented activation. Second, positive emotions do not necessarily facilitate physical
Human body
The human body is the entire structure of a human organism, and consists of a head, neck, torso, two arms and two legs.By the time the human reaches adulthood, the body consists of close to 100 trillion cells, the basic unit of life...
action, but do spark significant cognitive action. For this reason, Fredrickson conceptualizes two new concepts: thought-action tendencies, or what a person will normally do in a particular situation, and thought-action repertoires, rather an inventory of skills of what a person is able to do.
The broaden-and-build
Broaden-and-build
The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions suggests that positive emotions broaden one's awareness and encourage novel, varied, and exploratory thoughts and actions. Over time, this broadened behavioral repertoire builds skills and resources...
theory of positive emotions proposed by Fredrickson states that while negative emotions narrow thought-action tendencies to time tested strategies as handed down by evolution, positive emotions broaden thought-action repertoires. Positive emotions often cause people to discard time-tested or automatic action tendencies and pursue novel, creative, and often unscripted courses of thought and action. These positive emotions and thought-action repertoires can be seen as applicable to the concept of flourishing because flourishing children and adults have a much wider array of cognitive, physical
Human body
The human body is the entire structure of a human organism, and consists of a head, neck, torso, two arms and two legs.By the time the human reaches adulthood, the body consists of close to 100 trillion cells, the basic unit of life...
, and social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
possibilities, which results in the empirical
Empirical
The word empirical denotes information gained by means of observation or experimentation. Empirical data are data produced by an experiment or observation....
and actual successes of a flourishing life.
Flourishing
Flourishing is a concept of psychologyPsychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
that helps the social scientists and psychologists study and measure fulfillment, purpose, meaning
Meaning (existential)
In existentialism, meaning is understood as the worth of life. Meaning in existentialism is unlike typical conceptions of "the meaning of life", because it is descriptive. Due to the method of existentialism, prescriptive or declarative statements about meaning are unjustified. Meaning is only...
, and happiness
Happiness
Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources....
. Corey Keyes
Corey Keyes
Corey Keyes is an American sociologist and psychologist. He is known for his work with positive psychology. Keyes currently teaches at Emory University in Georgia.-Work:...
, a famous researcher in flourishing, argues that mental health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
does not imply an absence of mental illness
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
rather, mental health is a “separate dimension of positive feelings and functioning.” Therefore, Keyes has operationalized many of the symptoms of positive feelings and positive functioning in life by reviewing dimensions and scales of subjective well-being and, therefore, creating a definition of flourishing.
Keyes claims that flourishing is the epitome of mentally healthy adults having high levels of emotional well-being; they are happy and satisfied; they tend to see their lives as having a purpose; they feel some degree of mastery and accept all parts of themselves; they have a sense of personal growth in the sense that they are always growing
Personal development
Personal development includes activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitates employability, enhance quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations...
, evolving, and changing; finally, they have a sense of autonomy
Autonomy
Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...
and an internal locus of control
Locus of control
Locus of control is a theory in personality psychology referring to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events that affect them. Understanding of the concept was developed by Julian B...
, they chose their fate in life instead of being victims of fate. Keyes says that only one third of Americans are actually flourishing and the rest, two-thirds, of Americans are languishing, which, as he states, does not imply that they are mentally ill, they just lack the required traits to flourish.
Definition
Modern researchers believe that individuals described as flourishing have a combination of high levels of emotional well-being, psychological well-being, and social well-being. Keyes states that mental health may be operationalized “as a syndrome of symptoms of an individual’s subjective well-being.”To complete, or operationalize, the definition of what it means to be functioning optimally, or flourishing, there has been diagnostic criteria created for a flourishing life:
- Individual must have had no episodes of major depressionDepression (mood)Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
in the past year - Individual must possess a high level of well-being as indicated by the individuals meeting all three of the following criteria
- High emotional well-being, defined by 2 of 3 scale scores on appropriate measures falling in the upper tertile.
- Positive affect
- Negative affect (low)
- Life satisfactionLife satisfactionLife Satisfaction is the way a person perceives how his or her life has been and how they feel about where it is going in the future. It is a measure of well being. Life satisfaction has been measured in relation with economic standing, amount of education, experiences, and the location of people...
- High psychological well-being, defined by 4 of 6 scale scores on appropriate measures falling in the upper tertile.
- Self-acceptanceSelf-acceptanceSelf-acceptance is defined as affirmation or acceptance of self in spite of weaknesses or deficiencies.Although this term has been often understood in a common sense way, researchers have defined it formally in terms of positive and negative self-concepts...
- Personal growth
- Purpose in life
- Environmental mastery
- AutonomyAutonomyAutonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...
- Positive relations with others
- Self-acceptance
- High social well-being, defined by 3 of 5 scale scores on appropriate measures falling in the upper tertile.
- Social acceptanceAcceptanceAcceptance is a person's agreement to experience a situation, to follow a process or condition without attempting to change it, protest, or exit....
- Social actualization
- Social contributionDonationA donation is a gift given by physical or legal persons, typically for charitable purposes and/or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including cash, services, new or used goods including clothing, toys, food, and vehicles...
- Social coherence
- Social integrationSocial integrationSocial integration, in sociology and other social sciences, is the movement of minority groups such as ethnic minorities, refugees and underprivileged sections of a society into the mainstream of societies...
- Social acceptance
- High emotional well-being, defined by 2 of 3 scale scores on appropriate measures falling in the upper tertile.
Theoretical Approaches
Psychologists study well-being and subjective well-being by conceptualizing, measuring, and studying the measurement structure of mental healthMental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
. Subjective well-being, is an individual
Individual
An individual is a person or any specific object or thing in a collection. Individuality is the state or quality of being an individual; a person separate from other persons and possessing his or her own needs, goals, and desires. Being self expressive...
’s perception
Perception
Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...
s of their own lives in terms of their affective states, psychological functioning, and social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
functioning. Many social scientists study and measure flourishing through self-report measures. Individuals are asked to respond to structured scales measuring the presence of positive affect
Affect (psychology)
Affect refers to the experience of feeling or emotion. Affect is a key part of the process of an organism's interaction with stimuli. The word also refers sometimes to affect display, which is "a facial, vocal, or gestural behavior that serves as an indicator of affect" .The affective domain...
, absence of negative affect
Affect (psychology)
Affect refers to the experience of feeling or emotion. Affect is a key part of the process of an organism's interaction with stimuli. The word also refers sometimes to affect display, which is "a facial, vocal, or gestural behavior that serves as an indicator of affect" .The affective domain...
, and perceived satisfaction with life. Participants are specifically asked about their emotions and feeling
Feeling
Feeling is the nominalization of the verb to feel. The word was first used in the English language to describe the physical sensation of touch through either experience or perception. The word is also used to describe experiences, other than the physical sensation of touch, such as "a feeling of...
s because scientists theorize that flourishing is something that manifests itself internally rather than externally.
Components of Flourishing
Researchers have argued that flourishing is characterized by four main components: goodness, generative, growthPersonal development
Personal development includes activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitates employability, enhance quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations...
, and resilience
Resilience
Resilience is the property of a material to absorb energy when it is deformed elastically and then, upon unloading to have this energy recovered. In other words, it is the maximum energy per unit volume that can be elastically stored...
.
In another view, an important component of flourishing making it such a strong concept in positive psychology, is that it must be a true pursuit of human flourishing; it must be a genuine search for positivity that is grounded in the reality of current circumstances. When it is feigned positivity may be more negative than good. Flourishing and the pursuit of an optimal lifestyle is one that encourages a truly genuine and heartfelt pursuit.
The Antonym of Flourishing, Languishing
One reason to study and cultivate flourishing is to learn about the antonym of languishing and depressionDepression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
. Cultivating flourishing does not eliminate depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
, instead depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
it is on the opposite side of the scale from flourishing. However, it is important to note how much more beneficial flourishing is in comparison to both depression and languishing, which can be considered as the midpoint between the two concepts.
A study by Keyes found that there are major costs of depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
, which 14% of adults experience annually: it impairs social roles; it costs billions each year due to work absenteeism, diminished productivity
Productivity
Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Usually this ratio is in the form of an average, expressing the total output divided by the total input...
, and healthcare costs; finally, depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
accounts for at least one-third of suicides. Therefore, it is important to study flourishing to learn about what is possible if issues such as depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
are tackled and how the ramifications of focusing on the positive make life better not for one person, but for others around them.
Flourishing has significant positive aspects magnified when compared to languishing adults and when languishing adults are compared to depressed
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
adults, as explained by Keyes. For example, languishing adults have the same amount of chronic disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
as those that are depressed whereas flourishing adults are in exceptionally better physical health. Languishing adults miss as many days at work as depressed
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
adults and, in fact, visit doctors
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and therapists more than depressed adults.
General Benefits of Flourishing
Positive emotional feelings such as moodMood (psychology)
A mood is a relatively long lasting emotional state. Moods differ from emotions in that they are less specific, less intense, and less likely to be triggered by a particular stimulus or event....
s, and sentiments such as happiness
Happiness
Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources....
, carry more person
Person
A person is a human being, or an entity that has certain capacities or attributes strongly associated with being human , for example in a particular moral or legal context...
al and psychological benefits than just a pleasant, personal subjective experience. Flourishing widens attention
Attention
Attention is the cognitive process of paying attention to one aspect of the environment while ignoring others. Attention is one of the most intensely studied topics within psychology and cognitive neuroscience....
, broaden behavioral repertoires, which means to broaden one’s skills or regularly performed actions, increase intuition
Intuition (knowledge)
Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason. "The word 'intuition' comes from the Latin word 'intueri', which is often roughly translated as meaning 'to look inside'’ or 'to contemplate'." Intuition provides us with beliefs that we cannot necessarily justify...
, and increase creativity
Creativity
Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs...
. Secondly, good feelings can have physiological manifestations, such as significant and positive cardiovascular effects, such as a reduction in blood pressure
Blood pressure
Blood pressure is the pressure exerted by circulating blood upon the walls of blood vessels, and is one of the principal vital signs. When used without further specification, "blood pressure" usually refers to the arterial pressure of the systemic circulation. During each heartbeat, BP varies...
. Third, good feelings predict healthy mental and physical outcomes. Also, positive affect and flourishing is related to longevity
Longevity
The word "longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography or known as "long life", especially when it concerns someone or something lasting longer than expected ....
.
The many components of flourishing elicit more tangible outcomes than simply mental or physiological results. For example, components such as self-efficacy
Self-efficacy
Self-efficacy is a term used in psychology, roughly corresponding to a person's belief in their own competence.It has been defined as the belief that one is capable of performing in a certain manner to attain certain set of goals. It is believed that our personalized ideas of self-efficacy affect...
, likability, and prosocial behavior encourage active involvement with goal pursuits and with the environment
Social environment
The social environment of an individual, also called social context or milieu, is the culture that s/he was educated or lives in, and the people and institutions with whom the person interacts....
. This promotes people to pursue and approach new and different situations. Therefore, flourishing adults have higher levels of motivation to work actively to pursue new goals and are in possession of more past skills and resources. This helps people to satisfy life and societal goals, such as creating opportunities, performing well in the workplace
Office
An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the...
, and producing goods, work and careers that are highly valued in American society. This success results in higher satisfaction
Contentment
"Contentment" seems realistically defined as "enjoyment of whatever may be desired". That definition is realistic because the more contented an individual or community becomes the less extreme so more acceptable their desires will be...
and reinforces Frederickson’s Broaden and Build model, for more positive adults reap more benefits and, are more positive, which creates an upward spiral.
Studies have shown that people who are flourishing are more likely to graduate from college, secure “better” jobs, and are more likely to succeed in that job. One reason for this success can be seen in the evidence offered above when discussing languishing: those that flourish have less work absenteeism, cited by Lyubomirsky as “job withdrawal” (6) Lyubomirsky, S., King, L. A., & Diener, E. (in press). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803-855. Finally, those that are flourishing have more support and assistance from coworkers and supervisors in their workplace.
Flourishing has been found to impact more areas than simply the workplace
Office
An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the...
. In particular community involvement and social relationship
Interpersonal relationship
An interpersonal relationship is an association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring. This association may be based on limerence, love, solidarity, regular business interactions, or some other type of social commitment. Interpersonal relationships are formed in the...
s have been cited as something that flourishing influences directly. For example, those that flourish have been found to volunteer at higher levels across culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
s. Moreover, in terms of social support
Social support
Social support can be defined and measured in many ways. It can loosely be defined as feeling that one is cared for by and has assistance available from other people and that one is part of a supportive social network...
and relationship
Interpersonal relationship
An interpersonal relationship is an association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring. This association may be based on limerence, love, solidarity, regular business interactions, or some other type of social commitment. Interpersonal relationships are formed in the...
s, studies have shown that there is an association between flourishing and actual number of friends, overall social support
Social support
Social support can be defined and measured in many ways. It can loosely be defined as feeling that one is cared for by and has assistance available from other people and that one is part of a supportive social network...
, and perceived companionship.
A Ratio for A Flourishing Life
There is evidence that ratioRatio
In mathematics, a ratio is a relationship between two numbers of the same kind , usually expressed as "a to b" or a:b, sometimes expressed arithmetically as a dimensionless quotient of the two which explicitly indicates how many times the first number contains the second In mathematics, a ratio is...
s of positive to negative affect
Affect (psychology)
Affect refers to the experience of feeling or emotion. Affect is a key part of the process of an organism's interaction with stimuli. The word also refers sometimes to affect display, which is "a facial, vocal, or gestural behavior that serves as an indicator of affect" .The affective domain...
can distinguish individual
Individual
An individual is a person or any specific object or thing in a collection. Individuality is the state or quality of being an individual; a person separate from other persons and possessing his or her own needs, goals, and desires. Being self expressive...
s that flourish from those that do not. Specifically, normal functioning is characterized by a ratio of positive to negative affect
Affect (psychology)
Affect refers to the experience of feeling or emotion. Affect is a key part of the process of an organism's interaction with stimuli. The word also refers sometimes to affect display, which is "a facial, vocal, or gestural behavior that serves as an indicator of affect" .The affective domain...
near 2.5, however optimal
Exaggeration
Exaggeration is a representation of something in an excessive manner. The exaggerator has been a familiar figure in Western culture since at least Aristotle's discussion of the alazon: 'the boaster is regarded as one who pretends to have distinguished qualities which he possesses either not at all...
functioning, or flourishing, is characterized by a ratio of positive to negative of 4.3 The point at which flourishing changes to languishing is called the Losada line
Losada line
The Losada Line, also known as the "Losada ratio," was found by psychologist Marcial Losada while researching the differences in positivity/negativity between high and low performance teams . The Losada Line has a positivity/negativity ratio of 2.9013 and it represents the lower bound of the Losada...
and is placed at the positivity ratio of 2.9. Those with higher ratios, have broader behavioral repertoires, greater flexibility
Flexibility (personality)
Flexibility is a personality trait — the extent to which a person can cope with changes in circumstances and think about problems and tasks in novel, creative ways....
and resilience
Resilience
Resilience is the property of a material to absorb energy when it is deformed elastically and then, upon unloading to have this energy recovered. In other words, it is the maximum energy per unit volume that can be elastically stored...
to adversity, more social resources, and more optimal functioning in many areas of their life. Those below the Losada line
Losada line
The Losada Line, also known as the "Losada ratio," was found by psychologist Marcial Losada while researching the differences in positivity/negativity between high and low performance teams . The Losada Line has a positivity/negativity ratio of 2.9013 and it represents the lower bound of the Losada...
can be characterized by languishing children or adults and suffer those consequences that studies have shown accompany a languishing life.
Research has also discovered there is an upper limit to happiness
Happiness
Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources....
and how positive
Positive science
In the humanities and social sciences, the term positive is used in at least two ways.The most common usage refers to analysis or theories which only attempt to describe how things 'are', as opposed to how they 'should' be. Positive means also 'value free'. In this sense, the opposite of positive...
we can be. When humans reach the upper limit the dynamics of flourishing begin to disintegrate, which means that positive benefits such as higher productivity
Productivity
Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Usually this ratio is in the form of an average, expressing the total output divided by the total input...
and increased creativity
Creativity
Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs...
do not occur and actually regress at these high levels of positivity. This disintegration occurs at a positivity ratio of about 11.5. Therefore, problems do occur with too much positivity, which means that negativity plays an important role within flourishing. This specific type of negativity is termed appropriate negativity, which can be described as time-limited, soluble feedback
Feedback
Feedback describes the situation when output from an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or occurrences of the same Feedback describes the situation when output from (or information about the result of) an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or...
that is connected to specific circumstances. Appropriate negativity could also be renamed as constructive criticism. This feedback is important because it allows us as humans to modify our actions
Social actions
In sociology, social action refers to an act which takes into account the actions and reactions of individuals .According to Max Weber, "an Action is 'social' if the acting individual takes account of the behavior of others and is thereby oriented in its course" .- Social action and Max Weber :The...
, thoughts, and motivations and refocus or improve our pathways and continue to grow and develop in the adjusted, more positive way until we are offered appropriate negativity again, at which point we will readjust our strategies and pathways again
Applications
The definition or conceptualization of mental health under the framework of flourishing and languishing describes symptoms that can cooperate with interventionIntervention (counseling)
An intervention is an orchestrated attempt by one, or often many, people to get someone to seek professional help with an addiction or some kind of traumatic event or crisis, or other serious problem. The term intervention is most often used when the traumatic event involves addiction to drugs...
techniques aimed at increasing levels of emotional, social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
, and psychological well-being Furthermore, as Keyes implies, in a world full of flourishing people, all would be able to reap the benefits that this positive mental state and life condition offers.
Education
Keyes focuses on children as well as adults. He cites that children will be directly affected by the concerted effort to motivate adults to flourish. He brings up the example of a schoolSchool
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
filled with flourishing teachers
Teachers
Teachers may refer to:* Teachers, people who provide schooling for pupils and students* Teachers , one of the five Ascension Gift Ministries* Teachers , a British sitcom* Teachers Teachers may refer to:* Teachers, people who provide schooling for pupils and students* Teachers (ministry), one of the...
. He emphasizes that this area of study, of where teachers
Teachers
Teachers may refer to:* Teachers, people who provide schooling for pupils and students* Teachers , one of the five Ascension Gift Ministries* Teachers , a British sitcom* Teachers Teachers may refer to:* Teachers, people who provide schooling for pupils and students* Teachers (ministry), one of the...
are on the scale of well-being, is very understudied and could benefit the school system. He states that we can not expose our children to languishing adults and expect them to flourish. Therefore, the application is far reaching into the depths of our school systems. While the children might not be directly attempting to flourish, they are feeling the benefits of those around them consciously attempting to flourish. Furthermore, if students can be made to flourish, then the benefits to the education process will be even greater, as flourishing can increase attention and thought-action repertoires.
Engagement
Flourishing also has many applications to civic duty and social engagementEngagement
An engagement or betrothal is a promise to marry, and also the period of time between proposal and marriage which may be lengthy or trivial. During this period, a couple is said to be betrothed, affianced, engaged to be married, or simply engaged...
. Keyes believes that most people do not focus enough on those aspects of life and focus instead on personal achievement. Keyes suggests that people should provide encouragement to children, and adults, to participate socially. People that exhibit flourishing are engaged in social participation and people that are engaged in social participation exhibit flourishing. Therefore, he suggests that people should give their kids a purpose, which will create a sense of contribution
Donation
A donation is a gift given by physical or legal persons, typically for charitable purposes and/or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including cash, services, new or used goods including clothing, toys, food, and vehicles...
and environmental mastery that will enhance feelings of well-being and fulfilment.
Human Nature
Flourishing has been noted to have connections with the overall concept of human natureHuman nature
Human nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that humans tend to have naturally....
. A view generally known as Neo-Aristotelian comes from modernized theories incorporating doctrines of Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
It claims that human flourishing offers a view of the human good that is objective, inclusive, individualized, agent-relative, self directed and social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
. It views human flourishing objectively because it is desirable and appealing. Flourishing is a state of being rather than a feeling or experience. It comes from engaging in activities that both express and produce the actualization of one’s potential
Potential
*In linguistics, the potential mood*The mathematical study of potentials is known as potential theory; it is the study of harmonic functions on manifolds...
.
Criticisms
The concept of flourishing is built on Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, but some researchers have suggested that there are other functions of positive emotions. Mackie and Worth propose that positive emotions diminish cognitive capabilities. They showed that when exposed to a persuasive message for a limited amount of time, subjects experiencing a positive mood showed reduced processing as compared with subjects in a neutral mood. Others have suggested that positive emotions diminish the motivationMotivation
Motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...
but not the capacity for cognitive processing. Flourishing is still a newly-developing subject of study and, more tests need to be done to fully define, operationalize, and apply the concept of flourishing; this lack of research is also one criticism of the concept flourishing.
Conclusion
Flourishing is something that must be cultivated over the course of a lifetimeLife expectancy
Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
, but the consequences
Operant conditioning
Operant conditioning is a form of psychological learning during which an individual modifies the occurrence and form of its own behavior due to the association of the behavior with a stimulus...
of research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
can be far reaching. People who experience and express positive emotions cope
Cope
The cope is a liturgical vestment, a very long mantle or cloak, open in front and fastened at the breast with a band or clasp. It may be of any liturgical colour....
more effectively with chronic stress
Stress (biology)
Stress is a term in psychology and biology, borrowed from physics and engineering and first used in the biological context in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become commonly used in popular parlance...
and other negative experiences. The benefits of flourishing extend beyond the individual and have implications for communities and society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
as well. It has a role to be played in educational reform, greater workplace
Office
An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the...
productivity
Productivity
Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Usually this ratio is in the form of an average, expressing the total output divided by the total input...
and healthcare on a national scale. Further research in flourishing, and positive psychology in general, would greatly add to the applicable body of knowledge in the field of psychology beyond the specific field of abnormal psychology and help to improve oneself, one's community
Community
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
, and one's world
World
World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth....
.
See also
- Positive Affect
- Negative Affect
- Subjective Well-Being
- Positive Psychology
- Happiness
- Social Well-Being
- Personality Strengths