Happiness: Hedonic and eudaimonic

Pages:169-173
V. R. Shinde (Department of Psychology, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune)

Happiness’ is very difficult to define and so also is the case about ‘Well-being’. Till today there is no widely accepted definition by the psychologist about these two terms. Happiness and well-being are seems to be synonymous and parallel to each other. There are many parameters of happiness and well-being. Happiness is like a state of deep sleep at night. The way we feel happy in the sleepy mood we must feel the same state of happiness at every moments of our state of consciousness. Subjective well-being, or happiness, in everyday terms, reflects an individual’s own judgment about the quality of his or her life. From subjective well-being (SWB) perspective, physical, economic, social, emotional, mental and community indicators are incomplete (Diener & Suh, 1997). Diener (1984) defined Subjective well-being (SWB) asratings of life satisfaction and positive emotional experiences. There are two traditions of happiness, i.e., Hedonic Happiness and Eudaimonic Happiness. Both the happiness are essential to study at broader level.