Sociology

Happiness

Meaning (existential)

Social science

Psychotherapist

Politics

Epistemology

Empirical research

Positive psychology

Philosophy

Political science

Psychology

Well-being

Life satisfaction

Flourishing

Social psychology

Promotion (chess)

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Many empirical studies throughout the social and biomedical sciences focus only on very narrow outcomes such as income, or a single specific disease state, or a measure of positive affect. Human well-being or flourishing, however, consists in a much broader range of states and outcomes, certainly including mental and physical health, but also encompassing happiness and life satisfaction, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, and close social relationships. The empirical literature from longitudinal, experimental, and quasiexperimental studies is reviewed in attempt to identify major determinants of human flourishing, broadly conceived. Measures of human flourishing are proposed. Discussion is given to the implications of a broader conception of human flourishing, and of the research reviewed, for policy, and for future research in the biomedical and social sciences.

On the promotion of human flourishing