Developing PERMA

Developing PERMA

The Authentic Happiness Theory

Martin Seligman then went on to create his authentic happiness theory which incorporated the historical hedonic and eudaimonic approaches as well as a third approach; engagement.

Pleasant Life

This relates to the experience of pleasure, rapture and positive feelings, and can be associated to the hedonic conceptualisation of wellbeing. An example would be any activity that leads to someone experiencing a positive emotion e.g. singing, eating and seeing friends.

Engaged Life

This is when you are being at one with what you are doing, losing a sense of consciousness and being fully absorbed. Examples are difficult as this is so individual. It is often doing something where you are challenged to the right degree and where you are using your strengths.

Meaningful Life

This relates to purpose and belonging. That is doing and being part of something bigger than just you. This could be a religion, place of worship, a political group, being green or being a member of your family or community.

The Wellbeing Theory

In more recent years, Martin Seligman revised his authentic happiness theory into the wellbeing theory and added 2 more aspects of life to his model.

Achieving Life

The pursuit of accomplishments, achievements and winning. An example might be people who takes part in a game or sport simply in order to win, which might be a momentary accomplishment, or people who do something which is about a longer term accomplishment such as building up a career in a specific area, i.e. the achieving life.

Positive Relationships

This recognises that we are social creatures and that good experiences can often come from being with others. For example, spending time with friends, getting on well with your boss at work or a kind gesture from a friend.

PERMA

PERMA stands for Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment.

When put together these different lifestyles give us a map to highlight our strengths and give us the opportunity to work on our weaknesses. This theory isn’t trying to suggest that we need to exceed at all of these areas in order to be happy. Simply it is showing that we are individuals and have different needs, wishes and goals for our lives.

Also these aspects of life are typically mixed for each of us anyway. You will probably be able to relate to more than one and that’s not a bad thing. Some people are highly driven by one and others are driven by a more diverse range. Seligman suggests that if we get the right balance, for us, between these aspects of life that it will lead to us flourishing.

Things that promote well being and human flourishing:

• Positive emotions
• Engagement
• Positive relationships
• Meaning
• Accomplishments