Topic 1 Wellbeing, a broadly discussed concept
What is wellbeing referring to?
-Desirable state of being happy, healthy or prosperous
-Subjective feelings and experiences and to living conditions
-Related to the balance of pleasure and pain
-Fulfillment of desires
-Opportunities for development and self-fulfillment
-Well connected with the “quality of life” and dimensions of a good and bad life
Is wellbeing identical to the indicators of the standard of living?
Wellbeing
Standards of living
For example, poverty may engender a lack of subjective wellbeing, but poverty itself is not identical to negative wellbeing. Even though studies indicate a complex relationship between happiness and contextual factors framing subjective experiences, objective indicators of living conditions such as Gross National Product are often used as indices of a good life (Ben-Arieh et al., 2014).
The World Health Organisation (WHO), back in 1946 stated that health is not only the absence of illness or disease but also the presence of wellbeing (Andelman et al., 1999).
The social sciences analysis derives from the so-called “social indicators movement” of the 1960s (Casas, 1996). Social scientists who have been working on social indicators (Bauer 1966) are the starting point for the movement towards a new concept:
the ‘Quality of Life” (QoL)
