Against well-being: A critique of positive psychology

More than two decades after his seminal paper ‘Subjective Well-Being’, Ed Diener wrote that he substituted happiness with well-being to obtain scientific credibility. Are the arguments echoed in positive psychology rigorous enough to justify this substitution? This article focuses on the historical...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHistory of the human sciences Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 131 - 148
Main Authors Sewaybricker, Luciano E., Massola, Gustavo M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.02.2023
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Appreciation
Credibility
Debates
Happiness
Measurement
Positive psychology
Well being
etymology
positive psychology
well-being
happiness
subjective well-being
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Summary:More than two decades after his seminal paper ‘Subjective Well-Being’, Ed Diener wrote that he substituted happiness with well-being to obtain scientific credibility. Are the arguments echoed in positive psychology rigorous enough to justify this substitution? This article focuses on the historical examination of the word happiness, covering the lexical universes of ancient Greek, Latin, and English, seeking to identify the connections between them. We found that arguments for such substitution are sustained by a fragile appreciation of the semantic depth of happiness. Although it favors quantification, the current understanding of well-being obliterates the plurality of the debate about happiness and the recognition of other ideals of life. Thus, we conclude that well-being and happiness are semantically close, but conceptually, metaphysically, and empirically distinct, demanding, as objects, particular investigations.
ISSN:0952-6951
1461-720X
DOI:10.1177/09526951221114733