Framework Overview
In order to establish a more comprehensive framework for wellbeing, Huppert and So identified ten central components of positive mental health and flourishing. They determined that wellbeing was not only the absence, but the opposite, of ill being or poor mental health (Huppert, 2014, p. 5). As such, each of these ten components was chosen by identifying the opposites of poor mental health symptoms using diagnostic criteria from the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) and the World Health Organization (Huppert & So, 2013). Each of the five PERMA principles are included within this framework, with five additional components, namely emotional stability, optimism, resilience, self- esteem and vitality. A complete list of the principles found in Huppert and So’s (2013) framework are included below.
In order to evaluate the validity of this framework, Huppert and So (2013) evaluated data from the European Social Survey, a large survey of over 43,000 Europeans from 13 different countries. A supplementary wellbeing evaluation was added to the survey in 2006, allowing Huppert and So to evaluate their wellbeing framework and assess flourishing across Europe using their ten established components. They determined that for a person to be categorized as “flourishing” they had to have positive emotion, all but one of the positive characteristics in the framework (PERMA) and all but one of the positive functioning aspects of the framework(emotional stability, optimism, resilience, self-esteem and vitality). The questions used in the survey for each of the ten components are listed below(Huppert & So, 2013, p. 843). You may wish to use these questions in assessing the wellbeing of your students and staff.
Wellbeing Framework Evaluation Tool
| Wellbeing Component: |
Indicator: |
| Competence |
Most days I feel a sense of accomplishment from what I do |
| Emotional Stability |
(In the past week) I felt calm and peaceful |
| Engagement |
I love learning new things |
| Meaning |
I generally feel that what I do in my life is valuable and worthwhile |
| Optimism |
I am always optimistic about my future |
| Positive Emotion |
Taking all things together, how happy would you say you are? |
| Positive Relationships |
There are people in my life who really care about me |
| Resilience |
When things go wrong in my life it generally takes me a long time to get back to normal (reverse score) |
| Self-Esteem |
In general, I feel very positive about myself |
| Vitality |
(In the past week) I had a lot of energy |
References:
Huppert, F. A., & So, T. T. (2013). Flourishing Across Europe: Application of a New Conceptual Framework for Defining Well-Being. Social indicators research, 110(3), 837–861. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-011-9966-7
Huppert, F. A. (2014). The state of well-being science: Concepts, measures, interventions, and policies. In F. A. Huppert & C. L. Cooper (Eds.), Interventions and policies to enhance well-being. Oxford, England: Wiley-Blackwell. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118539415.wbwell036