PERMA model
The PERMA model of Seligman (2011) suggests that people are most happy when they experience positive emotions, engagement, positive relationships, meaning and achievement. Therefore Seligman describes a multimodal construct for which happiness can be measured from these 5 components (fig.1). The PERMA model predecessor was the “Authentic happiness model” of Seligman, in which he first described happiness consisting of three components: meaning, positive emotions and engagement (Seligman, 2003). In Seligman’s recent PERMA model, he states that happiness is a multidimensional subjective construct build up out of the five components. In contrast, others (who are the others? You need to specify who you are talking about) describe well-being
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In addition, a study of Fredrickson (1998) also revealed that positive emotions are conceptually different compared to negative emotions. Negative emotions should not conceived as opposite of positive emotions because both function in a different way. Thereby, when experiencing positive emotions, negative feelings are almost not noticeable.
Effects
Diener et al. (1991) indicates that the balance between negative and positive feelings is a good indicator of happiness. This suggests the measurement of objective happiness by means of individual balance of positive and negative experiences. Other studies revealed that purely measuring positive emotions, strong implications could be made about the individual happiness level; they can be seen as markers and sources of happiness (Diener, 2005). This is the reason why Seligman only used positive emotions in the PERMA model.
Having a valued and worth filling positive life also strongly depends on positive emotions, (Fredrickson, 2001) due to the high correlation of life satisfaction and SWB (Michalos, et al., 2009). Therefore, increased frequency of pleasure, affection and contentment are good indicators for how happy an individual is (Diener & Lucas,