A Review of Western and Eastern Traditional Views of Well-Being

This paper reviews traditional understanding of well-being from both Western and Eastern cultural perspectives. First, two distinct Western traditions in defining well-being are compared, namely hedonic and eudaemonic approaches. The hedonic approach defines happiness as the maximization of pleasure, while the eudaemonic approach regards happiness as the fulfillment of a person’s natural needs and overall flourishing. Second, the views of well-being in lens of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism in the East are reviewed. The common and different understandings of well-being between Western and Eastern traditions are discussed as followed. Finally, two well-known operationalized definitions of well-being, that is subjective well-being and psychological well-being, proposed in the roots of Western traditions are elucidated.

Andrews, F. M., & Withey, S. B. (1976). Social indicators of well-being: Americans’ perceptions of life quality. New York: Plenum Press.

Aristotle. (1999). Nicomachean ethics (W. D. Ross, Trans.). Kitchener, ON: Batoche Books. (Original work published 350 BC).

Bentham, J. (1996). An introduction to the principles of morals and legislation: The collected works of Jeremy Bentham. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bhikkhu, T. (Trans.). (1993). Dhammacakkappavattana sutta: Setting the wheel of Dhamma in motion. Samyutta Nikaya, 56. Retrieved from https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.011.than.html

Bradburn, N. M. (1969). The structure of psychological well-being. Chicago: Aldine.

Bradburn, N. M. (2015). The affect balance scale: Subjective approaches (3). In W. Glatzer, L. Camfield, V. Møller, and M. Rojas (Eds.), Global handbook of quality of life (pp. 269-279). Springer.

Bradburn, N. M., & Caplovitz, D. (1965). Reports on happiness: A pilot study of behavior related to mental health. Chicago: Aldine.

Buckingham, W. (2012). Introducing happiness: A practical guide. Icon Books/Totem Books.

Campbell, A., Converse, P. E., & Rodgers, W. L. (1976). The quality of American life: Perceptions, evaluations, and satisfactions. Russell Sage Foundation.

Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (2001). Optimism, pessimism, and self-regulation. In E. C. Chang (Ed.), Optimism & pessimism: Implications for theory, research, and practice (pp. 31-51). American Psychological Association.

Carver, C. S., Sutton, S. K., & Scheier, M. F. (2000). Action, emotion, and personality: Emerging conceptual integration. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(6), 741-751.

Cicero, M. T. (1981). De finibus bonorum et malorum (H. Rackham, Trans.). Harvard University Press. (Original work published 45 BC).

Cook, V. (2002). A new direction for quality of life: Evaluating the comprehensive quality of life scale as a measure of satisfaction and depression. Melbourne: Australian Centre on Quality of Life, School of Psychology, Deakin University.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper & Row.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., Montijo, M. N., & Mouton, A. R. (2018). Flow theory: Optimizing elite performance in the creative realm. In S. I. Pfeiffer, E. Shaunessy-Dedrick, and M. Foley-Nicpon (Eds.), APA handbook of giftedness and talent (pp. 215-229). American Psychological Association.

Cummins, R. A. (1997). Manual for the comprehensive quality of life scale-student (grades 7-12): COMQOL-S5 (5th ed.). Melbourne: School of Psychology, Deakin University.

Cummins, R. A. (2010). Subjective wellbeing, homeostatically protected mood and depression: A synthesis. Journal of Happiness Studies, 11(1), 1-17.

Dai, S. (2017). Book of rites. Zhonghua Press.

Danielsen, A. G., Samdal, O., Hetland, J., & Wold, B. (2009). School-related social support and students’ perceived life satisfaction. The Journal of Educational Research, 102(4), 303-320.

Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95(3), 542-575.

Diener, E. (2009). The science of well-being: The collected works of Ed Diener (Social Indicators Research Series Vol. 37). New York: Springer.

Diener, E., Sandvik, E., Seidlitz, L., & Diener, M. (1993). The relationship between income and subjective well-being: Relative or absolute? Social Indicators Research, 28(3), 195-223.

Diener, E., Sapyta, J. J., & Suh, E. M. (1998). Subjective well-being is essential to well-being. Psychological Inquiry, 9(1), 33-37.

Diener, E., Scollon, C. N., & Lucas, R. E. (2009). The evolving concept of subjective well-being: The multifaceted nature of happiness. In E. Diener (Ed.), Assessing well-being: The collected works of Ed Diener (pp. 67-100). Springer Science + Business Media.

Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125(2), 276-302.

Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Biswas-Diener, R., Tov, W., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi, D.-W., & Oishi, S. (2009). New measures of well-being. In E. Diener (Ed.), Assessing well-being: The collected works of Ed Diener (pp. 247-266). Springer Science + Business Media.

Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Tov, W., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi, D-W., Oishi, S., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2010). New well-being measures: Short scales to assess flourishing and positive and negative feelings. Social Indicators Research, 97(2), 143-156.

Ding, S. (2020). Three origins of Zhuangzi’s thought and its natural meaning. The Journal of Humanities, 2, 2-14.

Dufur, M. J., Parcel, T. L., & McKune, B. A. (2008). Capital and context: Using social capital at home and at school to predict child social adjustment. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 49(2), 146-161.

Eid, M., & Larsen, R. J. (2008). The science of subjective well-being. The Guilford Press.

Epicurus. (2020). Letter to Menoeceus (R. D. Hicks, Trans.). The Internet Classics Archive. Retrieved from https://classics.mit.edu/Epicurus/menoec.html (Original work published 270 BC).

Fei, X. T. (2006). Homebound China. Shanghai People Press.

Feng, Y. (1998). The newly compiled history of Chinese philosophy. People’s Publishing House.

Folkman, S., & Moskowitz, J. T. (2000). Positive affect and the other side of coping. American Psychologist, 55(6), 647-654.

Gilman, R., Huebner, E. S., & Laughlin, J. E. (2000). A first study of the multidimensional students’ life satisfaction scale with adolescents. Social Indicators Research, 52(2), 135-160.

Griffin, J. (1986). Well-being: Its meaning, measurement, and moral importance. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Gu, Q. (2016). The book of history. Zhonghua Book Company.

Gyatso, G. K. (1992). Introduction to Buddhism. London: Tharpa Publications.

Heathwood, C. C. (2005). Desire-satisfaction theories of welfare (Doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts Amherst). ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Heathwood, C. C. (2006). Desire satisfactionism and hedonism. Philosophical Studies, 128(3), 539-563.

Hobbes, T. (1980). Leviathan (1651). Glasgow.

Huebner, E. S. (1994). Preliminary development and validation of a multidimensional life satisfaction scale for children. Psychological Assessment, 6(2), 149-158.

Ivtzan, I., & Lomas, T. (Eds.). (2016). Mindfulness in positive psychology: The science of meditation and wellbeing. London: Routledge.

Jahoda, M. (1958). Current concepts of positive mental health. Basic Books.

Kahneman, D., Diener, E., & Schwarz, N. (Eds.). (1999). Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology. Russell Sage Foundation.

Lee, J.-K. (2020). Buddha and Laozi on happiness and education. Online Submission. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED605993.pdf

Leng, H. (2005). Chinese cultural schema of education: Implications for communication between Chinese students and Australian educators. Issues in Educational Research, 15(1), 17-36.

Liang, S.-M. (2005). Essentials of Chinese culture. People Press.

Liu, R. (2011). The logic of Lao Tzu’s thought. Journal of the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, 5, 36-40.

Locke, J. (1847). An essay concerning human understanding. Kay & Troutman.

McMahon, D. M. (2006). Happiness: A history. New York: Grove Press.

Mencius. (2016). Mencius (L. H. Wang & X. Lan, Trans.). Zhonghua Press. (Original work published 250 BC).

Mill, J. S. (1924). Autobiography of John Stuart Mill. New York: Columbia University Press.

Moore, K. (2019). Wellbeing and aspirational culture. Springer.

OECD. (2019). PISA 2018 results (volume III): What school life means for students’ lives. Retrieved from https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/acd78851-en/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/acd78851-en

Oishi, S., Schimmack, U., & Diener, E. (2001). Pleasures and subjective well-being. European Journal of Personality, 15(2), 153-167.

Phillips, D. (2006). Quality of life: Concept, policy and practice. London: Routledge.

Qian, M. (2011). New interpretation of the Analects of Confucius. Jiuzhou Press.

Rees, G. (2017). Children’s views on their lives and well-being. Springer.

Ren, F. (2012). Interpretation of Tao Te Ching. Oriental Press.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 141-166.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2017). Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. Guilford Press.

Ryff, C. D., & Singer, B. (1998). The contours of positive human health. Psychological Inquiry, 9(1), 1-28.

Schwarz, N., & Clore, G. L. (1983). Mood, misattribution, and judgments of well-being: Informative and directive functions of affective states. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(3), 513-523.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic happiness: Using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasing fulfillment. Free Press.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2012). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. Simon and Schuster.

Seligman, M. E. P., & Royzman, E. (2003). Happiness: The three traditional theories. Retrieved from https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/newsletters/authentichappiness/happiness

Sirgy, M. J. (2012). The psychology of quality of life: Hedonic well-being, life satisfaction, and eudaimonia (Social Indicators Research Series Vol. 50). Springer Science & Business Media.

Su, J., & Zhao, H. (2019). On Confucius and his view of happiness. Journal of Hebei Normal University: Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition, 42(4), 29-34.

Sumner, L. W. (1996). Welfare, happiness, and ethics. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Tan, X., & Zhang, M. (2013). On the positive psychology in Zhuangzi’s philosophy. Social Sciences in Hunan, 1, 33-36.

Thilly, F. (1993). A history of philosophy. New Delhi: Manish Sabharwal SBW Publishers.

Webster, D. (2005). The philosophy of desire in the Buddhist Pali canon. Taylor & Francis.

White, N. P. (2008). A brief history of happiness. John Wiley & Sons.

Wynne, A. (2007). The origin of Buddhist meditation. Routledge.

Yang, B. (2018). Translation and annotation of the Analects of Confucius. Yuelu Publishing House Co., Ltd.

Yuen, Y. M. C. (2016). Mapping the life satisfaction of adolescents in Hong Kong secondary schools with high ethnic concentration. Youth & Society, 48(4), 539-556.

Zhang, H., & Guan, Y. (2020). The ethical implication of Laozi’s natural inaction. Studies in Ethics, (5), 36-40.