Plan de bioestimulación desarrollado en la PTARI

Differences in well-being, are attributable to the ways individuals seek well- being. Three distinct, though not incompatible, orientations to happiness are proposed to play a role in this:the pleasant orientation, the engaged orientation, and the meaningful orientation (Duckworth et al., 2005; Peterson et al., 2005). The pleasant orientation is pursuing well-being through maximising positive emotions about the present, past, and future. Present positive emotions relate to somatic sensations that are momentarily pleasurable, but transitory in nature. Past positive emotions are feelings of contentment, satisfaction, and tranquillity, when considering experiences from the past. Future positive emotions include those of expectation, aspiration, potential, and optimism, when considering future prospects. The pleasant orientation involves experiencing well-being by emphasising positive emotions and pleasure, while simultaneously minimising negative and painful emotions (Duckworth et al., 2005; Peterson et al., 2005).

The engaged orientation involves using personal talents and cross-cultural character strengths, such as kindness, wisdom, compassion, and love, to effectively manage everyday situations and achieve positive outcomes. Well- being is pursued through identifying and cultivating personal virtues, and ensuring life experiences are congruent with these. The engaged orientation can be differentiated from the pleasant orientation, as the former does not involve

the sole pursuit of pleasurable experiences per se, but is oriented to pursuing well-being through personally relevant experiences (Aristotle, 2000; Duckworth et al., 2005; Peterson et al., 2005).

The meaningful orientation involves engagement in social institutions, such as families, communities, and organisations, which cultivate positive emotions and experiences. Membership and servitude to these institutions enhances personal attributes, provides a basis for feeling one is involved in enterprises extending beyond the self, and provides benefits at the collective level. This gives a sense of purpose and meaning to an individual’s life. The meaningful orientation may be conceptualised as pursuing well-being through purposeful engagement in positive social institutions (Duckworth et al., 2005; Peterson et al., 2005).

While the orientations to happiness seem similar to hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, they can be differentiated. The orientations involve the pursuit of well-being, as opposed to the actual experience of well-being. That is, they focus on the pleasure-, engagement-, and meaning-making processes, while hedonic and eudaimonic well-being focus on the experience of well-being. Research indicates the orientations to happiness are predictive of well-being (e.g., Peterson et al., 2005), thereby supporting the differentiation between the variables. To better explicate how the constructs differ, it is necessary to examine how they are measured.

4.3.1 Measuring the Orientations to Happiness

Measurement of the orientations has been done using instruments applicable for the assessment of other constructs. Examination of the pleasant orientation has involved self-report, subjective well-being measures (Duckworth et al., 2005), the most widely employed being the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener et al., 1985), the Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999), and the Fordyce Happiness Measure (Fordyce, 1988). These instruments correlate

et al., 2005). However, they are not ideal for assessing the pleasant orientation, as they measure the experience of well-being, as opposed to the pathway used to obtain it. They do not examine the process of achieving well-being, which is the definitive characteristic of the pleasant orientation, so are not adequate for measuring it.

Two instruments designed for measuring other constructs, have been used to assess the engaged orientation. As this orientation involves identifying and using positive individual attributes in activities, identification of attributes has been a primary consideration. The Classification of Strengths (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) was developed to capture six broad categories of moral excellence (wisdom and knowledge, courage, love, justice, temperance, transcendence), representing universal attributes necessary for engaging life experiences. From this, the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (Peterson et al., 2005) was designed, which assesses the extent the strengths are applicable to the individual. The inventory is often administered with measures of life satisfaction, and scores from both determine the degree character strengths relate to life satisfaction.

All subscales of the inventory have been rigorously tested, show satisfactory alphas and test-retest correlations, and share significant associations with indices of life satisfaction (Duckworth et al., 2005; Park, Peterson, & Seligman, 2004). While results show the Values in Action Inventory does assess the extent an individual possesses specific attributes, and correlations have been found with life satisfaction (e.g., Park et al., 2004), it does not indicate how the attributes facilitate well-being, as would be expected if an engaged orientation was assessed adequately. It is not sufficient for capturing the engaged orientation, as it relates to the underlying process involved in obtaining well- being.

A further aspect of the engaged orientation suggests an individual uses their attributes to engage challenging yet achievable activities, and this is associated

with a eudaimonic sense of well-being. A second set of instruments used to measure this orientation capture the construct of flow, which is a state facilitating eudaimonic well-being, under specific circumstances (Csikszentmihalyi & LeFevre, 1989). Interviews, self-report questionnaires (Flow Questionnaire and Flow Scale), and the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) have been used to assess flow. While these methodologies are useful for measuring the flow experience, the construct does not assess the engaged orientation, as it relates to well-being.

Flow occurs when attributes are used within specific activities, while the engaged orientation involves using attributes to effectively manage everyday situations. Flow is a useful indicator of engagement in specific activities, but is not useful as a global assessment of engagement in life activities in general. While Flow and the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths assess aspects of the engaged orientation, they do not measure this orientation as it relates to the

process of obtaining well-being.

The meaningful orientation is measured using interviews and narratives. The most prevalent interview technique asks participants to imagine their life as a book, and over a two-hour period they are questioned about significant events in their life (e.g., earliest memory, high/low points, important occasions) (McAdams, Reynolds, Lewis, Patten, & Bowman, 2001). The narrative technique involves the recollection of significant life events, disclosed as written narratives. The rationale for identifying significant events is because they are inherently meaningful to the individual (e.g., marriage, parental death). While studies suggest the disclosure of meaningful events is psychologically beneficial (e.g., Burton & King, 2004; Smyth, 1998), meaningful events do not always facilitate well-being. For example, the death of a loved one results in an initial period of ill health for many people (e.g., sadness, depression, loneliness). The interview and narrative techniques do not assess the

social institutions (e.g., family). While the two techniques are useful for identifying meaningful events, they are not useful for assessing the process underlying such meaning, or how this process is oriented toward obtaining well-being. They focus on the outcome the meaning-making process has for an individual, as opposed to the meaning-making process itself.

The aforementioned techniques are useful for measuring some aspects of the orientations, but fail to capture each in their completeness, primarily due to a focus on assessing associated outcomes (e.g., well-being), as opposed to the actual orientations. However, an instrument designed specifically to measure the orientations has been developed, termed The Orientations to Happiness Questionnaire (Peterson et al., 2005).

A total of 36 face valid items (12 for each orientation) were composed by Peterson and colleagues (2005). Items tapping the pleasant orientation were derived from measures of hedonic well-being, and capture an orientation to hedonism, as opposed to the outcome of hedonic experiences. Items tapping the meaningful orientation were derived from measures of eudaimonic well-being, such as purpose in life and meaning, and reflected an orientation to eudaimonism. Items tapping the engaged orientation were based on the concept of flow, but reflected the process of engagement characteristic of flow, as opposed to the experience of flow itself. All items were refined in a focus group of 15 students, enrolled in a Positive Psychology course at an American university.

The 36-item questionnaire was made available on the internet, and initially tested on a sample of 180 participants, from a variety of age groups, educational backgrounds, marital statuses, and ethnicities, who responded to an invitation to complete the questionnaire. Satisfactory internal consistencies for each of the subscales of .84 (pleasant), .77 (engaged), and .88 (meaningful) were evidenced, in addition to relatively moderate intercorrelations between the

subscales (r = .51). Each of the orientations could be distinguished, but were related.

To enhance the distinction, the six items with the highest correlations on each subscale were retained. The revised 18-item version was tested on a sample of 845 participants responding through the internet. Principal components analysis using varimax rotation, revealed three factors with eigen-values greater than 1.00. Items assessing the same orientation loaded most strongly on the factor they were designed to assess. Internal consistencies of .82, .72, and .82 respectively for the pleasant, engaged, and meaningful subscales were adequate, and in excess of the scale intercorrelations (Petersen et al., 2005). Initial analyses revealed the scale is useful for assessing the pleasant, engaged, and meaningful orientations.

Peterson et al.’s research also investigated whether the orientations were associated with indices of well-being. Individuals scoring simultaneously high on all three orientations had higher scores on well-being measures, while those scoring simultaneously low on all three orientations had lower well-being scores. The engaged and meaningful orientations, both independently and combined, had stronger predictive effects for well-being than the pleasant orientation.

Such findings indicate the questionnaire adequately measures the orientations to happiness, the orientations are differentiated from hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, and they are related to well-being. I contend the orientations may mediate the pathway between motivation and well-being, an idea examined in the following section.