Well-being

Well-being, wellbeing,welfare or wellness is a general term for the condition of an individual or group, for example their social, economic, psychological, spiritual or medical state; a high level of well-being means in some sense the individual or group's condition is positive, while low well-being is associated with negative happenings.

In philosophy, the term 'well-being' (and 'welfare', 'utility', etc.) refers to the manner in which an individual's life manifests desires, objectives, and needs—among myriad more diverse variables—and how these affect the individual's perspective.

Philosophers, such as Fred Feldman and Brad Hooker, have suggested we should think of well-being in terms of a parent's expectations for a child (aka 'crib test'). Philosophical study of well-being identifies a number of different kinds of theory, such as: hedonism, desire-fulfilment theory, objective-list theory, perfectionism, and some 'mixed' or 'hybrid' views of well-being. Well-being features in normative ethical theories, most notably utilitarianism; one need not be a utilitarian, or a consequentialist, more generally, to think that well-being is a moral matter. Any plausible ethical theory will give at least some role to well-being.

In economics, the term is used for one or more quantitative measures intended to assess the quality of life of a group, for example, in the capabilities approach and the economics of happiness. As with the related cognate terms 'wealth' and 'welfare', economics sources often contrast the state with its opposite. The study of well-being is divided into subjective well-being and objective well-being.

Although there has not been a clear definition established for well-being, it can be defined as “...a special case of attitude”. This definition serves two purposes of well-being: developing and testing a [systematic] theory for the structure of [interrelationships] among varieties of well-being, and integration of well-being theory with the ongoing cumulative theory development in the fields of attitude of related research”. One’s well-being develops through assessments of their environment and emotions and then developing an interpretation of their own personal self. There are two different types of well-being: cognitive and affective.. Social well-being is mentioned in Canadian law.

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