ABSTRACT
Well-being has ancient roots; conceptions of the highest good or the good life trace back to the idea of eudaemonia in ancient Greece. Even in modern psychology, well-being has a longer history than most social and cultural terms. Some conceptions focus primarily on individual emotional and motivational perceptions, which asks questions about feelings of cheerfulness, calmness, activity, freshness, and interest. Others conceive of well-being in a broad sociocultural context; for instance, the Global Youth Wellbeing Index of the International Youth Foundation includes the components of gender equality, economic opportunity, education, health, citizen participation, safety and security, and information and communication technology. The Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness at Harvard University points to several scales across multiple dimensions of well-being, including flourishing, meaning in life, life satisfaction, mastery, and optimism. The well-being concept is inherently cross-cutting and can provide a springboard for broaching other related cross-culturally relevant concepts such as mental health, success and failure, and resilience.
