Joar Vittersø

• UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Grounded in basic knowledge about human nature and universal needs, the humanistic theory of wellbeing (HTW) proposes that a life is good to the extent that it allows us to perform our humanness well. A well-performed humanness is further defined as the fulfillment of three universal human needs: the need for stability, the need for change, and the...

Hedonia is strictly speaking about pleasure and this chapter starts with reviewing that concept. The wellbeing literature defines pleasure in a variety of ways; it can, for instance, refer to a bodily sensation, a kind of feeling, an attitude, or an overarching referent for positive affect. The most stringent conceptualization of pleasure is offere...

The term affect is used in a multitude of ways in the wellbeing literature, and this chapter identifies three diverging clusters of definitions. One considers affect to be an umbrella term, a top-down concept under which moods, emotions, feelings, and other kinds of affect are taxonomically organized. A second group of definitions holds affect to b...

The philosophical template of eudaimonia is of ancient Greek heritage and has to do with completeness, fulfillment, and excellence; a non-reductionistic conceptualization of the perfect life that can be summarized as “a complete state of being and doing well” (Sumner, Welfare, happiness, and ethics. Clarendon Press, 1996, p. 69). Many theories of p...

A variety of meanings are applied to the terms happiness and wellbeing (H&W). The growing literature on H&W suffers much conceptual confusion, such as the jingle fallacy (that a single term means diverse things) and the jangle fallacy (that different words are used to refer to the same concept). The philosophy of H&W is old and aims at answering qu...

This chapter briefly introduces the humanistic theory of wellbeing (HTW), which suggests that a life is good to the extent that it allows us to perform our humanness well. More concretely, our humanness is well performed when three universal human needs are satisfied. They are the need for stability, the need for change, and the need to and for car...

Life satisfaction (LS) is the major component of subjective wellbeing (SWB) and is often referred to as cognitive wellbeing. LS can be defined as a comparison between a person’s ideal life and their actual life, but it can also be defined as a broad appraisal that a person makes of their life as a whole. Both conceptualizations have their weaknesse...

The job characteristics literature has revealed that job demands can be differentiated into hindrance and challenge demands. However, there has been little consensus on this categorization. Additionally, studies have revealed that job demands can be perceived as hindering and challenging at the same time. The present study aims to bring nuance to t...

Everything alive searches for goodness. And Ruut Veenhoven is no exception. During a long and truly amazing career, Ruut has added more to the study of happiness than most of us can hope for. One of the lasting contributions come from his insistence that in order to understand happiness, our thinking must be grounded in a broad conceptualization of...

The present study addresses one of the limitations of the JD-R model, namely, that analyses of the outcomes of the motivational process have largely focused on organizational outcomes and have neglected to investigate the associations between job resources, work engagement and health-related outcomes. Specifically, the aim of this paper is to show...

What kind of life do people want? In psychology, a good life has typically been conceptualized in terms of either hedonic or eudaimonic well-being. We propose that psychological richness is another neglected aspect of what people consider a good life. In study 1 (9-nation cross-cultural study), we asked participants whether they ideally wanted a ha...

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of major life stressors on the short and long-term life satisfaction (LS) of Norwegian mothers using data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort study (MoBa, N = 46,342). Data on LS were collected at T1 (6 months postpartum) and T3 (36 months postpartum), and data on life stressors at T2 (18 m...

Data from an intensive longitudinal goal intervention study in Norway (N = 138) were used to test the assumption that hedonic (HWB) and eudaimonic (EWB) wellbeing reflect two distinct dimensions of wellbeing. Based on multilevel factor analyses, a path model and hierarchical regression analyses the paper aimed to demonstrate that a basic duality be...

https://www.dagsavisen.no/debatt/velferd-i-forvitring-1.1481325?fbclid=IwAR2zn3ftX9OqbCOEM9lf7pp94_qp4XT_4_sB7X1wAg9F8yehywY6b9gEV7A

When extreme sport athletes explain the engagement behind their taxing and risky endeavors, they often refer to the happiness generated by the activities. However, during the activity, these athletes seem neither pleased nor happy. This article proposes some answers from a study of facially expressed emotions measured moment by moment during downhi...

Background: Previous research has shown that quality of life for adults decreases when they become parents, remains at a lower level than of non-parents and declines further with each child they have. Consistent with this, parents report that having children leads to more daily struggles and concerns than their work outside the home. In this study,...

Happiness is typically reported as an important reason for participating in challenging activities like extreme sport. While in the middle of the activity, however, participants do not seem particularly happy. So where does the happiness come from? The article proposes some answers from a study of facially expressed emotions measured moment-by-mome...

Recent theories on emotion suggest that a limited set of core feelings are the cornerstone of subjective experiences. The article proposes to bring this perspective more deeply into the study of tourist experiences and behavioral intentions. It argues that two distinct categories of positive feelings are of particular importance when analyzing the...

Current research examines wellbeing from two perspectives. The hedonic approach focuses on happiness and defines well-being in terms of pleasure attainment and pain avoidance, whereas the eudaimonic approach focuses on the degree to which a person is fully functioning. The article examines relationships hedonic and eudaimonic well-being on the one...

People often find complex things interesting and simple things pleasurable. This seemingly trivial observation reflects something fundamental about the good life. It is that humans, in order to do and be well, must balance their need for biopsychosocial stability with an equally important need for changing these structures. Two classes of positive...

The notion of eudaimonia is complex, but important. Numerous terminologies compete to describe it, but the disagreement between psychological and philosophical ideas of “the good life” is the most crucial. This chapter refers to the two approaches as Happiness 1 and Happiness 2, respectively. Many philosophical theories of eudaimonia are compatible...

Inspired by the distinction between hedonic and eudaimonic feeling states, we examined the distinction between feelings of pleasure and interest as well as subsequent motivation related to participation in outdoor events among students of physical education (n = 64) in a Norwegian university college. The students reported on their experiences durin...

This handbook presents the most comprehensive account of eudaimonic well-being to date. It brings together theoretical insights and empirical updates presented by leading scholars and young researchers. The handbook examines philosophical and historical approaches to the study of happy lives and good societies, and it critically looks at conceptual...

Commercial films are important for deciding where to travel. Nonetheless, surprisingly little is known scientifically about which emotions tourist commercials trigger while watching them and how similarly or differently online vs. post hoc self-reported emotions affect travel intentions. In an experimental study, 142 tourists were randomly allocate...

The aim of this study was to establish the psychometric properties of the new Relationship Satisfaction (RS) scale. Two population based samples were used: The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa, N=117,178) and The Quality of Life study (N=347). Convergent and discriminant validity was investigated in relation to the Quality of Marriage...

Two major goals of this paper were, first to examine the cross-cultural consistency of the factor structure of the Hedonic and Eudaimonic Motives for Activities (HEMA) scale, and second to illustrate the advantages of using Bayesian estimation for such an examination. Bayesian estimation allows for more flexibility in model specification by making...

Hunters’ preferences for different harvest principles and harvest regulations such as season length and harvest quotas provide important knowledge for wildlife management. We report results from a survey of 2788 willow ptarmigan hunters regarding commonly used harvest principles and -regulations. A harvest quota strategy was the most preferred prin...

Well-being has been found to be heritable and changeable. How do these pieces of evidence fit together? Intuitively, models of change and models of genetic influences may seem contradictory and paradoxical. In this chapter, we aim to unite these findings into an integrated understanding of human happiness. We start out by briefly reviewing some of...

The main objective of this pilot study was to test the effectiveness of an online, interactive physical activity intervention that also incorporated gaming components. The intervention design included an activity planner, progress monitoring, and gamification components and used SMS text as a secondary delivery channel and feedback to improve engag...

Happiness researchers have begun to study how well-being affects health, in addition to how health influences well-being. The present article follows this trend by reviewing how two separate dimensions of well-being, life satisfaction and personal growth, predict subjective health and sick-leave in distinct ways. It is hypothesized that the two wel...

This chapter addresses child well-being from a psychological point of view. In doing so, we need to remember that psychology is not one single discipline but covers a wide range of psychological disciplines from evolutionary psychology and behavior genetics via psychometrics to developmental, cognitive, personality, and social psychology – all of t...

Two separate studies investigated if the balance between challenges and skills is the best indicator of a subjective experience in general and of an optimal experience in particular. Study 1 followed a group of 64 first year sport- and outdoor students on a 3 day coastal trip and a 3 day ski trip (10 event measures) and their memory of their trip (...

This chapter addresses child well-being from a psychological point of view. In doing so, we need to remember that psychology is not one single discipline but covers a wide range of psychological disciplines from evolutionary psychology and behavior genetics via psychometrics to developmental, cognitive, personality, and social psychology – all of t...

How important are individual tourist resources for the overall value of tourist experiences? This study argues for including tourist resources as a value-adding element in tourist experiences. Service quality measures typically include the value of (1) personal service, (2) the surrounding natural environment and (3) other tourists. They do not typ...

What is the cognitive and emotional nature of fascination? Drawing on theories of cognitive and emotional interest, we explored the nature of visitor fascination (i.e., intense interest) at two High North museums in Norway. In Study 1, we found interesting and informative patterns related to which museum displays 20 teenage visitors experienced as...

The idea that eudaimonic well-being (EWB) should be distinguished from the more widespread notion of hedonic well-being (HWB), has stirred up disagreement among happiness researchers. Siding with EWB researchers, this study provides theoretical and empirical arguments supporting the distinctiveness and usefulness of a EWB dimension. A path model wi...

Ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus) hunting has long traditions in Norway. It is often assumed that hunters are more consumptively and less conservation oriented than other recreational groups. Considering the large numbers of hunters and the popularity of the sport it is more likely that hunters value both consumptive and appreciative aspects and represent...

The study investigates the idea that feeling good and functioning well-being are regulated by two different mechanisms: hedonic and eudaimonic. At the state level it is assumed that happiness is a hedonic feeling typically experienced when life is easy or a goal is reached. Inspiration is a eudaimonic feeling typically experienced when facing chall...

The quality and intensity of emotional experiences are important motivators for extreme sport, but surprising little is known scientifically about the feelings of leisure activities that involve high risks. In the current study the emotions of 13 BASE-jumpers and 18 skydivers were measured during and immediately after a jump, and again 24 hour late...

The association between overall life satisfaction (LS) and relationship satisfaction (RS) was investigated longitudinally among mothers (N=67,355), using data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Data were collected twice during pregnancy, and at 6 and 36 months postpartum....

Through differences in family socialization between indigenous and non-indigenous youth, there may be cultural differences in the impact of family factors on mental health outcome. Using structural equation modelling, this population-based study explored the relationship between symptoms of anxiety and depression and family factors in indigenous Sa...

The structural validity of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) was tested with confirmatory factor analyses in 41 nations. In addition, life satisfaction was correlated with national wealth (GNP) in these societies, after correcting for the reliability of the life satisfaction measure. The homogeneity of the SWLS was found to be acceptable acro...

Some theories suggest that pleasure and interest are separable emotions, with distinct functions and phenomenology. This study proposes a functional model of well-being that draws on these insights. It argues that both pleasure and satisfaction are elements of hedonic well-being and that their main function is to reward goal achievement and to ment...

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is one of the most used models in information science. Although several studies investigate the relationship between individual difference variables and TAM, none are conclusive about the relationship between personality and the TAM constructs. The current study seeks to investigate the degree to which users' a...

While passive leisure is experienced as pleasant and serves as an important route to recovery, active leisure has a distinct phenomenology and a different function. Active leisure is first and foremost a motivator for creating changes and developing potentials. The chapter investigates links between leisure and well-being, and is particularly conce...

This paper is based on the Conceptual Referent Theory of Happiness, which states that people must have a conceptual referent for what a happy life means in order to assess their life as a happy one. The paper studies the existence of heterogeneity across countries in the inclination towards different conceptual referents for happiness. Empirical in...

Hunting participation is declining in many Western countries. We surveyed 1,113 persons in Norway who had completed the mandatory hunting education program but not continued to hunt in order to examine reasons for desertion. Key barriers included lack of knowledge, associated expenses, and a lack of people to hunt with. Measures that may increase p...

Test of the challenge-skills hypotheses in the prediction of flow

Although income and happiness have been linked at both the individual and national levels of analysis, few studies have specifically examined the different relationships between these two variables in affluent nations. This study investigates various measures of well-being in both the United States and Denmark. Respondents in both countries reporte...

The article proposes a functional approach as a framework for the analysis of human well-being. The model posits that the adaptive role of hedonic feelings is to regulate stability and homeostasis in human systems, and that these feelings basically are created in states of equilibrium or assimilation. To regulate change and growth, a distinct set o...

A widespread belief in happiness research is that measures of life satisfaction capture the variety of an individual’s experiences along a single favorable—unfavorable dimension. The current article points to a possible violation of this assumption. With a combination of data and theory it argues that life satisfaction is not a balanced reflection...

This article explores quality-of-life aspects among gay, lesbian, bisexual, and straight male and female students in Havana (Cuba), Tromsø (Norway), Hisar (India), and Cape Town (South Africa). In the period 2004-2005, a questionnaire survey on sexuality, happiness, and life satisfaction was undertaken among 339 students from the University of Hava...

Previous research regarding the effects of thinking about a happy moment on emotional experience has been equivocal. The discrepancies may be explained by different modes of thinking: systematically thinking about a happy moment versus mentally replaying the happy moment. Another explanation may involve the difference between the emotion of interes...

The study suggests that hedonic and eudaimonic well-being can be studied by theoretical and empirical analysis of subjective feelings. In this approach, pleasure is the hallmark of hedonism, and engagement serves as the core feeling of eudaimonia. The Day Reconstruction Method was used to investigate the assumption that overall life satisfaction pr...

It has become customary to judge the success of a society through the use of objective indicators, predominantly economic and social ones. Yet in most developed nations, increases in income, education and health have arguably not produced comparable increases in happiness or life satisfaction. While much has been learned from the introduction of su...

This study explores the effects of stress, trauma, coping and growth orientation on subjective well-being. Based on cognitive stress theory, it was hypothesized that adversity may contribute to increased or decreased well-being, depending on the subsequent meaning these experiences are given. Survey data from Norwegian UN/NATO veterans (N= 142) sho...

This book focuses on migration or the movement and people and examines multiple dwelling as a societal response to the major influences of increased mobility and amenity tourism (visiting or residing in high-quality landscapes such as mountains, beaches and forests for leisure experiences). It considers the modern-day meaning of multiple dwelling,...

With confirmatory factor analysis, data from 153 university students were used to investigate the structural validity of the Maslach Burnout Inventory for students (MBI-55). A modified threefactor burnout model fitted the data well. The tree factors are Emotional Exhaustion, Cynicism and Professional Efficacy. With the same sample, predictors of th...

E. Diener and C. Diener (1996; Psychological Science 7: 181–185) suggested that most people are happy, and offered support for this claim from surveys in industrialized societies. We extend their findings to include people who lead materially simple lives and live in cultures far removed from those of typical survey respondents. We found that the K...

Cultural differences in response to the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) items is investigated. Data were fit to a mixed Rasch model in order to identify latent classes of participants in a combined sample of Norwegians (N = 461) and Greenlanders (N = 180). Initial analyses showed no mean difference in life satisfaction between the two subsample...

The authors conducted a field experiment to test the assumption that subjective feelings are important in recreation conflict. During a weekend, cross-country skiers in a popular recreation area were assigned randomly to an experimental group who were exposed to an operating snowmobile, and a control group who were not exposed. Both groups complete...

Examines the distinction between hedonism and eudaimonia. Subjects were 131 Norwegian males and females. Subjects answered a questionnaire on what they think makes life good and how they meet challenges in their lives. Based on data from the questionnaire, factor analysis was carried out to measure subjects' personality and subjective well-being. F...

The purpose of the presentstudy was to articulate an importantdifference between subjective well-being (SWB)and self-actualization. Although self-actualization reflects a substantial aspect ofhuman existence, the article argues that theconcept is not accounted for by ordinaryassessment of SWB. In this paper, openness toexperience (OE) is taken as a...

In this paper, differences between life satisfaction and intrinsic motivation (flow) are addressed. Theories are presented on evaluation, flow and openness to experience. Data from a Norwegian panel study are analyzed by means of structural equation modeling. Young adults (n = 264) participated in a projective study with cartoon frames showing Dona...

The study investigates the effects of home-based telework on quality of life (QoL). Four dimensions of QoL were analysed; overall satisfaction with life, sense of belonging, sense of becoming and sense of being. Through cross-national survey data (from 217 job holders and 112 partners) and by means of structural equation modeling, a positive associ...

Genetic and environmental factors in subjective well-being were investigated. Special attention was paid to sex-specific effects. A classical twin design was applied, based upon data from 5140 young adult twins (same and opposite-sex). Structural equation modelling was used to estimate effects from additive genes, genetic interaction, common enviro...

The purpose of this study wastwofold: (1) to analyze and explore theconceptual structure of subjective well-being(SWB), neuroticism (N) and extraversion (E);and (2) to compare the effect sizes of N and Eas predictors of SWB. The sample comprised 461participants representative of the adultpopulation in northern Norway. Analyses wereconducted by mean...

In a panel study, the relationship between Emotional Stability (ES), Extraversion (E) and Subjective Well-Being (SWB) was tested against questionnaire data from 264 Norwegian folk high school students. After a careful reading of recent studies concerned with relationships between personality and subjective well-being, it was hypothesized that the e...

In a panel study, the relationship between Emotional Stability (ES), Extraversion (E) and Subjective Well-Being (SWB) was tested against questionnaire data from 264 Norwegian folk high school students. After a careful reading of recent studies concerned with relationships between personality and subjective well-being, it was hypothesized that the e...

Presents a theoretical framework and empirical research. It intends to broaden understanding of the dynamics of emotions and subjective experiences as they develop during a recreational event. The hypothesis is that a congruence between recreational mode and actual behavior facilitates the optimal recreational experience. Data sets from two Norwegi...

This article re‐examines the concept of consumptiveness and its subdimensions. Consumptive elements in recreation experiences have been an important theme in human dimensions studies. Despite the fact that the consumptiveness concept is multidimensional, it has often been treated as unidimensional in the human dimensions literature. By using confir...

It is argued that general assessments of satisfaction are insensitive to a variety of differences in subjective experiences. The flow-simplex is introduced as an alternative method to provide differentiated information about the tourist experience. Data from on-site experiences were gathered by questionnaires at six Norwegian attractions. With rega...

It has been hypothesized tha the negative attitudes toward carnivores found among rural groups is only one element embedded in a larger sociopolitical complex of disputes over resource use and rural development. Negative attitudes may reflect a protest against increased control of land use by central political authorities. In a survey among sheep f...

A 6-year longitudinal panel study investigated the absolute and relative stability in depressed mood throughout adolescence by reporting data from a sample of 538 adolescents between 13 and 19 years of age. Results revealed the following. (1) Girls had on average higher depressed mood scores than boys at all ages. (2) Among boys there were no subst...

The intensity of the carnivore versus livestock conflicts in Norway is increasing. This study compares the attitudes toward large carnivores (bear, wolf, lynx, and wolverine) among Norwegian sheep farmers, wildlife managers, and research biologists, using Kellert's (1991) attitude typology. Wildlife managers and research biologists endorsed ecologi...

This paper examines wilderness users' response to recently established overnight camping fees at the Desolation Wilderness in California. Fee program evaluations have typically focused on economic or revenue issues, distributional or equity impacts of various pricing strategies, and questions of price fairness. In the case of wilderness recreation...

Attitudes toward large carnivores were surveyed in two regional populations of sheep farmers in Norway, using Kellert's (1991) attitude typology. The annual sheep loss rate to carnivores in the two regions were 4.5% and 0.05%, respectively. The two populations of farmers expressed identical and lowvalues on the ecologistic, moralistic, and naturali...

The present study investigated the relationship between emotional investment and attachment to livestock among Norwegian sheep farmers, and their perception of large predators such as the wolf, bear, lynx and wolverine. Most studies on attachment have focused on infants and children. However, more recently, the effects of pet ownership on child dev...

Qualities of recreational experiences are analyzed using the scheme theory (Eckblad, 1981). According to this theory, emotional, motivational, and cognitive processes interchangeably influence each other. Knowledge about one process promotes understanding of others. An analysis was conducted to review cognitive and affective conditions among angler...