This approach claims that both personal characteristics and social circumstances affect what people can achieve with a given amount of resources.
What really matters for well-being is what the person manages to do or to be. But well-being is more than that - it also includes freedom.

The capability approach to well being

Two Belgian economists show that different approaches to well-being can have practical consequences. Using average income, average life satisfaction, and average "equivalent income," Danes are more satisfied than they are wealthy while France is the opposite.
For policy purposes, the different measures of well-being hint at the important issues involved in deciding which measure of well-being - if any - to select.

Choosing how to approach well-being

Understanding well-being based on feelings of satisfaction, pleasure, or happiness has two problems.
<ul>
<li>The physical-condition neglect. Humans adapt to their circumstances, meaning the poor and sick can still be relatively happy.</li>
<li>Valuation neglect. Valuing life is a reflective activity. It should not be reduced to feeling happy or unhappy.</li>
</ul>
We should then acknowledge that feeling well is not the only thing people care about.

Valuing well-being as satisfaction

According to psychologists, happiness and life satisfaction do not coincide. Life satisfaction requires individuals to take a step back to assess their lives while happiness mirrors positive and negative emotions that fluctuate.
Focusing on positive and negative emotions can lead to understanding well-being in a pleasure-based way. Happiness may be one of the elements in evaluating well-being but is not the only one.

Measuring happiness

Preference-based perspective is the idea that people are better off when they themselves consider what is important.
Some people think hard work is necessary to have a valuable life while others prefer family or going out with friends.

The preference-based approach to well being

Increasing well-being is generally accepted as one of the essential components of social progress. But which measure of well-being – if any – should we use ?

The capability approach to well being

How do we measure well-being?

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What is Hope in Psychology + 7 Exercises & Worksheets

What is Hope in Psychology