Wellbeing & Flourishing

While I am formally trained as an environmental and social psychologist, my research has gravitated toward yet another field in psychology: positive psychology.

I am interested in a range of positive experiences, from awe, curiosity, and inspiration, to gratitude, compassion, and nostalgia (all of which I lump into the umbrella of “meaningful affective experiences“). I am also interested in wellbeing, primarily in terms of how both spending time in nature and feeling connected to nature can contribute to our psychological wellness.

However, the thing that best ties these ideas all together is eudaimonia.

Eudaimonia

Eudaimonia—sometimes translated to “flourishing”—is used to refer to a specific kind of positive experience. It refers to experiences that involve one or more of the following:

a sense of meaning and purpose in life
a sense of personal growth or becoming our best self
a sense of authenticity or being true to ourself

Some common examples of eudaimonic experiences are volunteering at a soup kitchen or visiting war memorials; these are positive experiences in the sense that people feel that they have a positive impact on their lives, but they aren’t necessarily fun, per se. They can be fun, but that isn’t what they are known for.

This is often contrasted with “hedonia” which is consistent with our typical conceptualization of fun and relaxation. For example, sipping mai tais on the beach. Fun, but not known for being loaded with meaning, personal growth, or authenticity.

It is these kinds of experiences that I believe have the greatest potential to connect us to the world around us and allow us to be better members of our community!

Below are some of my projects that have focused on wellbeing, eudaimonia, or some other form of meaningful affective experiences.