scholarly journals Defending a Hybrid of Objective List and Desire Theories of Well-Being

2021 ◽  
pp. 229-256
Author(s):  
William A. Lauinger

This chapter extends previous work by the author on a view of human well-being that is a hybrid of objective list theories and desire theories. Though some of the chapter’s content traverses old ground, much is new—not in terms of ultimate conclusions, but rather in terms of routes toward these ultimate conclusions and certain implications of these ultimate conclusions (e.g., implications concerning the measurement of well-being). There are two different visions of what human beings are that the author privileges and attempts to synthesize: first, a broadly Aristotelian vision that pushes us toward an objective list theory and, second, a vision of humans as unique individuals with different sets of intrinsic desires, where this desire-focused vision is itself informed by Jacques Lacan and his view that each human self is constituted by a particular and dynamic chains-of-signifiers-plus-desire-flow structure.

Author(s):  
Hud Hudson

This book opens with defenses of the philosophy of pessimism, first on secular grounds and then again on distinctively Christian grounds with reference to the fallenness of human beings. It then details traditional Christian reasons for optimism with which this philosophy of pessimism can be qualified. Yet even among those who accept the general religious worldview underlying this optimism, many nevertheless willfully resist the efforts required to cooperate with God and instead pursue happiness and well-being (or flourishing) on their own power. On the assumption that we can acquire knowledge in such matters, arguments are presented in favor of objective-list theories of well-being and the Psychic Affirmation theory of happiness, and the question—“How are people faring in this quest for self-achieved happiness and well-being?”—is critically investigated. The unfortunate result is that nearly everywhere people are failing. The causes of failure, it is argued, are found in the noetic effects of sin—especially in inordinate self-love and self-deception, but also in insufficient self-love—and such failure manifests both in widespread unhappiness and in that most misunderstood of the seven deadly sins, sloth. After a literary tour designed to reveal the many different ways that sloth can damage a life, a constructive proposal for responding to this predicament featuring the virtue of obedience is articulated and defended. This virtue is analyzed, illustrated, located in a new theory of well-being, and recommended to the reader.


2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Walach ◽  
Stefan Schmidt ◽  
Yvonne-Michelle Bihr ◽  
Susanne Wiesch

We studied the effect of experimenter expectations and different instructions in a balanced placebo design. 157 subjects were randomized into a 2 × 4 factorial design. Two experimenters were led to expect placebos either to produce physiological effects or not (pro- vs. antiplacebo). All subjects except a control group received a caffeine placebo. They were either made to expect coffee, no coffee, or were in a double-blind condition. Dependent measures were blood pressure, heart rate, well-being, and a cognitive task. There was one main effect on the instruction factor (p = 0.03) with the group “told no caffeine” reporting significantly better well-being. There was one main effect on the experimenter factor with subjects instructed by experimenter “proplacebo” having higher systolic blood pressure (p = 0.008). There was one interaction with subjects instructed by experimenter “proplacebo” to receive coffee doing worse in the cognitive task than the rest. Subjects instructed by experimenter “antiplacebo” were significantly less likely to believe the experimental instruction, and that mostly if they had been instructed to receive coffee. Contrary to the literature we could not show an effect of instruction, but there was an effect of experimenters. It is likely, however, that these experimenter effects were not due to experimental manipulations, but to the difference in personalities.


Author(s):  
Alan L. Mittleman

This chapter moves into the political and economic aspects of human nature. Given scarcity and interdependence, what sense has Judaism made of the material well-being necessary for human flourishing? What are Jewish attitudes toward prosperity, market relations, labor, and leisure? What has Judaism had to say about the political dimensions of human nature? If all humans are made in the image of God, what does that original equality imply for political order, authority, and justice? In what kinds of systems can human beings best flourish? It argues that Jewish tradition shows that we act in conformity with our nature when we elevate, improve, and sanctify it. As co-creators of the world with God, we are not just the sport of our biochemistry. We are persons who can select and choose among the traits that comprise our very own natures, cultivating some and weeding out others.


Author(s):  
Hellya Agustina ◽  
Nur Atiqah Abdullah ◽  
Ihil S. Baron

As we known that one resource that supports work of employee is a good relationship among the leader and co-workers. Leaders who have styles that are able to improve employees' psychological well-being by making workplaces healthy, do not neglect supervision, are able to motivate employees, and reflect values that are important to employees (see, Hsiung 2012; Winkler et al. 2015; Huang et al. 2016; Joo, Park, & Lim 2016). There seems to be general agreement that effective leadership will encourage positive employee attitudes and behaviour (e.g., Fong & Snape 2015; Afsar, Badir & Kiani 2016; Semedo, Coelho, & Ribeiro 2016; Wu & Lee 2017; Kim & Beehr 2018; Buil , Martinez, & Matute 2019; Mostafa & Bottomley 2020). Meanwhile, most of the previous studies link that authentic leadership also has a negative influence on employees, such as: employee silence (Guenter et al. 2016); job stress (Weiss, et al. 2017); cynicism and immodesty (A Megeirhi, et al. 2018); burnout (Fair & Kamal 2019); management culture errors (Farnese et al. 2018); and turnover intentions (Gordon et al. 2019). Researchers found that only a few studied the relationship between authentic leadership and employee psychological well-being. There is only one study that examines this by using work climate as mediator variable in the type of nurse's work. Research conducted by Nelson et al. (2014) which states that authentic leadership has been recognized to influence psychological well-being through its impact on the work climate. Moving on from these issues, the interests of employees in Indonesia should be considered because the employee is required to work for eight hours a day and employees are working to make ends meet. Keywords: authentic leadership, psychological well-being, mediators, moderators, integrated review.


Symmetry ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 657
Author(s):  
Rezzy Eko Caraka ◽  
Maengseok Noh ◽  
Rung-Ching Chen ◽  
Youngjo Lee ◽  
Prana Ugiana Gio ◽  
...  

Design: Health issues throughout the sustainable development goals have also been integrated into one ultimate goal, which helps to ensure a healthy lifestyle as well as enhances well-being for any and all human beings of all social level. Meanwhile, regarding the clime change, we may take urgent action to its impacts. Purpose: Nowadays, climate change makes it much more difficult to control the pattern of diseases transmitted and sometimes hard to prevent. In line with this, Centres for Disease Control (CDC) Taiwan grouped the spread of disease through its source in the first six main groups. Those are food or waterborne, airborne or droplet, vector-borne, sexually transmitted or blood-borne, contact transmission, and miscellaneous. According to this, academics, government, and the private sector should work together and collaborate to maintain the health issue. This article examines and connects the climate and communicable aspects towards Penta-Helix in Taiwan. Finding: In summary, we have been addressing the knowledge center on the number of private companies throughout the health care sector, the number of healthcare facilities, and the education institutions widely recognized as Penta Helix. In addition, we used hierarchical likelihood structural equation modeling (HSEMs). All the relationship variables among climate, communicable disease, and Penta Helix can be interpreted through the latent variables with GoF 79.24%.


Author(s):  
Consuelo Novoa ◽  
Claudio Bustos ◽  
Vasily Bühring ◽  
Karen Oliva ◽  
Darío Páez ◽  
...  

Being a parent plays an important role in people’s life trajectory and identity. Though the general cultural perception is that having children is a source of subjective well-being, there is evidence that, at least in some societies, the subjective well-being of those who are parents is worse, in some aspects, than that of those who are not. This gap has been the object of interest and controversy. The aim of this study was to compare Chilean adults with and without children in a broad set of well-being indicators, controlling for other sociodemographic variables. A public national probabilistic database was used. The results show that, in terms of positive and negative affect, those who are not parents achieve greater well-being than those who have children. Other results also pointed in that direction. The implications of the social context and gender, which are aspects that pose a burden for the exercise of parenthood in Chile, are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
Muniyandi Balasubramanian

Forest ecosystem services have played a vital role in human well-being. Particularly, recreational ecosystem services are creating physical and mental well-being for human beings. Therefore, the main objective of the paper is to estimate the economic value of recreational ecosystem services provides by recreational sites such as Nandi Hills and Nagarhole National Park based on the individual travel cost method in Karnataka, India. This study has used a random sampling method for 300 tourist visitors to recreational sites. The present study has also estimated the consumer surplus of the visitors. The results of the study have found that (i) economic value of two creational sites has been estimated at US $323.05 million, (ii) the consumer surplus has been estimated for Nandi Hills at US $7.45 and Nagarhole National Park at US $3.16. The main implication of the study is to design the entry fees for the recreational site and sustainable utilization of recreational ecosystem services for the present and future generations.


Author(s):  
Quan Gao ◽  
Orlando Woods ◽  
Xiaomei Cai

This paper explores how the intersection of masculinity and religion shapes workplace well-being by focusing on Christianity and the social construction of masculinity among factory workers in a city in China. While existing work on public and occupational health has respectively acknowledged masculinity’s influences on health and the religious and spiritual dimensions of well-being, there have been limited efforts to examine how variegated, and especially religious, masculinities influence people’s well-being in the workplace. Drawing on ethnography and in-depth interviews with 52 factory workers and 8 church leaders and factory managers, we found that: (1) Variegated masculinities were integrated into the factory labor regime to produce docile and productive bodies of workers. In particular, the militarized and masculine cultures in China’s factories largely deprived workers of their dignity and undermined their well-being. These toxic masculinities were associated with workers’ depression and suicidal behavior. (2) Christianity not only provided social and spiritual support for vulnerable factory workers, but also enabled them to construct a morally superior Christian manhood that phytologically empowered them and enhanced their resilience to exploitation. This paper highlights not only the gender mechanism of well-being, but also the ways religion mediates the social-psychological construction of masculinity.


Author(s):  
T. Hailikari ◽  
N. Katajavuori ◽  
H. Asikainen

AbstractProcrastination is consistently viewed as problematic to academic success and students’ general well-being. There are prevailing questions regarding the underlying and maintaining mechanisms of procrastination which are yet to be learnt. The aim of the present study was to combine different ways to explain procrastination and explore how students’ time and effort management skills, psychological flexibility and academic self-efficacy are connected to procrastination as they have been commonly addressed separately in previous studies. The data were collected from 135 students who participated in a voluntary time management and well-being course in autumn 2019. The results showed that students’ ability to organize their time and effort has the strongest association with procrastination out of the variables included in the study. Psychological flexibility also has a strong individual role in explaining procrastination along with time and effort management skills. Surprisingly, academic self-efficacy did not have a direct association with procrastination. Interestingly, our findings further suggest that time and effort management and psychological flexibility are closely related and appear to go hand in hand and, thus, both need to be considered when the aim is to reduce procrastination. The implications of the findings are further discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vhumani Magezi ◽  
Clement Khlopa

The notion of ubuntu as a moral theory in the South African and African contexts presents attractive norms of an African worldview that can be articulated and applied to contemporary Christian ethics. The proponents of ubuntu perceive it as an African philosophy based on the maxim, “a person is a person through other persons”, whereby the community prevails over individual considerations. It is not merely an empirical claim that our survival or well-being is causally dependent on others but is in essence capturing a normative account of what we ought to be as human beings. However, ubuntu has shortcomings that make it an impractical notion. Despite its shortcomings, ubuntu has natural ethic potential that enforces and engenders hospitality, neighbourliness, and care for all humanity. This article contributes to further conceptualisation and understanding of the notion of ubuntu and its relationship with hospitality in order to retrieve some principles that can be applied to effective and meaningful pastoral care. The principles drawn from ubuntu are juxtaposed with Christian principles and pastoral care to encourage embodiment of God by pastoral caregivers.


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