Meaning and Accomplishment as Components of Wellbeing: A Study of Psychological Theories in the Light of Islamic Teachings

Meaningfulness and Accomplishment are two of the major components of life, which contribute to the wellbeing of individuals and societies. Social psychologists as well as thinkers from all generations have come up with benefits of having purpose in life and accomplishments along the way. Another tangent to these studies is the teachings of Islam, which not only focus on having a purposeful life and accomplishing the ultimate goal, but also they provide concrete and practical guidelines through which one can attain these components for the benefit of not only this worldly life but for the hereafter as well. This article analyzes these two components in the light of The Holy Qur’ān and Sunnah, and furnishes a framework for leading a purposeful, well accomplished life. The basic methodology used in this article is qualitative, and a comparison is drawn out between the Islamic and contemporary aspects of Meaning and Accomplishment, by citing examples from the life of the Prophet (SAW), his companions, and those who followed in their footsteps. The results show the undoubted supremacy of Islam in providing practical examples and implementation of both the elements of the PERMA (Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment) Model.

Promoting Career Counselors’ Sustainable Career Development through the Group-based Life Construction Dialogue Intervention: “Constructing My Future Purposeful Life”

Continuous professional development refers to maintaining, enhancing, and broadening individuals’ knowledge, skills, and the personal qualities required in their professional lives. The present experimental study attempts to explore the way(s) that the Life Construction intervention: “Constructing my Future Purposeful Life” contributes to career counselors’ sustainable career development. Two groups of career counselors participating in a training program delivered by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens were involved, namely, an experimental group (N = 33) that received the intervention and a control group (N = 27) that did not receive any intervention. The effectiveness of the intervention was verified through qualitative and quantitative analysis, including the calculation of effect sizes, of the data obtained through the Future Career Autobiography, and the Greek version of the Life Project Reflexivity Scale. The results indicate that the Life Construction Intervention improved career counselors’ reflexivity and self-awareness, while, concurrently, the need for practical training in contemporary interventions to support their sustainable career development is highlighted. The main conclusion refers to the fact that the career counselor needs to construct his or her own Self as a sustainable project beforehand, in order to be able to support individuals in their own Self construction and promote their well-being.