Well Being Case Study

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Assignment 5 Well Being and Positive Emotion Janis has recently suffered through two major life events; retirement and the loss of her husband of 30 years. Both of these were long term events that have affected her ability to function effectively. While she was still receiving positive social feedback from her volunteer work and church activities, her recent major losses have caused her to retreat and avoid the social contacts that could lead her out of her depression and despair. Negative emotions, according to the text, are stronger than positive and more likely to influence her behavior. So in Janis’s case the negative emotions associated with the loss of her husband, recent retirement, and lack of social support are combining to …show more content…

This theory suggests that Janis has three basic needs that must be meet for her start the psychological growth needed for her obtain a sense of well-being. These three basic needs are; 1) Competence: a need for an understanding of what has happened to her and the tools to deal effectively with her environment; 2) Relatedness: Janis has cut herself off from support system and is rarely even leaving the house. To increase her feelings of well-being Janis will need to return to church, volunteering and start attending the social functions she enjoyed before her retirement and the death of her husband; 3) and Autonomy: For the positive effects of self-determination theory to be realized Janis must make the decision to reach out for help without being coerced. When these three basic needs have been meet, Janis should show greater adaptively and …show more content…

Seligman’s first ideas regarding well-being focused on the authentic happiness, which involves Janis working on three areas of her life: the pleasant life, the good life of engagement, and the meaningful life. According to this theory Janis can increase her well-being by; increasing pleasure in her life, such as; having a good meal or enjoying a work of art, engagement in activities that utilize her signature strengths and virtues, and using these signature strengths in service of something bigger than herself. Later Martin Seligman added the well-being theory which suggested that Janis could obtain greater well-being by participating in positive and healthy relationships and positive accomplishments because Janis will need to struggle to obtain goals in life so she can obtain a sense of competency and mastery of herself and her environment to obtain a greater sense of well-being in her

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