Well-being is a complex construct that concerns optimal experience and
functioning. Current research on well-being has been derived from two general perspectives:
the hedonic approach, which focuses on happiness and defines well-being in
terms of pleasure attainment and pain avoidance; and the eudaimonic approach, which
focuses on meaning and self-realization and defines well-being in terms of the degree
to which a person is fully functioning. These two views have given rise to different
research foci and a body of knowledge that is in some areas divergent and in others
complementary. New methodological developments concerning multilevel modeling
and construct comparisons are also allowing researchers to formulate new questions
for the field. This review considers research from both perspectives concerning the
nature of well-being, its antecedents, and its stability across time and culture