A New Way to Measure Wellbeing: Beyond Just Happiness

When we think about wellbeing, many of us imagine being happy, smiling, and enjoying life. And that’s true — but it’s only half the story. Wellbeing is also about things like growing as a person, feeling a sense of purpose, and having strong, meaningful connections with others.

Psychologists often call these two sides of wellbeing:

• Hedonic wellbeing – feeling good, experiencing positive emotions, being satisfied with life.

• Eudaimonic wellbeing – living with meaning, growing, contributing, and accepting yourself.

Until now, most wellbeing surveys measured one side or the other, but rarely both together. That’s why we created the Holistic Wellbeing Measure (HWM) — a short, practical tool that looks at both happiness and meaning in life.

Why We Built the Holistic Wellbeing Measure

There are already lots of wellbeing questionnaires out there. The problem? Many are too long, focus too much on happiness only, or were designed mainly for Western cultures. But wellbeing isn’t experienced the same way everywhere.

The HWM was designed to:
✅ Cover both happiness (hedonia) and meaning (eudaimonia)
✅ Be short and easy to use (just 12 items)
✅ Work well across age groups — from teens to adults
✅ Be culturally sensitive, tested first in Türkiye but meant for global use

What Does the Scale Look At?

The HWM has two main parts:

• Eudaimonic wellbeing – questions about values, personal growth, self-acceptance, life purpose, and close relationships.

• Hedonic wellbeing – questions about happiness, peace of mind, energy, and positive emotions.

In simple terms, it measures whether someone both feels good and functions well.

What We Found

We tested the HWM with over 1,100 people: adolescents, young adults, and adults. The results were clear:

• The scale is reliable (people answer consistently).

• It predicts important things like mental health, social health, and even physical health.

• Higher scores on the HWM are linked with less depression, anxiety, and stress.

So, it doesn’t just tell us about wellbeing — it also helps explain how wellbeing connects to health and life outcomes.

Why This Matters

Wellbeing isn’t just something we talk about in therapy sessions or philosophy books. Schools, workplaces, and even governments are now looking for ways to track and improve wellbeing.

A tool like the HWM can help by:

• Giving a quick snapshot of someone’s overall wellbeing.

• Helping teachers, counselors, or managers see where support is needed.

• Allowing researchers to study wellbeing in a more complete way, beyond just “are you happy?”

What’s Next?

Of course, no single scale can capture the full richness of human wellbeing. But the HWM is a big step toward a more balanced and global view. Future research will test it in different cultures, with older adults, and over longer periods of time.

For now, it’s an easy and powerful way to measure both sides of the wellbeing coin: happiness and meaning.

✨ In short: wellbeing is not just about feeling good — it’s also about living well. The Holistic Wellbeing Measure gives us a simple way to see the full picture.

If you’d like to dive deeper into the research behind this scale, check out the full paper:
Arslan, G. & Coşkun, M. (2025). Measuring eudaimonic and hedonic wellbeing: Development and validation of the Holistic Wellbeing Measure. Journal of Personality Assessment. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2025.2569671