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From full life to balanced life: Extending Martin Seligman's route to happiness

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  • Prinz, Aloys
  • Bünger, Björn

Abstract

In this paper, a formalization of Martin Seligman's concept of full life is presented by employing basic microeconomics. With the formalized version of the concept, it can be explained why people differ with respect to the levels of pleasant, engaged and meaningful life they are trying to realize. Moreover, it is suggested to extend Seligman's concept of full life to the concept of balanced life. This extension requires that in addition to differences in people's preferences regarding aspects of life also differences in the time opportunity costs are to be taken into account. Finally, a scorecard-approach is proposed to track personal advancement in the process of life balancing.

Suggested Citation

  • Prinz, Aloys & Bünger, Björn, 2009. "From full life to balanced life: Extending Martin Seligman's route to happiness," CAWM Discussion Papers 17, University of Münster, Münster Center for Economic Policy (MEP).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:cawmdp:17
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    full life; happiness; allocation of time;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • D69 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Other
    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory

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