Dr. Martin Seligman in his book Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being (2011) suggested that wellbeing consists of five elements.
- Positive emotions
- Engagement
- Relationships
- Meaning and purpose
- Accomplishment
The aspect of relationships had long been part of the concept of wellbeing, but Dr. Seligman highlighted it as a means of increasing well-being alongside some other important concepts of positive psychology such as meaning making, positive emotions, flow and a new addition, accomplishment.
It is important to note that the PERMA model slightly changed our understanding of happiness. Before that happiness was described as a meaning making process were happiness and satisfaction are an almost personal choice for the individual. The PERMA model brought in the foreground the concept of well-being, a concept more comprehensive than happiness itself and suggested a path to flourishing, a process in which people and communities can fulfill their potential.
The PERMA model has strong research backing and we were able to locate many research findings that supported the importance of the four elements (positive emotions, engagement, meaning and achievement). Interestingly enough, positive relationships were a construct that even if we intuitively knew its value, we could not find studies focused directly on them.
As clinicians we understood that relationships are usually challenging to build and maintain, and our clients certainly struggled with the task. We were eager to learn more about how positive relationships are build but the existing research was far from conclusive.