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Using the PERMA Model in the United Arab Emirates

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Abstract

Well-being theory, also known as the PERMA model (Seligman in Flourish: a visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being, Free Press, New York, 2011), proposes five pathways by which individuals can pursue happiness. The first pathway, the pleasant life, concerns the maximization of positive emotions. The second pathway, the engaged life, combines flow with engagement, while the third, the meaningful life, concerns purpose in life and meaning. The last two pathways involve positive relationships and achievements. While research in positive psychology focuses on happiness, there is a dearth of information within the literature about the ways in which the PERMA model is experienced by other cultures, and how it can highlight areas of development. This present study aimed to determine whether descriptions of happiness provided by a sample of Emirati university students would align with the PERMA model pathways. The results showed that the way in which happiness was described overlapped with the PERMA pathways in culturally consistent ways. The PERMA model was effective in highlighting opportunities and challenges for intervention in the United Arab Emirates. Finally, the study suggests that as researchers aim to increase well-being and as nations strive to improve the satisfaction of their citizens, cultural structures may be impacted.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Mr. Shames Al-Hashemi and Miss Saliha Al-Zaabi for their tremendous help in offering insight into their way of life and being so freely available and willing to help. We confirm that no grants were secured for this project, nor any financial or otherwise, conflict of interests to declare.

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  1. Canadian University of Dubai, Box 117781, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    L. Lambert D’raven

  2. Petroleum Institute, Box 2533, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    N. Pasha-Zaidi

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Correspondence to L. Lambert D’raven.

Appendix: PERMA Pathways and Components (Coding Template)

Appendix: PERMA Pathways and Components (Coding Template)

Pathway of Positive Emotion. This pathway is characterized by positive emotions that reside in the past, present, and future (Seligman et al. 2005a).

1.1 Positive Emotions

Joy (Fredrickson 2004): desire to be creative, play, push boundaries in social, physical, and intellectual domains.

Contentment (Fredrickson 2000): desire to savor life events, produces insight and integration of the world and self, deeper than joy.

Optimism (Schueller and Seligman 2008): expecting the best, looking at bright side.

Vitality (Ryan and Deci 2008): feeling alive, physical, and mental energy coming from the self along with purpose, and meaning.

Passion (Vallerand 2008): partiality for liked, valued, and chosen activity that defines individuals.

Pride (Tracy and Robins 2007): feeling of self-worth motivated by maintaining a positive self-concept, others respect, and status.

Elevation (Algoe and Haidt 2009): warmth, surprise, emotionally moving, uplifting; incites good deeds.

Admiration (Haidt and Seder 2009): a response to other’s talent, power, or fame, and the desire to build relationships.

Gratitude (Algoe et al. 2008): awareness of others’ benevolence.

Awe (Haidt and Seder 2009): accommodation (cognitive change), vastness (larger than self); feel small, submissive, attentive.

Inspiration (Burleson et al. 2005): evoked; marked by motivation (a desire to act), and transcendence (orientation to something bigger).

Curiosity (Kashdan and Fincham 2004): recognition, pursuit, desire for newness, elicits activity, interest, attention.

Interest (Silvia 2008): appraise and cope with novelty; desire to apply, learn, or do.

The Engaged Life: The engaged life involves the pursuit of gratifications, enjoyable activities that are optimally challenging and absorbing and that require the use of strengths; being engaged, and involved (Seligman et al. 2006).

Flow (Csikszentmihalyi 1990): Time distortion, balance of challenge and skills, merging of action and awareness, goals, feedback, task concentration, personal control, intrinsically rewarding, loss of self-consciousness).

Engagement (Higgins 2006): To be involved, occupied, and interested in something, to concentrate, be absorbed, or engrossed.

Character strengths (Park et al. 2004): Positive traits reflected in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The character strengths are:

Bravery

Love

Social intelligence

Creativity

Curiosity

Vitality

Forgiveness

Gratitude

Open—mindedness

Fairness

Hope

Integrity

Humor

Modesty

Spirituality

Leadership

Kindness

Self-regulation

Appreciation of beauty

Love of learning

Loyalty

Persistence

Prudence

Perspective and wisdom

The Pathway of Relationships: This pathway refers to all of the social connections, family or otherwise, in which we invest and seek to deepen ties with. Any instance of a relationship would indicate the use of this pathway.

The Meaningful Life: The meaningful life involves the use strengths in the service of something bigger than the self, belonging to something bigger than one’s direct focus (family, community, religion) (Seligman 2002).

Meaning (Steger 2012): Achieving a statement of purpose in life derived from one’s strengths and engagement; the imposition of a stable cognitive conception or understanding onto a changing process.

Pathway of Achievement: Any indication is the importance of reaching a goal, a milestone, along with actions to support being at one’s best (with indicators of doing, not only desiring).

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Lambert D’raven, L., Pasha-Zaidi, N. Using the PERMA Model in the United Arab Emirates. Soc Indic Res 125, 905–933 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-0866-0

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