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General Personality Science

Flourishing (Well-being)

A state of optimal psychological functioning beyond just the absence of mental illness. Includes engagement, purpose, relationships, accomplishment, and positive emotion.

Flourishing (Seligman's PERMA model) encompasses five domains:

1. **Positive Emotion** — experience joy, contentment, and pleasure 2. **Engagement** — find flow in activities 3. **Relationships** — have meaningful connections 4. **Meaning** — feel your life has purpose 5. **Accomplishment** — achieve goals and growth

Personality predicts flourishing: high Agreeableness + high Conscientiousness + low Neuroticism = highest flourishing. But personality is only one factor — life circumstances, values-alignment, and relationships matter more.

Career's role: career that provides engagement, meaning, and accomplishment dramatically increases flourishing. A person can have supportive relationships but feel unfulfilled if their work lacks meaning.

Related Terms

Introversion
A personality preference for lower stimulation environments. Introverts recharge through solitude and deep focus, prefer small groups over large parties, and think before speaking.
Personality Trait
A relatively stable pattern of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that distinguishes one person from another. Traits are continuous dimensions (not categories) measured on a spectrum.
Ambivert
A person who falls near the middle of the introversion-extraversion spectrum, displaying both introverted and extroverted behaviors depending on context. Most people (60-70%) are ambiverts.
Dark Triad
Three socially aversive personality traits: Narcissism (grandiosity, entitlement), Machiavellianism (manipulation, cynicism), and Psychopathy (callousness, impulsivity). Present to varying degrees in the general population.
Five Factor Model (FFM)
The scientific framework behind the Big Five personality test. Developed through decades of factor analysis, identifying five broad dimensions that account for most of the variance in human personality.
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