1. The traditional definition of well-being is outdated and needs a "silent transformation" to account for modern pressures on mental well-being from things like increased choice, complexity, and individualism. 2. Everyday life presents a "problem of choice" that can undermine sense of coherence and well-being through short-termism, selfishness, and lack of purpose from competing roles and priorities. 3. Individual decisions have small negative impacts, but these accumulate over many people and time into significant problems, so policies are needed to manage variety and enhance individual capacity for coherent living.

1. Silent transformation of well-being Timo Hämäläinen, Ph.D., Dos. Glasgow Centre for Population Health Seminar Series, 13th April 2011, Glasgow

2. Agenda Ourold definition of well-being is outdated (”silenttransformation”) ”Problem of choice” in everyday life Pressures on Sense of coherence and mentalwell-being Accumulatingimpacts of short-term and selfishdecisions Law of requisitevariety & well-being Policyimplications Well-being and economiccompetitivenessarenotcontradictory Vision of a sustainablewell-beingsociety 12/04/2011

4. Instrumental discourse dominates Economy (crisis, globalization, com-petitiveness, efficiency, productivity, growth) Welfare state (public finances, reorganizing services, social security, equality) Everyday well-being?? (welfare?, subjective well-being?, happiness?, good life?) Adapted from: Habermas (1987, Vol. 2) Lähde: Habermas (1987, Vol. 2) 4

6. Infrastructure

7. Technologies

8. Organizations

9. Demographics

10. Culture (values & norms, activities)

11. Institutions (laws & regulations)

12. Politics

13. Economy

14. Labor markets

16. Family member

17. Relative

18. Friend

19. Hobbyist

21. Serving others

23. Self- and social- esteem

24. Love and belonging

25. Security

26. Physiological needs (thirst, hunger,…) RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES - Income & wealth - Knowledge & skills - Physical & mental health - Social capital - Information - Time - Politicalpower - Naturalresources

28. selfishness (due to normlessness)

29. conformomity to market and peer pressures

30. short-termism and procrastination

33. Task 2

34. Task 3

36. Task 2

37. Task 3

39. Practices

40. Contexts

41. Cognitive frames

42. Languages

44. Practices

45. Contexts

46. Cognitive frames

47. Languages

48. Norms +- +- CONSUMER RELATIVE CONSUMER RELATIVE +- +- Synergies and conflicts Synergies and conflicts +- +- CITIZEN CITIZEN HOBBY 1 HOBBY 1 HOBBY 2 HOBBY 2

50. Love and belonging

51. Social esteem vs. individualism, selfishness, short-termism

52. Self-actualization (hurry), lack of loyalty

54. Comprehensibility vs. uncertainty, complexity, decision

55. Manageability making problems, short-termism (hurry), competing loyalties 12/04/2011

56. Antonovsky’s sense of coherence (SOC) Increasing uncertainty & complexity Comprehensibility Problem of choice Manageability Subjective well-being, QoL, mental health Sense of coherence Individualism, normlessness, selfishness, consumerism, materialism & instrumentalism Meaningfulness Source: Aaron Antonovsky; Monica Eriksson & Bengt Lindström Sources: Aaron Antonovsky (1987); Lindström & Erickson (2005)

57. Sense of coherence, mental health and well-being “The [empirical] evidence shows that SOC is strongly and negatively related to anxiety, burnout, demoralization, depression and hopelessness, and positively with hardiness, mastery, optimism, self-esteem, good perceived health, quality of life and well-being.” Source: Bengt Lindstrom & Monica Eriksson (2005): “The Salutogenic Perspective and Mental Health”, in Promoting Mental Health, WHO)

58. Growing mental pressures and demands of working life Pressures on sense of coherence Health Illness grey area Demands of working life

59. Sicknesspensionsdue to depression in Finland, 1983–2006 (privatesector) Number 3 500 3 000 2 500 2 000 1 500 1 000 500 0 83 85 87 89 91 93 95 97 99 01 03 05 Source: Finnish centre for pensions

60. Key problems in decision making Short-termism Selfishness 12/04/2011

63. Crowding of life’s activities; growing hurry, short-termism and procrastination; decreasing commitment and loyalty (”grass greener on the other side…?”).12.4.2011 15

64. Weight of new army servicemen in Finland (kg) Source: Santtila et al., Finnish armed forces 12.4.2011

65. Cooper test results of new army servicemen, 1975 - 2006 Source: Santtila et al., Finnish armed forces

66. 18

68. Growing difficulties in understanding the full consequences of one’s actions due to increasing specialization and complexity.

72. Alcohol, tobacco and drugs abuse  dependencies, illnesses and death

73. Overconsumption  over-indebtedness

74. High investments in career building or favorite hobbies  social relationships and child raising suffer, work related mental illnesses increase

75. Postponement of having children  childlessness, greying of population

76. Increasing tourism to far-off countries, more driving with cars  growing environmental problems22

77. Accumulating impacts of individual decisions in the long-term and in large groups 12.4.2011 23 Environmental, childdevelopment, social relationshipproblems Life management problems (Kahneman, Giddens) Long-term Trafficjams, litter- ing, status compe- tition, etc. (Hirsch, Schelling) Hedonistic instant gratification dominates Short-term One’s own well-being Others’ well-being

79. Task 2

80. Task 3

82. Task 2

83. Task 3

85. Practices

86. Contexts

87. Cognitive frames

88. Languages

90. Practices

91. Contexts

92. Cognitive frames

93. Languages

94. Norms +- +- CONSUMER RELATIVE CONSUMER RELATIVE +- +- Synergies and conflicts Synergies and conflicts +- +- CITIZEN CITIZEN HOBBY 1 HOBBY 1 HOBBY 2 HOBBY 2

96. Need to decentralize power, but then achieving cohesion and synergy becomes a problem.

97. The Viable System Model offers a way of gaining both functional decentralization and cohesion of the whole.

98. Recursive structure: All living systems are composed of a series of sub-systems, each having self-organizing and self-regulatory characteristics.

99. Each viable system requires five elements: operations, coordination, control, intelligence and policy (direction, values, purpose).12/04/2011

100. Individual’s life as a Viable System The everyday life of a human being is a system of subsystems in which different activities take place. Each activity adds value (well-being) and has its own goals, values, rules, languages, etc. The interdependencies and interfaces of each activity must be coordinated to operate synergistically. How well are our everyday activities coordinated? Is the whole system under our control? How does it affect our well-being as a whole? Can we manage our lives? (coordination & control= manageability!) Intelligence: Do we understand what’s going on in the world around us? Or, who we are? (= comprehensibility!) Policy: What’s the direction and purpose of our life? (= meaningfulness!)

101. Ashby (1958): Law of requisite variety The variety of the controller must be equal to that of the controlled. If the variety of disturbances (Vd) grows, old institutional responses/mechanisms (Vr) become inadequate in controlling them, and the variety (uncertainty) of outcomes (Vo) grows. Minimal value of Vo is Vd – Vr Given the variety of disturbances, the “goodness” or value of the outcome depends on the “capacity” (variety of responses) of the regulator (decision maker). Due to “limitation on ‘the capacity of Man’”, there is a limit to the variety (choice) that people can deal with. “Problem of choice” means an overwhelming variety of life options. Due to limited time and cognitive capacity, we cannot deal with this variety anymore.  Life management problems!

103. Reducing variety and choice:

104. Being more selective in one’s commitments based on their compatibility and personal strengths (downshifting, flow activities, purpose, work & life bal.)

105. Outsourcing activities unimportant to well-being (“support economy”)

106. Coherent living environments (cocooning, retro fashion & brands, nature, human-centric technology, cultural norms & regulation, customized services, working life, media)

107. Mindfulness training, fundamentalism, traditional values

108. Improving capacity (viability):

109. coordination & control (manageability): calendars, PDAs, peer support, close social relationships, health & rest

110. intelligence (comprehensibility): learning, new skills, meditation

111. policy (direction & purpose = meaningfulness): spiritualism, volunteering, serving others (or society) Transformational human being (O’Hara)?

113. However, the value-added of products and services depends on their contribution to everyday well-being. 

114. Superior well-being knowledge supports the development of products and services with more value-added – and hence competitiveness.

115. In addition, it helps: (a) people to live betterlives; (b) publicsector to produceserviceswithmorevalue-added, (c) policymakers to providebetterpublicgoods and institutions (e.g. living environments)

116. An updated and sophisticatedunderstanding of well-beingprovides and overall vision for the development of a new and sustainablesocio-economicmodel.12/04/2011

117. Europe could lead in the road to a sustainable well-being society Environment Everyday well-being (subjective well-being, happiness, good life) Economy (value-added, compe-titiveness, efficiency, productivity, growth) Public sector (public value, efficiency, renewal capacity, social security, equality) Environment Environment Environment Adapted from: Habermas (1987, Vol. 2) Lähde: Habermas (1987, Vol. 2) 30