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The science of well-being lives at the heart of positive psychology. While the field has been around for 20 years, positive psychologists still face the challenge of finding optimal measurements of well-being. The PERMA framework (Seligman, 2011; 2018) can provide for a measurement model, but its added value in terms of being distinct from the already established measurement scale of Subjective Well-being (SWB; Deiner et al., 1999) has been under debate (Goodman et al., 2018). However, certain characteristics of PERMA make it unsuited for traditional factor analysis. In this paper we argue that a network approach is more suitable to understand the interrelational nature among the components of PERMA. We begin our investigation of PERMA by replicating Goodman and colleagues (2018) work. We then fit PERMA and two additional components to a network model. We then show how the components PERMA and SWB are distinct using exploratory graphical analysis. Our results show that while PERMA and SWB measure the same “type” of well-being, PERMA provides a measure that helps us understand the relationships that make up well-being that we refer to as the web of well-being.

The experience of love plays an integral role in human development as adolescents transition into adulthood. However, little is known about whether early adults have a shared understanding about indicators of love in daily life in this transitional phase. Using Cultural Consensus Theory informed by developmental theory, this study examined whether college-attending early adults in the United States reach a consensus on what makes people feel loved. One hundred sixty-six college-attending early adults ages 18 to 22 responded to 60 items on everyday scenarios and decided whether they thought most people would think each scenario was loving or not. Bayesian cognitive psychometric analysis revealed that college-attending respondents converged on a shared belief on love that included a wide range of everyday scenarios. Moreover, we found those higher conscientiousness and extraversion scores were more knowledgeable about the consensus on felt love. We expand on the developmental implications of these findings.

Recent debates in the Journal of Positive Psychology about the nature and usefulness of PERMA have created confusion about its contribution toward the understanding and prediction of well-being. Th...