## Summary The PERMA-Profiler is a scientifically validated well-being measure developed by Dr. Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania's Positive Psychology Center. It rests on the claim that well-being is more than the absence of misery: it has five pillars, each worth measuring in its own right. |Pillar|What it assesses| |---|---| |**P**ositive Emotion|Happiness, joy, optimism| |**E**ngagement|Flow states, absorption in activities| |**R**elationships|Connection, support, belonging| |**M**eaning|Purpose, contributing to something larger| |**A**ccomplishment|Goals, mastery, achievement| Beyond the five pillars, the profiler also tracks negative emotion and health as additional domains. The Engagement pillar is Csikszentmihalyi's flow state given a measure: full absorption in an activity, attention wholly spent on the task (see [[Flow]]). Meaning and Accomplishment connect to the question of whether a good life is lived in the doing rather than in the scoreboard — the distinction between goods internal to a practice and external goods, explored in [[Hope as a Practice]]. **Freely available through the Authentic Happiness website:** authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu ## How it compares For a quick, intuitive life-balance snapshot rather than a research measure, see [[Wheel of Life]]. A wider family of well-being instruments is gathered in [[Well-Being Frameworks]]. --- `Concepts:` [[Well-being]] · [[Flow]] · [[Positive Emotion]] `Knowledge Base:` [[Martin Seligman]] · [[Wheel of Life]] · [[Well-Being Frameworks]]