Older adults well-being
Assessing Constituents of Flourishing in Older Citizens
A Case Study from Lalitpur
Renu Shakya
PhD Candidate
Term paper Submitted to
...................
Tribhuvan University,
Kirtipur, Nepal
2022
1
Older adults well-being
Abstract
There is no single study assessing the complete well-being or flourishing of older adults in
Nepal. The aim of this study was to provide comprehensive answers to what constitutes their
well-being. Older adults residing in Lalitpur district in Nepal were assessed in their
components of well-being. Result of assessment showed a moderate level of well-being
among older adults in Nepal. Constructs that have strong influence on them are engagement,
positive emotions, social relationships, accomplishment and mindfulness. One other
constructs that have strikingly strong influence on them which was otherwise not intended
from the study was ‘a sense of justice’ especially in case of close relationships. However due
the system of breaking family, a lot of factors which helped them flourishwere found
vanishing such as positive emotions and accomplishment.
2
Older adults well-being
Introduction
The word flourishing and well-being has been used interchangeably across psychological
literature (VanderWeele, 2017). Flourishing encompasses positive emotions, positive
psychological functioning and positive social functioning most of the time. There are very
few literatures capturing life satisfaction, health and nutrition of older citizens. However, life
satisfaction or psychological well-being do not capture all that we would ordinarily mean by
flourishing. Clearly there is lack of study assessing a holistic well-being, or flourishing of
senior citizens in Nepal. And thus this paper aims to find out the etiology of human
flourishing or factors contributing to human flourishing such that those factors could be
broadly conceived to measure overall level of flourishing in senior adults. The measurement
of well-being in each of these domains is in no way straightforward. Each has a large
literature devoted to it. There will be no perfect measures. However, to make progress, some
summary measure seems better than none at all.
Senior citizens’ Well-being
Martin E.P. Seligman describes well-being as a construct -no single measure defines it
exhaustively, but several things contribute to it, and each element of the well being is a
measurable thing.. Seligman writes:
“As our ability to measure positive emotions, engagement, meaning, accomplishment and
positive relations improves, we can ask with rigor how many people in a nation, in a city, or
in a corporation are flourishing.” (Flourish, 2011)
So our ‘moon-shot’ goal is to measure well-being of senior citizens in Lalitpur. Old age has
mostly been portrayed as one of fragile and fiddly state; the general picture painted of old age
in one’s mind is that of gloomy old looking man or woman sitting nearby a fireplace trying to
warm himself or herself, who is mostly lamenting for the loss of his youth and vigor.
3
Older adults well-being
However this may not be the case always. With the changing scenario in terms of
advancement in healthcare facilities, educational attainment and other technological
advancement, older people are living longer however if they are living the best possible life,
is the question. And it is more important to ask this question now than ever before with the
population growth rate of older people increasing by 3.5 % (GCN, Status Report on Elderly
People)and is ever increasing compared to overall population growth rate of Nepal which is
1.5 % which is also in decreasing trend(CBS, 2011). So based on population distribution,
ensuring their well-being is urgent, at the same time, with the dismantling of traditional
collectivistic family tradition, older people have become more vulnerable. In the midst of
these current situations, what have contributed to their well-being and how to assess such
constituents should be discussed as holistically as possible and thus this term paper.
Elements of Well-being
Well-being theory as suggested by Seligman has five elements: they are positive emotion,
engagement, meaning, positive relationships and accomplishment. Apart from these five
elements, I will be using other integral components of well being as stated in different
literatures such as physical and mental health, life satisfaction, character and virtue,
generativity, growth and resilience, self narrative and mindfulness as described by
VanderWeele (2017).
Positive emotion: The first element of well being theory is positive emotions. Positive
emotion encompasses the entire usual subjective well being variables: pleasure, ecstasy,
comfort, warmth etc.
4
Older adults well-being
Engagement: Like positive emotion, it is assessed only subjectively. It is being in a state of
‘flow’. The important point is that thought and feeling are usually absent during the flow
state, & only in retrospect do we say, that was fun or that was wonderful.
Meaning: It meant belonging to and serving something that you believe is bigger than the
self. Connection to other people or living beings and relationships are what give meaning and
purpose of life. Meaning consists of three criteria: 1. It contributes to well being 2. It is often
pursued for its own sake & 3. Meaning is defined and measured independently of positive
emotions or engagement and independent of the other two elements- accomplishments and
relationships.
Accomplishment: Accomplishment or achievement is often pursued for its own sake, even
when it brings no positive emotion, no meaning and nothing in ways of positive relationships.
People who live life of accomplishment are often absorbed in what they do, they often pursue
pleasure avidly & they feel positive emotions when they win, and they may win the service of
something larger. Achieving life often emphasize the task of describing rather than
prescribing, what people actually do to get well being. This element describes what human
being, when free of coercion; choose to do for its own sake.
Positive relationships: There is no denying the profound influences that positive
relationships or their absence have on well being. Positive relationships contribute to well
being and they can be measured independently of the other elements.
Therefore, no one element defines well being, but each contributes to it.
5
Older adults well-being
Literature Review
This section elucidates on positive psychology. The construct of Flourishing for this research
has been obtained from this branch of psychology and other scholars. Positive psychology is
a ‘brand new’ field of psychology in context of Nepal. Furthermore it has elaborated more on
senior citizens’ well-being, focusing specifically on different construct of Flourishing which
is the well-being model and current research on Flourishing.
Positive Psychology: The Science of Flourishing
Background of Positive Psychology
The term positive psychology was quoted as early as in 1954 by humanist psychologist
Maslow in his book Motivation and personality in a chapter titled “Towards a positive
psychology”. He wrote:
“The science of psychology has been far more successful on the negative than
on the positive side; it has revealed to us much about man’s shortcomings, his
illnesses, his sins, but little about his potentialities, his virtues, his achievable
aspirations, or his full psychological height. It is as if psychology had
voluntarily restricted itself to only half its rightful jurisdiction, and that the
darker, meaner half “.
However positive psychology as science didn’t gear up until the late 1990s’. Martin
Seligman, the father of modern positive psychology revolutionized this science during his
presidential ship in APA. Since then, 100s’ of research has been done in different constructs
of positive psychology which is responsible for leading flourishing life such as happiness,
optimism, positive emotions, flow, signature strengths and healthy character traits. As a
result- an academic field was brought quickly and deliberately into life. The main purpose of
6
Older adults well-being
positive psychology is to create sustainable happiness for everyone- depressed or not.
Seligman in his book “Authentic Happiness” describes two forms of happiness- hedonic and
eudemonic. Generally, hedonic means generating lots of happiness via pleasurable activities,
and eudemonic means generating happiness by doing meaningful acts for the society using
ones most valuable strength.
A step further from living happy life, Martin E. P. Seligman (2011) has come up with a
sustained model of well-being in his new book “Flourish: A New Theory of a Positive
Psychology”. In the book, he presents his apprehension with the word happiness, which has
become so much a cliché. Therefore he points out:
“If positive psychology is to be more than a “happiology” of cheerful mood,
we need to shift our focus to well-being. I believe the gold standard for
measuring well-being is flourishing and that the goal of positive psychology is
to increase flourishing.”
Well-Being Theory:
In the new well-being theory, human flourishing rests on five pillars, denoted by the
mnemonic PERMA:
1. Positive Emotion
2. Engagement
3. Relationships
4. Meaning
5. Accomplishment
7
Older adults well-being
Positive emotion: The first element of well being theory is positive emotions. Positive
emotion encompasses the entire usual subjective well being variables: pleasure, ecstasy,
comfort, warmth etc.
Engagement: Like positive emotion, it is assessed only subjectively. It is being in a state of
“flow”. The important point is that thought and feeling are usually absent during the flow
state, & only in retrospect do we say, that was fun or that was wonderful.
Positive relationships: There is no denying the profound influences that positive
relationships or their absence have on well being. Positive relationships contribute to well
being and they can be measured independently of the other elements.
Meaning: It meant belonging to and serving something that you believe is bigger than the
self. Connection to other people or living beings and relationships are what give meaning and
purpose of life. Meaning consists of three criteria: 1. It contributes to well being 2. It is often
pursued for its own sake & 3. Meaning is defined and measured independently of positive
emotions or engagement and independent of the other two elements- accomplishments and
relationships.
Accomplishment: Accomplishment or achievement is often pursued for its own sake, even
when it brings no positive emotion, no meaning and nothing in ways of positive relationships.
People who live life of accomplishment are often absorbed in what they do, they often pursue
pleasure avidly & they feel positive emotions when they win, and they may win the service of
something larger. Achieving life often emphasize the task of describing rather than
prescribing, what people actually do to get well being. This element describes what human
being, when free of coercion; choose to do for its own sake.
8
Older adults well-being
Just an element out of those five does not define well being, but each contributes to it.
Therefore now the good life with sustainable amount of happiness can be termed as
consisting of pleasure, engagement, meaning, and achievement and nurtured relations.
In Seligman’s book on Flourishing, apart from conceptualizing and introducing the PERMA
theory of human flourishing, he has also discussed about application of positive psychology
interventions (PPIs) such as gratitude visit, optimism diary, signature strength practice etc to
enhance PERMA. He substantially highlighted the uses of PPIs to decrease negative
emotions and increase positive emotions. Finally he has concluded the book highlighting the
economic implication of flourishing, arguing that there is theoretical relationship between
level of happiness and their gross domestic product (GDP) within a country.
After the publication of the book flourishing by Seligman, there has been more than 7600
articles has been written based on his constructs of Flourishing.
Tyler J. VanderWeele has proposed few additional measures to be considered with
approximate variables to be measured for Flourishing.
Flourishing, however conceived, would, at the very least, require doing or being well in the
following five broad domains of human life: (I) happiness and life satisfaction; (ii) health,
both mental and physical; (iii) meaning and purpose; (iv) character and virtue; and (v) close
social relationship. – VanderWeele(2017)
9
Older adults well-being
Marc Helgesen (2016) has written extensively on using the positive relationship component
(R in PERMA) for bringing happiness among students in classroom.
Gomez et al (2019) have highlighted the implications of positive psychology in the treatment
of coexisting problems in drug and alcohol workers
However I have not been able to assess single article in the internet on use of constructs of
Flourishing among Senior citizens and thus would like to present this research as one of the
foundational studies.
10
Older adults well-being
Methodology
Research design
This study consists of interview schedule to assess well-being of male senior citizens of
Lalitpur district.
Research Framework
Elements of well-being
Older
people’s
well-being











Positive emotions
Engagement
Relationships
Meaning
Accomplishment
Physical and mental health,
Life satisfaction,
Character and virtue,
Growth and resilience,
Self narrative and
Mindfulness
Data Collection Methodology
Semi structured interview
guide
Key informant interviews
11
Older adults well-being
To access senior citizens’ well-being, they were asked in great detail about elements
contributing to their higher well-being. The senior citizens were asked about positive
emotions they perceived in their day to day life, their engagement in their profession or other
activities, their relationship with their family, friends and community, the sense of meaning
they feel being senior citizens and their accomplishment as senior citizens, their physical and
mental health status, life satisfaction, character and virtue, generatively, growth and
resilience, self narrative and mindfulness were also assessed.
Sample size
The senior citizens of Lalitpur district were interviewed for the qualitative data collection.
Total of 1- senior citizens were interviews during the study which consists of participants
from key informant interviews and senior citizens.
Sampling method
The sampling method applied for data collection was purposive sampling.
Research Tools
Semi-Structured Interview Guide to Assess Senior citizens’ Well-Being
Prof. Seligman has developed a theory to access human’s well-being in his book Flourish. He
states five parameters to access well being which includes positive emotions, engagement,
positive relationship, meaning and accomplishment, he says, “As our ability to measure
positive emotions, engagement, meaning, accomplishment and positive relations improves,
we can ask with rigor how many people in a nation, in a city, or in a corporation are
flourishing.” (Flourish, 2011)
I have directly contacted Prof. Martin E P Seligman requesting for the scale and Margaret L.
Kern, PhD Fellow of Professor Seligman from University of Pennsylvania provided us with
12
Older adults well-being
the quantitative scale to access well-being as she has developed a well-being scale based on
Dr. Seligman’s theory.
Miss Kern passed on the well-being scale to us, we modified the scale to use it with senior
citizens, based on that scale, we formulated 5-point Likert scale questionnaire to assess level
of well-being. However, during our data collection phase, we found that senior citizens’ had
great difficulty giving answers in 5 point scale, thus based on Miss. Kern’s feedback, we
developed interview schedule to generate qualitative data. This semi structured interview
guide consists of 20 open ended questions elucidating on each of the constructs.
Data Collection
Data was collected by interviewing the senior citizens in their household. While visiting them
in individual household, the objective of the research was explained. All the senior citizens
were consented verbally before interviewing by the researchers. It was made clear in the
beginning that participation was voluntary. Personal information was kept to minimum and
codes were assigned to each individual to maintain anonymity.
The mean duration for
interview was 30-40 min. Total of 10 senior citizens were interviewed for qualitative data
collection.
Data management
Before analyzing the qualitative data, the interviews were fully transcribed and carefully
checked by the researcher along with the recording. All the transcriptions were treated as raw
data.
Data analysis
Content analysis method was used to analyze the data. This approach is exploratory “contentdriven” in nature that uses codes and analytic categories. Codes are derived from the data and
themes emerge from the coding and categories that are used for interpreting the results.
13
Older adults well-being
Content analysis is considered the most useful in capturing the perspectives and meaning
within a textual data set. It is also the most commonly used method of analysis in qualitative
research.
14
Older adults well-being
Result and discussion
Lalitpur District senior citizens’ well-being











Positive emotions
Engagement
Relationships
Meaning
Accomplishment
Physical and mental health,
Life satisfaction,
Character and virtue,
Growth and resilience,
Self narrative and
mindfulness
Self narrative
Most of the self narrative provided by respondents included details such as name, address,
education, family member and hobbies. In their life narratives there was healthy sense of self
than low self esteem.
Satisfaction with life
Many of the older adults were not satisfied with their life. for them, life would have been
more satisfying if they had lived it the way they wanted to however due to various obligation
whether that be the duty of earning for the family or taking care of their organization/work,
they have spent almost all of their life in that pursuit making them feel incomplete and
unsatisfied as they did not get chance to pursue their desire or hobbies such as music, reading,
spending time with loved ones, avoiding hateful ones, travelling.
I really don’t think my life is meaningful. What I have done all my life is I have earned, eaten
and finished so how can my life be meaningful. I have been running the whole life for the
necessity. (MB, 61)
15
Older adults well-being
Meaning
In the same pitch, these older adults thinks that their life have not been wholly meaningful.
Life in terms of meaning has not been black and white rather gray. As the definition of
meaning encompasses being useful to self and others. they have mixed feeling as they have
sometimes harmed and sometimes benefitted others.
I have fulfilled my duty. By doing this sometimes I have harmed and sometimes benefitted
others.(SR, 76)
Positive emotions
The sources of positive emotions for these older people lied in factors such as listening to
music especially spiritual songs, creating art, travelling, playing with grandchildren, spending
time with friends and family, celebrating different festivals, reading, eating warm and tasty
dishes.
Engagement
Engagement is such state when one is totally immersed in his or her activity. The day might
have passed so have the night, the does will have no sense of passing of time rather he be
filled with intriguing sensation, sense of ease or joy when one is in the state of flow brought
about my engagement.
Many of the respondents had one or the other activities which brought them flow, eventually
they turned it into profession and then came the barring. Beforehand, they were enjoying their
activities, but now with that activities came a sense of obligation. It became duty. There came
a sense of profit and loss depending upon situation and the approaching deadline kept them at
unease. So a feeling of burnout eventually came with the activities which they otherwise
enjoyed beyond time.
16
Older adults well-being
The more I understand, the more intrigued I am as I read texts of Buddhism. – MS,61
I am also ‘tallin’ in my sculpturing. I am working and working and time has elapsed just like
that. –GB, 87
Positive relationships
Many older people perceived they have had positive relation and close relationship ties with
immediate family members which was very important for their well-being. However there
were instances where they raised dissatisfaction and sadness about lack of support from their
loved ones. The most prominent theme for ensuring positive relationship which many
respondents pointed out to be missing was the sense of justice from their family which deeply
affected them.
I could never imagine my father could be so unjust to me compared to my brother. Even now
as I think of it, I am filled with deep pain. So I suggest you, please make sure you behave
justly to your loved ones all your life.
Accomplishment
The older people seem to be in a mediocre (lower to middle class) state in terms of their
economic accomplishment. Most of them were involved with family business/work such as
sculpture making, jewelry, retail shops etc. By now, they all have left these jobs. None of
them were government job holders therefore there is no extra money coming from
government body rather the old age allowance seemed to have worked as ‘balm in mild pain’.
Moreover as the traditional family system is breaking so is their hope of having support, all
kinds of support including financial is bleak. They on were usually unsatisfied with their
financial situation when they compared their state with other acquaintances such as friends,
17
Older adults well-being
neighbors etc. One of their life lesson is ‘not to do lot of voluntary work and learn to say no
for financial gain.’
Due to government allowance I have some money in my pocket which I use for my
medicine and daily requirements, rest of the money, I spend in buying other
household materials for my family as my sons don’t give me extra money.-GB,87
I wish I was a bit more rich so that I could have more comfortable life at this age by
eating whatever I feel like eating and buying stuffs which keeps me warm.-JB/80
Physical and mental health
All the respondents interviewed had some or the other physical health problem such as
diabetes, blood pressure, urinary problems, joint pain. All these resulted in stress in their life.
Growth and resilience
Most of the respondents came from very poor family background. They spent their childhood
impoverished. Many of them have 3-8 children themselves. Despite having to raised so many
children they have sustained themselves therefore they feel they have been resilient. However
the profession that they continued from their forefathers generation was not continued by
their children so the generational growth have ceased to exist, one of the main reason being
lack of economical value of their work. Their work included sculpture making, jewelry, shop
keeping etc.
In my generation, the value was given to work than study, so I made my children work
as goldsmith from very childhood so they left their study to work, now the demand for
this work is less and competition is more so I worry thinking of their future.-Jo/76
Character and virtue
All of the respondents interviewed practiced Buddhism as religion. Principally they followed
the basic precepts of Sila however few shared how this practice has become ‘dekhawati’ than
embodied one. Few serious practiceners of the Buddhist meditation (Vipassana) shared the
value this practice has played in their life. This practice has established the skills such as
anger management, stress management in their life.
When I remember incidences of pain such as my father discriminating me against my
brother, I feel dukkha, but then I immediately practice meditation and rid myself of
the pain. –MB/61
18
Older adults well-being
Mindfulness
The level of present moment awareness was high among the participants. They were aware of
what is happening in their body and in their mind the very moment. A study carried out by
Harvard Psychologists has shown that distracted people are less happy.
My mind is totally focused on you at the moment. (SK, 79)
New component of well-being
Familial injustice
One of the integral component of well-being as pointed out by the older people was the lack
of sense of justice. Many of them felt, they have experienced unjust behavior from their own
family members from parents to offspring. Some of them have experienced distance from
their parents due to the discrimination they felt in terms of behaving with siblings shown by
their parents. In other cases, some have experienced discrimination from their own children.
The only way out they see is endurance and letting go of this feeling, however it hurts them
deeply as they remember such incidence. Many of them shared a vivid experience of the
injustice they have received from their loved ones. They have shared such experience in so
much detail as if it is a fresh memory.
19
Older adults well-being
Conclusion
The Findings on Senior citizens’ Well-being using PERMA profiler and other constructs
revealed that among the senior citizens interviewed, their level of flourishing is fair. All
components of well-being are important for assuring a sense of well-being or flourishing. The
most important for them were constructs such as engagement, positive emotions, social
relationships, accomplishment and mindfulness. One other constructs that have strikingly
strong influence on them which was otherwise not intended from the study was ‘a sense of
justice’ especially in case of close relationships. However due to breaking family system lot
of factors which brought them flourishing were vanishing such as positive emotions, justice.
Limitations
One of the limitations of this study is that all the respondents for this study were male
therefore female perspective on human flourishing could not be captured. The capturance of
female perspective could have yielded more rich data on human flourishing.
20
Older adults well-being
References
GCN. (2010). Status report on elderly people (60+) in Nepal on health, nutrition and social
status focusing on research needs. Kathmandu: Ministry of Health and Population.
Marc Helgesen (2016) Happiness in ESL/EFL: Bringing Positive Psychology to the
Classroom. (2016) published in Research gate
Seligman, M.E.P and Csikszenmihaly, M. (2000) Positive Psychology: An introduction.
American Psychologist, 5-14.
Seligman, M.E.P. (2002). Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to
Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. New York: Free Press/Simon and
Schuster.
Seligman, M.E.P. (2011). Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and WellBeing. Free Press A Division of Simon and Schuster, Inc.
Ujhelyi Gomez, K., Carson, J., Brown, G. and Holland, M. (2019), "Drug and alcohol
workers’ view of positive psychology in the treatment of coexisting problems",
Advances in Dual Diagnosis, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 145-160.
https://doi.org/10.1108/ADD-02-2019-0002
VanderWeele, T.J. (2017) On the promotion of human flourishing. PNAS.
www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1702996114
21