Date of Award
Summer 2024
Degree Type
Open Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Psychology, PhD
Program
School of Social Science, Politics, and Evaluation
Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair
Stewart I. Donaldson
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Cindi Gilliland
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Stephen W. Gilliland
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Dianne Vella-Brodrick
Terms of Use & License Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Rights Information
© 2024 Victoria Cabrera
Keywords
PERMA, PERMA+4, positive functioning at work, positive psychology, subjective well-being, well-being
Subject Categories
Industrial and Organizational Psychology | Psychology
Abstract
In recent years, there has been a growing awareness of the challenges many workers face regarding their well-being. Workers continue to report high levels of work-related stress and burnout and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic heightened the importance of this issue as declines in well-being were observed on a global scale. In 2022, the issue of worker well-being was brought to the forefront of public awareness when the U.S. Surgeon General raised the well-being and mental health of workers as an urgent public health priority. The critical need to better support worker well-being is further supported by research that shows improving well-being leads to better work performance.
Research has also demonstrated that worker well-being can be improved using positive psychology interventions. The PERMA+4 building blocks of well-being (positive emotions, engagement, positive relationships, meaning, accomplishment, physical health, mindset, environment, and economic security) are nine antecedents of well-being that provide a useful framework for designing workplace practices and interventions to better support and improve worker well-being. This dissertation aims to build on previous research on PERMA and PERMA+4 as cross-sectional predictors of subjective well-being (SWB) and contribute to a better understanding of how the PERMA+4 building blocks affects the life satisfaction and job satisfaction of full-time workers. Using an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design, I investigated: (1) which PERMA+4 building blocks contribute the most to SWB, (2) the relationships among the PERMA+4 building blocks, (3) if there are work conditions that better enable PERMA+4 to improve SWB, and (4) whether PERMA+4 is predictive of SWB across a two-week period.
Study 1 used a qualitative phenomenological approach that consisted of semi-structured interviews with 24 full-time workers. The data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis to identify themes that provided insights into how full-time workers perceived and experienced the PERMA+4 building blocks at work and in their lives and how they related to their life satisfaction and job satisfaction. The building blocks that were most frequently cited as most important for life satisfaction were positive emotions, physical health, and economic security. The building blocks that were most frequently cited as most important for job satisfaction were engagement, meaning, and accomplishment. Workers also talked about specific relationships among the building blocks. Positive emotions were viewed as an outcome of positive relationships, meaning, accomplishment, economic security, and environment. Accomplishment was also viewed as an outcome of engagement, positive relationships, and physical health. Finally, having work-life balance was viewed as an enabling condition for PERMA+4 to improve both life satisfaction and job satisfaction, and having a supportive supervisor was viewed as an enabling work condition for PERMA+4 to enhance job satisfaction. These findings were then tested quantitatively as hypotheses in Study 2.
Study 2 used a two-wave panel design with a two-week lag and a sample of full-time workers who completed self-report surveys via Prolific (N = 406). A confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a nine-factor structure for PERMA+4 and measurement invariance testing confirmed that this structure was stable across time, gender, and race/ethnicity. Although not all hypotheses were supported, cross-lagged panel modeling (path analysis) results demonstrated that PERMA+4 significantly predicted life satisfaction and job satisfaction two weeks later. Among the individual building blocks, positive emotions and meaning were significant predictors of job satisfaction and positive emotions were a significant predictor of life satisfaction among women. Positive relationships were also found to be a significant predictor of positive emotions, but work-life balance and perceived supervisor support did not moderate the positive relationship between overall PERMA+4 and life satisfaction or job satisfaction.
Overall, the findings of this research contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how PERMA+4 improves well-being. Study 1 findings provide rich qualitative insights into how workers perceive and experience the PERMA+4 building blocks in relation to their well-being. Study 2 went beyond a cross-sectional research design to minimize common method bias and provide evidence of directional relationships between PERMA+4 and SWB, the building blocks that contribute most to SWB, and relationships among the building blocks. Future research can further investigate these qualitative and correlational findings with more longitudinal and experimental research methods using additional samples across industries and cultures. The results of this research also have important practical implications that address the challenges workers face when it comes to their well-being. Organizations and workers can use these findings to inform the design of more targeted workplace practices and positive psychology interventions that better support and improve worker well-being.
ISBN
9798384073079
Recommended Citation
Cabrera, Victoria. (2024). PERMA+4 Building Blocks of Well-being: A Mixed-Methods Exploration of Mechanisms & Conditions that Enable the Subjective Well-being of Workers. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 843. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/843.
