Eudaimonia in Human Factors Research and Practice - Foundations and Conceptual Framework Applied to Older Adult Populations

Katie Seaborn, Peter Pennefather, Deborah I. Fels

2015

Abstract

Well-being/quality of life has emerged as a strand of inquiry in human factors research that has expanded the field’s reach to matters beyond fit, functionality and usability. This effort has been spearheaded by “hedonomics,” a human factors conceptualization of well-being that reflects the philosophical notion of hedonia, traditionally defined as pleasure. However, recent work in the psychology of well-being has shown that hedonia constitutes only one facet of well-being. In light of this, the concept of “eudaimonics” as a complement to hedonomics is introduced. First, these concepts are positioned relative to their counterparts in philosophy: where hedonomics is characterized by pleasure and avoidance of pain (hedonia), eudaimonics is characterized by flourishing and personal excellence (eudaimonia). Following this, a working conceptual framework for eudaimonics that is informed by the psychological literature is presented. An expansion of the hedonomics model of design priority hierarchy is offered. Applications to the domains of ageing well and technologies for older populations are proposed. Directions for future work, including the adoption and modification of psychology instruments for human factors research, is discussed.

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Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Seaborn K., Pennefather P. and I. Fels D. (2015). Eudaimonia in Human Factors Research and Practice - Foundations and Conceptual Framework Applied to Older Adult Populations . In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health - Volume 1: SocialICT, (ICT4AgeingWell 2015) ISBN 978-989-758-102-1, pages 313-318. DOI: 10.5220/0005473003130318


in Bibtex Style

@conference{socialict15,
author={Katie Seaborn and Peter Pennefather and Deborah I. Fels},
title={Eudaimonia in Human Factors Research and Practice - Foundations and Conceptual Framework Applied to Older Adult Populations},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health - Volume 1: SocialICT, (ICT4AgeingWell 2015)},
year={2015},
pages={313-318},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0005473003130318},
isbn={978-989-758-102-1},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health - Volume 1: SocialICT, (ICT4AgeingWell 2015)
TI - Eudaimonia in Human Factors Research and Practice - Foundations and Conceptual Framework Applied to Older Adult Populations
SN - 978-989-758-102-1
AU - Seaborn K.
AU - Pennefather P.
AU - I. Fels D.
PY - 2015
SP - 313
EP - 318
DO - 10.5220/0005473003130318