Enhancing Life Satisfaction through Eudaimonic, Hedonic, and Combined Interventions: New Training Approaches Relevant to Theory and Practice

In recent scientific debates, eudaimonia and hedonia have been discussed as either complementary or opposing pathways to well-being. If they are opposites, a combination of the two would not have a positive effect. If they are complementary, their combination is of particular interest. Research to date has often been based on correlational designs that do not allow any conclusions to be drawn about causality. Therefore, we used randomized control designs not only to demonstrate the effectiveness of interventions for eudaimoina and hedonia but also to see whether or not a combination of hedonia and eudaimonia will lead to life satisfaction (full-life effectivity) or even outperforms single-component interventions (full-life superiority). Two randomized controlled studies were conducted with pre-, post- and follow-up measurements. In Study 1 (N = 265), we compared four groups: hedonia training, eudaimonia training, combined training and a control group. In Study 2 (N = 76), we compared three groups: eudaimonia training, combined training and a control group. Results showed positive effects on life satisfaction in the eudaimonia and hedonia groups. The combined training worked (full-life effectivity), although not more so than the single-component trainings (no full-life superiority). The expected mediating role of the art-of-living (a set of individual behavioral strategies) for training effects on life satisfaction was also supported. Results are discussed with reference to the synergetic change model, which offers further ideas to improve combined trainings.