Normative Theory and Psychological Research: The Advantages of the Value-based Life-satisfaction Theory of Well-being

A recent exchange in The Journal of Positive Psychology poses questions about the value of the distinction between eudaimonic and hedonic theories in the psychological literature.   Critics of the distinction charge that an objective notion of happiness is not “possible or, more importantly, meaningful or even useful”.  On the other side, it is argued that eudaimonistic theories in psychology are not subject to this criticism because they are not really objective theories at all.  The debate as it is framed misses the important things that objective theories are meant to capture and, therefore, fails to see how subjective theories must be improved.  In this paper I discuss the motivations for objective theories in philosophy and I explain the advantages of a hybrid theory that has elements of the subjective and the objective.