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Seligman’s PERMA Model, Made Practical

The five pillars of well-being — how each works and how to build each deliberately

What Is the PERMA Model? Seligman's 5 Elements

The PERMA model is Martin Seligman's five-element account of well-being, introduced in Flourish (2011): P — positive emotion, E — engagement, R — relationships, M — meaning, and A — accomplishment. Unlike models that treat well-being as a single variable, PERMA holds that each element is pursued for its own sake and each can be improved independently, so you can be strong in Accomplishment while starving in Meaning. You can score yourself with the PERMA-Profiler (Butler & Kern, 2016), a 23-item self-report questionnaire rated 0–10, or with a simple 1–10 rating of each pillar to find your thinnest one. Two of the practices below — three good things and the gratitude visit — have randomized-trial support; the rest are mechanistically grounded with weaker direct evidence. Treat the five-element structure as a useful map rather than a settled finding: factor analyses show only moderate support for it, and the elements overlap.Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. Unlike happiness models that treat well-being as a single variable, PERMA argues these five elements are each intrinsically valued and each independently improvable. Several PERMA-targeted interventions have randomized-trial support; others are mechanistically grounded with less direct evidence.

Martin Seligman originally proposed that well-being was about positive emotion; he later concluded that was too narrow. In Flourish (2011), he presented PERMA: five independent elements he claims people pursue for their own sake, not as instruments to happiness. The model is useful precisely because it is multidimensional — it reveals that someone can be depleted in Meaning while strong in Accomplishment, or abundant in Positive Emotions while starving for genuine Engagement. Each pillar has its own practices.

Practices

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Research

  • Butler & Kern (2016), "The PERMA-Profiler: a brief multidimensional measure of flourishing," International Journal of Wellbeing
  • Seligman, Steen, Park & Peterson (2005), "Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions," American Psychologist
  • Csikszentmihalyi (1990), Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
  • Gable, Reis, Impett & Asher (2004), "What do you do when things go right? The intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits of sharing positive events," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
  • Grant (2008), "The significance of task significance: job performance effects, relational mechanisms, and boundary conditions," Journal of Applied Psychology
  • Dweck & Leggett (1988), "A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality," Psychological Review

Related concepts

Frequently asked questions

What Is the PERMA Model? Seligman's 5 Elements

The PERMA model is Martin Seligman's five-element account of well-being, introduced in Flourish (2011): P — positive emotion, E — engagement, R — relationships, M — meaning, and A — accomplishment. Unlike models that treat well-being as a single variable, PERMA holds that each element is pursued for its own sake and each can be improved independently, so you can be strong in Accomplishment while starving in Meaning. You can score yourself with the PERMA-Profiler (Butler & Kern, 2016), a 23-item self-report questionnaire rated 0–10, or with a simple 1–10 rating of each pillar to find your thinnest one. Two of the practices below — three good things and the gratitude visit — have randomized-trial support; the rest are mechanistically grounded with weaker direct evidence. Treat the five-element structure as a useful map rather than a settled finding: factor analyses show only moderate support for it, and the elements overlap.Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. Unlike happiness models that treat well-being as a single variable, PERMA argues these five elements are each intrinsically valued and each independently improvable. Several PERMA-targeted interventions have randomized-trial support; others are mechanistically grounded with less direct evidence.

How do you run a PERMA audit of your current well-being?

PERMA’s multidimensional structure means deficits in different pillars require different interventions. A person low in Engagement needs flow-generating conditions, not more positive emotions; someone depleted in Meaning needs purpose work, not better accomplishment tracking. Without diagnosis, interventions miss the limiting factor and produce disappointing results. A structured audit converts vague dissatisfaction into a specific, addressable gap.

How do you three good things (positive emotions pillar)?

Negativity bias causes the brain to register negative events more vividly than positive ones. The three-good-things exercise counteracts this by requiring deliberate attention to positive events and their causes. The causal attribution step ("why did this happen?") is critical: attributing positive events to internal, stable, global causes builds learned optimism, which has downstream effects on motivation and resilience.

How do you design your work environment for flow (engagement pillar)?

Flow (Csikszentmihalyi) is the psychological state of deep, effortless absorption that occurs when challenge and skill are in balance. It is the experiential core of Engagement in PERMA. The mechanism is that matched challenge/skill eliminates both boredom (skill > challenge) and anxiety (challenge >> skill), leaving absorption as the natural state. Flow is intrinsically rewarding and builds competence simultaneously.

How do you practice active-constructive responding (relationships pillar)?

Shelly Gable’s research on response styles finds that how partners respond to good news is as predictive of relationship quality as how they respond to bad news. Active-constructive responding — asking questions, showing genuine interest, "savoring with" — strengthens bond quality through positive experience sharing. The mechanism is that shared positive events build relational capital more efficiently than conflict management alone, because the relationship is experienced as a source of amplification, not just support.

How do you build meaning through contribution rather than achievement (meaning pillar)?

Meaning in PERMA is distinct from accomplishment: you can achieve extensively and feel empty. Research consistently finds that prosocial motivation — believing your work benefits others — is among the most robust predictors of meaning. The mechanism is that contribution activates the "belonging to something larger" dimension of self-continuity that achievement alone does not. This is why purpose and meaning require an other-directed frame; self-referential success does not generate it.

How do you track mastery progress, not just outcomes (accomplishment pillar)?

PERMA’s Accomplishment pillar is about achievement for its own sake — not as a means to external reward, but because humans are inherently motivated by competence growth (as self- determination theory also argues). Tracking mastery rather than outcomes captures progress even when external results are delayed, maintaining motivation across the long haul. It also reduces the mood volatility that comes from tying self-assessment entirely to outcomes outside your control.

How do you write and deliver a gratitude visit?

The gratitude visit activates both the giver and receiver. For the giver: benefit-finding, positive reappraisal, and social reconnection simultaneously. For the receiver: recognition of impact, which generates meaning. The in-person delivery is crucial — it cannot be replicated by sending the letter — because the embodied expression creates an emotionally shared experience that a written artifact cannot. The mechanism is the combination of expressed gratitude, witnessed impact, and relational reconnection.