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What is happiness, and how can we attain it? As Schmuck and Sheldon (2001) state since ancient times people have been pondering a question of existential importance for each of us: What makes humans truly happy? Do we gain happiness from striving for power or wealth, from controlling the passions, from promoting the welfare of other creatures, or is happiness to be found somewhere else? The concept of well-being refers to optimal psychological functioning and experience. Current research on well-being has been derived from two general perspectives. First is the hedonic approach, which focuses on happiness and defines well-being in terms of pleasure attainment and pain avoidance. The second is the eudaimonic approach, which focuses on meaning and selfrealization and defines well-being in terms of the degree to which a person is fully functioning (Ryan & Deci, 2001). Evidence from a number of studies has indicated that well-being is probably best conceived as a multidimensional phenomenon that includes aspects of both the hedonic and eudemonic conceptions of well-being (Compton, Smith, Cornish & Qualls, 1996; King & Napa, 1998).

According to Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1991; Ryan, 1995; Ryan & Deci, 2002), personal well-being is a direct function of the satisfaction of basic psychological needs. These are the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Factors in the person or situation that facilitate autonomy, competence, and relatedness are expected to enhance well-being, whereas factors that detract from fulfilment of these needs should undermine well-being. Competence refers to the …