Discussion of Definitions

By clearly defining and measuring what Happiness, Health, Wisdom, and Wealth mean, it becomes possible to make clear statements about people and their behavior. When discussed in general conversation, each of those four ideas is inherently fuzzy, as every individual has their interpretations. The speaker and the hearer may use the exact words, but they mean different things to each person. Defining the individual words using many other terms sets boundaries around what is intended by the speaker’s statements. When we know what the other person intends by what they have said, it becomes possible to find common ground for beneficial actions to both parties. We can use these defined words of the Well-Being Scores to discover those ideas that will benefit both persons in a conversation when diverse past experiences divide them.

Problems of Understanding Other Well-Being Score Levels

Most adults with a Well-Being Score of 12/20 would be in the middle zones on the Well-being Score and would generally succeed in coping with the life problems they encounter. However, they probably would be bewildered by the motivations of a person who had a Well-Being Score of 20/20. Also, they would have difficulty understanding the causes of a person’s actions whose Well-Being Score was 4/20.

Stress between people living on different Well-Being Score Levels

The generalization would be that people will have trouble seeking to live a life one Well-Being Score level different from their own. Two levels from their own would feel so strange as to be unpleasant. Three levels of difference would cause active avoidance. Four levels would probably cause enough disgust to cause flight. 

We may not encounter these Well-Being Scored people differently from our daily encounters, but we can watch for these characteristics in public TV news interviews.