Orientations to happiness, subjective well-being and life goals

People pursue happiness through different paths: pleasure, engagement and meaning, which are differently related to well-being. The aim of this research was to compare subjective well-being, life goals and self-control of people with different profiles of orientations to happiness. Students (484 females, 278 males; mean age 20.60) rated their life satisfaction, positive and negative affect, orientations to happiness, and self-control. Based on the K-means cluster analysis participants were grouped into four groups: students who highly endorse hedonic and eudaimonic orientation (the "Full life" group), those who do not endorse either of them (the "Empty life" group), those who live eudaimonic and those who live hedonic life. People who live a full life are the happiest, they value intrinsic life goals and have good self-control. Contrary, people who live empty lives have the lowest well-being, they value extrinsic and intrinsic life goals less than other people and have low self-control.