What are the psychological mechanisms of human flourishing?

The Four Pathways of Human Flourishing | Victor Counted Flourishing Science The Four Pathways of Human Flourishing Victor Counted, Ph.D. Psychological Scientist & Professor What does it mean to truly flourish? And more precisely — what are the internal pathways through which flourishing actually happens in a human life? These are not merely philosophical questions. They sit at the heart of a growing scientific conversation that is reshaping how psychologists, clinicians, and scholars understand human thriving. Tyler VanderWeele of Harvard's Human Flourishing Program has made a compelling case that flourishing is cultivated through four primary pathways: work and vocation, religious or spiritual community, family relationships, and education. These domains represent…

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Call for Papers: Religion, Spirituality, and Human Flourishing — A Social Scientific Approach

This Call for Papers has been published in the Journal of Positive Psychology Religion and spirituality (R/S) have been integral to human life for millennia, shaping cultures, communities, and individual identities. In recent decades, there has been a growing interest in understanding how religion and spirituality contribute to human flourishing, particularly within the field of positive psychology (Counted, 2025). Human flourishing, defined as a state of optimal functioning in which all aspects of one’s life are good (VanderWeele et al., 2023; VanderWeele, 2017), is increasingly recognized as a multidimensional and nested construct that includes several dimensions: happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue,…

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