"Feeling happy" tends to get treated as a single whole, as though one switch governs it and flipping that switch turns everything on. Mainstream psychology holds that well-being is built from several independent dimensions, each with its own source, and the gaps between them can be substantial. When one dimension has been missing for a long time, raising the others cannot fully cover for it. This entry lays out the internal structure of those dimensions and how they act on each other.
# Three Basic Psychological Needs
Deci and Ryan's Self-Determination Theory (SDT) breaks basic psychological needs into three. All three stand independently, and a shortfall in any one of them opens a visible gap in overall well-being.
Autonomy
The sense that your behaviour is your own choice, with control over how daily time gets allocated. The key is the feeling of having chosen. Even with identical outcomes, something decided personally and something arranged for you can feel entirely different. SDT places autonomy first among the three. Under long stretches of being assigned and arranged for, this need keeps draining, and good material conditions change little about that.
Competence
The sense of doing something well and making progress at it. What matters is subjectively felt growth, with little bearing on actual ranking. Feeling stronger each day keeps competence delivering steadily. One common trap sits here: setting the bar for "done it" so high that satisfaction almost never gets triggered. Where the bar sits directly determines whether competence can fire at all.
Relatedness
Stable connections with other people where you are accepted. Quality sets the strength of relatedness, and quantity matters considerably less. Someone can socialise very little and still have relatedness hold up, provided a few stable relationships sit nearby. Under a long stretch of "people around, nobody who actually understands me," the gap in relatedness can keep widening.
The three stand independently of each other. High competence with relatedness missing for a long time still leaves well-being unstable; excellent social quality with no autonomy at all also fails to hold for long.
# Meaning and Basic Needs
SDT covers everyday psychological operation. Two further dimensions handle questions at a larger scale.
Meaning
The sense that what you do carries value beyond immediate benefit. Seligman's PERMA model lists meaning as its own component of well-being, counted separately from feeling good. Someone can go through days that are not especially pleasant and still report high overall life satisfaction, because the work feels meaningful. The reverse holds too: comfortable days paired with a sense that none of it means anything will see satisfaction slowly bottom out.
Security and basic needs
Maslow's hierarchy supplies a practical frame here. With physiological needs and security unmet, the autonomy, competence and relatedness above can barely start up normally. Financial anxiety suppresses well-being directly, fast and hard. Past a basic threshold of income, each additional increment delivers a rapidly shrinking gain in well-being — which also explains how "still feeling empty once wealth is sufficient" and "struggling to feel happy when finances fall short" can both be true at once.
# Short-term Pleasure and Long-term Fulfilment
Psychology splits well-being into two independent lines, each answering to a completely different satisfaction mechanism.
Hedonic
Finishing a task, eating something good, taking a proper day off. This kind of satisfaction is bound to immediate reward: it arrives fast and fades fast.
Eudaimonic
The sense that life has a direction, that you are living in line with your own values, that long-term investment is accumulating into something. This kind of satisfaction builds slowly, holds steady, and rarely swings far on any single event.
The two lines run independently. Someone can sit high on hedonic satisfaction — comfortable days, good food, enough sleep — while eudaimonic satisfaction has been missing for a long time and life feels directionless. The reverse works too: hard days, with a sense of moving in the right direction. Push all available energy into one line and the other slowly bottoms out.
# The Dimensions at a Glance
| Dimension | Source | Framework |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomy | Behaviour chosen by yourself | SDT |
| Competence | Feeling that progress is happening | SDT |
| Relatedness | Stable interpersonal connection | SDT |
| Meaning | Work carrying value beyond the immediate | PERMA |
| Security | Physiological and financial needs met | Maslow |
| Hedonic satisfaction | Immediate reward and rest | Hedonic |
| Eudaimonic satisfaction | Life direction aligned with values | Eudaimonic |
# References
SDT — Ryan & Deci (2000), American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78; Deci & Ryan (2000), Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268.
PERMA — Seligman, M. E. P. (2011). Flourish. Free Press.
Maslow — Maslow, A. H. (1943), Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396.
Hedonic & Eudaimonic — Ryan & Deci (2001), Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 141–166.
Income & Well-being — Kahneman & Deaton (2010), PNAS, 107(38), 16489–16493.