AUTHENTICITY AND WELL-BEING AMONG EUROPEAN AND EURASIAN YOUNG ADULTS

Although humanistic-existential psychologists have longed stressed the concept of authenticity as important for individual well-being, it was only until recently that an instrument for assessing authenticity with sound psychometric properties has been developed and made possible empirical research on this and related humanistic-existential constructs. However, these research findings have not been replicated cross-nationally. Our study replicated the results of Wood et al. (2008) regarding the relationships between dimensions of authenticity and both eudaimonic and hedonic well-being, which were themselves correlated. We extended the analyses to include models in which dimensions of authenticity predicted two forms of individual well-being, hedonia and eudaimonia. However, a fitted model comprising all dimensions of authenticity was abandoned in favor of a more parsimonious model that included only authentic living and self-alienation. This model best explained the variance on each of the measured constructs of individual well-being.