EMPATHICS: A Complex Dynamic Systems (CDS) Vision of Language Learner Well‐Being

Positive psychology, initiated by Martin Seligman, is gaining attention in the ELT field. The ELT Dimensions section shows that Seligman's (2011) PERMA model offers potentially useful ideas about components of human well‐being (positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment). However, PERMA confusingly portrays well‐being components as independent, incorrectly judges so‐called “negative” emotions, and fails to mention that well‐being is intimately tied to complex dynamic systems (CDS), some key features of which are interconnectedness, nonlinearity, dynamism, and multicausality. The Future Directions section presents a very different positive‐psychological vision for ELT: EMPATHICS, which has 21 components, does not rail against painful emotions, and is known for embodying CDS. As an improvement upon PERMA, EMPATHICS starts with emotions and empathy (“E”) and leads to four “self” (“S”) components. For multiple reasons, EMPATHICS, compared with PERMA, is at least as valuable for application in ELT and possibly more so.