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Luke Kalb, PhD ’17, MHS ’08, started his career entrenched in traditional mental health research, or what he calls “a legacy of psychopathology.” This focus on preventing and managing mental illness has long dominated public mental health research.  

But his curiosity pulled him in a different direction: More than % of people in the U.S. experience a lifetime psychiatric disorder. What about the other 70–80% of people? What can public mental health offer them?  

“There’s a very large and important body of research about well-being and mental life that exists outside the frame of psychopathology,” Kalb, an associate professor in Mental Health, explains.  

His work aims to shift attention from just mental illness to the broader terrain of positive mental health and the conditions that allow people to live a good life. 

The difference between happiness and well-being 

After noticing a dearth of research on the public health implications of positive psychology, Kalb began studying happiness and well-being. While they may seem analogous, he identifies some important distinctions between them. 

Happiness, he explains, can be explained as a ratio. People who consider themselves happy experience positive affect (feeling emotions like gratitude, contentment, love, hope, pride, enthusiasm) on a more frequent basis than negative affect (feeling emotions like sadness, anger, fear, anxiety).  

“The problem with happiness is it has become commercialized. The U.S. is saturated in the idea of being happy all the time. It feels like a mandate,” Kalb argues. He is concerned that this marketing tactic has created an epidemic of “miswanting,” in which we strive toward a goal we think will make us happy only to be disappointed once we’ve achieved it.  

“The problem with achievement or material possessions is they fade quickly, leaving us unsatisfied, or we achieve a goal or object that comes from somewhere outside ourselves, which also leaves us unsatisfied,” Kalb states. Pursuing happiness alone creates a chase toward an unrealistic ideal. 

“Happiness is more about feeling good and our comfort in life,” Kalb notes. “Whereas well-being is far more comprehensive.  Meaning (or feeling significant) and purpose (the expression of meaning) are really important.” The good news is people who have meaning and purpose in their lives are happier.  Finding purpose creates sustainable well-being. 

So, where do we find meaning and purpose? We derive it from our social network, our families, our values, our cultures, our employment, and our environments. And while cultivating our sense of meaning and purpose can improve our well-being, the process may not necessarily make us happy. 

“If you're happy all the time, but don't have a lot of meaning and purpose, you can seem pretty self-absorbed, whereas people who have deep meaning and purpose, but no happiness, may not feel a lot of joy,” Kalb explains. “You want a balance. But if you start with meaning and purpose, it is easier to add in activities that make you feel good. It is harder, and less sustainable, to do the opposite.”  

Three steps we can take to build a good life 

To improve well-being and cultivate a sense of meaning and purpose, Kalb recommends a few powerful strategies: 

Balance your responsibilities with things that strengthen your identity

To Kalb, having life balance is the starting point. Life balance has been called “the golden thread” or the “zenith” of well-being. Having life balance (not just work-life balance, a much narrower, but more commonly known, concept) means being able to fulfill our duties while also having the space to do the things that bring us joy and add to our sense of self-complexity. 

Kalb likens self-complexity to a stool. Each leg of the stool represents a piece of our identity. The goal is to have as many legs on the stool as possible, so that if one is cut down, the rest can continue to support us. 

“I'm a dad. I'm a husband. I’m a son. I’m a mentor. I'm a professor. Yes, it is tough to juggle these duties, so each gets attention as needed. That means I have to actively shift my time and effort to each of these based on life circumstance, which isn’t easy,” Kalb says. “To do that, I have to set priorities and boundaries. If I don’t have these identities, I have a different problem. If the only leg on my stool is my occupational identity, and I get laid off because of something I have zero control over, then I’m sitting on the floor. That’s why I encourage people to find that balance and build their self-complexity.” 

Foster healthy relationships

In 2023, then-Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on par with tobacco use. Kalb believes it’s more important than ever to prioritize human connections. He advises reaching out to family, friends, and acquaintances, as well as getting involved in activities that both offer community and contribute to our self-complexity. 

“Human connection can be uncomfortable and difficult. It requires effort and, sometimes, sacrifices,” Kalb says. “But I think it's really difficult to have purpose without being connected to other people. People routinely underestimate how much they enjoy talking to others, especially new people.” 

According to Kalb, this is called the “double-sided liking gap,” in which both parties underestimate how much they enjoy a conversation with each other, especially when it involves a person they don’t know.  

“All you have to do is have lunch with an old friend or talk to someone in class you may not know, and you'll immediately understand the gap between how we feel about what we expect. Unfortunately, our instincts aren’t always correct,” Kalb notes. 

Prioritize your physical health

“The body and the mind are deeply connected,” Kalb explains. “When we physically feel good, we mentally feel good, and vice versa.” Exercising, eating healthy, and keeping up with routine care can help us feel good and sustain the energy to pursue the things that bring us joy and connection. Next to balance, relationships, and purpose, physical health is of the utmost importance. It is a critical personal and public health strategy to prevent mental health problems and low life satisfaction.  

A new direction for public mental health 

Kalb sees an opportunity for public mental health research to explore the population-level impacts of well-being, outside the traditional psychopathology line of inquiry. What can we learn from people with high or moderate levels of well-being? How can we apply what we learn to prevent people from “sliding” into psychological distress? 

“There's an amazing body of work here that students don't know about at the school,” Kalb says. Kalb decided to build the course, Public Health Approaches to the Good Life, which sheds light on the science of well-being from a population-based perspective and prepares the next generation of mental health leaders to improve well-being in their own communities.  

“It’s important for students to know this not just from a public health perspective, but also from an applied perspective,” Kalb says. “Is there something we can learn from people that are doing really well that can also apply to people with mental health problems, in psychological distress, or at risk for both? The answer, to me, is clearly yes.” 

Interested in learning more? Register for Public Health Approaches to the Good Life, a virtual, synchronous Summer Institute course offered by the Department of Mental Health. Summer Institute courses are open to all professionals and degree-seeking students. The course will be held on Monday, June 2, and Tuesday, June 3, from 1pm to 4:50pm ET. Registration closes on May 16. .