The effect of brief quiet ego contemplation on eudaimonic motivation

The concept of eudaimonia has received increasing recognition as positive psychology has shifted away from rudimentary measures of wellbeing (Kristjánsson, 2013). Aristotle defines eudaimonia as a durable way of flourishing, achieved by pursuing virtue. A new concept in positive psychology that adopts this eudaimonic perspective is the Quiet Ego, a term describing a self-identity which promotes balance, humility and eudaimonic growth (Wayment, Bauer & Sylaska, 2015). This study investigated the effect of a quiet ego contemplation exercise, as used in Wayment, Collier, Birkett, Traustadóttir and Till (2015) on college students eudaimonic motivation and quiet ego scores. College students (N=66) were split into a control group and treatment group. Eudaimonic motivation was measured on the revised Hedonic and Eudaimonic Motives for Activities scale (Huta, 2016) and quiet ego scores were measured using the Quiet Ego Scale (Wayment et al., 2015). Both scales were issued before and after the intervention. A significant difference (p <.001) was observed in student’s eudaimonic motivation after completing the quiet ego contemplation exercise, but no significant difference was observed on quiet ego scores. Following an assessment of the strengths and limitations of this study, suggestions were made for future research.