Flourishing Under Strain: A Regulatory Architecture for Sustaining Wellbeing in Adversity

Abstract

Wellbeing science has traditionally defined flourishing through traits such as optimism, autonomy, and goal pursuit. Yet a persistent paradox remains: why does suffering endure even among those who appear psychologically well? This review critically evaluates nine foundational and emerging models—PERMA, Psychological Wellbeing, Self-Determination Theory, Flow Theory, Hope Theory, Dynamic Subjective Wellbeing, Psychological Richness Theory, the Capabilities Approach, and the Well-Balance Model—to assess whether they account for the lived experiences of individuals navigating emotional disruption, relational complexity, and moral ambiguity. Through conceptual synthesis, the review identifies structural gaps in trait-centric frameworks and introduces four regulatory capacities—emotional containment, experiential insight, ethical coherence, and resilience reserves—as dynamic mechanisms for adaptive restoration. These capacities regulate rather than replace traditional traits, offering a recursive system through which wellbeing can be sustained and recalibrated. By reframing flourishing as a process of intentional regulation, this review advances a cross-domain framework with relevance for emotion regulation, moral psychology, clinical resilience, and culturally responsive wellbeing science.