Well-Being as Meta-Aware Integration of Experience in Conscious Systems: A Structural Theory of Integrative Awareness

Well-being is typically conceptualized in terms of subjective pleasure, desire satisfaction, or objective life conditions. However, these approaches do not explain the structural conditions that generate well-being within conscious systems. This paper proposes the Meta-Aware Integration Theory of Well-Being, according to which well-being is an emergent metacognitive property arising from the integrative organization of conscious processes. Drawing on the M⁵ architecture, which distinguishes perception, affect, cognition, action, and awareness as core dimensions of conscious functioning, the theory identifies meta-awareness as the central regulatory mechanism that monitors and stabilizes systemic coherence. Well-being emerges when meta-awareness successfully integrates these functional dimensions into a unified and stable experiential organization. Conversely, fragmentation and dysregulation correspond to diminished well-being. The paper develops formal propositions and an integration theorem specifying the structural conditions under which well-being arises, and articulates operationalized empirical predictions and falsifiability criteria. This framework reconciles subjective, cognitive, affective, and functional dimensions of well-being within a unified explanatory model and provides a structural foundation for future empirical investigation.