The concept of psychological well-being has its roots in positive psychology. Psychological well-being encompasses the psychological health of an individual in terms of life satisfaction and feelings of accomplishment. When placed on a continuum, one end can be identified as ill-health, both mental and physical health and the other end can be identified as a state of optimal well-being. There are numerous benefits to psychological well-being. For example: – a person who has an adequate level of psychological well-being finds it easier to cope with it and find a solution to the inevitable daily stressors, not letting it interfere with their daily functioning.
There are various approaches for describing well-being. The concept of psychological well-being can be categorized into:
Hedonic Concept – This refers to an individual’s subjective feelings of happiness. Hedonic well-being includes two components that are directly related to their subjective experience of happiness.
1. Affective component – referring to high positive affect and low negative affect.
2. Cognitive component – which refers to an individual’s satisfaction with life. With proper effective balance and higher levels of life satisfaction, an individual can experience feelings of happiness and thus achieve well-being. This is a subjective well-being approach.
Eudaimonic Concept – This refers to an individual’s well-being being dependent on their level of achieving their optimal level of potential. This is a psychological well-being approach. There are six main components of this approach namely – self-acceptance, environmental mastery, positive relationships, personal growth, purpose in life and autonomy.
The components of psychological well-being are best explained in the Six-Factor Model of Psychological Well-Being developed by Carol Ryff in 1989.
1. Autonomy – This refers to the ability of an individual to regulate their behaviour independent of social stress and pressures.
2. Environmental Mastery – This refers to an individual’s sense of mastery, which comes from managing everyday activities and creating situations for personal need gratification from effectively using opportunities.
3. Personal Growth – This dimension is a dynamic one. It refers to one’s continuous growth and development from exposure of novel situations and improvement in their self and behaviour from time to time.
4. Positive relation with Others – This refers to the social aspect of an individual’s life. People’s engagement in positive and meaningful relationships, and including virtues of empathy, affection and more.
5. Purpose in life – Having a direction in life is very important. Deciding a purposeful goal and having positive orientation towards it with conviction is another virtue of psychological well-being. It provides the individual a chance to continuously work on themselves to reach their optimal level.
6. Self-Acceptance – This is the sixth dimension and it refers to the attitude a person holds towards self.
All these six factors according to Ryff contribute to an individual’s psychological well-being, contentment and happiness. There are positive and negative contributing factors to the concept of psychological well-being. A proper balance between all the six above mentioned dimensions according to Ryff was an extremely important virtue of attaining psychological well-being in humans.
There are a few strategies that could be adopted by people to improve their psychological well-being. These include:
Connecting with other people – Good relationships play a vital role in one’s psychological health. They help one to build a sense of belongingness and relatedness, allowing an opportunity to share their experiences both positive and negative ones. Connection with people allows them to get as well as provide others emotional support.
Being physically active – Physical activity has proven to have a dual effect both on physical and mental health. It has shown its positive impact on planning and goal setting behaviour, achievement of the set goals. Physical activity also produces certain hormones in the brain causing a positive change in mood and can also raise an individual’s self-esteem.
Learning a new skill – This also has multifaceted impacts from giving an individual a sense of purpose to boosting self-confidence, it can also be associated with the rise in the levels of self-esteem. Learning a new skill can include cooking, trying out new hobbies like vlogging or singing, doing some DIY project or anything that helps an individual to grow.
Being able to give to others – The act of kindness and having a giving attitude towards others can have a significant impact on an individual’s mental well-being. This provides an individual with a feeling of self-worth, creating positive feelings in them along with a sense of reward. The acts of giving can also help an individual to connect with other people.
Paying attention to the present moment – Being in the present helps with the thought of the mind and feelings of the body to be aligned. This is also known as ‘Mindfulness’ it provides scopes for better understanding about oneself, their ability, their outlook and their idea of life. and induce positive changes in their thinking pattern.
– Urveez Kakalia and Annesha Datta.