An Emergence and Growth of Positive Psychology and Psychological Well-Being

Psychological well-being manifests itself in all aspects of human activity and is essential to understanding whether young people experience life satisfaction and whether, as they mature, well-being can be associated with different levels of personal autonomy. This quantitative study was developed within the framework of international research on young people’s autonomy in the transition to adulthood.

Advances in positive psychology have given rise to heightened interest in psychological well-being across various disciplines. This has led to the scientific literature taking an approach to the construct from two polarized perspectives. In the first one, psychological well-being is construed from a hedonic perspective, the result of an internal state that the individual experiences on a subjective temporal plane, associated with high levels of positive affect and life satisfaction.

Previous research, mainly focused on the adult population, has shown that psychological well-being is a reliable predictor of health and long-term positive adjustment. People with higher levels of well-being suffer fewer illnesses, have an increased life expectancy and engage in healthier behavior. However, longitudinal studies have also shown that dimensions such as personal growth and purpose in life tend to decline as we get older.

Psychosocial Factors
Several models support the possible psychosocial factors related to psychological well-being. From a general perspective, the psycho-educational approach is an integral framework for the development and evaluation of psychological and educational constructs such as social skills, empathy, self-concept, anxiety and emotional intelligence, among others. More specific frameworks, such as EuroPsy for the development of standards for high-quality professional education in psychology, include the following higher education competencies: adequate levels of empathy or anxiety, socially responsible attitudes, emotional management, problem solving and learning style preferences. 

Anxiety

If anxiety levels are considered, both of these (state and trait) showed a significant but inverse relationship with the psychological well-being dimensions. State anxiety shows a relationship with all the well-being dimensions, although the highest significant association was observed with the environmental mastery dimension.

 Empathy

Within the empathy dimensions, the emotional understanding dimension has been shown to be directly related to all psychological well-being dimensions, although the highest significant correlation has been obtained with the personal growth dimension. Therefore, students who are most able to understand their emotions and the emotions of others seem to show higher levels of overall psychological well-being.

The levels of self-concept in the academic/professional, social and physical areas have been found to have a direct relationship with all psychological well-being dimensions. Therefore, students who have a good concept of themselves, both physically and in their studies and social relationships, appear to have a higher level of psychological well-being. The family self-concept dimension has a direct relationship with all psychological well-being dimensions except for the autonomy dimension. This relationship may indicate that, although at a general level a high self-concept in the family environment leads to high psychological well-being, this construct does not generate greater or lesser feelings of autonomy. 

Methods

This essay first reviews the empirical evidence regarding differential relationships between all-cause mortality and multiple dimensions of PWB (e.g., life purpose, mastery, positive affect, life satisfaction, optimism). Then, individual-level positive psychology interventions aimed at increasing PWB and tested in randomized-controlled trials are reviewed as these allow for easy implementation and potentially broad outreach to improve population well-being, in concert with efforts targeting other established social determinants of health.

Results

Several PWB dimensions relate to mortality, with varying strength of evidence. Many of positive psychology trials indicate small-to-moderate improvements in PWB; rigorous institution-level interventions are comparatively few, but preliminary results suggest benefits as well. Examples of existing health policies geared towards the improvement of population well-being are also presented. Future avenues of well-being epidemiological and intervention research, as well as policy implications, are discussed.

This research has shown that psychological well-being is associated with different psychological and educational constructs, both intra- and inter-personal. Firstly, students who prefer a cooperative learning methodology have greater self-acceptance. This implies their recognition of their worth and having better psychological well-being in themselves. Secondly, students who show a high capacity for adaptation and social skills use them to grow personally in situations that require this, obtaining higher levels of psychological well-being. Thirdly, we highlight the importance of students’ emotional skills, since a type of psychosocial adaptation that shows high emotional intelligence leads to high psychological well-being. Fourthly, in the university stage, there seem to be high levels of anxiety, generating psychological discomfort in students. Fifthly, the emotional understanding, both internal and external, of students seems to propitiate a high psychological well-being that could help them to grow personally.