Abstract
Park et al.’s (2022) goal of bringing conceptual clarity to the study of psychological aspects of well-being is a good one. We consider their work in terms of its implications for moving towards an understanding of well-being that reflects the full spectrum of human experience, especially the experience of people who remain underrepresented, and poorly accounted for, in psychological science. In our view, there is reason to think that strengthening existing frameworks and broadening in terms of methodologies will be most productive for developing a comprehensive and inclusive understanding of well-being. We describe the distinct strength of the subjective well-being (SWB) construct for this purpose and offer two empirical examples that highlight the value of multiple measures and methods for understanding well-being. We suggest that continued use of the SWB measure, combined with state-of-the-art emotion measurement, and a mix of qualitative and quantitative methodologies be recommended as the way forward.
Access this article
We’re sorry, something doesn't seem to be working properly.
Please try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, please contact support so we can address the problem.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Izquierdo, C. (2005). When “health” is not enough: societal, individual and biomedical assessments of well-being among the Matsigenka of the Peruvian Amazon. Social Science & Medicine (1982), 61(4), 767–783. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.08.045
Kelle, U. (2006). Combining qualitative and quantitative methods in research practice: Purposes and advantages. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(4), 293–311 https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/combining-qualitative-quantitative-methods/docview/621541916/se-2
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224–253. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.224
McGee, D. L., Liao, Y., Cao, G., & Cooper, R. S. (1999). Self-reported health status and mortality in a multiethnic US cohort. American Journal of Epidemiology, 149(1), 41–46. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a009725
Park, C. L., Kubzansky, L. D., Chafouleas, S. M., Davidson, R. J., Keltner, D., Parsafar, P., Conwell, Y., Martin, M. Y., Hanmer, J., & Wang, K. H. (2022). Emotional well-being: What it is and why it matters. Affective Science. (this issue)
Rojas Perez, O. F., Heppner, P. P., & Flores, L. Y. (2022). Tu bienestar es mi bienestar: A psychosociocultural understanding of Latinx immigrant well-being through a qualitative lens. Journal of Latinx Psychology, 10(2), 140–155. https://doi.org/10.1037/lat0000175
Triandis, H. C. (1995). Individualism and collectivism. Westview Press.
Wiley, C. R., Blevins, K. M., Cohen, S., & Pressman, S. D. (2022). Do positive psychological factors equally predict resistance to upper respiratory infections in African and European Americans?. Psychological science, 9567976221083322. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221083322
Wu, S., Wang, R., Zhao, Y., Ma, X., Wu, M., Yan, X., & He, J. (2013). The relationship between self-rated health and objective health status: a population-based study. BMC Public Health, 13, 320. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-320
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing Interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Handling editor: Wendy Berry Mendes
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Campos, B., Sanchez Hernandez, H. Well-being: Strengthening and Broadening a Key Psychological Construct. Affec Sci 4, 21–23 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-022-00154-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-022-00154-1