Wellbeing and Psychological Health

Wellbeing is a multidimensional construct that may be summarized by a general sense of the degree to which people perceive they are satisfied with life and they are functioning well in most or all facets of their life.

As noted in this definition, wellbeing is a matter of degree, which can fluctuate. Psychologists and other scientists who study wellbeing offer a variety of definitions.

Several dimensions of wellbeing may be the focus of attention. Referring to a wholistic model of functioning that includes common psychological concepts like the SCOPES model, we may consider examples from the following dimensions where the six letters in SCOPES represent six areas of functioning commonly assessed in clinical psychology.

A WHOLISTIC MODEL of WELL-BEING

S SELF / SPIRITUALITY

  I am doing well.

  I am satisfied with my life.

  I can usually accomplish my goals.

  I feel a sense of peace.

  My life is meaningful.

C  COGNITION

  I can think clearly.

  My memory works well.

O  OBSERVABLE BEHAVIOR / PERSONALITY

  I adapt well to most situations.

  I am generally agreeable.

P PHYSIOLOGY /  HEALTH

  I am in general good health.

  My health does not interfere with my ability to enjoy life.

E  EMOTIONS / FEELINGS

  I feel good most of the time.

  I feel happy most of the time.

  I have a general positive outlook on life.

S  SOCIAL CONTEXT

  I get along well with most other people.

  I feel good about the way things are going in school or work.

  I have supportive relationships. 

  I have sufficient financial resources.

Assessment of Wellbeing

Measures of wellbeing have been used to assess the outcomes of psychotherapy. Click the links to learn more about each measure.

The Schwartz Outcome Scale is a general measure.

The Theistic Spiritual Outcome Scale includes spirituality for those associated with a theistic religion such as Christianity, Judaism, or Islam.

Researchers use both subjective and objective measures of wellbeing. Subjective measures rely on self-reported responses to surveys assessing several areas of wellbeing such as those in the SCOPES model.

Self

There are many measures of self-esteem and related factors like self-efficacy. A few examples:

   General Self-Efficacy Scale

   Lifespan Self-Esteem Scale

Cognition

Measures of intelligence, ability, and memory are usually administered by psychologists and offer a look at patterns of strength and weaknesses.

Personality or observable behavior patterns

Measures of personality factors include the Big Five and HEXACO.

Emotions

One measure of positive and negative emotions is PANAS. Clinicians may use other measures to assess problems of mood.

Spirituality

The SWB measures Spiritual Well-Being.

Social / relationships

Several measures assess the quality of relationships. Examples:

5 Love Languages

Parent-child relationship scale

Marital Satisfaction Scale

Objective measures may examine factors in a society likely to contribute to wellbeing like the rate of employment, wages, access to healthcare, greenspace and recreational areas, time off of school or work, and so forth.

Selective Wellbeing Research

In the United States, the CDC tracks wellbeing, which is related to the nation's health. Some recent findings are summarized at cdc.gov. Check their wellbeing page for updates. Note that different researchers may use different measures of wellbeing.

Personality: Traits of optimism, extroversion, and high self-esteem are linked to overall wellbeing.

Age: Younger and older adults have higher wellbeing than do middle-aged adults.

Relationships: Supportive relationships strongly predict level of wellbeing.

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Religious Spiritual Coping- Positive and Negative

Spiritual Coping 2023 by
Geoffrey W. Sutton & Designer

Coping is the act of dealing with stressful experiences. Religious or Spiritual (RS) coping refers to the act of employing religious or spiritual resources to cope with a stressful experience. 

KennethPargament is the psychology of religion scientist who identified two major groups of coping strategies as positive and negative RS coping. His seminal work was summarized in the 1997 book, The Psychology of Religion and Coping: Theory, Research, and Practice. Many studies since then have illustrated how positive and negative coping strategies work with different stressful conditions.

Pargament, Koenig, and Perez (2000) developed the RCOPE as a measure of positive and negative religious coping. The researchers identified five basic functions of religious coping with impactful events. A shorter form has been used widely in research (Brief RCOPE).

1. Meaning- positive and negative religious or spiritual reappraisal

2. Control- active and passive strategies to deal with the events

3. Comfort-drawing on RS connections or support, or becoming discontented with RS

4. Intimacy- seeking RS support from others or discontent in interpersonal RS relationships

5. Life transformation- RS direction, conversion or disengaging, deconversion

Gall, T. L., & Guirguis-Younger, M. (2013) have summarized some of the findings from coping research. In general, positive religious coping has helped people deal with distress- including general health and mental health conditions. However, negative coping is linked to worsened conditions in some studies. Seeing a condition as punishment by God seems to be a particularly common negative coping response among people whose conditions worsen.

Examples of drawing on RS (Religion or Spirituality) to positively cope with difficulties include the following:

RS purification and forgiveness

RS direction, guidance, and conversion

RS consultation with members of the clergy

RS connection

Examples of negative religious coping include

RS discontent

RS views of God or gods as punishing

RS reappraisal of God’s power

RS persistent pleading for divine assistance

When RS appears helpful in dealing with stressful experiences, people report increases in 

one or more of the following:

Acceptance

Happiness

Optimism

purpose in life

When RS does appears unhelpful in dealing with stressful experiences, people present with the following:

Anxiety

Feeling burdened

General negative mood

Callousness

Cite this page

Sutton, G. W. (2020, January 9). Religious spiritual coping-positive and negative. Psychology Concepts and Theories. Retrieved from https://suttonpsychology.blogspot.com/2020/01/religious-spiritual-coping-positive-and.html

References—These references offer a more in-depth look at RS coping.

Gall, T. L., & Guirguis-Younger, M. (2013). Religious and spiritual coping: Current theory and research. In APA handbook of psychology, religion, and spirituality (Vol 1): Context, theory, and research. (pp. 349–364). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14045-019

Pargament, K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, practice. New York: Guilford Press.

Pargament, K. I., Feuille, M., & Burdzy, D. (2011). The Brief RCOPE: Current psychometric status of a short measure of religious coping. Religions, 2, 51–76. doi:10.3390/rel2010051

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