Psychological Well-being: Evidence Regarding its Causes and Consequences - Lokeshwari T, Assistant Professor / Psychology

 

Psychological Well-being: Evidence Regarding its Causes and Consequences

- Lokeshwari T

This focuses on positive aspects of well-being, or flourishing. It examines evidence for the causes of positive well-being and also its consequences, including beneficial effects for many aspects of cognitive functioning, health, and social relationships. The neurobiological basis of psychological well-being is examined, and recent data on brain activation and neurochemical pathways are presented. Individuals vary widely in their habitual level of psychological well-being, and there is evidence for a seminal role of social factors and the early environment in this process. It is often assumed that the drivers of well-being are the same as (but in the opposite direction to) the drivers of ill-being, but while this is true for some drivers, others have more selective effects. Future developments in the science of well-being and its application require a fresh approach—beyond targeting the alleviation of disorder to a focus on personal and interpersonal flourishing. A universal intervention approach is outlined which may both increase population flourishing and reduce common mental health problems.

In this blog, we will explore the intricate relationship between Psychological well-being and mental health and the reasons why psychological well-being affects our mental health.

                              

INTRODUCTION

Psychological well-being is about lives going well. It is the combination of feeling good and functioning effectively. Sustainable well-being does not require individuals to feel good all the time; the experience of painful emotions (e.g. disappointment, failure, grief) is a normal part of life, and being able to manage these negative or painful emotions is essential for long-term well-being. Psychological well-being is, however, compromised when negative emotions are extreme or very long lasting and interfere with a person's ability to function in his or her daily life.

The concept of feeling good incorporates not only the positive emotions of happiness and contentment, but also such emotions as interest, engagement, confidence, and affection. The concept of functioning effectively (in a psychological sense) involves the development of one's potential, having some control over one's life, having a sense of purpose (e.g. working towards valued goals), and experiencing positive relationships.

Recent years have witnessed an exhilarating shift in the research literature from an emphasis on disorder and dysfunction to a focus on well-being and positive mental health. This paradigm shift has been especially prominent in current psychological research (e.g. Argyle, 1987; Diener, 1984; Kahneman, 1999; Ryff & Singer, 1998a; Seligman, 1991, 2002). But it has also captured the attention of epidemiologists, social scientists, economists, and policy makers (e.g. Huppert, 2005; Layard, 2005; Marks & Shah, 2005; Marmot, Ryff, Bumpass, Shipley, & Marks, 1997; Mulgan, 2006). This positive perspective is also enshrined in the constitution of the World Health Organisation, where health is defined as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, 1948). More recently, the WHO has defined positive mental health as “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community” (WHO, 2001).

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POSITIVE EMOTIONS AND COGNITIVE PROCESSES

An impressive body of cross-sectional survey data shows that happy people: tend to function better in life than less happy people; are typically more productive and more socially engaged; and tend to have higher incomes (Diener, 2000; Judge, Thoresen, Bono, & Patton, 2001). Ryan and Deci (2001) pointed out that people high in happiness or subjective well-being tend to have attributional styles that are more self-enhancing and more enabling than those low in subjective well-being, suggesting that positive emotions can lead to positive cognitions which, in turn, contribute to further positive emotions.

Observational studies, particularly cross-sectional research, cannot of course establish the causal direction of the relationship between positive emotions and cognition. The most persuasive evidence comes from experimental studies. Research using mood induction techniques demonstrates unequivocally that positive mood states can enhance attention and other cognitive processes. Compared with individuals in negative or neutral mood states, subjects in a positive mood state have a broader focus of attention (“see the bigger picture”) (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005; Gasper & Clore, 2000), generate more ideas (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005), and are more creative and flexible in their thinking (Ashby, Isen, & Turken, 1999; Bless, Mackie, & Schwarz, 1992; Murray, Sujan, Hirt, & Sujan, 1990).

Experimental social psychology is full of examples showing that positive emotional experiences have beneficial effects on the way people perceive and interpret social behaviours and how they initiate social interactions (e.g. Forgas, 2001; Isen, 1987). It has also been found that people experiencing positive emotions evaluate themselves and others more positively, make more lenient attributions, and behave in a more confident, optimistic, and generous way in interpersonal situations (Forgas, 2002, 2006; Sedikides, 1995).

NEUROSCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING

Patterns of Brain Activation

The emotion circuitry of the brain is complex, involving primarily structures in the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, anterior cingulated cortex, and insular cortex. These structures normally work together to process and generate emotional information and emotional behaviour. Research has particularly focused on the prefrontal cortex which, unlike most other brain regions involved in emotion processing, shows asymmetric activation in relation to positive and negative emotions.

Davidson and his colleagues have reported large individual differences in baseline levels of asymmetric activation in prefrontal cortex, related to a person's typical emotional style. Individuals with a positive emotional style show higher levels of left than right prefrontal activation at rest (using EEG or fMRI), while those with a negative emotional style tend to show higher levels of right than left prefrontal activation at rest (Davidson, 1992; Tomarken, Davidson, Wheeler, & Doss, 1992; al., 2004 Urry et). Davidson and colleagues have also reported that, independent of emotional style, induced negative mood increases relative right-sided activation, whereas induced positive mood increases relative left-sided activation (Davidson, 2005; Davidson, Chapman, Chapman, & Henriques, 1990).

Important links between child development and the appearance of individual differences in patterns of brain activation have also been reported. Although measures of baseline prefrontal asymmetry are stable in adults, they are not stable during early childhood (Davidson & Rickman, 1999). In a cohort of around 65 children, Davidson and Rickman examined prefrontal activation asymmetry over an 8-year period from 3 to 11 years of age, and found little evidence of stability. This is a period during which high levels of plasticity are likely to occur in the brain's emotional and cognitive circuitry, particularly in the prefrontal cortex which continues to undergo important developmental changes until puberty (Huttenlocher, 1990). Life events, parental influences, and other environmental factors are likely to play a crucial role during this formative period in establishing or shifting patterns of prefrontal activation.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING

Social Factors and Brain Development

People vary widely in their typical emotional style, that is whether they tend to feel generally positive or generally negative. The key to understanding individual differences in emotional style is the extraordinarily protracted period of human brain development. Unlike the other major organs of the body, our brain undergoes most of its development postnatally, and is exquisitely designed to respond to the environmental conditions in which a child happens to grow up. There appears to be a sensitive period in brain development up to around age 2 (e.g. Dawson, Ashman, & Carver, 2000), but major changes and reorganisation continue until puberty (Huttenlocher, 1990). Moreover, the development of our frontal lobes, which are responsible for such high-level processes as planning and emotional control, continues until early adulthood (Keverne, 2005, 2008).

In all mammalian species, later emotional well-being and cognitive capability are profoundly influenced by the early social environment. Of particular importance is the closeness of the bond between mother and infant. The body of research on human infants undertaken by Ainsworth and later investigators (e.g. Ainsworth & Bell, 1970; Maccoby & Martin, 1983) provides evidence that, even in infancy, positive emotions are associated with positive cognitive and social behaviour that may provide a basis for resilience throughout life. This has been amply confirmed in an elegant series of experimental studies of rodents by Meaney and colleagues (Meaney, 2001), in which the underlying neurobiological mechanisms have been identified. High levels of maternal care (from either a biological or adoptive mother) produce a permanent increase in the concentration of glucocorticoid receptors in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex of the brain (al., 1997 Liu et; Liu, Diorio, Day, Francis, & Meaney, 2000), and are associated with resilience in stressful situations and high levels of learning and memory throughout life. In addition, good maternal care leads to the increased survival of hippocampal neurones (Bredy, Grant, Champagne, & Meaney, 2003), which is associated with the maintenance of cognitive function into old age.

These studies have also shown that prolonged maternal separation leads to a lower density of sites for the neurotransmitter dopamine, and lasting changes in the responsiveness of dopamine neurones to stress and psycho-stimulus (Brake, Zhang, Diorio, Meaney, & Gratton, 2004). Animals experiencing early maternal separation become readily addicted to psychostimulants which do not produce addiction in a normally reared comparison group. This suggests a possible neurobiological basis for human individual differences in vulnerability to compulsive drug taking.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING LEADS TO BETTER PHYSICAL HEALTH

It has long been known that negative emotions are related to a higher prevalence of disease, but how strong is the evidence for a link between positive mental states and health? Evidence from both longitudinal and experimental studies shows that a positive emotional style has a beneficial effect on physical health and survival. In a famous longitudinal study, the Nun Study, it was discovered that the ageing nuns had all written brief autobiographies when they had entered the convent (generally around age 20), and these autobiographies were categorised according to the number of positive statements they contained. Danner, Snowdon, and Friesen (2001) reported that nuns in the lower half of the distribution of positive statements died on average 9 years sooner than those in the top category of positive statements. This finding is particularly remarkable because, from their early twenties, the lives of the nuns were as similar as human lives can be, so the difference in survival was not related to their lifestyle or circumstances in the intervening period, but to their positive emotions six decades earlier. Other longitudinal studies have confirmed the benefit of positive emotions for health and survival (Huppert & Whittington, 2003; Ostir, Markides, Peek, & Goodwin, 2001).

An important physiological mediator underlying the relationship between positive emotions, health, and survival is likely to be the functioning of the immune system. This has been confirmed in experimental studies, such as those by Cohen and his colleagues. In one study, several hundred healthy volunteers were administered nasal drops containing a common cold virus, and monitored in quarantine. The investigators found that the more positive the participant's emotional style, the lower their risk of developing a cold. Negative emotional style, though, was not associated with developing a cold (e.g. Cohen, Doyle, Turner, Alper, & Skoner, 2003a). Another study found that sociability was linearly related to decreased probability of developing a cold—an effect not accounted for by sociability related differences in immunity (Cohen, Doyle, Turner, Alper, & Skoner, 2003b). A study by Marsland, Cohen, Rabin, and Manuck (2006) examined the relationship between emotional style and antibody response to the Hepatitis B vaccine. Participants with high scores on trait positive affect produced significantly more antibodies to the vaccine. There was no relationship between antibody response and either trait negative affect or depression.

The above studies assessed the emotional style of the participants but did not try to alter it. It is therefore difficult to be sure whether the individuals' positive characteristics were causally related to the outcome or whether there might be a common cause of both the characteristics and the outcome.

CONCLUSION

On the basis of the evidence reviewed here, including experimental research, survey data, and longitudinal studies of representative population samples, the following conclusions may be drawn.

·          Psychological well-being is associated with flexible and creative thinking, pro-social behaviour, and good physical health.

·         An individual's level of mental capital and psychological well-being is powerfully influenced by her/his early environment, particularly maternal care.

·          While an adverse early environment can produce lifelong impairments in behaviour and neurobiology, compensation is possible at later stages in the life course.

·         External circumstances affect our well-being, but our actions and attitudes may have a greater influence. Interventions which encourage positive actions and attitudes have an important role to play in enhancing well-being.

·         Targeting interventions to those with a disorder or at high risk may alleviate misery in the short term, but a universal approach could enhance the lives of ordinary people, not just those with pathology. A universal approach may also reduce the total number of people in the long term with common mental disorders.

·         The science of well-being which focuses on what makes people flourish, on human assets rather than deficits, is a promising new area of research. Advances in understanding the behavioural, biological, and social pathways to well-being will benefit individuals, organisations, and society.