Wellbeing and Quality of Life

Question 1

What is the basic progression of psychological theories of behaviour through the 20th century?

Answer 1

1. Psychoanalytic and Behaviourist Theories
2. Humanistic Theories
3. Positive Psychology

Question 2

Describe the earlier mid-20th century psychological perspectives on human behaviour?

Answer 2

• Psychoanalytic and behaviourist theories dominated
• Psychoanalytic: e.g. Freud, argued that humans act in response to unconscious drives for sexuality and aggression
• Behaviourist: e.g. Skinner, identified biological drives e.g. hunger/thirst and/or environmental contingencies of reinforcements as the fundamental motivators for behaviour
• These theories had the common theme that human behaviour is motivated by forces over which the individual has little control
• Neither tradition put much emphasis in conscious though and reason or in the higher aspirations of people, in response to these theories a third tradition developed, the humanistic theories

Question 3

What are the Humanistic Theories?

Answer 3

• Humanistic theorists e.g. Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow offered a more optimistic and self-determining vision for psychology than previous traditions
• From the humanistic perspective, the supreme motivator of behaviour is striving to actualise and perfect the self
• The humanistic perspective emphasises the uniqueness of the individual and asserts that people have free will- and the freedom to make choices so they can achieve personal goals and fulfill their potential

Question 4

What is Carl Roger’s Theory?

Answer 4

• A humanistic theory that related to client-centred therapy
• Emphasises the therapist’s warmth and sincerity, empathy, acceptance, role-playing and the dignity of the client
• Has had a profound influence on clinical practice and education

Question 5

What is Maslow’s Psychology of Being?

Answer 5

• Maslow wanted to prove that human beings were capable of achievements grander than hate and destructiveness by studying people in the world who seemed to be the most psychologically healthy.
• He developed a humanistic theory of motivation that delineated (described) a hierarchy of needs
• The key notion of the hierarchy was that you must fulfil the lower needs before you can fulfil the higher needs

Question 6

Describe Maslow’s heirarchy of needs from the bottom (lowest) needs to the top:

Answer 6

• Physiological needs: food, water, sleep, warmth
• Safety needs: structure , security, order, avoidance of pain and protection
• Belongingness and love needs: desire to be accepted and loved by others and to form relationship
• Esteem needs: self-respect and esteem from others, a desire to be seen by others and the self as competent and effective
• Self-actualisation needs: to fulfil one’s potential

Question 7

What is Positive Psychology?

Answer 7

• Positive psychology is the scientific study of human flourishing and an applied approach to optimal human functioning
• Stems from humanistic approaches but with more emphasis on scientific methodologies and evidence-based theories
• Grounded in the belief that the motivator for behaviour is people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within them, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play
• Became the focus of the APA in 1998

Question 8

What is Quality of Life?

Answer 8

• The general well-being of individuals and societies.
• QoL has a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, politics and employment.
• Depending on discipline and researcher, specific definition or explanations of quality of life will vary- it is an ambiguous concept with no strict definition

Question 9

What are objective vs subjective measures of QoL?

Answer 9

1. Observable measures: measures wellbeing through observable factors such as economic, social and environmental statistics
2. Subjective measures: capture people’s feelings or real experiences, or their perceived wellbeing
   - There can often be little correlation between objective and subjective measures

Question 10

What is the difference between one-dimensional and multidimensional approaches to measuring QoL?

Answer 10

1. One-dimensional: using a single item or measure to measure wellbeing e.g. using GDP as a single measure of objective wellbeing of nations
2. Multidimensional: incorporating varying aspects of life into measuring wellbeing e.g. in economics, looking at a range of objective indicators, not just GDP, to determine national wellbeing levels . There is widespread agreement that wellbeing is multi-dimensional.

Question 11

What is subjective wellbeing?

Answer 11

• Subjective wellbeing is the evaluation of life, including cognitive judgements of life satisfaction and affective evaluations of emotions and mood
• Happiness (a balance between positive and negative affect) and life satisfaction (cognitive evalulations of one’s life) are different components of subjective wellbeing
• A single measure of subjective wellbeing e.g. “How satisified are you with your life as a whole?” have been used as a measure for subjective wellbeing

Question 12

Describe population subjective wellbeing:

Answer 12

• At a population level most groups consistently report moderately high levels of life satisfaction- a mean score of 70-80 out of 100
• This shows that populations are resilient and humans are very good at adapting to their situations (exceptions are groups such as those with chronic pain or homeless people)

Question 13

What determines our level of happiness?

Answer 13

• Research suggests each of us has a baseline level of happiness towards which we may fluctuate around in response to changes in our life situation but we will always gravitate back towards
• It is suggested that this baseline happiness has a strong genetic component
• The most important factors relating to happiness are: social relationships, employment and health

Question 14

What is the Easterlin Paradox?

Answer 14

• The finding that growth in per capita income is not reflected in increasing happiness

Question 15

Can money make people happier?

Answer 15

• Evidence that money can buy happienss is mixed
• More affluent nations tend to have happier citizens
• But most research shows that there is little correlation between income and happiness levels- the correlation that does exist is dependent on the income level:
• For those who are poorer: income is strongly related to their happiness and subjective wellbeing
• Once income reaches mid-level (income levels are enough to meet basic needs) further increases in income do little to improve happiness levels

Question 16

What yield more happiness experience or material objects?

Answer 16

Research study findings show that after recalling a time when they spent money on an experience or a material object, people in general said that the experiences they purchased made them happier than the material objects

Question 17

True or false, In all countries and at all levels of wealth, the more money people have, the happier they are.

Answer 17

FALSE: Research results are complex, but it is clear that generally, once people have enough money to satisfy basic needs, additional wealth does not produce more happiness

Question 18

Other than money, what are other factors that do not predict happiness?

Answer 18

1. Age:
   - Key factors influencing subjective wellbeing may shift as some people grow older – work may become less important, health more so, etc.. but level of happiness tends to remain remarkably stable over the life span
2. Parenthood:
   - The good and bad aspects of parenthood balance each other out
3. Intelligence and attractiveness:
   - While both a highly valued characteristics in modern society, researchers have not found an association between either characteristic and happiness

Question 19

What are moderately good predictors of happiness?

Answer 19

1. Health:
   - good physical health would seem to be an essential requirement for happiness, but people adapt to health problems and aren’t as unhappy as people often predict
2. Social activity:
   - interpersonal relations do appear to contribute to people’s happiness.
3. Religion:
   - the link between religiosity and subjective wellbeing is modest. However, some research suggests that people with heartfelt religious convictions are more likely to be happy than people who characterise themselves as nonreligious, but researchers are not sure how it fosters happiness

Question 20

What are strong predictors of happiness?

Answer 20

1. Love and Marriage:
   - Romantic relationships can be stressful. Nevertheless, people consistently rate being in love as one of the most critical ingredient of happiness.
2. Work:
   - Job satisfaction has a substantial association with general happiness. Unemployment has strong negative effects on subjective wellbeing.
3. Genetics and Personality:
   - the best predictor of an individual’s future happiness is their past happiness. Studies suggest that there may be a genetic predisposition for happiness (how? Perhaps by shaping one’s temperament and personality). Evidence suggest that extraversion is one of the better predictors of happiness. Other personality correlates of happiness include conscientiousness, agreeableness, self-esteem and optimism

Question 21

Are the predictors of happiness causational?

Answer 21

• No, only correlational

e. g. work satisfaction does not cause greater happiness, it is only associated with it

Question 22

What is psychopatholoy?

Answer 22

• Problematic patterns of thought, feeling or behaviour that disrupt an individual’s sense of wellbeing or social or occupational functioning.

Question 23

What is mental health?

Answer 23

• capacity of individuals to behave in ways that promote their emotional and social wellbeing; a state of emotional and social wellbeing in which individuals realise their own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and can contribute to their community

Question 24

What is the difference between a mental health problem and a mental health illness?

Answer 24

• Mental health problem:
  include a wide range of emotional and behavioural abnormalities that affect people throughout their lives
• Mental illness/disorder:
  implies the existence of a clinically recognisable set of symptoms and behaviour that cause distress to the individual and impair their ability to function as usual, and which usually need treatments to be alleviated

Question 25

How is the medical model applied to abnormal behaviour?

Answer 25

• The medical model proposes that it is useful to think of abnormal behaviour as a disease
• Became the dominant model in the 18th century- earlier conceptions of abnormal behaviour were based on superstition, allowed people with abnormal behaviour to be treated rather than punished/vilified
• In recent decades it has been suggested that the medical model is no longer useful as medical diagnoses can pin potentially derogatory labels on people e.g. the stigma surrounding being classified as schizophrenic, which add to the difficulties people already face
• Another criticism is that because definitions of abnormality differ across cultures, are mental illnesses really just a way of branding those who do not conform to society’s norms
• The bottom line is that the medical model continues to dominate thinking about psychological disorders with concepts such as diagnosis, etiology and prognosis

Question 26

What are the criteria for Abnormal Behaviour?

Answer 26

1. Deviance
2. Maladaptive Behaviour
3. Personal distress

• Normality and abnormality exist on a continuum

Question 27

What is depression?

Answer 27

• In a depressive disorder sadness can emerge without a clear trigger and/or continue long after one would reasonably expect and/or be far more intense than normal sadness (including feelings of worthlessness and even delusion)

Question 28

What are the theories of depression?

Answer 28

1. Genetics:
   - genetics seems to play some role in depression. A family history of depression doubles or triples an individual’s risk of a mood disorder
2. Neural transmission:
   - Serotonin and norepinephrine have been implicated in depression. That is, reduced serotonin levels increase depressive symptoms
3. Environmental factors: early childhood experiences (e.g. a hostile home environment) play an important role as well as adult experiences such as severe stressors (e.g. losing a job)

Question 29

What are cross-cultural differences relating to depression?

Answer 29

• Depression has equivalents in every culture but the way people view and experience depression varies
• In Western societies people tend to view depression as something that is ongoing and within themselves
• Subjective experiences of depression differ cross-culturally
• In less individualistic cultures people tend to focus on the behavioural features of depression such as lethargy, fatigue, loss of appetite and slowness of movement
• In individualistic cultures people tend to focus on internal experiences of hopelessness, guilt and low self esteem