Well-Being and Health: Evidence That the Health Benefits of Well-Being Are Contingent on Cultural and Personal Factors
Year: 2019
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This dissertation examines how the relationship between eudaimonic well-being and health is contingent upon socio-cultural and personal factors. Although eudaimonic well-being has been thought to have salubrious health effects, this dissertation provides evidence in three separate papers that there may be conditions under which additional factors are necessary for eudaimonic well-being to be beneficial, as well as conditions under which it may backfire. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to eudaimonic well-being, a brief overview of the literature on cultural influences on psychological processes and their relation to health, and a brief explanation of how adverse life experiences negatively affect the nervous system and health. Chapter 2 assesses the association between purpose in life and health across cultures, addressing the possibility that a sense of purpose in life may not necessarily directly be beneficial for health in a collectivist culture. It finds that, among Americans, purpose in life consistently predicted better biological health. However, purpose only predicted better health among Japanese who are sufficiently high in gratitude. This is perhaps due to how some purposes may be perceived in collectivist culture, requiring a social virtue such as gratitude to mitigate any potential costs. The third chapter compares victims of sexual assault with their peers who have never experienced an assault with respect to well-being and health. It finds that the victims of sexual assault are lower in eudaimonic well-being than their peers and rate themselves as having having poorer health, although their biological health does not differ. Additionally, it finds that the relationship between assault history and self-rated health is mediated by eudaimonic well-being, as well as neuroticism. Chapter 4 focuses on victims of childhood sexual abuse, assessing the relationship between the severity of their abuse and their health, and whether this relationship is moderated by their eudaimonic well-being. It finds that, among those who experienced the most severe abuse, a high sense of well-being is associated with poorer health outcomes, perhaps due to a conflict between current beliefs and past experience. While eudaimonic well-being is generally thought to be beneficial for health, this effect is present only when one’s well-being is congruent with one’s culture and prior personal experiences. In the final chapter, I review the present findings and suggest the need for further research both on other conditions under which eudaimonic well-being is not directly linked with better health, as well as further investigation into why well-being appears to backfire under certain conditions.
Author: Megan Seymour
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3129330421