Positive Psychology and Subjective Well-Being

The field of psychology has been accumulating research for just over 100 years.  Several theories have built the body of traditional psychology over the course of the 20^th century.  The research observing the theory of positive psychology has only been active for 25 years at the time this essay is written.  This essay will classify theoretical and applied research surrounding well-being in positive psychology.  In addition to classifying research, this essay will discuss the impacts of social media and the internet on daily stressors and individual well-being.

What is Well-Being?

It is tough to speak about something without clearly defining what you’re referring to.  Well-being can be and has been defined in several ways as its prominence in the culture grows.  Well-being is currently defined as “the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy,” according to the Oxford Language Dictionary. The most cited definition in psychology is “how people feel and function in their personal and social lives and how they evaluate their lives as a whole,” typically encompassing physical health, mental health, and social relationships. 

Major Influences on Well-Being

In a perfect utopia, there would be only clear skies, green pastures, and nothing to irritate or stress us out.  Reality check: we live in the real world where we are confronted with countless stressors from seemingly every direction on a seemingly constant basis. 

Many of these stressors can be compartmentalized or mitigated because we can adjust our schedules or habits to keep some stressors out of our direct path.  Other sources of stress are so completely woven into the fabric of our lives that avoiding them altogether would be practically impossible.  These two major stressors are:

• The Internet
• Social Media

Internet Stress

         The internet is an incredible tool, a true gem of human ingenuity.  That does not mean it is a perfect creation, harmless, or always used optimally.  With the development of the internet in the past two decades, we live in the information age.  Thanks to the internet, the average human has access to more information in a single day than any human had access to during their entire lifetime 100 years ago.  This is fascinating but potentially concerning if not used properly.  “Too much” of anything is still “too much”.  Odacı & Çıkrıkçı (2022) found that information overload and excessive internet use cause significant distress in individuals, decreasing their sense of subjective well-being.  A classic example of this can be seen in analysis paralysis or the rise in internet gaming addiction, which is correlated to insufficient exercise and high rates of ADHD, as reported by Masklavanou et al. (2023).

         Included in the internet world of information and stimulus is another phenomenon that has swept across the entire globe: Social Media.

Social Media Stress

Social media has taken the world by storm.  It would be difficult to find an individual who does not have access to social media, including grade-school children.  The internet and social media have created an ecosystem where information can be disseminated more than ever before, but it has also created a situation where people are much less personal than ever before.  This interpersonal gap grows yearly and elicits negative emotions and mindsets, with loneliness near the top.  The world has always been a tough place to navigate, and the uphill climb through life is much harder when walking alone.  There are several reasons why humans are a social species, and the fact that positive interpersonal relationships foster a healthy psychology that needs to be emphasized in today’s world.

Although people interact with others (from behind a screen) via social media, the benefits of human connection do not translate from the screen to the mind.  Wilkins et al. (2021) found that individuals with greater social awareness receive more engagement on their accounts. However, this does not correlate to increased positive emotions or the aspects that create subjective well-being in the positive psychology framework.

This positive psychology framework includes five factors that foster individual strengths and virtues, making it potentially the most effective psychology model for combating mental illness by fostering the human characteristics that result in resilience and a flourishing life.

The Magic Formula

The primary model for well-being in Positive Psychology, created by Martin Seligman, is known as P.E.R.M.A. This is an acronym that includes:

• Positive emotions
• Engagement
• Relationships
• Meaning
• Accomplishments/achievements.

         This was developed as the primary model for positive psychology because Martin Seligman knew that Western psychology has obsessed over negative emotional states and illnesses for far too long, over a century, in fact.  He knew it was time for a major shift in the scientific landscape.  This framework is meant to create individuals who are equipped with a positive outlook, mindset, and emotional regulation so they can thrive instead of merely fighting an uphill battle of combatting mental illness.  This is a perfect example of the axiom:

“When you change how you look at things, the things you look at change.”

Positive psychology has a significant upside for helping individuals of all ages improve their quality of life.  Shifting the “normal” approach to mental health begins with children.  Positive psychology’s effectiveness for improving mental health and overall resilience, especially in children, has been shown by Baourda et al. (2023) when they found that a positive psychology intervention in elementary school students “increased optimism, hope, diverse coping strategies, social skills, and self-esteem, and decreased pessimism and anxiety”.

Additionally, training children in the ways of mental resilience begins in the home. Kraemer et al. (2023) found that “the majority of parents experienced positive effects on their wellbeing, parenthood and family dynamics after [positive psychology] training”.  This same study found that “child wellbeing and parental wellbeing mutually influence each other” (Kraemer et al. 2023) emphasizing the importance for implementing positive psychology as a mental health tool in the youth.

Know the Research (Theoretical vs. Applied)

It would behoove us all to know the most current research on any topic we are interested in, especially our well-being, mental, physical, or otherwise.  Along with simply having access to the latest research, we must have the skill of research comprehension to know the different types of research studies, their motives, and how to interpret them.  This post will briefly discuss the differences between theoretical and applied research.  Here is a quick breakdown of each.

Theoretical research is primarily conducted to expand existing theories, gathering knowledge or insights about a phenomenon or idea without immediate real-world application. 

Applied research, on the other hand, is conducted to address specific issues in society directly.  This research confronts real-world questions to provide tangible solutions to focus issues.

Take This with You

Well-being, as with anything that deals with perception, is subjective.  So it goes to reason that you will receive more of what you focus on.  Focus on negative things; your perception will feed you more negative things.  This is also true for the positive counterpart.  This change has been made in psychology and has a chance to catalyze our culture from victimhood to a deeply flourishing civilization.  If we employ the P.E.R.M.A. model and move away from a focus on illnesses, mental and physical well-being metrics may very well improve to a dramatic degree in a surprisingly expeditious manner.

There are only so many “experts” in psychology, but everyone should be his/her best expert on his/her own psychology.  It is important to find the research you need to have an informed perspective and maybe even conduct your own where possible and appropriate.  After all, we are all scientists in a way.