Understanding subjective well-being: perspectives from psychology and public health

Abstract

Background Individual subjective well-being (SWB) is essential for creating and maintaining healthy, productive societies. The literature on SWB is vast and dispersed across multiple disciplines. However, few reviews have summarized the theoretical and empirical tenets of SWB literature across disciplinary boundaries. Methods We cataloged and consolidated SWB-related theories and empirical evidence from the fields of psychology and public health using a combination of online catalogs of scholarly articles and online search engines to retrieve relevant articles. For both theories and determinants/correlates of SWB, PubMed, PsychINFO, and Google Scholar were used to obtain relevant articles. Articles for the review were screened for relevance, varied perspectives, journal impact, geographic location of study, and topicality. A core theme of SWB empirical literature was the identification of SWB determinants/correlates, and over 100 research articles were reviewed and summarized for this review. Results We found that SWB theories can be classified into four groups: fulfillment and engagement theories, personal orientation theories, evaluative theories, and emotional theories. A critical analysis of the conflicts and overlaps between these theories reveals the lack of a coherent theoretical and methodological framework that would make empirical research systematically comparable. We found that determinants/correlates of SWB can be grouped into seven broad categories: basic demographics, socioeconomic status, health and functioning, personality, social support, religion and culture, and geography and infrastructure. However, these are rarely studied consistently or used to test theories. Conclusions The lack of a clear, unifying theoretical basis for categorizing and comparing empirical studies can potentially be overcome using an operationalizable criterion that focuses on the dimension of SWB studied, measure of SWB used, design of the study, study population, and types of determinants and correlates. From our review of the empirical literature on SWB, we found that the seven categories of determinants/correlates identified may potentially be used to improve the link between theory and empirical research, and that the overlap in the determinant/correlates as they relate to multiple theory categories may enable us to test theories in unison. However, doing so in the future would require a conscious effort by researchers in several areas, which are discussed.

The Impact of Social Support and Pregnancy on Subjective Well-Being: A Systematic Review

“…A review that summarized the theoretical tenets of SWB has stated one of the seven determinants/correlates of SWB. These are the following: SS, fundamental demographics, financial position, health and functioning, character, spirituality and culture, and location and infrastructure (Das et al, 2020 ). The ability of SS from family, community, and friends and acquaintances to buffer the impact of possible stresses on SWB has been almost widely recognized in research and literature reviews (Henderson, 1977 ; Sarason, 1990 ; Cramm et al, 2010 ; Khan and Husain, 2010 ).…”

“…Cummins et al ( 2010 ) stated that a “relationship with another human being that involves mutual sharing of intimacies and support” is the most important buffer of balance. Das et al ( 2020 ) stated that SS may also be more critical to SWB for individuals with health difficulties compared with the general norms. Hence, SS during pregnancy has a very strong impact on SWB.…”

Entrepreneurial Income and Wellbeing: Women’s Informal Entrepreneurship in a Developing Context

“…The concept of wellbeing has received considerable attention in recent decades because of its key role in creating and maintaining healthy and productive societies [30,31]. It has been widely accepted that wellbeing is a general term and a multidimensional phenomenon [32] and reported in the literature as subjective and objective wellbeing.…”

“…It has been widely accepted that wellbeing is a general term and a multidimensional phenomenon [32] and reported in the literature as subjective and objective wellbeing. Different connotations have been used for the term "wellbeing" in different contexts and disciplines [30]. The enhancement of wellbeing should be seen by taking into account its indicators that go beyond the standard of living to include additional dimensions of wellbeing, such as education, health, political voice and governance, environmental factors, among other dimensions [33,34].…”

Social and Individual Subjective Wellbeing and Capabilities in Chile

“…Subjective wellbeing is traditionally defined as a subjective evaluation of our own life, an hedonic balance of feelings, emotions, and appraisals that can be adequately assessed by self-reported questionnaires ( Diener et al, 2018 ; Das et al, 2020 ; Karunamuni et al, 2020 ). This concept of individual subjective wellbeing is often equated to happiness and life satisfaction ( Veenhoven, 2018 ; Bergsma et al, 2020 ).…”