Understanding and researching wellbeing: Its usage in different disciplines and potential for health research and health promotion
- 1 March 2005
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Health Education Journal
- Vol. 64 (1), 70-87
- https://doi.org/10.1177/001789690506400108
Abstract
Objectives To report the findings of a literature review of the concept of wellbeing and consider its operational and heuristic potential within a range of disciplines. Design A literature review to examine the philosophical roots of wellbeing and the contributions of the main disciplines uncovered by the review; economics, psychology, health studies, sociology, anthropology and biomedicine. Setting 'Wellbeing' is a concept of increasing interest to those working in health promotion, social and public health medicine and medical sociology. Despite its popularity, wellbeing lacks a clear conceptual base and there is little consensus about how it may be identified, measured and achieved. Method Although conducted rigorously this was more of a scoping exercise than a systematic review. The reviewer was given a fairly broad exploratory brief including qualitative and quantitative dimensions. The search was restricted to articles in the English Language between the years 1980-2001. Results Most disciplines tended to be biased towards one or two aspects of the three major aspects of physical, social and psychological Wellbeing, with the main exception of child wellbeing studies. Those working in economics made a significant contribution to understanding conceptual elements of wellbeing. The fields of psychology and biomedicine were more concerned with negative than positive affect. There was a particular lack of consensus and research around social wellbeing. Conclusion Although wellbeing may indeed be extremely useful as a unifying concept for all those involved in health improvement or health research,at present it is being used unreflectively, thus potentially masking differences.Keywords
This publication has 37 references indexed in Scilit:
- Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress.Psychological Bulletin, 1999
- Conceptual approaches to the assessment of quality of lifePsychology & Health, 1997
- Health Status Assessment of the ElderlyPharmacoEconomics, 1997
- Personality and well-being: Reexamining methods and meanings.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1997
- Psychological Weil-Being: Meaning, Measurement, and Implications for Psychotherapy ResearchPsychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 1996
- Elderly people's definitions of quality of lifeSocial Science & Medicine, 1995
- The Quality of Daily Life Among Elderly Care ReceiversJournal of Applied Gerontology, 1995
- An ecological model of group well‐being: Implications for health promotion with older womenHealth Care for Women International, 1993
- Healthy community indicators: the perils of the search and the paucity of the findHealth Promotion International, 1990
- Structure of Well-BeingSociological Methods & Research, 1978