Psychological Well-Being and Physical Health: Associations, Mechanisms, and Future Directions

Emotion Review

Volumn 10, Issue 1, 2018, Pages 18-29

  Hernandez, Rosalba ^a   Bassett, Sarah M ^b   Boughton, Seth W ^a   Schuette, Stephanie A ^b   Shiu, Eva W ^b   Moskowitz, Judith T ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA CHAMPAIGN   (United States)

^b NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

health behaviors; optimism; physical health; physical illness; positive emotion; psychological well being

Indexed keywords

EID: 85042503917     PISSN: 17540739     EISSN: 17540747     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1754073917697824     Document Type: Article

References (86)

1. Bacon S. L., Watkins L. L., Babyak M., Sherwood A., Hayano J., Hinderliter A. L... Blumenthal J. A., (2004). Effects of daily stress on autonomic cardiac control in patients with coronary artery disease. The American Journal of Cardiology, 93(10), 1292–1294.
2. Baumeister R. F., Vohs K. D., Aaker J. L., Garbinsky E. N., (2013). Some key differences between a happy life and a meaningful life. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 8(6), 505–516.
3. Boehm J. K., Kubzansky L. D., (2012). The heart’s content: The association between positive psychological well-being and cardiovascular health. Psychological Bulletin, 138(4), 655–691. doi:10.1037/a0027448
4. Boehm J. K., Peterson C., Kivimaki M., Kubzansky L., (2011). A prospective study of positive psychological well-being and coronary heart disease. Health Psychology, 30(3), 259–267. doi:10.1037/a0023124
5. Boehm J. K., Trudel-Fitzgerald C., Kivimaki M., Kubzansky L. D., (2015). The prospective association between positive psychological well-being and diabetes. Health Psychology, 34(10), 1013–1021. doi:10.1037/hea0000200
6. Boyle P. A., Barnes L. L., Buchman A. S., Bennett D. A., (2009). Purpose in life is associated with mortality among community-dwelling older persons. Psychosomatic Medicine, 71(5), 574–579.
7. Brown N. J., MacDonald D. A., Samanta M. P., Friedman H. L., Coyne J. C., (2014). A critical reanalysis of the relationship between genomics and well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(35), 12705–12709.
8. Cacioppo J. T., Berntson G. G., (1994). Relationship between attitudes and evaluative space: A critical review, with emphasis on the separability of positive and negative substrates. Psychological Bulletin, 115(3), 401–423.
9. Carvajal S. C., Wiatrek D. E., Evans R. I., Knee C. R., Nash S. G., (2000). Psychosocial determinants of the onset and escalation of smoking: Cross-sectional and prospective findings in multiethnic middle school samples. Journal of Adolescent Health, 27(4), 255–265.
10. Cheung E. O., Cohn M. A., Dunn L. B., Melisko M. E., Morgan S., Penedo F. J... Moskowitz J. T., (2016). A randomized pilot trial of a positive affect skill intervention (lessons in linking affect and coping) for women with metastatic breast cancer. Psycho-Oncology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1002/pon.4312
11. Chida Y., Steptoe A., (2008). Positive psychological well-being and mortality: A quantitative review of prospective observational studies. Psychosomatic Medicine, 70(7), 741–756.
12. Cohen R., Bavishi C., Rozanski A., (2016). Purpose in life and its relationship to all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events: A meta-analysis. Psychosomatic Medicine, 78(2), 122–133.
13. Cohen S., Doyle W. J., Turner R. B., Alper C. M., Skoner D. P., (2003). Emotional style and susceptibility to the common cold. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 652–657.
14. Cohn M. A., Pietrucha M. E., Saslow L. R., Hult J. R., Moskowitz J. T., (2014). An online positive affect skills intervention reduces depression in adults with Type 2 diabetes. Journal of Positive Psychology, 9(6), 523–534. doi:10.1080/17439760.2014.920410
15. Cole S. W., Fredrickson B. L., (2014). Errors in the Brown et al. critical reanalysis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(35), E3581. doi:10.1073/pnas.1413316111
16. Cuijpers P., Smit F., (2002). Excess mortality in depression: A meta-analysis of community studies. Journal of Affective Disorders, 72(3), 227–236.
17. Davidson K. W., Mostofsky E., Whang W., (2010). Don’t worry, be happy: Positive affect and reduced 10-year incident coronary heart disease: The Canadian Nova Scotia Health Survey. European Heart Journal, 31(9), 1065–1070. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehp603
18. Deci E. L., Ryan R. M., (2008). Hedonia, eudaimonia, and well-being: An introduction. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9(1), 1–11.
19. Diener E., Chan M. Y., (2011). Happy people live longer: Subjective well-being contributes to health and longevity. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 3(1), 1–43. doi:10.1111/j.1758–0854.2010.01045.x
20. Diener E., Pressman S. D., Lyubomirsky S., (2015, December 17). Can 1 million women be wrong about happiness and health? Los Angeles Times, p. A21.
21. DuBois C. M., Lopez O. V., Beale E. E., Healy B. C., Boehm J. K., Huffman J. C., (2015). Relationships between positive psychological constructs and health outcomes in patients with cardiovascular disease: A systematic review. International Journal of Cardiology, 195, 265–280. doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2015.05.121
22. Dupuy H. J., (1984). The Psychological General Well-Being (PGWB) Index. In Wenger N. K., Mattson M. E., Furberg C. D., Elinson J., (Eds.), Assessment of quality of life in clinical trials of cardiovascular therapies (pp. 170–183). New York, NY: Le Jacq.
23. Enga K. F., Braekkan S. K., Hansen-Krone I. J., Hansen J. B., (2012). Emotional states and future risk of venous thromboembolism: The Tromsø Study. Thrombosis and Haemostasis, 107(3), 485–493. doi:10.1160/th11–09–0667
24. Feller S., Teucher B., Kaaks R., Boeing H., Vigl M., (2013). Life satisfaction and risk of chronic diseases in the European prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition (EPIC)-Germany study. PLoS One, 8(8), e73462. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0073462
25. Folkman S., (1997). Positive psychological states and coping with severe stress. Social Science & Medicine, 45(8), 1207–1221.
26. Folkman S., Moskowitz J. T., (2000). Positive affect and the other side of coping. American Psychologist, 55(6), 647–654.
27. Freak-Poli R., Mirza S. S., Franco O. H., Ikram M. A., Hofman A., Tiemeier H., (2015). Positive affect is not associated with incidence of cardiovascular disease: A population-based study of older persons. Preventive Medicine, 74, 14–20. doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.01.032
28. Fredrickson B. L., Grewen K. M., Coffey K. A., Algoe S. B., Firestine A. M., Arevalo J. M... Cole S. W., (2013). A functional genomic perspective on human well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(33), 13684–13689.
29. Gale C. R., Batty G. D., Deary I. J., (2008). Locus of control at age 10 years and health outcomes and behaviors at age 30 years: The 1970 British Cohort Study. Psychosomatic Medicine, 70(4), 397–403.
30. Gruenewald T. L., Karlamangla A. S., Greendale G. A., Singer B. H., Seeman T. E., (2007). Feelings of usefulness to others, disability, and mortality in older adults: The MacArthur Study of Successful Aging. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 62(1), P28–P37.
31. Hernandez R., Carnethon M., Penedo F. J., Martinez L., Boehm J., Schueller S. M., (2016). Exploring well-being among US Hispanics/Latinos in a church-based institution: a qualitative study. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 11(5), 511–521.
32. Hernandez R., Kershaw K. N., Siddique J., Boehm J. K., Kubzansky L. D., Diez-Roux A... Lloyd-Jones D. M., (2015). Optimism and cardiovascular health: Multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis (MESA). Health Behavior and Policy Review, 2(1), 62–73. doi:10.14485/hbpr.2.1.6
33. Hevey D., McGee H. M., Horgan J. H., (2014). Comparative optimism among patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) is associated with fewer adverse clinical events 12 months later. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 37(2), 300–307. doi:10.1007/s10865–012–9487–0
34. Hill P. L., Turiano N. A., (2014). Purpose in life as a predictor of mortality across adulthood. Psychological Science, 25(7), 1482–1486.
35. Hoebel B. G., Rada P. V., Mark G. P., Pothos E. N., (1999). Neural systems for reinforcement and inhibition of behavior: Relevance to eating, addiction, and depression. In Kahneman D., Diener E., Schwarz N., (Eds.), Well-being: Foundations of hedonic psychology (pp. 558–572). New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
36. Hoen P. W., Denollet J., de Jonge P., Whooley M. A., (2013). Positive affect and survival in patients with stable coronary heart disease: Findings from the Heart and Soul Study. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 74(7), 716–722. doi:10.4088/JCP.12m08022
37. Howell R. T., Kern M. L., Lyubomirsky S., (2007). Health benefits: Meta-analytically determining the impact of well-being on objective health outcomes. Health Psychology Review, 1(1), 83–136.
38. Huffman J. C., Mastromauro C. A., Boehm J. K., Seabrook R., Fricchione G. L., Denninger J. W., Lyubomirsky S., (2011). Development of a positive psychology intervention for patients with acute cardiovascular disease. Heart International, 6(2), e14. doi:10.4081/hi.2011.e14
39. Huffman J. C., Millstein R. A., Mastromauro C. A., Moore S. V., Celano C. M., Bedoya C. A... Januzzi J. L., (2015). A positive psychology intervention for patients with an acute coronary syndrome: Treatment development and proof-of-concept trial. Journal of Happiness Studies. Advance online publication. doi:10.1007/s10902–015–9681–1
40. Huta V., Ryan R. M., (2010). Pursuing pleasure or virtue: The differential and overlapping well-being benefits of hedonic and eudaimonic motives. Journal of Happiness Studies, 11(6), 735–762.
41. Ickovics J. R., Milan S., Boland R., Schoenbaum E., Schuman P., Vlahov D., Group H. E. R. S., (2006). Psychological resources protect health: 5-year survival and immune function among HIV-infected women from four US cities. AIDS, 20(14), 1851–1860.
42. Ironson G., Balbin E., Stuetzle R., Fletcher M. A., O’Cleirigh C., Laurenceau J... Solomon G., (2005). Dispositional optimism and the mechanisms by which it predicts slower disease progression in HIV: Proactive behavior, avoidant coping, and depression. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 12(2), 86–97.
43. Ironson G., Hayward H. S., (2008). Do positive psychosocial factors predict disease progression in HIV-1? A review of the evidence. Psychosomatic Medicine, 70(5), 546–554.
44. Kashdan T. B., Biswas-Diener R., King L. A., (2008). Reconsidering happiness: The costs of distinguishing between hedonics and eudaimonia. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 3(4), 219–233.
45. Kelloniemi H., Ek E., Laitinen J., (2005). Optimism, dietary habits, body mass index and smoking among young Finnish adults. Appetite, 45(2), 169–176.
46. Keyes C. L., Shmotkin D., Ryff C. D., (2002). Optimizing well-being: The empirical encounter of two traditions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 1007–1022.
47. Kim E. S., Smith J., Kubzansky L. D., (2014). Prospective study of the association between dispositional optimism and incident heart failure. Circulation: Heart Failure, 7(3), 394–400. doi:10.1161/circheartfailure.113.000644
48. Labarthe D. R., (2012). From cardiovascular disease to cardiovascular health: A quiet revolution? Circulation-Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, 5(6), E86–E92. doi:10.1161/Circoutcomes.111.964726
49. Labarthe D. R., Kubzansky L. D., Boehm J. K., Lloyd-Jones D. M., Berry J. D., Seligman M. E., (2016). Positive cardiovascular health: A timely convergence. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 68(8), 860–867.
50. Lambiase M. J., Kubzansky L. D., Thurston R. C., (2015). Positive psychological health and stroke risk: The benefits of emotional vitality. Health Psychology, 34(10), 1043–1046.
51. Larsen J. T., McGraw A. P., (2014). The case for mixed emotions. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 8(6), 263–274.
52. Larsen J. T., McGraw A. P., Cacioppo J. T., (2001). Can people feel happy and sad at the same time? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(4), 684–696.
53. Layous K., Lee H., Choi I., Lyubomirsky S., (2013). Culture matters when designing a successful happiness-increasing activity: A comparison of the United States and South Korea. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44(8), 1294–1303. doi:10.1177/0022022113487591
54. Liu B., Floud S., Pirie K., Green J., Peto R., Beral V., (2016). Does happiness itself directly affect mortality? The prospective UK Million Women Study. Lancet, 387(10021), 874–881. doi:10.1016/s0140–6736(15)01087–9
55. Menninger K. A., Menninger W. C., (1936). Psychoanalytic observations in cardiac disorders. American Heart Journal, 11(1), 10–21.
56. Moskowitz J. T., Carrico A. W., Duncan LG, Cohn MA, Cheung EO, Batchelder A.. Folkman S. (2017, March 23). Randomized controlled trial of a positive affect intervention for people newly diagnosed with HIV. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.
57. Mroczek D. K., Stawski R. S., Turiano N. A., Chan W., Almeida D. M., Neupert S. D., Spiro A., III. (2015). Emotional reactivity and mortality: Longitudinal findings from the VA Normative Aging Study. The Journals of Gerontology. Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 70(3), 398–406. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbt107
58. Nabi H., Kivimaki M., De Vogli R., Marmot M. G., Singh-Manoux A., (2008). Positive and negative affect and risk of coronary heart disease: Whitehall II prospective cohort study. BMJ, 337, a118. doi:10.1136/bmj.a118
59. Nilsson G., Ohrvik J., Lonnberg I., Hedberg P., (2011). Low psychological general well-being (PGWB) is associated with deteriorated 10-year survival in men but not in women among the elderly. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 52(2), 167–171. doi:10.1016/j.archger.2010.03.010
60. Okely J. A., Gale C. R., (2016). Well-being and chronic disease incidence: The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Psychosomatic Medicine, 78(3), 335–344.
61. Pavot W., Diener E., (1993). Review of the Satisfaction With Life Scale. Psychological Assessment, 5(2), 164–172.
62. Pressman S. D., Cohen S., (2005). Does positive affect influence health? Psychological Bulletin, 131(6), 925–971. doi:10.1037/0033–2909.131.6.925
63. Rahe R. H., Rubin R. T., Gunderson E., Arthur R. J., (1971). Psychologic correlates of serum cholesterol in man: A longitudinal study. Psychosomatic Medicine, 33(5), 399–410.
64. Richman L. S., Kubzansky L., Maselko J., Kawachi I., Choo P., Bauer M., (2005). Positive emotion and health: Going beyond the negative. Health Psychology, 24(4), 422–429.
65. Ronaldson A., Poole L., Kidd T., Leigh E., Jahangiri M., Steptoe A., (2014). Optimism measured pre-operatively is associated with reduced pain intensity and physical symptom reporting after coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 77(4), 278–282. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2014.07.018
66. Roy B., Diez-Roux A. V., Seeman T., Ranjit N., Shea S., Cushman M., (2010). The association of optimism and pessimism with inflammation and hemostasis in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Psychosomatic Medicine, 72(2), 134–140.
67. Russell J. A., Carroll J. M., (1999). On the bipolarity of positive and negative affect. Psychological Bulletin, 125(1), 3–30.
68. Ryff C. D., Singer B. H., Love G. D., (2004). Positive health: Connecting well-being with biology. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 359(1449), 1383–1394.
69. Shepperd J. A., Maroto J. J., Pbert L. A., (1996). Dispositional optimism as a predictor of health changes among cardiac patients. Journal of Research in Personality, 30(4), 517–534.
70. Sin N. L., Lyubomirsky S., (2009). Enhancing well-being and alleviating depressive symptoms with positive psychology interventions: A practice-friendly meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 65(5), 467–487. doi:10.1002/Jclp.20593
71. Sin N. L., Moskowitz J. T., Whooley M. A., (2015). Positive affect and health behaviors across 5 years in patients with coronary heart disease: The Heart and Soul Study. Psychosomatic Medicine, 77(9), 1058–1066.
72. Sone T., Nakaya N., Ohmori K., Shimazu T., Higashiguchi M., Kakizaki M... Tsuji I., (2008). Sense of life worth living (ikigai) and mortality in Japan: Ohsaki Study. Psychosomatic Medicine, 70(6), 709–715.
73. Steger M. F., Kashdan T. B., Oishi S., (2008). Being good by doing good: Daily eudaimonic activity and well-being. Journal of Research in Personality, 42(1), 22–42.
74. Suls J. (2018). Toxic affect: Are anger, anxiety, and depression independent risk factors for cardiovascular disease? EMR, 10: (1), 6–17.
75. Trudel-Fitzgerald C., Boehm J. K., Kivimaki M., Kubzansky L. D., (2014). Taking the tension out of hypertension: A prospective study of psychological well being and hypertension. Journal of Hypertension, 32(6), 1222–1228. doi:10.1097/hjh.0000000000000175
76. Tsai J. L., Knutson B., Fung H. H., (2006). Cultural variation in affect valuation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(2), 288–307.
77. Tsenkova V. K., Love G. D., Singer B. H., Ryff C. D., (2007). Socioeconomic status and psychological well-being predict cross-time change in glycosylated hemoglobin in older women without diabetes. Psychosomatic Medicine, 69(8), 777–784.
78. Vallacher R. R., Wegner D. M., (1987). What do people think they’re doing? Action identification and human behavior. Psychological Review, 94(1), 3–15.
79. Van Montfort E., Denollet J., Widdershoven J., Kupper N. (2016). Interrelation and independence of positive and negative psychological constructs in predicting general treatment adherence in coronary artery patients – Results from the THORESCI Study. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 88, 1–7.
80. Wakai K., Kojima M., Nishio K., Suzuki S., Niwa Y., Lin Y... Yamamoto A., (2007). Psychological attitudes and risk of breast cancer in Japan: A prospective study. Cancer Causes & Control, 18(3), 259–267.
81. Watkins P. C., Woodward K., Stone T., Kolts R. L., (2003). Gratitude and happiness: Development of a measure of gratitude, and relationships with subjective well-being. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 31(5), 431–451.
82. Watson D., Clark L. A., Tellegen A., (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063–1070.
83. Wiest M., Schuz B., Webster N., Wurm S., (2011). Subjective well-being and mortality revisited: Differential effects of cognitive and emotional facets of well-being on mortality. Health Psychology, 30(6), 728–735. doi:10.1037/a0023839
84. Wilson T. E., Weedon J., Cohen M. H., Golub E. T., Milam J., Young M. A... Fredrickson B. L., (2016). Positive affect and its association with viral control among women with HIV infection. Health Psychology: Official Journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association. Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/hea0000382
85. Winefield H. R., Gill T. K., Taylor A. W., Pilkington R. M., (2012). Psychological well-being and psychological distress: Is it necessary to measure both? Psychology of Well-Being, 2(1), 1–14.
86. Wood A. M., Froh J. J., Geraghty A. W., (2010). Gratitude and well-being: A review and theoretical integration. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(7), 890–905.