The book provides a new theory of well-being designed to integrate many
disparate concepts of well-being, such as subjective well-being,
personal happiness, mental well-being, emotional well-being,
psychological well-being, hedonic well-being, social well-being, life
satisfaction, domain satisfaction, and eudaimonia. It lays the
foundation for a new a theory of mental well-being based on a
hierarchical perspective of positive mental health and guided by the
concept of positive balance.
Written by a well-known expert in the field, this book addresses the
issue of positive balance related to physiological, emotional,
cognitive, meta-cognitive, developmental and social-ecological levels of
an individual and analyses the factors at each level that contribute to
an individual's positive mental health experience. It discusses in
detail the effects of neurochemicals such as dopamine, serotonin, or
cortisol; positive and negative affect; satisfaction in salient and
multiple life domains vis-à-vis dissatisfaction in life domains;
positive versus negative evaluations about one's life using certain
standards of comparison; positive psychological traits of personal
growth and intrinsic motivation, etc. vis-à-vis negative traits like
pessimism and impulsiveness; and perceived social resources like social
contribution and social actualization vis-à-vis perceived constraints
like exclusion and ostracism. This original work is of interest to
students, researchers and practitioners of quality of life and wellbeing
studies, positive psychology, developmental psychology and mental
health..
