1 - (SYM 149) What Is “well-being” and How Do We Measure It? A Primer on Assessing Psychological Well-being in Clinical Research and Treatment

Improving mental health is a principal goal of clinical psychology. In recent years, social scientists across disciplines have proposed an aspirational vision of mental health that moves beyond the absence of symptoms and impairment. Central to these reimagined models of mental health is psychological well-being. Public health researchers are advocating for well-being to be incorporated into cost-effective individual and community interventions (Trudel-Fitzgerald et al., 2019); epidemiologists are using well-being an index of population health (VanderWeele et al., 2020); and psychiatrists increasingly recognize that “mental health is more than just the absence of mental disorder” (Campion et al., 2022). Well-being has become so central to conceptualizations of mental health that government heads have gone so far as suggesting that their country’s progress should be indexed by the well-being of their citizens instead of traditional indicators like GDP.

Despite mounting cross-disciplinary enthusiasm for well-being, conceptual clarity has lagged behind. The term “well-being” is often used as a catchall term for any positive or desirable human experience. Currently, there are more than 150 self-report measures of “well-being” that include hundreds more dimensions. With so much inconsistency and construct creep, the term “well-being” risks losing its meaning. To continue making scientific progress, researchers need guidance on what well-being is and how to best measure it.

This talk provides a data-driven overview of psychological well-being. First, well-being is defined. Psychometric support for this definition is provided from two studies (Ns= 7167; 517) of adults from 109 countries across all 6 inhabited continents. Second, specific measurement recommendations are provided for measuring well-being in clinical research. Recommendations are pragmatic; they complement traditional outcome assessments and are feasible with time-constrained intervention trials. Third, to catalyze new inquiry, illustrative examples are presented to demonstrate the value of assessing well-being as a predictor, mediator, and outcome of cognitive-behavioral treatments. 

In sum, this talk presents an empirically-supported conceptualization of well-being, recommendations for psychometrically sound assessment tools, and generative ideas for incorporating well-being measures in clinical research. Researchers will be equipped to test critical questions concerning resilience and recovery and optimize clinical interventions.