How to Manage with Related Concepts of Research on Wellbeing and Health – A Theoretical Review with Special Reference to Later Life

Abstract

Research on wellbeing has dealt with a number of related concepts. Empirical studies can rely on two perspectives: theories about resources and theories about needs. More recently approaches combining both aspects have been introduced. Health is more easily integrated into resource theories since health itself can be considered to represent one major resource. Health can also be integrated into the theories of needs, but it has either to be regarded as an independent need of its own or as a kind of reversed need, i.e. a need to escape symptoms of illness. In contrast, social capital can be integrated without difficulties into both theoretical perspectives on wellbeing since it can either be understood as an individual or a community based resource but also as a mean by which social needs or needs related to self-realization can be fulfilled. Both the concept of wellbeing and the concept of health can further be divided according to increasing subjectivity. In the case of wellbeing the most subjective study orientation leaves it to the individual to both define the concept as well as one’s position within that dimension. In the case of health the most subjective concept is represented by measures of perceived or self-rated health (SRH). Subjective orientations, although irreplaceable, lead to challenges, since it is difficult to ascertain the uttermost validity of this type of data. The continuity and activity theories of ageing emphasise wellbeing, whereas the disengagement theory regards the decline of wellbeing in later life as a more or less inevitable development. This chapter attempts by means of a review of the literature to clarify the internal relationships of the related concepts of wellbeing and/or health research and to account for their similarities and differences.