Visual Culture and Wellbeing: A Visual Research Analysis

Visual Culture

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................5
APPENDIX.....................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
The modern society has progressed far beyond the means which humans thought they
would achieve even a decade prior due to rapid progress in the field of science and
technology but the affect that this modernization has had on the wellbeing of people has
been quite understated in mainstream study and research (Dittmar and Isham, 2022).
Ethical values and consumerism is an important issue which needs the urgent
addressing and treatment from society as many goods and services which are floating
in the open market contain ways to negatively impact both society and the environment.
This directly affects a person’s wellbeing which is why this essay will highlight the theme
of wellbeing and conduct a visual research analysis based on primary research
methodology comprising of 10 selected images trying the theme of wellbeing to the
theories such as the desire theory of wellbeing. The reason as to why I have chosen the
theme of wellbeing as the main subject matter of this visual research is that the
paradigm of wellbeing is not only related to physical health but is the combination of a
person’s physical, mental and social health factors. This allows plenty of exploratory
area in the domain of visual research and I would like to explore the various ways in
which the different health factors interact with each other in modern society. The desire
theory of well-being will be further explored in this report as this theory ties in very well
to the topic of ideology and ethical consumerism as the importance of mental and
physical health is quite underrepresented in modern society.
MAIN BODY
Even though the capitalistic frameworks which govern the modern routines of
people in current societies have gone through various overhauls the issue of ethical
consumerism has quite a detrimental effect on one’s mental health (Harrington Meyer
and Abdul-Malak, 2020). The concept of wellbeing refers to the positive and intrinsic
emotion felt by people and sections of broader society when people perceive that their
lives are proceeding well. Well-being as a concept includes a myriad of different social
and personal factors which is why it is subject to many theories such as the desire
theory along with popular models such as the tripartite model of subjective well-being
which was proposed by Ed Diener in 1984. He argued that well-being comprised of 3
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major factors – frequent positive experiences, lack of exposure to negative aspects
along with high life satisfaction in mind of the person being evaluated. The desire theory
of well-being is one of the most popular theories of well-being and states that the
fulfilment of particular desires achieves the maximum possible wellbeing in one’s mind
regardless of the overall resultant experience being wholly positive or entirely negative.
This theory goes against the proposed theory of hedonism in relation to well-being
which states that the maximisation of pleasure and reduction of pain is the method to
achieve wellbeing which is quite flawed and too much pleasure also carries dire
consequences (Lauinger, 2021). This research will include a visual analysis based on
10 images which will represent the theme of wellbeing in order to answer questions
such as “what is wellbeing in modern society?”, “how important is physical fitness for
one’s wellbeing?” and “how does consumer behaviour impact human wellbeing”. The
overall hypothesis which this essay will base its visual analysis research on is “What is
the role of mental health in an individual’s overall wellbeing and has it received
due attention in modern societies?” The main findings that I would like to attain
through this visual analysis is the role of mental health in current society which is very
understated along with the way in which consumerism and lifestyle choices can impact
one’s mental health and overall wellbeing. This essay will utilize the primary research
methodology by focusing on 10 images with responses which will use elements of visual
analysis along with auto-ethnographic methodology which involves the use of self-
reflection in the research.
The fist image which will be analysed in the visual research involves understanding
of the way wellbeing works in context of human behaviour as being in a relaxed and
fulfilled sate often in a comfortable environment such as the one depicted in the image
often results in positive wellbeing and state of mind. The 2nd image on the other hand
also shows the importance of mental health along with physical fitness as exercising
and being at peace with one’s body has shown to boost one’s wellbeing and self-
esteem (Almeida, and et.al., 2019).
Despite being acknowledged as being integral to one’s overall wellbeing, mental
health is often ignored due to its relative complexity compared to other forms of
wellbeing and this is depicted through the 3rd image which highlights the various
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