Psychosocial Factors Affecting Health and Wellbeing

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Psychosocial factors affecting
health, wellbeing, and illness
Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................................2
BODY.........................................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................8

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INTRODUCTION
This assignment focuses on psychosocial factors affecting health, wellbeing, and aging.
Psychosocial factors involve psychological and social aspects which has an impact on a
person’s life. It describes how education, occupation, leisure time, loneliness,
depression can have positive and negative impact on the person at later stages. Health
and wellbeing are closely related to aging and these factors play a major role in
affecting them. Psychosocial factors from young age influences health and wellbeing
which affects the person at later stages. (Marmot et al, 2010).
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BODY
The health of a person is affected by many factors which possess a risk to health and
wellbeing like socioeconomic, psychosocial, behavioral factors etc. Psychosocial factors
refer to factors that affect a person both psychologically and socially. It can work in
association with each other or separately but has an impact on life of a person. It affects
the person socially and psychologically which has an impact on a person's health. It is
not enough for the person to be disease free to remain healthy; being healthy means a
person is physically and mentally sound as well. It is noted that psychosocial factors
influence health of a person at a later stage in life. These factors help to determine
overall personality of a person and have an influence on their health and wellbeing. The
wellbeing of a person is closely associated with health and is also influenced by these
factors. Psychologically wellbeing of a person is divided into three categories (Pickett et
al, 2015).
Evaluative wellbeing- it is associated with satisfaction in life which comes from work,
social support, and family.
Hedonic wellbeing- this comprises of feelings of happiness and sadness which are
influenced by psychosocial factors.
Eudemonic wellbeing- it gives a person meaning and purpose in life which is important
to achieve for satisfaction in older age (Steptoe et al, 2015).
The above-mentioned categories have an impact on a person mentally and affect
wellbeing. Health and wellbeing are closely related to social factors and psychological
factor like loneliness can lead to depression in a person and can affect health of a
person. Psychosocial factors have an impact on a person at every stage of life which
can be positive or negative. It has an influence at later stages of life. These factors
possess a risk of developing a disease or illness in later stages of life (Jetten et al,
2012). Psychosocial factors can affect health through illness as well and can be both
mental or physical which makes the person weak and fragile physically and mentally in
later stages which can be described by an example of extra work at office can be
physically and mentally exhausting and can lead to diseases or sometimes mental

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illness due to stress. But there have to be other factors involved as well for causing
illness to a person, psychosocial factors can affect the health of a person and make the
person prone to diseases but genetics and causative factors also play an important role
Psychosocial factors can possess a risk of developing a disease. This suggests that
psychological factors have an impact on health wellbeing and illness in later life stages
(Ryff, 2014).
Psychosocial factors comprise of two categories, first is psychological which comprises
of depression, hostility and hopelessness while the second one comprises of social
factors like education, occupation which has an influence on a person’s life.
Education: it is an important aspect of any person’s life as low education or lack of
education is reported to affect mental health. It has been reported that low or lack of
education often results in dementia. The exact reason is not known but it is believed
that it plays different role in the etiopathogenesis of AD and dementia. It is a marker of
cognitive abilities which is shown to possess social and economic factors at early stage
leading to higher risk of dementia in later stages. It is also related to SES which is
socioeconomic status where income, education, and occupation play an important role.
Income and occupation can change during the lifetime but education in most cases is
the same as it acquired in childhood and in adult life. Education indicates a person's
background and his skills and knowledge as it allows the brain to reach full maturation
and see many options and judge, read and think about different things. It opens up mind
to different opinions and views and helps the brain to be constantly occupied with
something and this can reduce the chances of developing dementia in later stages
(Kidger et al, 2012).
Occupation- it is an important aspect of a person's adult life as it not only provides
income but gives a status or identity to a person which provides satisfaction in terms of
work. It can be an important factor in affecting health both physically and mentally.
Majority of people even with good income are not satisfied with their jobs due to lack of
satisfaction and this affects them mentally causing stress and depression. Occupations
can be of different types and each one has its own effect on the health of a person like
people working in chemical industries or mines are exposed to harmful substances that

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affect their physical health while lack of job satisfaction and work pressure can cause
stress and depression and affect the mental health of a person. Occupation is important
is deciding SES of a person. It leads to difficulty and stress in balancing the income and
occupational status in a person's life. It leads to the development of behavior that is
unhealthy for a person like smoking, excess alcohol consumption due to SES which
physically deteriorates a person making them suffer at later stages of life. It can lead to
low self-esteem and stress and insecurity because of SES and lack of balance in
income and position (Bonde, J.P.E., 2008).
Leisure activity- it is defined to be the non-lucrative activity of a person for pleasure. It
is noted that people are more involved in physical activities in older age after retirement
which helps in mental stimulation and physical activity and social interactions. This
suggests that leisure activities help a person to be physically and socially active and
helps the mind to be constantly occupied with ideas. Increased physical activity ensures
the proper functioning of a person and helps avoid diseases while social activities give a
person a sense of satisfaction and help in mental wellbeing. There are deficits in old life
which are filled with leisure activities giving a sense of satisfaction and wellbeing in old
age (Newman et al, 2014).
Social network- it is the relations that a person has socially with people around be it
family, friends, and colleagues. It is very much essential for psychological wellbeing of a
person as it balances a person mentally. The good social network allows better
understanding and healthy working of a person, it helps to prevent depression in a
person and helps provide a sense of satisfaction to the person in old age (Slavich,
2016).
Loneliness and depression- companionship and friendship is an important factor in
every person’s life. A sense of support from partner and friends is essential for every
person psychologically and physically. Lack of companionship makes the person lonely
and sad which is often seen in western countries, it is observed that people in old age in
western countries are lonely both emotionally and financially than those in Asian
countries who live with their families. Loneliness is closely related to depression, it is
likely for a person to go into depression when lonely because of lack of support and

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understanding in old age which makes the person sad and depressed (Westerhof et al,
2010).
All of the above-mentioned factors have an impact on a person's both physical and
mental health. These factors influence at various stages of life and affect a person in
long run.it should be noted that when a person is not happy psychologically or socially it
has the major impact on his health and so the risk of diseases increases in old age.
Having positive influence of these factors will help in improved life in old age as it will
reduce the risk of disease or illness like education and job satisfaction will help patient
to be mentally sound and satisfied with their life while social support and leisure
activities will help a person physically as well as it will keep the person physically active
and social engagement will allow a person to not feel lonely and be content with their
life. When these factors play a positive role in a person’s life it will help them grow old
with satisfaction and happiness preventing disease and illness (Wood et al, 2010).

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CONCLUSION
This assignment suggests how psychological and social factors like education,
occupation, leisure activity, social network, loneliness, and depression affects life of a
person both physically and mentally. Negative effects of these factors are depicted on
health and wellbeing at later stages. Lack of education or lack of job satisfaction results
in low socioeconomic status which causes stress and in turn affects a person physically
and mentally. Lack of social network or grow up results in loneliness which is a major
cause of depression in old age. Emotional and physical support is very much essential
in old age and the negative effects of these factors can result in diseases in the later
stage of life (Frey et al, 2010).

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REFERENCES
1. Bonde, J.P.E., 2008. Psychosocial factors at work and risk of depression: a
systematic review of the epidemiological evidence. Occupational and
environmental medicine.
2. Diener, E. and Chan, M.Y., 2011. Happy people live longer: Subjective well‐being
contributes to health and longevity. Applied Psychology: Health and Well‐Being,
3(1), pp.1-43.
3. Frey, B.S. and Stutzer, A., 2010. Happiness and economics: How the economy
and institutions affect human well-being. Princeton University Press.
4. Jetten, J., Haslam, C. and Alexander, S.H. eds., 2012. The social cure: Identity,
health, and well-being. Psychology Press.
5. Kidger, J., Araya, R., Donovan, J. and Gunnell, D., 2012. The effect of the school
environment on the emotional health of adolescents: a systematic review.
Pediatrics, 129(5), pp.925-949.
6. Marmot, M., Allen, J., Goldblatt, P., Boyce, T., McNeish, D. and Grady, M., 2010.
Fair society, healthy lives. The Marmot Review, 14.
7. Newman, D.B., Tay, L. and Diener, E., 2014. Leisure and subjective well-being:
A model of psychological mechanisms as mediating factors. Journal of
Happiness Studies, 15(3), pp.555-578.
8. Pickett, K.E., and Wilkinson, R.G., 2015. Income inequality and health: a casual
review. Social science & medicine, 128, pp.316-326.
9. Ryff, C.D., 2014. Psychological well-being revisited: Advances in the science and
practice of eudaimonia. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 83(1), pp.10-28.
Online last assessed on 13/1/2019 at
https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/353263

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10. Slavich, G.M., 2016. Life stress and health: a review of conceptual issues and
recent findings. The teaching of Psychology, 43(4), pp.346-355.
11. Steptoe, A., Deaton, A., and Stone, A.A., 2015. Subjective wellbeing, health, and
aging. The Lancet, 385(9968), pp.640-648.
12. Westerhof, G.J. and Keyes, C.L., 2010. Mental illness and mental health: The
two continua model across the lifespan. Journal of adult development, 17(2),
pp.110-119.
13. Wood, A.M., and Joseph, S., 2010. The absence of positive psychological
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