Visual Culture: Analyzing Wellbeing, Mental Health, and Consumerism

This essay delves into the complex theme of wellbeing, encompassing social, environmental, physical, and mental dimensions, employing a visual research analysis of ten selected images. These images illustrate the theme of wellbeing, the desire theory (where fulfilling desires leads to perceived wellbeing), and the hypothesis concerning mental health's role in overall wellbeing and societal attention. Discussions involve ethical consumerism, the theory of desires, and the chosen research methodology. The essay concludes that mental health is crucial for positive wellbeing but lacks sufficient societal recognition, requiring significant progress to eliminate associated stigma. It effectively explains the complex phenomenon of wellbeing by analyzing mental and physical health aspects, their benefits, and drawbacks, ultimately emphasizing the need for greater attention to mental health on a global scale.

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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dimensions of mental health such as environmental and social. Physical fitness is often
given more priority over health even in prominent and highly educated social circles as
there are many apparent benefits of being active and exercising such as those
evidenced in image number 4 of the bibliography.
Physical fitness plays a prominent role in boosting one’s mental health and it has
been proven through research studies that being physically fit helps improve one’s
sensitivity and mood along with confidence and this has been evidenced in image
number 5. This also relates to the mentioned theory of desire as being physically fit is
the end goal and desire of many people who are mentally quite strong as having a well-
built body has many advantages such as residing a healthy brain. The next image helps
connect mental health and wellbeing to the concept of ethical consumerism as fast food
consumption has been proven to contain detrimental health related side-effects for the
human body and this extends to mental health as well. The image showcases such
items as burdens on the mind and I think this definitely supports people’s lifestyle
choices affecting their mental health (Bucci, Schwannauer and Berry, 2019).
The prospect of mental health is quite important for one’s wellbeing and this is also
supported by image number 7 as in many of the corporate workplaces, the mental
conditioning of the workforce does not exist at all. By being forced to rigid working
hours, getting too much work and not enough pay, employees might be physically fit but
often leave being mentally scarred. The next image also highlights this fact by highlight
the role of social media in deteriorating mental health especially of youngsters. This also
ties in to the theory of desires as the desire to be popular in the digital world often drives
people away from the positive necessities of life such as real life sports and interaction
with loved ones.
Although there is a huge room for improvement, mental health awareness has
advanced by leaps and bounds and has started to reach mainstream status which
highlights its growing role in the paradigm of well-being and this is also showcased in
image number 9 which is of a rally promoting mental health. I personally think this is a
great sign of eventual progress in the field of mental wellbeing. However, the overall
role of mental health has not been understood well by the society and this is evident
from the last image of the visual analysis in which some cold blooded facts about
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negative impacts of mental health stigma has been displayed (Yanos, 2018). I
personally think that it is high time that the importance of mental health is identified on a
global scale in regards to wellbeing and such dreadful facts have their statistics lowered
soon.
CONCLUSION
The above essay went into detail regarding the complex theme of wellbeing which is
comprised of numerous parameters such as social, environmental, physical and mental
and there was a visual research analysis conducted using 10 selected images. These
images highlighted the theme of wellbeing, the desire theory of wellbeing which states
that completion of human desires results in perceived wellbeing along with the chosen
hypothesis regarding the role of mental health in one’s overall wellbeing and it receiving
due attention in society. There were discussions involving ethical consumerism and
theory of desires along with discussion on chosen research methodology and it was
derived from this essay that mental health indeed has a very important role in being a
part of positive wellbeing of people. The research was successful in explaining the
complex phenomenon of wellbeing by analysing the mental and physical health aspects
along with their benefits and drawbacks and it was concluded from this essay that
mental health despite being important has not received its due in society and much
progress needs to be made to get rid of the stigma associated with it.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Dittmar, H. and Isham, A., 2022. Materialistic value orientation and wellbeing. Current
Opinion in Psychology, p.101337.
Harrington Meyer, M. and Abdul-Malak, Y., 2020. Physical Wellbeing. In
Grandparenting Children with Disabilities (pp. 285-301). Springer, Cham.
Almeida, T., and et.al., 2019. A descriptive study of mental health and wellbeing among
medical students in Portugal. International Review of Psychiatry, 31(7-8),
pp.574-578.
Bucci, S., Schwannauer, M. and Berry, N., 2019. The digital revolution and its impact on
mental health care. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and
Practice, 92(2), pp.277-297.
Yanos, P.T., 2018. Written-off: Mental health stigma and the loss of human potential.
Cambridge University Press.
Lauinger, W., 2021. Defending a Hybrid of Objective List and Desire Theories of Well-
Being. Measuring Well-Being: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from the Social
Sciences and the Humanities, p.229.
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APPENDIX
Image 1
Source – A photo clicked of a girl at peace surrounded by nature
Image 2
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Source – Picture captured of a woman relaxing in the garden
Image 3
Source – The various dimensions of well-being
Image 4
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Source – Benefits of physical fitness according to CDC
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Image 5
Source – Photo establishing link between mental health and physical fitness
Image 6
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Source – Fast food impact on mental health
Image 7
Source – Art depicting the burden placed on people’s mental health
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Image 8
Source – Image describing ill-effects of social media on wellbeing
Image 9
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Source – A photo captured at a mental health rally
Image 10
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Source – Picture depicting facts about global mental wellbeing tendencies
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