Personal Growth: High scorer: has a feeling of continued
development, sees self as growing and expanding, is
open to new
experiences, has sense of realizing his or her potential, sees improvement in self
and behavior
over time, is changing in ways that reflect more self-knowledge and effectiveness.
Low scorer: has a sense of personal stagnation, lacks sense of improvement or expansion over time,
feels bored
and uninterested with life, feels unable to develop new attitudes or behaviors.
Ryff, C.D. (1989), Happiness Is Everything, or Is It? Explorations on the Meaning of Psychological Well-Being.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 1069-1081.
Ryff, C.D., & Singer, B.H. (1998), The Contours of Positive Human Health
. Psychological Inquiry, 9(1), 1-28.
Ryff, C.D., & Singer, B.H. (2006), Best News yet on the Six-Factor Model of Well-Being.
Social Science Research,
35(4), 1103-1119.
Ryff, C.D., Singer, B.H., & Diener Love, G. (2004), Positive Health: Connecting Well-Being with Biology.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 359(1449), 1383-1394.
v
Fleury, J. (1998), On Promoting Positive Human Health.
Psychological Inquiry, 9(1), 40-43.
vi
McNulty, J.K., Fincham, F.D. (2012), Beyond Positive Psychology? Toward a Contextual View of Psychological
Processes and Well-Being.
American Psychologist, 67(2), 101-110.
vii
Prof. dr. E. van Deurzen was our European partner in a Leonardo-project in which
different universities
(London, Sheffield, Bordeaux, Louvain) were financed by the European Union to develop an innovative learning
environment. Following Binswanger and Rollo May, van
Deurzen describes physical, social, personal and
spiritual dimensions of existence. Van Deurzen, E. (1997),
Everyday Mysteries. Existential Dimensions of
Psychotherapy. London: Brunner-Routledge.
viii
The following selection criteria were applied in the pilot study: the participants had to be older than 70 and
not show signs of dementia. This sample (N = 280) consisted of 124 men (44.3%) and 156 women (55.7%). The
average age was 76 (SD = 5.00; range: 70 - 91). 67.7% of the participants were married, 21.2% widowed, 5.4%
single, 4.0% lived together and 1.8% were divorced. With regard to education level, 33.2% had completed
higher or university-level studies, 35.5% had obtained a degree in secondary education and 31.4% had a
certificate of elementary education. The well-being of the participants ranged from average to low. This is not
'bad' for an age group which is usually believed not to be be doing so well anymore.
Parts of the data from this population have been processed by, amongst others:
Tinne Vanhoof.
Existentieel welzijn en zingeving bij ouderen, KU Leuven, 2013. Master thesis in
psychology
under supervision of prof. dr. M. Leijssen and dr. J. Dezutter;
Anneleen Vandekeybus.
Welzijnstherapie. Een verkenning van welzijnsverhogende variabelen, KU Leuven,
2013. Master thesis in psychology under supervision of prof. dr. M. Leijssen and dr. J. Dezutter.