Psychosocial Health

• Encompasses mental, emotional, social,and spiritual dimensions of health

• Basic elements shared by psychosocially healthy people– Feel good about themselves– Feel comfortable with others– Control tension and anixety– Able to meet demand of life– Curb hate and guilt– Maintain a positive outlook– Enrich the lives of others

Mental health

• “thinking” part of psychosocial health• Ability to reason, interpret, and remember

from a unique perspective• One can intellectually sort through

information, attach meaning and make decisions

• Mentally healthy persons think rationally with fairly accurate perceptions of events

Emotional health

• “feeling” or subjective part of psychosocial health

• Emotionally healthy people are able to respon in a stable and appropriate manner to upsetting events

Social health

• Interactions with others and ability to adapt to social situations

• 2 factors important to social health– Presence of social bonds or social linkages– Presence of key social support, expressive

or tangible

Factors affecting Psycosocial health

• External influences: factors that we do not control– Family influences include family upbringing

Healthy, nurturing families produce more well-adjusted adults

Dysfunctional families may produce confused adults who have a harder time adapting to life

– Environment• Safety• Access to health services and programs• Socioeconomic status

Internal Factors

• Hereditary traits

• Hormonal functioning

• Physical health status

• Physical fitness