Research article summary:

Mental health.

Abstract Extract:
OBJECTIVE: Only in the last 30 years has psychiatry begun to develop empirical approaches to conceptualizing and assessing positive mental health. Six models of mental health are reviewed here. METHOD: The author points out pitfalls in research on mental ... (Full abstract text below)

Published 2003Aug in Journal: Am J Psychiatry (Language : eng)

Full Pubmed Extract

This information was retrieved, real-time, on your behalf from the public area of the Pubmed website:

1. Am J Psychiatry. 2003 Aug;160(8):1373-84

Mental health.

Vaillant GE

Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA. gvaillant@partners.org

OBJECTIVE: Only in the last 30 years has psychiatry begun to develop empirical approaches to conceptualizing and assessing positive mental health. Six models of mental health are reviewed here. METHOD: The author points out pitfalls in research on mental health, e.g., equating average with healthy, failing to distinguish trait from state, overlooking cultural norms, and conversely, blindly accepting the culture's values. He describes the six models and provides history and research needs for each. RESULTS: The first model, being "above normal," is epitomized by DSM-IV's axis V, the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale. High scores represent "superior functioning in a wide range of activities, life's problems never seem to get out of hand, is sought out by others because of his or her many positive qualities." The goal of the second model, positive psychology, is intervention to maximize positive qualities, such as self-efficacy. Maturity and Erikson's four developmental tasks (identity, intimacy, generativity, integrity) are the basis of the third model. The author adds two other tasks: career consolidation and "keeper of the meaning." The fourth model is emotional or social intelligence, the ability to read other people's emotions. Surprisingly, subjective well-being, the fifth model, is as much a characteristic of temperament as of a benign environment. The last model, resilience, is epitomized by DSM-IV's Defense Function Scale, which categorizes coping mechanisms in terms of adaptational value. CONCLUSIONS: As with the blind men and the elephant, each model describes only some aspects of mental health. Further research may reveal the contribution of each.

PMID : 12900295 [PubMed - Indexed for MEDLINE]

This information is obtained from the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright. Type "NLM copyright" into Google for more information.

Full Author Information

First Name	LastName	Initials
George E	Vaillant	GE

Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA. gvaillant@partners.org

3rd Party provider links

Click the links below to go to related 3rd party information:

MESH categories and related page links

This article was linked to the MESH categories shown on the left below. The links on the right are related Memletics pages.

Links for this article

For links to places where you can get the full text of this article see links. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text.

New! Using similar technology to this site, we have launched find-health-articles.com, targeting over 1 million health research article abstracts.

Here are some articles related to this one (by title keywords):

African-Caribbean interactions with mental health services in the UK: experiences and expectations of exclusion as (re)productive of health inequalities.

Health promotion and partnerships: collaboration of a community health management center, county health bureau, and university nursing program.

Enhancing health knowledge, health beliefs, and health behavior in Poland through a health promoting television program series.

A university-state-corporation partnership for providing correctional mental health services.

The Scottish mental survey 1932 linked to the Midspan studies: a prospective investigation of childhood intelligence and future health.

Promotion of health and physical activity improves the mental health of elderly immigrants: results of a group randomised controlled trial among Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands aged 45 and over.

Principles for planning the teaching of health promotion in an MPH course.

Mental health literacy of those with major depression and suicidal ideation: an impediment to help seeking.

Integration of theory and practice in learning mental health nursing.

A comparison of Russian and British attitudes towards mental health problems in the community.

>>> Get more research article abstracts like these, or browse abstracts.

Keywords in this article:

ability, above, accepting, activities, adaptational, adds, approaches, aspects, assessing, assessment, author, average, axis, basis, begun, benign, blindly, career, categorizes, characteristic, conceptualizing, conclusions, consolidation, contribution, conversely, coping, cultural, culture, defense, describes, develop, developmental, distinguish, dsm, efficacy, elephant, emotional, emotions, empirical, environment, epitomized, equating, erikson, failing, fifth, first, four, fourth, functioning, generativity, get, global, goal, hand, health, healthy, high, history, identity, integrity, intelligence, intervention, intimacy, keeper, last, life, many, maturity, maximize, meaning, mechanisms, mental, method, models, much, needs, never, normal, norms, objective, only, others, out, overlooking, people, pitfalls, points, positive, problems, provides, psychiatry, psychology, qualities, range, read, represent, research, resilience, results, reveal, reviewed, scale, scores, second, self, six, social, sought, state, subjective, superior, surprisingly, tasks, temperament, terms, third, trait, two, values, well, wide, years

Also, see our new free speed reading online course (beta version)