The Bigger Picture of Being Well: Well-Being, Rumination on Health, and Respiratory Infection in Older Adults

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/2514nm91h

Abstract

Positive well-being is highly sought after and has been shown to be important in manydifferent fields, including aging (Plácido et al., 2022). However, it is complex, and difficultto understand on its own. The biopsychosocial model can help bring clarity to this topic.The present study aims to investigate well-being by observing the relationships betweenit and two areas within the psychological and biological realms of the biopsychosocialmodel: rumination on physical health and respiratory infection. This exploratory studyused a mixed methods design where 17 participants were surveyed and interviewed.Three distinct patterns in terms of the associations between well-being, rumination, andrespiratory infection were found: adaptive ruminators, avoidant ruminators, anddistressed ruminators. The results suggest a speculative relationship between the threevariables, and open up many different routes of possible future study.

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