The Six-Factor Model of Psychological Well-Being

So what are these 6 Factors of Psychological Well-Being?

1. Autonomy: The ability to be independent and regulate our behavior regardless of social pressures to behave a certain way.

2. Environmental Mastery: Feeling in control of the situation within which we live, including our environment, ability to utilize opportunity, and managing everyday affairs.

3. Personal Growth: The ability to continue to grow, be open to new experiences, and see improvement in self and behavior over time.

4. Positive Relations with Others: engaging with others in meaningful ways, two-way relationships that center around empathy, shared experiences, intimacy, and affection.

5. Life Purpose: being goal-driven, believing that life has meaning and purpose.

6. Self-Acceptance: having a positive outlook about one’s self, liking who we are.

It’s a pretty well-rounded group of psychological factors, isn’t it?

There are obviously many technical ways to use this psychological assessment (in fact, it’s intended to be used quite technically), but for our purposes here, we can just simply rate how we feel we are doing in each of these categories on a scale of 0 to 5 (0 being no grasp on it, 5 being “nailing it”). Doing this can give us a snapshot of where we are and where we want to go. Additionally, if we find that certain factors are severely unbalanced (like we’re crushing it on the autonomy bit, but our positive relations aren’t doing so hot), that gives us clear direction to begin seeking more equilibrium.

Over the next few days we’ll dig into each of these factors and explore why they matter so much in this alcohol-free life, but for now, just get a feel for where you’re at here. How can you begin applying these 6 factors into your life right now?