Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol 42, Issue 2 279-288, Copyright © 1980 by American Psychosomatic Society

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Psychological impairment and psychological health in the psychological well-being of the physically ill

AF Fontana, JL Marcus, BN Dowds and LA Hughes

There has been a growing acceptance of the view that psychological health is not merely the absence of psychological impairment, but rather is a separate state making its own contribution to a person's overall psychological well-being. Research on the separation of positive and negative affect represents a major empirical development of this view. The present study supports the model as it has been developed from people's self-reports. However, the postulation of complete separation of positive and negative affect is too extreme for others' reports about people. For others' reports, the model should be modified to state that positive and negative affect are partially separate and have differentially strong associations with harmonious and disruptive/distressing behaviors. These findings have implications for the measurement of psychological well-being in investigations of the physically ill. Both psychological impairment and psychological health should be represented, particularly when they are assessed from people's self-reports. Finally, there are promising indications that this view of psychological well-being is applicable to mentally ill persons as well.