Self Care Models
Models
Eudaimonic
In recent years, psychologists have taken a deeper look at well-being. The traditional approach to well-being focuses on hedonic pleasures and positive emotions. However, while positive emotions often accompany happiness, the mere experience of positive emotions is not necessarily an indicator of happiness, and the presence of negative emotions doesn't necessarily decrease one's well-being. This deeper approach to well-being, often described as "eudaimonic well-being", focuses on living life in a full and deeply satisfying way. What are the dimensions of eudaimonic well-being? Psychologist Carol Ryff makes the case for no less than six dimensions of eudaimonia:
Autonomy ("I have confidence in my opinions, even if they are contrary to the general consensus")
Environmental mastery ("I am quite good at managing the many responsibilities of my daily life")
Personal growth ("I think it is important to have new experiences that challenge how you think about yourself and the world")
Positive relations with others ("People would describe me as a giving person, willing to share my time with others")
Purpose in life ("Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them")
Self-acceptance ("I like most aspects of my life")
Dorociak, Katie & Rupert, Patricia & Zahniser, Evan. (2017). Work Life, well-being, and self-care across the professional lifespan of psychologists. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. 48. 429-437. 10.1037/pro0000160.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321736750_Work_Life_well-being_and_self-care_across_the_professional_lifespan_of_psychologists
Work Life, well-being, and self-care across the professional lifespan of psychologists
Professional lives and experiences of psychologists change over the course of their careers. Taking a developmental perspective, the present research used archival data from 2 previously conducted surveys to compare early career, midcareer, and late-career psychologists with 3 questions in mind: (a) Do personal and professional well-being differ across these career stages? (b) Do work-related demands and resources vary across these career stages? and (c) Does use of self-care strategies differ across career stages? Findings indicate that professional well-being varies over the psychologist’s life span, with a general trend toward greater well-being as one’s career progresses. Furthermore, results indicate that early career psychologists report greater work-related demands in the context of fewer professional resources, including more time on administrative paperwork, greater experience of negative client behaviors, and fewer opportunities for professional development. Finally, data offer some evidence that late-career psychologists may engage in more self-care. Although this finding was not consistent across samples, it is consistent with the burnout literature proposing that with age and experience, professionals develop more effective ways of managing professional demands and stress. Overall, the pattern of results suggests that greater professional well-being may be experienced at the later career stages and that increased efforts are needed to bolster professional and personal resources for psychologists who are in the early career stage.