TY - JOUR
T1 - A good enough grip on life in youth
T2 - Life psychological intervention as an alternative to psychologization and to a nonpractical use of psychology regarding the life challenges young people are facing
AU - Bertelsen, Preben
AU - Ozer, Simon
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Editors of Nordic Psychology.
PY - 2024/4
Y1 - 2024/4
N2 - An increasingly large number of Western youth suffer from impaired general well-being and mental health. This is not least compounded by inappropriate use of psychological concepts and methods. They are trying to get a grip on life by, first of all, using psychology in a psychologizing way, which–contrary to the intention–creates an impaired image of one’s self and life, and which is nonpractical, because it is difficult to operationalize and does not point towards what actually can be done to get a good enough grip on own and common life. In this article, we discuss the danger of this inclination for psychologizing and introduce a psychological method which may avoid the psychologizing pitfalls. A research study is presented showing whether high school students can make use of the method, as well as the effect of their use of the method regarding mental health in the form of experienced stress, general well-being, and sense of coherence in life.
AB - An increasingly large number of Western youth suffer from impaired general well-being and mental health. This is not least compounded by inappropriate use of psychological concepts and methods. They are trying to get a grip on life by, first of all, using psychology in a psychologizing way, which–contrary to the intention–creates an impaired image of one’s self and life, and which is nonpractical, because it is difficult to operationalize and does not point towards what actually can be done to get a good enough grip on own and common life. In this article, we discuss the danger of this inclination for psychologizing and introduce a psychological method which may avoid the psychologizing pitfalls. A research study is presented showing whether high school students can make use of the method, as well as the effect of their use of the method regarding mental health in the form of experienced stress, general well-being, and sense of coherence in life.
KW - empowerment
KW - experience of coherence in life
KW - general well-being
KW - life-psychological method
KW - mental health in youth
KW - perceived stress
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85190995850&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/19012276.2024.2338375
DO - 10.1080/19012276.2024.2338375
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85190995850
SN - 1901-2276
JO - Nordic Psychology
JF - Nordic Psychology
ER -