Relationships (2020)

Having positive relationships is a core aspect of eudaimonia, or psychological well-being (for example, Ryff, 2018). This exhibit explores ways different types of relationships influence well-being. We have compiled information from three interviews and created a relationship-themed playlist. We found in the interviews examples of positive relationships' improving the well-being of those involved. We also noticed that negative relationships, while tending to hurt well-being, can offer an avenue for postitive personal growth.

The exhibit echoes the emerging understanding of the role relationships play in our lives and well-being.  Relationships offer opportunities to feel validated and to have a sense of belonging, as well as to support and to be supported, all of which contribute to health and well-being (for example, see Inagaki, 2018).

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.

~Raymond Carver (1996)

Works Cited

Carver, R. (1996) Late Fragment. In All of Us. New York: Vintage Books.

Inagaki, T.K. (2018) Neural mechanisms of the link between giving social support and health. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1428: 33-50. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.13703

Ryff, C.D. (2018) Well-being with soul: Science in pursuit of human potential.  Perspectives on Psychological Science 13: 242-248. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617699836