Fax +41 61 306 12 34 E-Mail karger@karger.ch www.karger.com Regular Article Psychother Psychosom 2006;75:85–95 DOI: 10.1159/000090892 Psychological Well-Being and Ill-Being: Do They Have Distinct or Mirrored Biological Correlates? Carol D. Ryff a Gayle Dienberg Love a Heather L. Urry a Daniel Muller a Melissa A. Rosenkranz a Elliot M. Friedman a Richard J. Davidson a Burton Singer b a University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisc., and b Princeton University, Princeton, N.J., USA Measures of psychological well-being and ill-being were significantly linked with numerous biomarkers, with some associations being more strongly evident for re- spondents aged 75+. Outcomes for seven biomarkers supported the distinct hypothesis, while findings for only two biomarkers supported the mirrored hypothesis. Conclusion : This research adds to the growing literature on how psychological well-being and mental maladjust- ment are instantiated in biology. Population-based in- quiries and challenge studies constitute important future directions. Copyright © 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel Introduction Growing interest in positive psychology [1–4] raises a core question: is well-being merely the flip-side of study- ing psychological maladjustment, or do well-being and ill-being constitute separate, independent dimensions of mental functioning? The former view sees well-being and ill-being as opposite ends of a bipolar continuum, and thereby suggests that what has been learned about psy- chological distress and disorder is also definitive for well- being. Specifically, those with high levels of ill-being (e.g. depression) would be expected to show low levels of well- Key Words Well-being  Ill-being  Neuroendocrine  Cardiovascular  Distinct  Mirrored Abstract Background: Increasingly, researchers attend to both positive and negative aspects of mental health. Such dis- tinctions call for clarification of whether psychological well-being and ill-being comprise opposite ends of a bi- polar continuum, or are best construed as separate, in- dependent dimensions of mental health. Biology can help resolve this query – bipolarity predicts ‘mirrored’ biological correlates (i.e. well-being and ill-being corre- late similarly with biomarkers, but show opposite direc- tional signs), whereas independence predicts ‘distinct’ biological correlates (i.e. well-being and ill-being have different biological signatures). Methods: Multiple as- pects of psychological well-being (eudaimonic, hedonic) and ill-being (depression, anxiety, anger) were assessed in a sample of aging women (n = 135, mean age = 74) on whom diverse neuroendocrine (salivary cortisol, epi- nephrine, norepinephrine, DHEA-S) and cardiovascular factors (weight, waist-hip ratio, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, HDL cholesterol, total/HDL cholesterol, glycosylated hemoglobin) were also measured. Results: Carol D. Ryff Institute on Aging, 2245 Medical Science Center University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI 53706 (USA) Tel. +1 608 262 4844, Fax +1 608 263 6211, E-Mail cryff@facstaff.wisc.edu © 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel Accessible online at: www.karger.com/pps