Carol Ryff presented research on psychological well-being and its connection to art experiences. She defined well-being as having purpose, growth, autonomy, mastery, acceptance, and relations. Her research found that having purpose is important for health and longevity. While purpose declines with age, some older adults maintain high purpose which relates to better health behaviors and outcomes. The presentation discussed how art at museums can help nurture the different aspects of well-being like purpose, growth, and relations. Ryff proposed further research exploring how art and cultural experiences impact well-being specifically purpose engagement at all ages.

1. Art and Well-Being:
Mapping the Connections
Carol D. Ryff
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Why Museums?
Association of Danish Museums
Aarhus, Denmark – March 10, 2015

2. Topics
My research on psychological well-being
 What is it?
 How does it matter for health?
 MIDUS National Study
What are sources of well-being?
 How does art, music, literature, poetry, dance,
film, theatre, and nature matter to our lives?
 The museum experience and well-being
 Trapholt Collaboration

3. What is
psychological well-being?
(mental health as more than
the absence of the negative)

4.  Ryff (1989) “Happiness is everything, or is it?: Explorations on
the meaning of psychological well-being”

5. Autonomy:
marching to
one’s own
drummer
Kjeragbolten, Norway

6. Environmental Mastery:
managing your external world

7. Personal Growth: making the most of
your talents and capacities
Imagerie
Pellerin
d’Epinal
(19th
century)

8. Positive Relations with Others:
taking care of your social ties

9. Purpose in Life: finding meaning and
direction in your life

10. Self-Acceptance: recognizing and
accepting your strengths and weaknesses
Self-portrait by Kseniya
Beliaeva, woman artist
from Belarus

11. Measuring Psychological Well-Being

12. Illustrative Items
• Autonomy
(+) I have confidence in my opinions even if they are contrary
to the general consensus.
(-) I tend to be influenced by people with strong opinions.
• Environmental Mastery
(+) I am quite good at managing the many responsibilities of
my life.
(-) The demands of everyday life often get me down.
• Personal Growth
(+) I have the sense that I have developed a lot as a
person over time.
(-) When I think about it, I haven’t really improved much as
a person over the years.

13. Illustrative Items
• Positive Relations with Others
(+) Most people see me as loving and affectionate.
(-) I have not experienced many warm and trusting
relationships with others.
• Purpose in Life
(+) I have a sense of direction and purpose in life.
(-) I don’t have a good sense of what it is I’m trying to
accomplish in life.
• Self-Acceptance
(+) When I look at the story of my life, I’m pleased with how
things have turned out.
(-) Many days I wake up feeling discouraged about how I
have lived my life.

14. Impact: 30 languages & 5,000 citations
Ryff
(2014)

15. 500+ Scientific Publications
(150+ scientific journals)
Psychometric Properties
Adult Development & Aging
Personality Correlates
Family Life
Work & Volunteer Engagements
Health & Biomarkers
Intervention/Clinical Studies
Ryff (2014)
Psychotherapy & Psychosomatics

16. www.midus.wisc.edu

19. What have we learned?
One Example:
 aging and purpose in life
[relevance for museums]

20. Source: MIDUS I
25-39
14.5
15.0
15.5
16.0
16.5
17.0
17.5
18.0
18.5
Young Midlife Older
40-59 60-74
Purpose in Life
Env. Mastery
Positive Relations
Autonomy
Females
Self-Acceptance
Per. Growth

21. Purpose in Life
Env. Mastery
Positive Relations
Autonomy
Males
Self-Acceptance
Per. Growth
14.5
15.0
15.5
16.0
16.5
17.0
17.5
18.0
18.5
Young Midlife Older
25-39 40-59 60-74
Source: MIDUS I

22. Longitudinal Decline (9-10 years)
in Purpose in Life
14
15
16
17
18
T1 T2 T1 T2 T1 T2 T1 T2 T1 T2
35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 75-84
Average
score
Age at T2

23. BUT some older persons
maintain high purpose in life.
Those who do:
 live longer
have less disease
practice better health behaviors

24. Those with higher purpose in life live longer.
(Boyle et al., Psychosom Med, 2009)

25. Purpose in life is protective against Alzheimer’s
and mild cognitive impairment.
(Boyle et al., Archives Gen Psychiatry, 2010)

26. Purpose in life modifies association between Alzheimers
disease pathology and cognitive function
(Boyle et al., Arch Gen Psych, 2012)

27. High purpose in life reduces risk of myocardial
infarction among adults with coronary heart disease
(Kim et al., J Behav Med, 2013)
Those with higher purpose in life have
reduced risk of stroke
(Kim et al., J Psychosomatic Res, 2013)
Higher purpose in life more preventive health
behaviors (cholest. tests, cancer screenings).
(Kim, Strecher, & Ryff, PNAS, 2014)

28. New agenda: building bridges
between art,
cultural experience
and well-being
e.g. Trapholt
What Nurtures Purposeful
Life Engagement?
(at all ages)

29. Museums and Life Enrichment
HELPING US TO:
• Know ourselves (self-acceptance)
• Find meaning (purpose in life)
• Deepen our capacities (personal growth)
• Nurture our social ties (positive relations with others)
• Manage our worlds (environmental mastery)
• Live by our convictions (autonomy)
 Have a good time (happiness, pleasure)

30. Summary Points
Human well-being is multifaceted
It matters for health
It needs to be nurtured
Museums can provide vital nutrients, but
this needs to be studied/researched
Vision: exploiting
untapped synergies between
art and science

31. Thanks
cryff@wisc.edu
http://midus.wisc.edu

32. (1) art as refuge
How might it work?

33. (2) art as inspiration
How might it work?

34. (3) art as entertainment
How might it work?

35. (4) art as provocation
How might it work?

36. We work in the dark,
we do what we can,
we give what we have.
Our doubt is our passion, and our
passion is our task.
The rest is the madness of art.
Henry James
(1843 – 1916)