The Psychological Approach to Reshaping Lifestyle: A Framework for Understanding Lifestyle

Abstract

Lifestyle is an emerging concept in social science disciplines, such as psychology, education, sociology, and nursing. In this study, lifestyle is discussed from individualistic and psychological aspects. The principal purpose of this article is to define lifestyle, identify the determinants, and reshape the dimensions. Lifestyle is a social and psychological construct. Lifestyle refers to the way an individual lives their daily life. Previous studies have reported that it is a combination of several constructs; however, there is a shortage of comprehensive work in this area. To reshape the dimensions of lifestyle, the synthesis theory or the synthesis of theory approach is used. This approach is a two-fold process; it includes summarization and integration of knowledge. Summarization means reviewing all the ideas, information, and summarizing the key concepts, and integration of knowledge refers to combining all the knowledge. In this study, several articles were systematically reviewed, and eight (8) dimensions were identified: physical activity, dietary behavior, sleep habits, stress management, substance abuse, interpersonal relationships, study habits, and use of modern technology. All of these dimensions positively and negatively influence several psychological constructs of the individual, such as mental health and well-being, academic performance, self-regulation, emotional state, quality of life, and life satisfaction. This psychological construct has not been extensively explored. Therefore, it provides an opportunity to explore its influence on other variables, related fields, and disciplines.