Welcome Barbara!

Thank you for becoming a follower and supporting my blog. I hadn't thought lately about zrizus, or taking action with, according to the dictionary, "cheerful alacrity." I needed the reminder.

Marie Jahoda

In 1958 she developed the theory of Ideal Mental Health. Through her work Jahoda identified five categories which she said were vital to feelings of well-being (1982, 87). These were:

Time structure
Social contact
Collective effort or purpose
Social identity or status
Regular activity

This was subsequent to a study of unemployed people and deals with the realm of work. Not included are ideas relative to the importance of love, community or spirituality. But it is very interesting to note that work was found to contribute to "Ideal Mental Health," Jahoda's paradigm, based not on "success," productivity, accomplishment or compensation, but rather on having a time structure, a regular activity to do, social contact, i.e. being with others, social identity or status, that is belonging, and being "someone," and a collective effort or purpose -- work as a vehicle to give meaning. Today we may take these ideas for granted, but in 1958, this may have been a new way of looking at the value, and personal meaning, of work