Modeling Positive Human Health: From Covariance Structures to Dynamic Systems

In this chapter, we illustrate how recent advances in longitudinal methodology can be applied to diverse issues of interest to positive psychologists. The aim of the chapter is to describe how contemporary theories of well-being may be empirically evaluated using a variety of research designs and analytic techniques that can fully capture the complexity and dynamics of positive human health. Throughout, we identify unresolved methodological challenges associated with the measurement and analysis between- and of within-person phenomena and elaborate on the implications of these challenges for process research in positive psychology.