A healthy lifestyle is the combination of habits that promote mental and physical fitness. It is based on a balance of exercise, a good diet, adequate sleep and rest, avoidance of smoking and non-essential drug use and moderation of alcohol consumption. It also includes an active approach to life, aimed at the achievement of personal goals and the fulfilment of one’s potential.
Despite its relatively recent appearance in psychological literature, the concept of ‘lifestyle’ has already generated a number of different theories and research methods. These differ from one another in terms of the internal and external dimension of the phenomenon and the emphasis given to values, attitudes and orientations.
The first approach to the study of lifestyle considers the internal dimensions. This perspective defines the concept as an organisation of personality, a system of values and a pattern of behaviour justified by these values. Psychologists such as Rokeach, for example, analysed personality traits in order to identify the lifestyle of an individual.
Other approaches to the study of lifestyle focus on the analysis of social structure. Thorstein Veblen opens this field of investigation with his concept of conspicuous consumption, according to which individuals adopt specific patterns of lifestyle based on a desire for distinction from the social strata they perceive as inferior and an attempt to emulate those deemed superior. Max Weber takes this analysis further by defining lifestyle as distinctive elements of status groups strictly connected with a dialectic of consumption and production.
More recently, sociologists such as Giddens and Veal have developed a framework for analysing lifestyle, which considers the way in which a person organises their daily activities. They propose that the characteristics of a lifestyle are determined by factors such as a person’s social position, the level of freedom of choice and the influences of antecedent conditions.
The third approach considers the characteristic of temporality and the evolution of lifestyles. For example, Adler argued that a person’s lifestyle may change in certain periods of their lives and that it is often the result of societal conditions. Other scholars such as Georg Simmel carry out formal analysis of lifestyles and recognise the processes of identification, differentiation and recognition that generate them. They recognise that these processes operate both vertically and horizontally, and they are characterised by the fact that lifestyles are made up mainly of social practices that are closely tied to individual tastes.
The present article offers an overview of these three perspectives and attempts to develop a theoretical-explanatory model for the components of lifestyle. This model provides a basis for future research and the development of health promotion interventions that take into account both the behavioural components of lifestyles and the antecedent factors that shape them. It is important to understand these components in order to make it possible to design interventions that are suited to each individual’s lifestyle. These will be more effective in helping them achieve their personal health objectives. This will allow them to avoid the negative impact that unhealthy lifestyles can have on their health.