A good enough grip on life in youth

Abstract

An increasingly large number of Western youth suffer from impaired general well-being and mental health. This is not least compounded by inappropriate use of psychological concepts and methods. They are trying to get a grip on life by, first of all, using psychology in a psychologizing way, which – contrary to the intention – creates an impaired image of one’s self and life, and which is nonpractical, because it is difficult to operationalize and does not point towards what actually can be done to get a good enough grip on own and common life. In this article, we discuss the danger of this inclination for psychologizing and introduce a psychological method which may avoid the psychologizing pitfalls. A research study is presented showing whether high school students can make use of the method, as well as the effect of their use of the method regarding mental health in the form of experienced stress, general well-being, and sense of coherence in life.