Using Subjective Well-being Homeostasis to Understand the Personal Impact of Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Abstract

It seems intuitive that people who have a neurodevelopmental disorder, such as stuttering, must experience a low subjective life quality. Yet this is not necessarily so. The relationship between medical pathology and perceived life quality is not linear. It is dependent on the balance between severity of the challenge associated with the disorder and the resilience of the homeostatic system, which manages subjective well-being. This article examines the nature of this interaction, using subjective well-being as the dependent variable under consideration. The processes of subjective well-being homeostasis are described and the evidence supporting such a system, most especially the existence of subjective well-being set points, is provided. Homeostatic resilience is highly dependent on the resources available for homeostatic defense, and three kinds of resources forming the “Golden Triangle” are pre-eminent. These comprise money, achieving in life, and relationships. If these resources are sufficiently strong, homeostasis will successfully defend normal levels of subjective well-being even in the face of quite severe threat. This explains why neurodevelopmental disorders do not automatically lower subjective life quality. The Golden Triangle resources point to the nature of the most effective interventions designed to bolster homeostatic resilience.