The Concept of Lifestyle
Having a healthy lifestyle can help you stay active and energetic throughout your life. It can also improve your self-esteem and emotional stability, helping you to deal with stress more effectively. Choosing a healthier diet, being physically active and getting enough sleep can reduce your health risks and even add years to your life. The word “lifestyle” is a combination of the words “life” and “style”. In general, it refers to a person’s day-to-day practices in their work, leisure, food, etc. However, a lifestyle can also include a person’s opinions regarding the environment, philosophy, religion, politics, health, and so on. A person’s choice of a lifestyle depends on the context in which they live and their values and interests. In the field of psychology, the concept of lifestyle is widely used and interpreted. This article reexamines the major explicit definitions of the term within the psychological and sociological literature through three interpretative keys: internal, external and temporal. This has enabled the identification of the main components that characterise a lifestyle. A first approach focuses on the analysis of the social structure, considering that people adopt specific'schemes of life' and behaviours depending on their desire for distinction from the groups they identify as inferior and their desire for emulation of those who belong to the groups they consider superior. This approach was initiated by Thorstein Veblen’s concept of conspicuous consumption and continued with Max Weber, who considered that lifestyles were the distinctive elements of status groups that allowed them to communicate the prestige they enjoyed or aspired to. Another approach defines lifestyles as modes of personal organisation and identifies different methods and possibilities for satisfying the individual’s needs. In this way, it is possible to distinguish a lifestyle that seeks to satisfy the need for security from a lifestyle focused on the need for recognition (inner-directed) or the need for gratification (outer-directed). The third approach considers that people’s lifestyle choices are determined by the social and economic conditions they find themselves in, making the choice of their behaviours dependent on the opportunities and limitations of their socioeconomic situation. This view of the concept of lifestyle was developed by Milton Rokeach and Arnold Mitchell and later refined by Lynn R. Kahle and others into various models of scales of values organized hierarchically, according to which the lifestyles of populations can be classified. Finally, a fourth approach is based on the notion of an interplay between static and dynamic forces at a sociocultural level that lead to the development of different types of lifestyles. This is the view adopted by Pierre Bourdieu, who defines lifestyles as a set of cultural representations that function as a tool for individuals to express their tastes and individualise themselves in society. These are the most widespread and recognised approaches to the concept of lifestyle. Nevertheless, it must be recognised that this concept has not yet been clearly defined. As a result, it is still necessary to develop a better theoretical framework for understanding the dynamics of lifestyles.