The Salutogenic Paradigm

While the salutogenic theory stems from the sociology of health, it has been at the leading edge of a range of academic movements emphasizing human strengths and not just weaknesses, human capacities and not just limits, well-being and not just illness. This chapter describes and explains the essence of the salutogenic conceptual framework developed by Antonovsky and to suggest it as a possible philosophical basis for the contemporary positive psychology movement. It explores the consequences of the dominance of the pathogenic paradigm in thinking, research, and intervention. The chapter also discusses the consequences of adopting a salutogenic paradigm. It emphasizes the basic idea of salutogenesis that the human condition is mainly chaotic. The chapter talks about Antonovsky's sense of coherence (SOC) construct, and illustrates how to measure the SOC both on the individual and collective levels.