Social

According to John Bowlby, ^{[ 2]} attachment theory emphasizes the influence parents have over a child’s personality development. Consequently, a secure bond results in a secure child who feels comfortable to explore the environment. The secure bond further allows the child to become accustomed to, and later involved in, interpersonal relationships. Overall, caregivers meeting a child’s early emotional needs have long-lasting, positive social indicators. ^{[ 3] [ 4] [ 5]} For instance, women showed both increased psychological well-being and social competence when securely attached to both parent figures as they later transitioned into college. ^{[ 5]}

Well-balanced social interactions are considered from a developmental perspective. Specifically, gender differences start to appear in childhood and continue into adolescence. For instance, behaviors of a socially balanced female child include having emotionally closer relationships when compared to males. In addition, their interactions tend to be more reciprocal. Girls also tend to have peer relationships based on an intimate, emotional exchange. Young boys, however, tend to be more outspoken with their friends, and it is quite natural for male children to brag and interrupt conversations. Boys are more physical in their activities, and their exchanges are based on shared activities.

Well-balanced adult social interactions are more heterogeneous. In addition, well-balanced social interactions in adults result in increased physical and emotional health when compared to socially isolated adults. Adults who maintain social connectedness tend to live longer; this finding is cross-cultural and also crosses socioeconomic status.

Occupational

A focus of an industrial/organizational psychologist is to measure job satisfaction. Overall, job satisfaction is positively correlated with age. Another consistent observation is that those in more of an administrative role are more satisfied than those who are not.

What might not be so obvious is the correlation between satisfaction and salary. For instance, job satisfaction tends not to be related to pay for highly paid workers. Instead, things such as job challenges, independence, and power tend to be related to job satisfaction for these workers. In addition, how fairly one believes he or she is paid is related more to job satisfaction than is actual salary. People also tend to compare their salaries to those around them, and workers tend to subjectively assess their comparable worth.

Overall, the greatest factor influencing job satisfaction is whether or not the job allows the person to use the professional or occupational skills in which he or she is trained. Low job satisfaction is correlated with high job turnover rates, and high job satisfaction is correlated with job longevity. Job dissatisfaction has been correlated with both physical and psychological consequences such as headaches, fatigue, anxiety, and depression. ^{[ 6]}

Environmental

In 1943, Abraham Maslow created his hierarchy of needs. He believed that the most basic needs are at the bottom of the hierarchy, and each stage of the hierarchy has to be satisfied in order to advance to, or feel motivated to achieve, the next stage. The first needs to be satisfied are basic physiological needs required for survival: air, food, and water. If these requirements are not met, the human body cannot continue to function.

When physiological needs are met, the next priority is safety. This is the environment in which the person lives. In an ideal world, a person lives in an environment that is dominated by feelings of safety and security. In other words, the person lives in a well-balanced environment, which sets the stage to work on other needs within Maslow’s hierarchy. The remaining needs include love and belonging (feeling accepted as an essential part of something, having satisfying relationships), esteem (the need for self-respect and the respect of others), and self-actualization (striving for and realizing one’s full potential).

Safety needs set the foundation on which all other needs are achieved, and threats to safety can shake that foundation. People experiencing danger, whether immediate (e.g., during a war or natural disaster) or imminent (living in a high-crime area), find it difficult or impossible to address the higher needs in the hierarchy, such as self-improvement or maintaining healthy relationships. ^{[ 7]}

Another example of how the environment can influence overall balance is found in the diathesis-stress hypothesis, a theory of psychopathology that suggests that certain psychological disorders, if biologically predisposed, can be triggered by an unstable environment. For instance, numerous studies have found higher rates of schizophrenia in urban areas and, conversely, lower rates of schizophrenia in more rural areas. ^{[ 8]}

Familial

For the most part, humans are one of only a few species that maintain relationships with others. Most nonhuman animals give birth to their young, and as the animal develops, the mother and her young separate. Humans, on the other hand, tend to be strongly tied to their families of origin.

In 1978, Mary Ainsworth created the “Strange Situation,” which involved having a parent and child (age 12 to 18 months) together while the child explored an unfamiliar environment. After some time, an unfamiliar person entered and spoke with the parent, who then left the room. With the parent absent, the unfamiliar person interacted with the child and later left the room. The parent returned, interacted with the child, and left again. The child was now alone, and the unknown person reentered and interacted with the child, and then the parent reentered the room. The unknown person then left, and the Strange Situation had ended. ^{[ 9] [ 10]}

The researchers gauged the reaction of each child in the study, which was recorded, analyzed, and classified into one of four categories: secure, insecure, avoidant/ambivalent, and disorganized/disoriented. Three of the categories spoke to the child being off balance. Specifically, the child labeled as anxious/avoidant showed disinterest in her environment, little distress when the mother left, and avoided her when she returned. The anxious resistant child was anxious in the presence of his mother, distressed when she left, and ambivalent upon her return. The disorganized/disoriented child alternated between avoidance and proximity seeking when the mother left. The behavior of a disorganized/disoriented child included restricted movements in the presence of the parent and rocking on hands and knees following the parent leaving. In addition, this type of child moved away from the parent when frightened but also screamed upon separation from the parent. ^{[ 11]} The securely attached, balanced child actively pursued the environment and demonstrated age-appropriate social skills toward the stranger. Although the child might have shown distress upon her mother leaving, she sought her physical contact upon the mother’s return.

The Strange Situation has been replicated and expanded to include how a child in a given classification later functions as an adult. Based on responses to the Adult Attachment Interview, there are three insecure attachment types and one secure attachment type. Dismissing adults, for instance, do not believe that human attachment is all that important. As a defense, such adults tend to idealize memories of their childhood but cannot justify their claims with concrete examples. Preoccupied adults tend to have relationships with their parents that lack clear boundaries. As such, the adult might appear to have anger and feel that any life issues are permanent. The Unresolved adults were usually classified in the disorganized type of child. Such adults tend to have been victims of abuse and neglect and have dysfunctional relationships as adults. They also tend to have children that are classified as the disorganized type.

It is the secure-autonomous adult that is the most balanced. Such adults feel that relationships are something to be valued. They are able to reflect on their parental bonds with objectivity and have rewarding relationships of their own.