The COVID-19 pandemic has subjected most of the world's population to unprecedented situations, like national lockdowns, health hazards, social isolation and economic harm. Such a scenario calls for ...urgent measures not only to palliate it but also, to better cope with it. According to existential positive psychology, well-being does not simply represent a lack of stress and negative emotions but highlights their importance by incorporating an adaptive relationship with them. Thus, suffering can be mitigated (and transformed into growth) by, among other factors, adopting an attitude of positive reframing, maintaining hope, existential courage, life appreciation, engagement in meaningful activities, and prosociality. The conglomerate of these elements has been recently denominated as meaning-centered coping. In this study, we evaluated the protective role of this type of coping on mental health. A sample of 12,243 participants from 30 countries across all continents completed measures of Meaning-Centered Coping Scale (MCCS), depression, stress, anxiety and stressful COVID-19 related conditions they experienced. Results indicated that meaning-centered coping was strongly associated with diminished symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. Moreover, it moderated various relationships between vulnerability factors and markers of psychological distress, especially in the case of depression. These findings call for attention to meaning-centered coping approaches in the context of hardship, such as the current COVID-19 health crisis. In these difficult times, decision-makers and health organizations may integrate these approaches into their guidelines.
Seligman recently introduced the PERMA model with five core elements of psychological well-being: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. We empirically tested this ...multidimensional theory with 516 Australian male students (age 13-18). From an extensive well-being assessment, we selected a subset of items theoretically relevant to PERMA. Factor analyses recovered four of the five PERMA elements, and two ill-being factors (depression and anxiety). We then explored the nomological net surrounding each factor by examining cross-sectional associations with life satisfaction, hope, gratitude, school engagement, growth mindset, spirituality, physical vitality, physical activity, somatic symptoms, and stressful life events. Factors differentially related to these correlates, offering support for the multidimensional approach to measuring well-being. Directly assessing subjective well-being across multiple domains offers the potential for schools to more systematically understand and promote well-being.
We reflect on our 2002 article and the impact this research report has had both within and beyond psychological science. This article was both one of the first publications to provide empirical ...support for hypotheses based on the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions and a product of the genesis of positive psychology. We highlight empirical and theoretical advancements in the scientific understanding of upward spiral dynamics associated with positive emotions, with particular focus on the new upward spiral theory of lifestyle change. We conclude by encouraging deeper and more rigorous tests of the prospective and reciprocal relations associated with positive emotions. Such progress is needed to better inform translations and applications to improve people’s health and well-being.
Positive psychology has tended to be defined in terms of a concern with ‘positive’ psychological qualities and states. However, critics of the field have highlighted various problems inherent in ...classifying phenomena as either ‘positive’ or ‘negative.’ For instance, ostensibly positive qualities (e.g., optimism) can sometimes be detrimental to wellbeing, whereas apparently negative processes (like anxiety) may at times be conducive to it. As such, over recent years, a more nuanced ‘second wave’ of positive psychology has been germinating, which explores the philosophical and conceptual complexities of the very idea of the ‘positive.’ The current paper introduces this emergent second wave by examining the ways in which the field is developing a more subtle understanding of the dialectical nature of flourishing (i.e., involving a complex and dynamic interplay of positive and negative experiences). The paper does so by problematizing the notions of positive and negative through seven case studies, including five salient dichotomies (such as optimism vs. pessimism) and two complex processes (posttraumatic growth and love). These case studies serve to highlight the type of critical, dialectical thinking that characterises this second wave, thereby outlining the contours of the evolving field.
Positive psychology interventions are an effective means for cultivating flourishing, addressing low levels of wellbeing, and preventing languishing. Peer-led interventions can be a particularly ...advantageous delivery method of positive psychology interventions, as participants tend to respond more favourably to people that they can identify with personally. Such interventions have been applied in a variety of settings and populations, but the literature on peer-led positive psychology interventions has not yet been summarised. This paper provides a narrative overview of peer-led positive psychology interventions. We reviewed relevant peer-led interventions, assessed the available evidence on their effectiveness, and highlighted promising opportunities for peer-led positive psychology interventions. We found that the majority of the studies were observational in design but showed a high level of acceptability for participants across the reviewed domains. In particular, schools, workplaces, the aged care sector, and community settings are noted as promising target domains for these interventions. However, more studies—particularly high-quality research—will be needed to comprehensively test the effectiveness of peer-led positive psychology interventions. We discuss opportunities for future research in this field.
"Gratitude" has multiple meanings. One distinction is between gratitude with and without a benefactor. This paper presents two daily diary studies examining the experience of gratitude without a ...benefactor. In the first, some participants wrote each day about something good caused by someone else whereas others wrote about something good caused neither by self nor other. In the second, all participants wrote each day about something good caused neither by self nor other. Both studies included a novel measure of gratitude designed to distinguish gratitude with and without a benefactor. Across both studies, participants reported feeling gratitude even without a benefactor, and the novel measure of gratitude predicted daily gratitude even after controlling for other gratitude measures. In study 2, participants reported that benefactorless gratitude made them feel the motivational goals of being more obligated, spiritual, resourceful, indebted, generous, celebratory and wanting to help someone else, even after controlling for joy. Some analyses suggest that gratitude with a benefactor is particularly associated with obligation. For instance, in study 1, daily gratitude with a benefactor was more related to obligation than gratitude without a benefactor. These studies suggest that distinctions between gratitude with versus without a benefactor warrant continued exploration.
To examine the associations between mental health and lifestyle in adults with type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T1DM and T2DM).
Online survey data from the cross-sectional Diabetes MILES – The ...Netherlands Study was analysed, including 270 adults with T1DM and 325 with T2DM. Mental health status (flourishing, moderate and languishing) in relation to diet, physical activity, alcohol consumption and smoking was analysed with ANCOVA and logistic regressions (adjusted for confounders).
47% of T1DM-, and 55% of T2DM participants reported flourishing mental health. Due to an insufficient number, participants with languishing mental health were excluded. In T2DM, participants with flourishing mental health had more optimal diet quality (mean ± SEM: 70 ± 1 vs 68 ± 1 diet quality score, p = 0.015), and physical activity levels (mean ± SEM: 3484 ± 269 vs 2404 ± 273 MET minutes/week, p = 0.001) than those with moderate mental health, but did not differ with respect to alcohol consumption and smoking. In T1DM, no significant associations were found.
Only in T2DM, people with flourishing mental health had more optimal lifestyle behaviours compared to people with moderate mental health. Further research is needed to determine if mental health is more important for specific lifestyle behaviours, and if the mental health effect differs across diabetes types.
•A study on mental health, rather than mental ill-health, and lifestyle.•T1 diabetes: no significant associations were found.•T2 diabetes: mental health associated with more optimal diet and physical activity.•T2 diabetes: no associations with alcohol use, nor smoking.
Despite the broad importance of humor, psychologists do not agree on the basic elements that cause people to experience laughter, amusement, and the perception that something is funny. There are more ...than 20 distinct psychological theories that propose appraisals that characterize humor appreciation. Most of these theories leverage a subset of five potential antecedents of humor appreciation: surprise, simultaneity, superiority, a violation appraisal, and conditions that facilitate a benign appraisal. We evaluate each antecedent against the existing empirical evidence and find that simultaneity, violation, and benign appraisals all help distinguish humorous from nonhumorous experiences, but surprise and superiority do not. Our review helps organize a disconnected literature, dispel popular but inaccurate ideas, offers a framework for future research, and helps answer three long-standing questions about humor: what conditions predict laughter and amusement, what are the adaptive benefits of humor, and why do different people think vastly different things are humorous?
Research indicates that Positive Psychology Interventions (PPIs) in the work context have a small positive impact on improving desirable work outcomes, and a small to moderate effect on reducing ...undesirable work outcomes, suggesting that the effects of PPIs are not trivial, but also not large. Whereas this may be related to the difficulty of changing oneself or one’s happiness levels, the relatively small effects of PPIs may also be due to the predominant use of one-off interventions instead of more structural interventions that reflect policy level commitment. Furthermore, since most PPIs tend to focus on the individual, one could question the long-term effectiveness of such interventions, especially when the work environment remains unchanged. In this manuscript, I introduce a typology of PPIs in organizations by distinguishing between the organizational level they target (the individual or group level), and between one-off and structural interventions. I argue that different types of interventions can strengthen each other, and that to make a sustainable contribution to the optimal functioning of workers, PPIs need to comprise a wide variety of one-off and structural interventions targeting both individuals and groups in organizations. Furthermore, I make suggestions for improving the long-term effectiveness of PPIs by drawing on the literature on transfer of training, nudging, and positive design.
The Emerging Science of Virtue Fowers, Blaine J.; Carroll, Jason S.; Leonhardt, Nathan D. ...
Perspectives on psychological science,
01/2021, Letnik:
16, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Numerous scholars have claimed that positive ethical traits such as virtues are important in human psychology and behavior. Psychologists have begun to test these claims. The scores of studies on ...virtue do not yet constitute a mature science of virtue because of unresolved theoretical and methods challenges. In this article, we addressed those challenges by clarifying how virtue research relates to prosocial behavior, positive psychology, and personality psychology and does not run afoul of the fact–value distinction. The STRIVE-4 (Scalar Traits that are Role sensitive, include Situation × Trait Interactions, and are related to important Values that help to constitute
E
udaimonia) model of virtue is proposed to help resolve the theoretical and methods problems and encourage a mature science of virtue. The model depicts virtues as empirically verifiable, acquired scalar traits that are role sensitive, involve Situation × Trait interactions, and relate to important values that partly constitute eudaimonia (human flourishing). The model also holds that virtue traits have four major components: knowledge, behavior, emotion/motivation, and disposition. Heuristically, the STRIVE-4 model suggests 26 hypotheses, which are discussed in light of extant research to indicate which aspects of the model have been assessed and which have not. Research on virtues has included survey, intensive longitudinal, informant-based, experimental, and neuroscientific methods. This discussion illustrates how the STRIVE-4 framework can unify extant research and fruitfully guide future research.
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