Spirituality in the Context of Well-being. Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties and Added Value of the Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List Short Form (SAIL-SF)
AbstractThere is growing evidence that spiritual well-being is positively associated with adaptive coping and health. The Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List (SAIL) was developed to measure a sense of connectedness to oneself, the environment and the transcendent as a universal experience. The aim of the current study was to develop a short form of the SAIL (SAIL-SF). A factor analytic approach was adopted to select the items for the SAIL-SF based on earlier studies among nurses (n  = 458) and cancer patients (n = 445). The dimensionality, factor-loadings, internal consistency, construct validity and incrementa...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - March 5, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

The Effects of an Online Positive Psychology Course on Happiness, Health, and Well-Being
This study investigated the effects of an 8-week online positive psychology course on happiness, health, and well-being. There were 65 undergraduate students in the course and a comparison group of 63 undergraduates taking other online psychology courses. The participants were assessed on positive mental health (e.g., happiness, positive emotions), negative mental health (e.g., anxiety, depression), general health, and personal characteristics (e.g., hope, resilience) during the first and last week of the courses. The anxiety and depression measures had cut-offs for clinically significant symptoms. The hypotheses were that...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - March 2, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Thriving on Strengths: Effects of a Strengths Intervention for Younger and Older Teachers
AbstractThe teaching profession is characterized by high demands and teachers who thrive are better able to navigate their demanding context than teachers who survive. Based on theories on strengths use we propose that strengths interventions which help teachers to identify, use, and develop their strengths can enhance their thriving (vitality and learning) which enables them to perform better. In addition, based on the socioemotional selective theory we propose that strengths interventions are especially beneficial for older teachers because it fits their goals and skills. We conducted a quasi-experimental study, in which...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - March 1, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Importance Weighting in Subjective Well-Being Measures: Using Marginal Utilities as Weights for Domain Satisfaction
AbstractWhether perceived importance can be used as a weighting factor for the aggregation of domain satisfaction is an important issue in the literature on subjective well-being (SWB) measures with multidimensional domains. This paper extends the weighting approach proposed by Benjamin et al. (Am Econ Rev 104:2698 –2735, 2014) and uses it to weight domain satisfaction. The weights estimated by this approach can be interpreted as marginal utility, and the weighted average of the domain satisfaction of each individual can be interpreted as the individual’s utility. Using a data set collected from a 2015 sur vey that we ...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - February 28, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Cross-Cultural Psychometric Analysis of the Mature Happiness Scale-Revised: Mature Happiness, Psychological Inflexibility, and the PERMA Model
AbstractThe present study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Mature Happiness Scale, a measure focused on inner harmony. Mature happiness is achieved when a person can live in balance between both positive and negative aspects of their life. A total sample of 2,130 participants from five countries (Canada:n = 390, United States:n = 223, United Kingdom:n = 512, Spain:n = 724, and Hungary:n = 281) responded to an online survey including the original Mature Happiness Scale, the PERMA-Profiler, and the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses yie...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - February 16, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

The Convergence of Positivity: Are Happy People All Alike?
AbstractMore than a century ago Leo Tolstoy noted that happy families tend to be more similar to each other than unhappy families. Was this just a cognitive illusion, driven by his mind ’s predisposition to see positive entities as more similar to each other, or did he make a profound observation about the world? If it is true, is the phenomenon limited to happiness, or is it a characteristic of positive traits more generally? This question has received attention in multiple fiel ds, but not in psychology. We ran five studies, testing the more general hypothesis that people who share some positive individual-difference t...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - February 16, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Do Wisdom and Well-Being Always Go Hand in Hand? The Role of Dialogues with Oneself
AbstractRecently, it has been demonstrated that wisdom positively predicted well-being. The paradox is that the development of wisdom is strongly linked to adverse experiences that can make a person feel “wiser but sadder”. This paper aims to test whether two types of dialogues with oneself, i.e. integrative and identity internal dialogues moderate the relationships of critical life experiences and reminiscence/reflectiveness (as components of wisdom) with psychological well-being. To check this , 202 women and 217 men completed four measures: Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale, Psychological Well-Being Scales, Internal Dialog...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - February 15, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Climbing the Career Ladder Does Not Make You Happy: Well-being Changes in the Years Before and After Becoming a Leader
AbstractSubjective well-being tends to be higher in leaders vs. non-leaders. However, do these differences come from selection effects (e.g., because higher subjective well-being predisposes for occupational success) or from within-person well-being changes before and after becoming a leader? This question remains largely unresolved. Previous research suggests that becoming a leader might be a double-edged sword and affect subjective well-being positively but also negatively (e.g., due to more power but also more stress). Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (N = 25,674), we examined (a) well-being dif...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - February 13, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Appreciative Joy: A Critical Review of Empirical Research
AbstractAppreciative joy refers to feeling happy for others with appreciative and unenvious attitudes and is emphasized in Buddhist and Chinese culture. Empirical studies on appreciative joy have recently appeared in multiple disciplines in psychology, and it is time to summarize their findings and potential limitations. In terms of interpersonal attitudes, studies have supported that appreciative joy and appreciative joy meditation (AJM) activate altruism, promote cooperation, counter envy and influence interpersonal perceptions. As for subjective well-being, studies have consistently supported appreciative joy and AJM co...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - February 13, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Digital Flourishing: Conceptualizing and Assessing Positive Perceptions of Mediated Social Interactions
AbstractRecent research started to apply concepts of well-being to the context of computer mediated communication (e.g., social media, instant messaging). While much research investigates negative perceptions of mediated social interactions (e.g., “problematic” or “addictive” social media use), a multi-dimensional measure that taps into users? positive perceptions is sorely lacking. The present research therefore develops the first comprehensive measure ofdigital flourishing, defined as positive perceptions of mediated social interactions. Building on a qualitative pre-study that aided the construction of the Digit...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - February 10, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Employment Disruption and Wellbeing Among Young Adults: A Cross-National Study of Perceived Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown
This study examined to what extent and how job loss and income loss due to the pandemic influenc ed young adults’ perception of their present financial wellbeing, future financial wellbeing, and psychological wellbeing by using cross-sectional survey data collected from six countries (China, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia, and the United States). Results showed that the impact of income loss and job loss on all three types of wellbeing were mediated by young adults’ negative perception of the COVID-19 lockdown restriction (i.e., perceived as a misfortune). Cross-country differences existed in the key variables. T...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - February 7, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Daily Adolescent Purposefulness, Daily Subjective Well-Being, and Individual Differences in Autistic Traits
This study addresses these gaps in the literature using a daily diary approach to track adolescents (N = 204;Mage = 16.42 years; 70.1% female) across approximately 70 days of enrollment inGripTape, a U.S.-based out-of-school time program that supports engagement with personally meaningful activities. We found that on days teens felt more purposeful than usual, they tended to report greater SWB. Moreover, we failed to find evidence that subclinical autistic traits, an individual difference that corresponded with lower daily SWB ratings, moderated the observed daily benefits of feeling more purposeful than usual. With one of...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - February 7, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Placing Adolescents on a Trajectory to Happiness: The Role of Family Assets and Intentional Self-Regulation
AbstractBased on the positive youth development perspective, we develop a series of models including family assets, intentional self-regulation, and happiness to analyze the paths between the intercepts and slopes of the constructs. A sample of 1214 school children (Mage = 12.89,SD = 0.51) was followed from their 1st–3rd year of junior high school. The results showed that Chinese adolescents have good, stable family assets, which positively predict the increased trajectory of their intentional self-regulation (ISR) and happiness. Additionally, the initial level and chan ge rates of ISR played a mediating role rat...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - February 2, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Which Decision Theory Describes Life Satisfaction Best? Evidence from Annual Panel Data
AbstractWe use an annual household panel to conduct a comparative analysis of which decision theory explains life satisfaction better. We consider expected utility theory and prospect theory. We consider the effects of three domains on life satisfaction: income, health, and (un)employment. Using a fixed effects estimator we find that life satisfaction contains features of both expected utility theory and prospect theory. However, the elements of expected utility theory are stronger predictors of life satisfaction. Life satisfaction depends positively on income, good health, and employment. It also depends positively on inc...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - January 31, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Honey, There ´s Something on My Mind… Adverse Consequences of Negative and Positive Work Rumination on Attention to the Partner, and the Advantage of Talking About it
AbstractIn the contemporary 24/7 working society, the separation of work and private life is increasingly turning into an unrealizable ideal. Ruminating about work outside the work context lets work spill over into private lives and affects the dynamics of workers ’ private relationships. Although negative work rumination was linked to couples’ reduced relationship satisfaction, little is known about the mechanism of action and the impact of positive work rumination. Drawing on the load theory of selective attention, we hypothesize that both negative and positive work rumination occupy attentional resources and thus re...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - January 31, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research