Positive and Negative Affectivity as Mediator and Moderator of the Relationship between Optimism and Life Satisfaction in Turkish University Students

The main purpose of this study is to examine the mediator and moderator role of positive and negative affectivity variables on the relationship between optimism and life satisfaction in university students. 397 university students, ranging in age from 18 to 27 (M = 20.98), attending different departments of the Faculty of Education, at Pamukkale University in Turkey participated as subjects in the study. Data were collected by using PANAS, LOT, and SWLS. The relationship between optimism and satisfaction was partially mediated by both positive and negative affectivity. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that positive and negative affectivity did not moderate the relationship between optimism and life satisfaction.     

The Palliative Function of System Justification: Concurrent Benefits Versus Longer-Term Costs to Wellbeing

We examined the extent to which system justification buffered the negative effect of retrospective experiences of active harm from general sources in society on life satisfaction during the same assessment period, and prospectively 1 year later. Results from a nationally representative sample indicated that the retrospective assessment of active harm and quality of life were uncorrelated for people who endorsed system justifying ideology (N = 6,518). Study 2 replicated the concurrent buffering effect of system justification on subjective wellbeing and demonstrated that the effect reversed over time. For people high in system justification beliefs, societal-level harm prospectively predicted lower life satisfaction 1 year later (N = 136 undergraduates). Perceiving the system as fair and legitimate in the face of harm from others in society has opposing short and longer-term effects on wellbeing. We argue that these opposing effects occur because although system justification trumps experiences of harm and buffers life satisfaction in the short-term; the resulting experience-belief conflict engenders a state of ideological dissonance that predicts negative psychological outcomes down the track.     

Lockdown babies: Birth and new parenting experiences during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown in South Africa,a cross-sectional study

BackgroundPerceived birth experiences of parents can have a lasting impact on children. We explored the birth and new parenting experiences of South African parents in 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdown.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional online survey with consenting parents of babies born in South Africa during 2020. Factors associated with negative birth emotions and probable depression were estimated using logistic regression.ResultsMost of the 520 respondents were females (n = 496, 95%) who gave birth at private hospitals (n = 426, 86%). Mothers reported having overall positive birth emotions (n = 399, 80%). Multivariable analysis showed that having a preterm baby (aOR 2.89; CI 1.51–5.53) and the mother self-reporting that Covid-19 affected her birth experience (aOR 4.25; CI 2.08–8.68) increased the odds of mothers reporting predominantly negative emotions about their birth. The mother having her preferred delivery method reduced the odds of having negative birth emotions (aOR 0.41; CI 0.25–0.66). Multivariable analysis showed that having predominantly negative emotions about the birth increased the odds of probable minor depression (aOR 3.60; CI 1.93–6.70). Being older reduced the odds of having probable minor depression (25?34 years aOR 0.36; CI 0.10–1.32; 35 years or older aOR 0.25; CI 0.06?0.91).ConclusionsLockdown exacerbated many birth and parenting challenges including mental health and health care access. However, overall experiences were positive and there was a strong sense of resilience amongst parents.     

The Impacts of Attributional Styles and Dispositional Optimism on Subject Well-Being: A Structural Equation Modelling Analysis

The current study examined the impact of attributional styles on subjective well-being, with a primary focus on confirmation of the mediator role of dispositional optimism among a sample of 384 college students. Participants completed a questionnaire packet containing life orientation test-revised, Multidimensional-Multiattributional Causality Scale, and Subjective Well-Being Scale. The results revealed that both dispositional optimism and attributional styles were significantly correlated with subjective well-being. Confirmatory factor analysis identified the latent structure of attributional styles in Chinese college students and found out that both positive and negative effort need to exclude from the structure which was different from findings in Western. Structural equation modeling indicated that optimism partially mediated positive attributional styles to subject well-being (SWB) and negative attributional styles to SWB. The final model also revealed significant both paths from positive and negative attributional styles to subjective well-being through optimism. The findings extended prior researches and shed light on how attributional styles influence subjective well-being; this provides valuable evidence on how to promote subjective well-being in positive psychology.     

To hide or not to hide, that is the question! Lesbians and gay men describe experiences from nursing work environment

Homosexual nursing staff (n = 21) from different parts of Sweden were interviewed about experiences from their psychosocial work environment and about what they consider important points to communicate about lesbians and gay men in nursing. The findings show that most of the informants were partly open about their sexual orientation at work, the women less so than the men. All informants spoke of the fear of being socially excluded. Reported negative experiences included being neglected, harassment, and verbal discomfort based on sexual prejudices. The informants regarded responsibility, the need for knowledge, the consequences of invisibility, and the lesbian's specific situation, important points to communicate regarding homosexuality and nursing.     

Reconstructing childhood health histories

This article provides evidence about the quality of retrospective childhood health histories given to respondents in the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Even though information on early life health events is critical, there is legitimate skepticism about the ability of older respondents to remember specific health problems that they had during childhood. The evidence presented in this article suggests that this view is too negative. Respondents appear to remember salient childhood events about themselves, such as the illnesses they had during childhood, quite well. Moreover, these physical and psychological childhood health events are important correlates of adult health during middle age.     

Can Balance be Boring? A Critique of the “Challenges Should Match Skills” Hypotheses in Flow Theory

Two separate studies investigated if the balance between challenges and skills is the best indicator of a subjective experience in general and of an optimal experience in particular. Study 1 followed a group of 64 first year sport- and outdoor students on a 3 day coastal trip and a 3 day ski trip (10 event measures) and their memory of their trip (4 remembered measures), which gave 698 single reports on subjective experiences (76%). Study 2 followed a group of 26 s year outdoor students on a 5 day glacier course (10 event measures), which gave 260 single reports (100%). Multiple regression analysis, all with challenges, skills and the interaction between challenges and skills as the independent variables gave no support to the challenge skill ratio on subjective experiences, explaining on average 9 and 14 % of a scope of positive and negative experiences in Study 1 and Study 2 respectively. In Study 1, the experience fluctuation model (EFM) explained 2 % of the variance in a variable measuring pleasure and 3 % of the variance in an interest variable. In study 2, the EFM explained 12.7 % of the variance in the pleasure variable and 10.8 % of the variance in the interest variable. Neither of our flow indicators peaked in the balance condition of challenges and skills. Rather, empirical support was given for an imbalance model of challenges and skills. The findings contest the widespread idea that flow is produced when challenges and skills are harmonized.     

Development of the Contentment with Life Assessment Scale (CLAS): Using Daily Life Experiences to Verify Levels of Self-Reported Life Satisfaction

On average, Anglo-Americans report that they are satisfied with their lives, but their global evaluations tend to deviate from their daily experiences (e.g., Oishi [2002, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28(10), 1398–1406]). We explored the hypothesis that the average life satisfaction of Anglo-Americans is better characterized as neutral than satisfied. In Study 1 we developed the five-item Contentment with Life Assessment Scale (CLAS), which focuses on contentment, fulfillment and self-discrepancies. Normative data based on three general population samples demonstrated that the CLAS produces a close to normal distribution of scores, has excellent reliability, and is sensitive to differences in life conditions (e.g., income, marital status). In two daily diary studies we tested whether global life satisfaction measures corresponded to people’s daily subjective well-being. The CLAS was the best predictor among three self-report life satisfaction measures of daily escapist behaviors including television watching and alcohol consumption, and daily stress-related physical symptoms (Study 2). In Study 3, participants recorded their level of life satisfaction daily for two weeks. Average daily life satisfaction scores clustered close to the neutral rather than satisfied point of the measurement scale.     

Expression and ambivalence over expression of negative emotion: cross-sectional associations with psychosocial factors and health-related quality of life in postmenopausal women

Inhibition of emotional expression has been associated with the incidence and progression of breast cancer and other chronic illnesses. The important health-related factor, however, may be ambivalence about the expression of emotions rather than repression itself. This cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from 159,557 participants in the Women's Health Initiative examined the influence of expression of negative emotion and ambivalence about expression of emotion on psychosocial factors and health-related quality of life measured by the Medical Outcomes Study Short-form 36 (SF-36). Overall, observed correlations were modest but in the expected direction; that is, greater ambivalence about negative emotional expression was associated with worse general health and poorer psychosocial risk profile. Ambivalence about expressing negative emotion was more highly correlated with psychosocial factors and health-related quality of life than emotional expression. In general, our analysis supports prior studies suggesting that ambivalence may be more important to consider in studies of health-related outcomes than expression.     

The construction and validation of the homopositivity scale: an instrument measuring endorsement of positive stereotypes about gay men

Social scientists appear to focus on negative beliefs about, and attitudes toward, gay men and lesbian women. This emphasis, though understandable in view of the widespread oppression of gay and lesbian individuals, is somewhat myopic because it ignores what might be referred to as the positive dimension of stereotypes. Although such a concept may appear oxymoronic, it is widely recognized that individuals may endorse a mixture of positive and negative stereotypes toward stigmatized groups such as African Americans and women. The purpose of the current series of studies (Study 1, N = 212; Study 2, N = 105) was to devise an instrument measuring endorsement of positive stereotypes about gay men (Homopositivity Scale; HPS). Two versions of the HPS (of varying length) were evaluated, with scale scores on both appearing to be internally consistent and factorially distinct from scales measuring negative stereotypes and prejudices about gay men. These studies also suggest that females are more likely than males to endorse positive stereotypes about gay men, and that such endorsement is negatively associated with need for uniqueness and need for cognition, and positively associated with media contact and benevolent sexism. The limitations of the two studies are outlined and the importance of assessing positive stereotypes about gay men in conjunction with oft-examined homonegativity is discussed.     

The Measure Matters: An Investigation of Evaluative and Experience-Based Measures of Wellbeing in Time Use Data

Measures of subjective wellbeing (SWB) are used to understand how people think and feel about their lives and experiences. But the measure used matters to conclusions about how well people’s lives are going. This research compares life evaluations and experienced SWB using nationally representative time use diaries, advancing previous research because diaries are less subject to recall biases than other, more popular methods. Analyses of over 20,000 US residents in 2012–2013 show life evaluations are more closely associated with positive and negative affect than experienced meaningfulness. Women have higher SWB than men except for negative affect, older age groups have higher SWB than middle age groups except for experienced meaningfulness, and younger age groups report the lowest experienced meaning. The unemployed have low life evaluations but experiences of SWB are similar across employment groups. A complete picture of SWB requires a complete set of measures.     

Adolescent Same-Sex Attraction and Mental Health: The Role of Stress and Support

This study draws on the social stress model from the sociology of mental health to examine the impact of same-sex attraction on depressed mood and suicidal tendencies. Specifically, we hypothesize that across multiple contexts, adolescents with same-sex attractions are likely to experience more social stress and less social support than heterosexual adolescents. In turn, these experiences increase the likelihood of negative mental health outcomes. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 11,911), we find that adolescents with same-sex attraction are more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to report depressed mood and suicidal tendencies. Moreover, stress and social support were found to mediate a substantial part of the relationship between same-sex attraction and depressed mood. In addition, stress and social support mediated about one third of the relationship between same-sex attraction and suicidal tendencies. These findings give strong support for the social stress model. We conclude with a discussion of the role that alienation plays in same-sex-attracted adolescent mental health.     

Health profiles and profile-specific health expectancies of older women and men: The Netherlands

This study focuses on gender differences in health profiles, and examines which health profiles drive gender differences in remaining life expectancy in women and men aged 65 and over in The Netherlands. Data from the first two cycles of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (n = 2,141 and 1,659, respectively) were used to calculate health profiles for individuals of 65-85 years. For both women and men, six profiles were found: I. cancer; II. "other" chronic diseases; III. cognitive impairment; IV. frailty or multimorbidity; V. cardiovascular diseases; and VI. good health. The further characterization of these types showed some gender differences. Remaining life expectancy for women was greater than for men in each health profile. A decomposition into health expectancies showed that both women and men could expect to live about 5 years in good health from age 66. The greatest gender differences in years spent with health problems were found for profile IV and for profile III. Their greater number of years spent in these health states have direct consequences for the type and cost of care women need.     

Health Profiles and Profile-Specific Health Expectancies of Older Women and Men: The Netherlands

SUMMARY

This study focuses on gender differences in health profiles, and examines which health profiles drive gender differences in remaining life expectancy in women and men aged 65 and over in The Netherlands. Data from the first two cycles of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (n = 2,141 and 1,659, respectively) were used to calculate health profiles for individuals of 65–85 years. For both women and men, six profiles were found: I. cancer; II. “other” chronic diseases; III. cognitive impairment; IV. frailty or multimorbidity; V. cardiovascular diseases; and VI. good health. The further characterization of these types showed some gender differences. Remaining life expectancy for women was greater than for men in each health profile. A decomposition into health expectancies showed that both women and men could expect to live about 5 years in good health from age 66. The greatest gender differences in years spent with health problems were found for profile IV and for profile III. Their greater number of years spent in these health states have direct consequences for the type and cost of care women need.     

Can We Compare Life Satisfaction Between Nationalities? Evaluating Actual and Imagined Situations

Do differences in reported life satisfaction between societies reflect real differences or do they reflect cultural differences in the way people rate their experiences? Study 1 showed that imagining better or worse life situations affected student respondents’ ratings of their own life satisfaction, as predicted by range–frequency theory. Study 2 investigated how German and Polish students rated their actual life satisfaction and how satisfied they would be under three imagined scenarios. Study 3 similarly compared Danish and Hungarian students. Both studies found significant differences in the rating of the hypothetical situations, and moderate correlations between ratings of satisfaction in the hypothetical situations and reality, but in neither study were national differences in actual satisfaction predicted by differences in hypothetical satisfaction. Overall, the results suggest that national differences in rated life satisfaction are real rather than reflecting differences in how satisfaction is rated.     

Measuring LGBTQ Microaggressions: The Sexual Orientation Microaggressions Scale (SOMS) and the Gender Identity Microaggressions Scale (GIMS)

ABSTRACT

Microaggressions are brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, intentional or unintentional, that demonstrate bias toward members of historically marginalized groups. While numerous quantitative studies on racial microaggressions have emerged in recent years, studies on sexual orientation and gender identity microaggressions have been mostly qualitative—likely due to limited measures of anti-LGBTQ microaggressions. In this three-part study, the Sexual Orientation Microaggressions Scale (SOMS) and the Gender Identity Microaggressions Scale (GIMS) are introduced to empirically explore the multifaceted experiences of microaggressions toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) people and transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people. In Study 1 (N = 260), a principal components analysis yielded a five-factor structure of sexual orientation microaggressions; in Study 2, a new sample (N = 140) is used to confirm the utility of the SOMS. In Study 3, the GIMS is piloted with a sample of TGNC participants (N = 160). Implications for future studies are discussed.     

Personality Traits and Subjective Well-Being: Moderating Role of Optimism in University Employees

The present study examined the moderating impact of optimism on the relationship between personality traits (neuroticism and conscientiousness) and subjective well-being (distress and satisfaction with life) among university employees. Participants were 251 (age 25–60) employees at COMSATS University, who completed demographic information sheet, two subscales (neuroticism and conscientiousness) of NEO Personality Inventory (Costa et al. in Br J Psychol 78:299–306, 1987), Life Orientation Test-Revised (Scheier et al. in J Pers Soc Psychol 67:1063–1078, 1994), Satisfaction with Life Scale (Dienere et al. in J Persy Assess 49:71–75, 1985), and two subscales (depression and anxiety) of Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis and Melisaratos in Psychol Med 13:595–605, 1983). On a final sample of 251 university employees, a series of moderated hierarchical regression analyses were performed separately for positive and negative health outcomes. Results indicated that optimism moderated between neuroticism and distress and neuroticism and satisfaction with life. Further, optimism moderated between conscientiousness and distress and conscientiousness and satisfaction with life. The current findings have implications for clinicians, researchers, and policy makers for the identification of resource factors that may help to understand the resistant power of non clinical sample to maintain positive functioning.     

Social and Developmental Predictors of Optimism from Infancy to Early Adulthood

The positive effects of dispositional optimismon mental and physical health are welldocumented, but little is known about itsdevelopmental origins. The presentpopulation-based longitudinal study of youngadults (n = 8673) examined predictors ofoptimism that were related to early childhoodfamily conditions, school achievementin middle childhood, education, and work statusin early adulthood. As theoreticalstarting points, previous research on otherrelated positive psychological constructs,previous research on depression, and life spanresearch were used. The results showedthat the wantedness of the child, the father'ssocioeconomic status and changes in it,school achievement, vocational education andwork history predicted significantlyoptimism at 31 years. A good financialsituation and being married were stronglyassociated with optimism at 31 years.     

Is the Good Life the Easy Life?

Three studies examined folk concepts of the good life. Participantsrated the desirability and moral goodness of a life as a function of thehappiness, meaning, and effort experienced. Happiness and meaning weresolid predictors of the good life, replicating King and Napa (1998).Study 1 (N = 381) included wealth as an additional factor. Resultsshowed little desire for exorbitant (over moderate) wealth, but also adesire to avoid poverty. When effort was operationalized as number ofhours worked, respondents desired the easy life, particularly atmoderate levels of income. When effort was operationalized as effortfulengagement (Study 2), 186 undergraduates and 178 community adults ratedthe hardworking life as morally superior to the easy life. Communityadults preferred meaningful lives of ease, while college studentspreferred meaningful lives that involved effort. Study 3 (N = 359) foundthe meaningful, effortful life was rated as most morally good, and thehappy effortful life was rated as most desirable, happy, and meaningful.The role of hard work in naïve notions of The Good Life is discussed.