Well Being

Law firms seeking a competitive advantage in the marketplace would do well to consider that the positive psychological resources of firm lawyers are just as important to individual and organizational performance as their intellectual resources. There is growing evidence from the fields of positive psychology and positive organizational behavior that the resources of hope, optimism, self-efficacy and resilience shape the underlying attitudes and behaviors associated with increased performance. These resources may even buffer lawyers against the occupational hazards of the profession that cut against long-term success – hazards that include depression, anxiety, substance abuse and suicide. In this capstone I advocate for traditional law firm associate training programs to be enhanced to include the development of psychological capital (or “PsyCap”), a construct consisting of the components of hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism. I discuss how policies that promote lawyer str...

Educational institutions should ensure that students develop a professional identity, as well as safeguarding their well-being and activating awareness and change processes. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of group psychodynamic counselling as a means of reinforcing academic identity – considered the forerunner of professional identity – and psychological well-being in a group of final-year undergraduates studying clinical psychology. Thirty-three final-year-students of clinical psychology who participated in six group psychodynamic counselling sessions were compared with sixteen final-year students of clinical psychology who had never participated in an intervention of this kind. The results suggested that group psychodynamic counselling made students feel more capable of managing their lives and more open to new experiences as well as encouraging them to perceive their relationships as more positive and satisfying, to believe that their life is meaningful, and to ...

People occasionally choose to cut themselves off from their online social network by taking extended breaks from Facebook. This study investigated whether abstaining from Facebook reduces stress but also reduces subjective well-being because of the resulting social disconnection. Participants (138 active Facebook users) were assigned to either a condition in which they were instructed to give up Facebook for 5 days or continue to use Facebook as normal. Perceived stress and well-being, as well as salivary cortisol, were measured before and after the test period. Relative to those in the Facebook Normal condition, those in the No Facebook condition experienced lower levels of cortisol and life satisfaction. Our results suggest that the typical Facebook user may occasionally find the large amount of social information available to be taxing, and Facebook vacations could ameliorate this stress-at least in the short term.

Previous studies at the county level have found an increase in forest cover, urbanization, and water structures in the Black Belt counties of Alabama and have documented the connection between such increase and socioeconomic development in the region. However, such findings have limited inferences as the studies did not address the variations in demographic, socio-economic, and land cover attributes within the counties. A better understanding of such linkage is to integrate socio-economic and land cover information available at a finer geographic scale and use them in developing spatial predictive models. Using satellite images and U.S. census data, we quantified changes in land cover and human well-being matrices for census block-groups for 1990 and 2000 and examined spatial regression models relating changes in human well-being index to the changes in major land cover types. Results suggest that weak relationship between human well-being and land cover types was improved significa...

Educational institutions should ensure that students develop a professional identity, as well as safeguarding their well-being and activating awareness and change processes. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of group psychodynamic counselling as a means of reinforcing academic identity – considered the forerunner of professional identity – and psychological well-being in a group of final-year undergraduates studying clinical psychology. Thirty-three final-year-students of clinical psychology who participated in six group psychodynamic counselling sessions were compared with sixteen final-year students of clinical psychology who had never participated in an intervention of this kind. The results suggested that group psychodynamic counselling made students feel more capable of managing their lives and more open to new experiences as well as encouraging them to perceive their relationships as more positive and satisfying, to believe that their life is meaningful, and to achieve greater self-acceptance. The in-depth exploration also prompted students to consider their commitment to their choice of career. Group psychodynamic counselling also reinforced students’ educational choice, as the likelihood of students becoming less committed to this choice was reduced after the intervention. Thus, the study confirmed the efficacy of group psychodynamic counselling as a means of reinforcing both academic identity and promoting well-being and demonstrated that it is a tool clinical psychologists and university teachers could use to activate self-reflection and change within educational settings.

Sumanai is a Japanese word that refers to a feeling in response to a favor; it includes gratitude, along with sorrow and sometimes guilt for having put the benefactor to so much trouble. The purpose of the current research was to explore sumanai, gratitude, and indebtedness, and their relations to interpersonal orientation and psychological well-being. Results from Study 1 with 115 female Japanese university students confirmed the distinct meanings of gratitude, sumanai, and indebtedness in terms of their dissimilar correlations with other feelings. The results also revealed that when the benefactor’s expectation for repayment was manipulated, gratitude and sumanai, but not indebtedness, decreased with increasing benefactor expectations. In Study 2 with a sample of 179 female Japanese university students, sumanai had a significant positive correlation with interpersonal orientation but did not have a significant positive correlation with psychological well-being. Interpersonal orien...

Numerous studies document that societal happiness is correlated with individualism, but the nature of this phenomenon remains understudied. In the current paper, we address this gap and test the reasoning that individualism correlates with societal happiness because the most common measure of societal happiness (i.e., country-level aggregates of personal life satisfaction) is individualism-themed. With the data collected from 13,009 participants across fifty countries, we compare associations of four types of happiness (out of which three are more collectivism-themed than personal life satisfaction) with two different measures of individualism. We replicated previous findings by demonstrating that societal happiness measured as country-level aggregate of personal life satisfaction is correlated with individualism. Importantly though, we also found that the country-level aggregates of the collectivism-themed measures of happiness do not tend to be significantly correlated with indivi...

Although Health Chaplaincy services are well-established in hospitals in the United Kingdom and across the world, Primary Care Chaplaincy is still in its infancy and much less extensively developed. This study explored the impact the introduction of a Primary Care “Chaplains for Wellbeing” service had upon patients’ experience and perceived health and well-being. Sixteen patients participated in one-one interviews. Transcripts were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Patients reported circumstances that had eroded perceived self- efficacy, self-identity, and security manifesting as existential displacement; summarized under the superordinate theme of “loss.” “Loss” originated from a number of sources and was expressed as the loss of hope, self-confidence, self-efficacy, and sense of purpose and meaning. Chaplains used a wide range of strategies enabling patients to rebuild self-confidence and self- esteem. Person-centered, dignified, and responsive care of...

Purpose: Educational approaches that advocate “well-being,” the “whole child,” “social and emotional learning,” “character,” and the like emphasize human development beyond the acquisition of knowledge and skills. These approaches vary widely in their views of human nature, their visions of a good life, and their prescriptions for educational practice. This article maps out heterogeneous contemporary approaches to “well-being” and related constructs, thereby allowing researchers, educators, and policymakers to understand the divergent assumptions made by the proliferating approaches to education that go beyond academics. Design/Approach/Methods: This article presents results from a 2-year project, which included interviews with advocates of different approaches and review of key literature about eleven educational approaches to “well-being,” the “whole child,” “social and emotional learning,” “character,” and similar noncognitive ends. Findings: The article argues that any education...

A total of 843 college students in Guangdong University of Foreign Studies were investigated using a social support evaluation scale, a resilience scale, and a life satisfaction evaluation scale. Results were analyzed using IBM® SPSS 21.0® and Amos 17.0. It was shown that there existed a positive correlation respectively among resilience, social support and life satisfaction. Social support predicted resilience positively and resilience partially mediated the association between social support and life satisfaction. Finally, resilience moderated the association between social support and life satisfaction; the higher the resilience level, the more significant the positive predictive effect of social support on life satisfaction. College students' life satisfaction is closely related to social support and resilience; resilience partially plays a mediating and moderating role between social support and life satisfaction.

In 2013, illegal drug use was responsible for 1.8% of years of life lost in the European Union, alcohol was responsible for 8.2% and tobacco for 18.2%, imposing economic burdens in excess of 2.5% of GDP. No single European country has optimal governance structures for reducing the harm done by nicotine, illegal drugs and alcohol, and existing ones are poorly designed, fragmented, and sometimes cause harm. Reporting the main science and policy conclusions of a transdisciplinary five-year analysis of the place of addictions in Europe, researchers from 67 scientific institutions addressed these problems by reframing an understanding of addictions.  A new paradigm needs to account for evolutionary evidence which suggests that humans are biologically predisposed to seek out drugs, and that, today, individuals face availability of high drug doses, consequently increasing the risk of harm.  New definitions need to acknowledge that the defining element of addictive drugs is 'heavy use o...

Individual differences are one of the factors that influence the psychological climate. The existence of bias and the existence of the perception of the influence of other factors on an individual, so that in the same neighborhood but in different individuals our own ingrained perceptions would be different. It affects an individual's self-efficacy as one of dimension psychological capital which is related to a person's perception of employee well-being, where the employee well-being as well as a factor's effect of psychological climate. Therefore, this study aims to find out whether employee well-being have a role as a mediator between psychological capital and psychological climate. The results from 378 hospitality employees showed that employee well-being acts as a partial mediator in the relationship between psychological capital and psychological climate. There were differences in employee well-being and psychological climate between group ages 18-30 years and 31-60...

The aim of this study was to determine well-being and its relationship to social support from friends and family communication in university students. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 1679 university students aged 18–25 years from four universities in Spain. Logistical regression models were tested (p < 0.05). The students in the last year of university reported higher well-being scores in comparison with students in the previous years. Well-being was inversely related to family communication problems. Family communication and social support from friends were the factors that associated the most with better well-being. All the regression models were statistically significant and explained from 16% of the well-being in Year 4 students until 34% of the well-being in Year 1 students. Our findings could be useful for developing interventions to promote health in order to improve college students’ well-being. It is important for strategies to be developed in mental and famil...

Marking the 25th anniversary of the “digital divide,” we continue our metaphor of the digital inequality stack by mapping out the rapidly evolving nature of digital inequality using a broad lens. We tackle complex, and often unseen, inequalities spawned by the platform economy, automation, big data, algorithms, cybercrime, cybersafety, gaming, emotional well-being, assistive technologies, civic engagement, and mobility. These inequalities are woven throughout the digital inequality stack in many ways including differentiated access, use, consumption, literacies, skills, and production. While many users are competent prosumers who nimbly work within different layers of the stack, very few individuals are “full stack engineers” able to create or recreate digital devices, networks, and software platforms as pure producers. This new frontier of digital inequalities further differentiates digitally skilled creators from mere users. Therefore, we document emergent forms of inequality that...

Objective: Identifying positive psychological factors that reduce health care use may lead to innovative efforts that help build a more sustainable and high-quality health care system. Prospective studies indicate that life satisfaction is associated with good health behaviors, enhanced health, and longer life, but little information about the association between life satisfaction and health care use is available. We tested whether higher life satisfaction was prospectively associated with fewer doctor visits. We also examined potential interactions between life satisfaction and health behaviors.

Methods: Participants were 6379 adults from the Health and Retirement Study, a prospective and nationally representative panel study of American adults older than 50 years. Participants were tracked for 4 years. We analyzed the data using a generalized linear model with a gamma distribution and log link.

Results: Higher life satisfaction was associated with fewer doctor visits. On a 6-point life satisfaction scale, each unit increase in life satisfaction was associated with an 11% decrease in doctor visits—after adjusting for sociodemographic factors (relative risk = 0.89, 95% confidence interval = 0.86–0.93). The most satisfied respondents (n = 1121; 17.58%) made 44% fewer doctor visits than did the least satisfied (n = 182; 2.85%). The association between higher life satisfaction and reduced doctor visits remained even after adjusting for baseline health and a wide range of sociodemographic, psychosocial, and health-related covariates (relative risk = 0.96, 95% confidence interval = 0.93–0.99).

Conclusions: Higher life satisfaction is associated with fewer doctor visits, which may have important implications for reducing health care costs.

Individual differences in diurnal preferences and circadian rhythms are viewed as an interesting dimension of human personality. Previous research has examined various psychological correlates of diurnal preference. Evening types reported psychological and psychosomatic disturbances more frequently and intensively than morning types and morning types have a healthier lifestyle than evening types. Depression was also related to eveningness as were bulimic behaviour and seasonal affected disorders (SAD). Given these studies, one would expect a positive relationship between satisfaction with life or happiness (general well-being; Diener et al. (J Pers Assess 49:71–75, 1985)) and morningness. There was a significant positive correlation between morningness and satisfaction with life (r = 0.177; p = 0.023; N = 164).

Creativity in adults is highly valued in our society. Personal creativity contributes to inventiveness, innovation, social and cultural change as well as political development and economic progression. The creator is an innovator, a problem solver, an entrepreneur, an artist. Creative people have rapid and effective responses that help them to achieve their life goals and allow them to enjoy the journey. Creativity is both a skill set and a unique and individual character structure that is developed throughout childhood and fine-tuned in adolescence and adulthood. Education has a key role to play in its development. Positive creativity inspiring experiences at every stage of the educational journey are needed. This is especially true in early childhood. Educators who rise to the creativity challenge will be well rewarded in rich teaching experiences and the joy of seeing children reach their creative potential in supportive and integrated learning communities.

In this portfolio, the researcher critically explores the role of the learning disposition ‘resilience’ in the learning and development of young children and the implications for practice and policy. This enquiry is contextualised through child observations and reflection on practice during a 12 week Forest School project in Torbay in 2010.

A critical review of the literature and analysis of the learning stories and observations documented during this project, demonstrate the value of resilience and potentiating context of Forest School to support children’s learning and development. Applying a ‘Possible Lines of Direction’ curriculum planning model, 5 key features of ‘learning architecture’ which support the development of ‘resilience’ in young children in this Forest School context were identified:

• A learner and learning focussed pedagogy
• A mastery culture
• An enabling and potentiating environment
• A reflective community of practice
• Regular access to opportunities to build on previous experience

ABSTRACT We all want to be happy, but what does that mean? Happy Lives, Good Lives: A Philosophical Examination offers a thorough introduction to a variety of perspectives on happiness. Valuable insights are inferred from both philosophical and scientific research into the nature of happiness, and a range of examples of very different but potentially happy lives are considered. Among the questions at issue: Is happiness only a state of mind, or is it something more? Is it the same for everyone? Is it under our control, and if so, to what extent? Can we be mistaken about whether we are happy? What role, if any, does happiness play in living a good life? Is it sometimes morally wrong to pursue happiness? Should governments promote happiness through public policy? The asking and answering of these questions is valuable not only as an intellectual exercise, but also as a means of gaining practical insight into how best to pursue a happy life.

This article presents the first thematic review of the literature on the ethical issues concerning digital well-being. The term 'digital well-being' is used to refer to the impact of digital technologies on what it means to live a life that is good for a human being. The review explores the existing literature on the ethics of digital well-being, with the goal of mapping the current debate and identifying open questions for future research. The review identifies major issues related to several key social domains: healthcare, education, governance and social development, and media and entertainment. It also highlights three broader themes: positive computing , personalised human-computer interaction, and autonomy and self-determination. The review argues that three themes will be central to ongoing discussions and research by showing how they can be used to identify open questions related to the ethics of digital well-being.

Nihilism poses grave problems for those who seek directives to lead their lives. In this article, the three most important ways to deal with nihilism are inquired, with an emphasis on their credibility. Both nihilism from a metaphysical perspective and the emphasis on pleasure from nihilistic considerations are given attention. The acceptance of nihilism can have far-reaching consequences, which are evaluated at various points. Nietzsche’s approach must also be considered. He accepts what he calls a sort of nihilism, but as a means to ‘new’ values. This alternative to nihilism is examined no less critically than the other two stances.

Given the wealth of literature on appearance manipulation generally, it is, perhaps, surprising that cosmetic usage receives so little empirical attention, and perhaps reflects a patriarchal approach to "appropriate" research areas. Incorporating a postfeminist approach, the current study aims to address, in part, this lacuna by providing a contemporary synopsis of the various and diverse motivations for cosmetic usage. Online, written responses to a semi-structured questionnaire were collected. In response to six broad questions, for example, "Why do you currently use cosmetics?", respondents were encouraged to write, in as much detail as they liked, on their motivations for using cosmetics. Thematic analysis, using deductive and inductive approaches, revealed four main themes: "Multiple selves"-Conformity, Impression Management, and Judgment; Enhancement and Confidence; Fun, Creativity and Well-being; and Signification and Identity. Whilst some of the...

In a common narrative trajectory, the protagonists of children’s films transition from a state of anxiety at the beginning to an often fragile possibility of well-being at the close. Utilizing script theory, Lee and Stephens propose an anxiety script which, manifesting as anger, fear, despair, sadness, confusion, and feelings of helplessness and hurt is employed as a catalyst for character behaviour because it is an overarching and familiar experience from which young audiences can infer a more specific emotion or state. At a film’s close, well-being is apt to be framed by a eudaemonic script grounded in first-order values such as positive relations, desire, contentment, growth, confidence, self-realization, and relatedness. The trajectory is explored in four films, two each from Japan and South Korea.

Well-being theory (WBT) proposes five indicators of well-being (i.e., positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, achievement [PERMA]) that are, independently, empirically supported predictors of flourishing (i.e., an optimal level of well-being; Seligman, 2011). However, there is limited empirical support for the multidimensional model suggested by WBT. Two studies sought to test and validate the higher-order factor structure of the five components of PERMA and PERMA’s ability to predict concurrent and prospective flourishing outcomes (e.g., physical health, college success). In Study 1, a longitudinal examination of college students, participants completed measures of well-being (including four of the five PERMA indicators), physical health, and college success at the end of their sophomore, junior, and senior years. In Study 2, a larger, cross-sectional study was conducted online to further validate the PERMA model with a broader sample and all five PERMA indicators. Participants completed measures similar to those administered at Study 1 and other measures used to validate Study 1 measures. Results from Study 2 further validated the PERMA model by comparing Study 1 measures to established measures and by adding meaning to the model. Study 1 and Study 2 PERMA models predicted markers of well-being (e.g., vitality, life satisfaction) and flourishing (e.g., physical health). The two studies reported here provide cross-sectional and longitudinal support that WBT is useful for predicting flourishing.

There is increasing recognition of the value of coproduction and inclusion of people with disability in research, and a growing literature on inclusive methods, particularly involving people with intellectual disability. This article critically examines the ways leadership by, and collaboration and consultation with, people with disability informed the development of a framework to monitor Australia’s progress on reducing inequalities in the social determinants of health and wellbeing for people with disability. It focuses especially on the contribution of an expert panel of advice comprising people who live with disability. Input from the expert panel resulted in changes to the language, shape, and detail of the framework and highlighted the complexity easily hidden when people’s lives and experiences are measured and quantified. The article provides a practical illustration of the value of lived expertise and challenges universities and researchers to work harder to ensure people ...

There is an increasing recognition among community, policy and academic sectors that the current financial inclusion policy framework is becoming outdated. The focus of policy and practice in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand is shifting from financial inclusion frameworks to the broader notion of financial wellbeing. While this term is gaining currency among policy makers and service providers, there is currently no agreement on what is meant by financial wellbeing (or similar constructs such as financial resilience).

This paper crosses the borders of human geography to bring back two related bodies of work from experimental psychology that investigate, in an unusual and refreshingly precise way, long-standing human geographical concerns with tem-porality, place and subject formations, meaning-making and well-being. It is argued that the traffic of ideas and empirical findings between human geography and experimental psychology can be mutually profitable if, and only to the extent that, it encompasses a sustained epistemological, methodological and political critique of the disciplinary practices that have yielded those ideas and findings.