The Pleasant Life, the Engaged Life, and the Meaningful Life: What about the Balanced Life?

Martin Seligman, in his very popular book Authentic Happiness (Seligman 2002), argued that authentic happiness is derived from three major sets of experiences in life, namely experiencing pleasantness regularly (the pleasant life), experiencing a high level of engagement in satisfying activities (the engaged life), and experiencing a sense of connectedness to a greater whole (the meaningful life). In this paper, we maintain that balance in life contributes significantly to subjective well-being. Balance contributes to subjective well-being because of the satisfaction limit that people can derive from a single life domain. People have to be involved in multiple domains to satisfy the full spectrum of human development needs. Different life domains tend to focus on different human developmental needs. More specifically, balance contributes to subjective well-being because subjective well-being can only be attained when both survival and growth needs are met. High levels of subjective well-being cannot be attained with satisfaction of basic needs or growth needs alone. Both needs have to be met to induce subjective well-being.     

Leaning In and Out: Work–Life Tradeoffs,Self-Conscious Emotions,and Life Role Satisfaction

Drawing on self-discrepancy theory, which posits discomfort when actual selves deviate from ideal or ought selves (Higgins, 1987), we examine the complementary and compounding effects of work–life tradeoffs on self-conscious emotions, life role satisfaction, and spouse/partner work satisfaction. Across multiple samples, we augment and refine extant tradeoff measures to include minor tradeoffs (e.g., limiting networking, missing a family event) in addition to the more frequently researched major tradeoffs (e.g., quitting a job, choosing not to have children) and test their effects. Work compromising tradeoffs (i.e., sacrificing work for family/personal activities) were associated with negative self-conscious emotions and lower levels of job, career, and life satisfaction indirectly through professional self-discrepancy, suggesting that making work compromises for family affects how individuals see themselves as professionals. Family/personal compromising tradeoffs (i.e., sacrificing family/personal activities for work) were associated with negative self-conscious emotions and lower levels of job, career, family, and life satisfaction indirectly through family and professional self-discrepancy, suggesting individuals view their family and professional selves less favorably when they make family/personal compromises for work. Despite negative effects for the employees, our results suggest work tradeoffs are beneficial for spouse/partner work hours and satisfaction.     

How Does the Life Satisfaction of the Poor,Least Educated,and Least Satisfied Change as Average Life Satisfaction Increases?

We study subjective life satisfaction inequality in the United States using panel data from the 2005 to 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. We aggregate individual level data to the state level and study how the average self-reported life satisfaction of various income, education, and life satisfaction groups changes with the average self-reported life satisfaction of the state. We find that the subjective life satisfaction of the least satisfied does not increase in equal proportion with the average life satisfaction of society, suggesting that increasing satisfaction levels are likely to lead to greater life satisfaction inequality. However, the life satisfaction of the poorest and least educated does increase in equal proportions with average life satisfaction.     

Parents,Siblings, or Friends? Exploring Life Satisfaction among Early Adolescents

This study analyzes 2,617 10–15 year olds surveyed in wave 1 of the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS). Specifically, it tests the associations of three variables with life satisfaction among early adolescents: parent–child relationship quality, being a perpetrator or victim of sibling bullying, and being a perpetrator or victim of friend bullying. The results suggest that all of these social relationships have significant associations with life satisfaction, both individually and in combination. Of the three, parent–child relationship quality explained the most variance in predicting life satisfaction. This is followed by friend victimization (i.e., being bullied by friends), whereas the influence of sibling victimization is significant but not as strong. This study also tests the interaction effects between parent–child relationship quality, sibling bullying, and friend bullying. The association of parent–child relationship quality with life satisfaction is found to be stronger among adolescents who were either victims of sibling bullying or of friend bullying, highlighting the protective importance of parent–child relationship quality. Lastly, when testing whether the influences of sibling bullying, friend bullying, and parent–child relationship quality vary between male and female adolescents, this study finds some significant gender differences. Specifically, the positive associations of lower friend victimization and better parent–child relationship quality with life satisfaction are found to be stronger among female adolescents.     

Well-Being, Quality of Life, and the Naïve Pursuit of Happiness

The pursuit of happiness is a long-enshrined tradition that has recently become the cornerstone of the American Positive Psychology movement. However, “happiness” is an over-worked and ambiguous word, which, it is argued, should be restricted and only used as the label for a brief emotional state that typically lasts a few seconds or minutes. The corollary proposal for positive psychology is that optimism is a preferable stance over pessimism or realism. Examples are presented both from psychology and economics that illustrate the dangers of optimism, and in which better outcomes can occur with a pessimistic stance. A more sophisticated approach is then presented in which, in relation to well-being and quality of life, neither optimism nor pessimism is seen as inherently better than the other, but, rather, in which psychological flexibility may contribute optimally to health and well-being.     

Can a Happy Relationship Predict a Happy Life? A Population-Based Study of Maternal Well-Being During the Life Transition of Pregnancy,Infancy, and Toddlerhood

The association between overall life satisfaction (LS) and relationship satisfaction (RS) was investigated longitudinally among mothers (N=67,355), using data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Data were collected twice during pregnancy, and at 6 and 36 months postpartum. Satisfaction increased during pregnancy, with RS decreasing immediately following birth and LS showing an initial increase followed by a decrease postpartum. The results showed that LS and RS levels were quite stable over time (.46-.75), as was their cross-sectional associations (.42-.59). Structural equation modeling using a cross-lagged longitudinal model evidenced cross-concept cross-time effects for both LS and RS. The strengths of the cross-effects were asymmetrical and life-phase specific, with RS predicting change in LS more than LS predicted changes in RS during pregnancy and infancy. Having a satisfying romantic relationship is important for retaining and increasing future life satisfaction.     

Relations among Personality Characteristics,Environmental Events,Coping Behavior and Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction

This study extended current positive psychological research by examining the mediating role of coping behavior in the relations between environmental and intrapersonal variables as predictors of adolescent global life satisfaction, based on Evans’ (Soc Indic Res 33:47–88, 1994) proposed model. Specifically, we assessed the relations between personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism) and environmental experiences (stressful life events) predicting early adolescents’ global life satisfaction as mediated by approach and avoidance coping behaviors using a sample of 529 students from one middle school in the southeastern United States. The results supported portions of Evans’ model. Statistically significant relations were found for a number of individual pathways between personality and environmental variables (i.e., predictors) and coping variables (i.e., mediators) as well as between approach coping (i.e., one mediator) and life satisfaction (i.e., outcome). Additionally, a small but statistically significant pathway was found between extraversion and life satisfaction when mediated by approach coping. Results suggest that personality, environmental stressors and coping behaviors may play a role in the development of life satisfaction among early adolescents.     

Whose Lives? How History,Societies, and Institutions Define and Shape Life Courses

This article outlines how current sociology constructs life courses. First, a set of general heuristics is provided. Second, the development of life course sociology over the last 50 years is traced as an intellectual process whereby the life course has emerged as an analytical construct in addition to such concepts as human development, biography, and aging. A differential life course sociology has gradually developed in which contexts are specified according to time and place. Third, these differential constraints operating on life courses are illustrated from the perspective of 2 research areas. One perspective introduces historical periods as a sequence of regimes that regulate life courses. Another perspective looks at cross-national differences and especially focuses on institutions as the mechanisms by which life courses are shaped. The article concludes with reflections about the relation between the variable social contexts of life courses and human development.     

Living Well in Later Life: The Influence of Sense of Coherence,and Socio-Demographic,Lifestyle and Health-Related Factors on Older Adults’ Satisfaction with Life

This study aims at exploring a structural model of satisfaction with life’s (SWL) predictors in a cross-national sample of older adults. A quantitative approach was followed with a cross-sectional study design. A community-dwelling sample of 1,234 older adults from four different nationalities residing in Portugal, was assessed regarding SWL, sense of coherence (SOC) and socio-demographic, lifestyle and health-related characteristics. Sampling was performed in lifelong learning centres’ message boards and local community centres’ list-serves in the Lisbon metropolitan area and in the Algarve region. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate a structural model of the self-reported SWL, comprising SOC, socio-demographic characteristics (age, sex, education, marital and professional status, household, adult children, income, living setting and religion), as well as lifestyle and health-related characteristics (physical activity, recent disease and medication). Significant predictors are SOC (β?=?0.733; p?<?0.001), religion (β?=?0.725; p?<?0.001), income (β?=?0.551; p?<?0.001), adult children (β?=?0.546; p?<?0.001), education (β?=??0.403; p?<?0.001), living setting (β?=??0.292; p?<?0.001) and medication (β?=??. 197; p?<?0.001). The variables accounted for 24.8 % of the variability of SWL. Moreover, differences between the four nationality groups (F _{(3, 671)}?=?3.671, p?=?0.066) were not found concerning SWL. Sense of coherence is the strongest predictor of self-reported SWL. Other predictors are religion, income, adult children, education, living setting and medication. The four nationalities did not present significant differences, concerning SWL. This study points out the potential factors that influence older adults’ SWL, in particular SOC, religion and income, as promoters of aging well, within a salutogenic model of health for older populations.     

Life partners’ perceptions of the emotional,speech disruptive,and attitudinal correlates of stuttering

PurposeThe purpose of the current investigation was to explore the extent to which the life partners (LPs) of people who stutter (PWS) perceive their loved ones’ speech-situation specific emotional reaction, expectancy of speech disruption, and speech-related communication attitude.MethodsThree subtests of the Behavior Assessment Battery (BAB): the Speech Situation Checklist - Emotional Reaction (SSC-ER), the Speech Situation Checklist - Speech Disruption (SSC-SD) and the Communication Attitude Test for Adults Who Stutter (BigCAT) were administered to 33 PWS and modified versions were administered to their LPs via Qualtrics Survey Software. Effect of relationship duration on subtest scores was considered. Perceived stuttering severity by the participant and their LP was also queried as part of a demographic questionnaire.ResultsPWS and their LPs rated BigCAT items in a similar way, while they rated certain SSC-ER and SSC-SD items differently. Importantly, between-group agreement was not affected by relationship duration. Among the PWS and LP, perceived stuttering severity influenced all BAB subtest scores.ConclusionLPs of PWS appear to be in tune with the cognitive aspects of their partner’s experience of stuttering. This has important clinical implications as it relates to active involvement of the family in speech intervention targeting fluency.     

Creativity, “Twinning,” and Self-Destruction in the Life and Work of Tennessee Williams

Applying an eclectic psychoanalytic framework, this paper provides a thematic link between the core experiences of Williams' early life and his creative work. Both preoedipal and Oedipal themes are elucidated. The central issue that dominated Williams' mental life was his struggle between a sense of suffocation and confinement, on the one hand, and having artistic and sexual freedom, on the other. The experience of suffocation extended to his dread of becoming mad. This dread derived from his intense twinning or twinship merger with his schizophrenic sister who was confined in an asylum. The study focuses attention on a number of Williams' one-act and full-length plays, written during each of the decades of his public career, as representative of his overall dramatic opus. These works are indicative of his special relationship with his sister as well as of his obsession about self-indulgence and fear of confinement. The later plays suggest that he was subject to identity confusion.     

When Are People Unhappy? Corruption Experience,Environment, and Life Satisfaction in Mainland China

Previous research on corruption and happiness has typically considered corruption perception as an indicator of government quality; however, the impact of direct personal experience of corruption has been largely overlooked. The current research, using the Asian Barometer Survey I data set on China, fills this gap. We found that the negative effects of personal experience of corruption on happiness are moderated by the general corruption environment, as measured by the corruption–victimization rate of a province. Corruption experience reduces life satisfaction significantly only when the external environment has a low level of corruption. We applied concepts from the broken windows theory to provide theoretical explanations for this phenomenon and used a series of models to test the robustness of our findings.     

Who are you and what do you want? Life aspirations,personality, and well-being

In two studies with undergraduate samples, we investigated the relations between life aspirations and personality and evaluated whether aspirations added to the prediction of psychological well-being and sexuality. Within the HEXACO framework, aspirations were highly related to Honesty–Humility. Within the Big Five framework, intrinsic aspirations were related to high Conscientiousness and Agreeableness, and extrinsic aspirations were most related to low Openness and Agreeableness. Aspirations did not add to the HEXACO’s prediction of well-being in study one, but in study two, aspirations added to the prediction of sexuality variables beyond the two personality frameworks. These results suggest that aspirations may account for beyond personality in explaining specific types of well-being.     

Risking ‘Safety’: Breast Cancer,Prognosis, and the Strategic Enterprise of Life

Living in modern biopolitical risk culture might be seen as synonymous with living in prognosis time, in the sense that risk of illness is endlessly forecast (prognosticated) in the broad social arena. ‘Safety,’ in this context, is framed as the anticipatory guarding against risk or disease in order to ‘make live.’ Thinking of risk and safety in these ways is limited, however, in that the prognosis cannot account for the individual’s life or death drama. This paper asks: how are we to understand the constellation of risk, prognosis, and safety in relation to ‘the subject in breast cancer prognosis’?     

It's a Total Way of Life? Catholic Priests,Women's Ordination,and Identity Work

Research has shown Catholic priests to be polarized on a few issues, including women's ordination. Explanations have been offered for why priests are initially polarized—particularly the influence of ordination cohort—but not for how attitudes are maintained over time. Using 31 in‐depth interviews with Catholic priests in the United Kingdom, I find that priests are indeed polarized into groups I call “Total Identity Priests” and “Plural Identity Priests.” Taking the example of women's ordination, I show that these two groups of priests maintain their anti‐ or pro‐women's ordination attitudes (respectively) via patterned, everyday identity work, in which they mobilize available cultural schemata. I highlight four areas in which their identity work differs: explicit identity talk, narratives of calling, clericalism and titles, and clothing. This identity work serves to summarize, communicate, and reinforce their personal identities, which in turn reinforce their existing attitudes towards women's ordination.