Attitudes, perceptions, and risk-taking behaviors of smokers, ex-smokers, and nonsmokers.

A sample of American adults completed questionnaires relevant to cigarette smoking. The questions were related to three areas: risk, perceptions of their or others' smoking, and satisfaction with life and health. The results revealed that smokers were greater risk-takers, that they perceived their smoking to be due to both physical and psychological addictions, and that they expressed less satisfaction and control. Results also indicated that smokers who saw their smoking as being addictive tended to be less satisfied with their health and felt less control over their lives. On the other hand, those smokers who were more likely to deny the health risks did not differ from either non- or ex-smokers on any of the satisfaction or control questions.     

Does having a pet make a difference? Highlights from the HBSC Portuguese study

Pets are part of many adolescent’s lives. Objectives: To identify in a large national representative sample of Portuguese adolescents (HSBC study), the percentage of adolescents that have pets, what kind of feelings pets provide, differences by gender and age (through school grades) and to verify whether adolescent health, well-being, life satisfaction and psychological symptoms are associated with having a pet. Methods: The 2014 study provided national data of 6026 Portuguese adolescents (52.3% of which were girls), whose mean age was 13.8 years, randomly selected from those attending 6th, 8th and 10th grades. Measures included asking the participant if he/she had pets, which pet was, and the relationship they had with the pet, ISS, perception of well-being, life satisfaction and psychological symptoms. Results: The large majority of Portuguese adolescents had a pet. Adolescents who referred having a pet reported more frequently having dogs and cats. As for positive feelings related to pets, results showed that pets give them feelings of happiness, companionship, nurturing, tranquility, security and responsibility always/almost always, especially in girls and younger boys. The results also showed that having a dog was associated with a higher socio-economic status, better perception of well-being, more life satisfaction and less psychological symptoms. Conclusion: Since research shows that young people who have pets report higher rates of well-being/health perception, that information should be used to conduct more studies and change policies in ways that benefit adults and children.     

Psychological well‐being and day‐to‐day social interaction among older adults

A sample of 113 healthy older adults used a variant of the Rochester Interaction Record to describe the social interactions they had each day for two weeks. They also completed various measures of psychological well‐being including life satisfaction and loneliness. A series of multilevel random coefficient analyses found that life satisfaction scores were positively related to how enjoyable interactions were, how self‐assured people felt when interacting, how much control they felt they had over interactions, how responsive others were to their needs, and how socially active they were. Analyses that took participants’ marital status into account suggested, however, that interaction outcomes and life satisfaction were related only for married participants, and that these relationships were primarily due to interaction outcomes with spouses.     

Perceptions of present, ideal, and future lives among Chinese adolescents experiencing economic disadvantage

Perceptions of present, ideal, and future lives among 12 Chinese adolescents experiencing economic disadvantage were examined via qualitative interviews. Results showed that most of the adolescents evaluated their present lives positively. In general, they also had positive perceptions of their future lives, although there also were some negative feelings. Although money did not play an important role in their perceptions of present lives, future lives, life goals, and ideal careers, economic sufficiency emerged as a major theme from the perspective of their ideal lives. While adolescents with better psychosocial adjustment appeared to evaluate their present lives more positively than did adolescents with relatively poorer psychosocial adjustment, no differences were found between the two groups in terms of their views on ideal and future lives.     

Fathers and gender traditionalism: perception of inequality and life roles

Men's discourse about the paternal role is changing significantly. Despite the fact that men still perceive themselves as being responsible for the family's economical protection and the children's discipline, they face increasing demands for more involvement in childcare. From this perspective, this work analyzes the traditional view of gender roles and the perception of inequality in a sample of 95 employed fathers, as well as the various levels of satisfaction with other life roles and their relevance as a function of some gender and sociodemographic variables. The results show that men do not maintain a very traditional gender ideology with regard to role distribution and they still consider the paternal role and feelings as the most important thing in their lives. However, the couple relationship gives them the most satisfaction. Level of traditionalism and age were the two significant predicting variables of perception of inequality of men and women.     

Differences in locus of control between obese adult and adolescent females undergoing weight reduction

Rotter's (1966) Internal-External (I-E) Scale was administered to 65 adult and adolescent females in two outpatient obesity treatment programs. The adults were significantly higher in internal locus of control (LOC) and the adolescents higher in external LOC. These differences suggest that although the adults felt limited control over their weight and eating behavior, this did not reflect a lack of perceived control over other factors in their lives. In contrast, the adolescents appeared to feel that they had limited control over an array of factors in their lives.     

Temporal self-appraisal and attributional focus

Temporal self-appraisal theory (Ross & Wilson, 2002; Wilson & Ross, 2001) states that individuals evaluate their past selves in a way that makes them feel good about their current self. The present studies tested the degree to which differences in attributional focus influence feelings of closeness to positive life events. In Study 1, participants recalled a recent positive life event before thinking about how either they personally or others were responsible for the event’s occurrence. As expected, participants felt temporally closer to the event when they had thought about internal attributions. In Study 2, after recalling a recent positive life event, participants recalled one (or six) reasons describing how they personally (or others) produced the event. The results revealed that participants used the content of retrieved attributions in deriving their temporal judgment. The implications of the findings for tenets of temporal self-appraisal theory are discussed.     

Experiential Activities in Family Therapy: Perceptions of Caregivers and Youth

Novel and creative therapeutic modalities have been developed in an effort to increase motivation in family therapy for adolescents and families. Many of these approaches incorporate experiential activities or “family play”, which provides a supplemental approach to traditional talk therapy. Incorporating experiential activities into family therapy sessions has been shown to increase engagement and enhance participation in therapy. Therefore, to understand how families view experiential activities within family therapy, we interviewed nineteen adolescents (age 12–17) and their parents/caregivers who were receiving family therapy augmented with experiential activities. We asked a series of open-ended questions to understand the families’ experiences concerning how they initially felt about participating in family therapy and their perceptions of the experiential activities. The activities involved experiential interactions and skill-building exercises that elicited active participation from all family members and encouraged further discussions. Topics of these activities focused on problem areas the family had identified, such as anger management, problem-solving, improving communication, substance use, expressing feelings, coping, etc. Results showed that most caregivers and youth found the experiential activities helpful in creating positive family interactions and developing communication skills. Caregivers and adolescents noted that the activities increased their desire to participate in family therapy sessions and they were more motivated to engage in the treatment process. Clinicians using the methods discussed in this intervention should be aware of the study’s limitations. Implications for clinical practice and research are discussed.     

Relations between life satisfaction, adjustment to illness, and emotional distress in a sample of men with ischemic cardiopathy

Fifty-two men who had suffered a first episode ischemic heart disease reported their degree of life satisfaction, the strategies they used to adjust to the illness, and the symptoms of anxiety and depression they felt. The multiple regression analyses carried out indicated that emotional distress was associated with a lower level of life satisfaction. In the analyses of anxiety symptoms, the use of negative adjustment strategies was also a significant predictor. Lastly, a significant Life Satisfaction x Type of Adjustment interaction was obtained. According to this, the patients who felt more satisfaction with their lives used more positive strategies to adjust to the illness and fewer negative ones, than the group of patients who were less satisfied. In conclusion, life satisfaction predicts emotional wellbeing of patients with ischemic heart disease and it enhances the implementation of appropriate strategies to cope with the disease. Moreover, although life satisfaction has been considered a stable measure, we suggest it may change as the experience of illness limits individuals' important goals.     

Making things better and learning a lesson: experiencing wisdom across the lifespan

Autobiographical memory narratives concerning times in which individuals said, thought, or did something wise were collected from adolescents and young and old adults. This "wisdom of experience" procedure is shown to be a valid means of studying experienced wisdom in everyday lives across the life span. Results show that all age groups use experienced wisdom to transform negative to positive life situations and are equally likely to link these experienced wisdom events to larger temporal life periods. Young and older adults also relate wisdom experiences to the life story by explaining how they are connected to later life consequences or to the direction that their life has taken. Unlike adolescents, older and, especially, young adults report having learned lessons about themselves or having gained a life philosophy from the wisdom-related event. Thus, the wisdom-of-experience procedure highlights both similarities and differences in the life span manifestation of experienced wisdom.     

Causal attributions and emotional reactions to outcome in a sporting contest

24 male and 22 female undergraduates competed in same-sex pairs in a bicycle ergometer ‘race’. Ratings of how important participants felt it was to win were gathered before the race. After the contest, ratings of satisfaction with performance and attributions for the causes of winning or losing together with ratings of the intensity of a variety of emotional feelings, were made by participants. Results showed that both male and female race winners attributed their win to internal factors (the effort they made, their motivation and personality). Losers attributed their loss to external factors (their opponent's effort and personality). For both winners and losers, however, emotional reactions were related only to internal attributions. Feelings of satisfaction among winners, and feelings of irritation experienced by losers, were related to internal attributions irrespective of how important participants thought it was to win the race. But the relationship between attributions and feelings of pride in winners and feelings of unhappiness in losers were influenced by the importance attached to winning the race. Some evidence emerged to suggest that losers who had considered it important to win, used defences against emotional feelings of disgust, dissatisfaction and discontent.     

Predicting frequency,intensity and duration of other people's self-reported depression

Ss indicated on 5-point qualitative scales how often they felt depressed, how depressed they usually feel. and for how long their feelings of depression usually last and estimated what proportion of the group would choose each scale point. Parallel questions concerning the hypothetical ‘average person’ were included along with these ‘self’ items. The observed and mean estimated percentages of the group using the scale points were compared. The mean predictions were remarkably close to the observed values for all questions, suggesting that people possess higher-order cognitions about the intensity and duration of feelings of depression as well as about frequency. The possible social significance and functions of these sorts of cognitions are discussed in relation to recent studies of illness behaviour.     

Consequences of enactment and concealment for felt authenticity: Understanding the effects of stigma through self-distancing and motive fulfillment

Grounded in Motivated Identity Construction Theory and Self-Determination Theory, two studies examined the consequences of identity enactment and concealment for motive fulfillment and explored how these mediate the negative effects of stigmatized identities on felt authenticity. Participants (Ns = 343 and 344) reported the extent to which they had enacted and/or concealed 8 to 12 of their identities in the past 3 days and evaluated their motive fulfillment and felt authenticity. Using multilevel modeling, we found that identity enactment positively predicted felt authenticity via motive satisfaction, while concealment negatively predicted authenticity via thwarted motive satisfaction. Identities were coded with respect to stigmatization in Study 2 and stigmatized identities felt relatively less authentic, with effects mediated through suppressed enactment, heightened concealment, and thwarted motives. Thus, stigmatized identities do not inherently feel less authentic, rather it is individuals’ self-distancing behaviors that impair feelings of authenticity for a stigmatized identity.     

From exclusion to inclusion; supporting Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators to keep children in mainstream education: a qualitative psychoanalytic research project

This paper draws on my doctoral research study based on consulting work with three primary school Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCos) that took place in 2008. The study examined the interactions that arose in the consultations with the SENCos and their staff. The findings that emerged from the application of Grounded Theory research methodology showed that the consultant, the SENCos and the children for whom they were responsible all felt on the edge of school life. SENCos and their staff were subject on a daily basis to powerful projections from children who were unable to tolerate difficult feelings and they were at risk of becoming identified with these feelings. The consultant in turn was the recipient of powerful projections from the SENCos. These complex dynamics of projective identification are examined in the study. The question of how SENCos and staff can better support children on the edge of exclusion with these unregulated feeling states is discussed. It is proposed that senior management teams and policy makers are essential in putting the SENCo role more at the centre of schools, both physically and in terms of how it is perceived. The need for access to a consultant who can help SENCos to understand and process extreme feelings is recommended as a way forward.     

Metaphoric lyrics as a bridge to the adolescent's world

This paper discusses the use of rock music lyrics to help hard-to-reach adolescents communicate feelings about their roles in society and their own development. The rationale underlying the method is that if adolescents can feel accepted and be engaged through means that are familiar and pleasureful, they can learn to trust and ventilate feelings. Through guided discussion about familiar lyrics and the issues they evoke, adolescents begin to offer their opinions, listen to others' ideas, and learn to disagree without being aggressive. They begin to discuss ways to gain control over their lives and learn the advantages of becoming disciplined participants in society. They begin to consider and learn alternatives for coping with daily pressures rather than falling victim to a rock idol's solution, which is frequently withdrawal from society or aggression toward it. They begin to communicate.     

The effect of social comparison information on the life satisfaction of frail older persons

In this study, the authors examined the effects of social comparison on the life satisfaction of 455 community-dwelling older persons. These older persons were confronted with a fictitious interview with either an upward or a downward target. After downward comparison, older persons felt more satisfied with their lives than after upward comparison, especially those who had higher levels of frailty. These effects were only found with lower levels of identification. Apparently, downward comparison only serves its self-enhancing function on life satisfaction among frail older persons when they perceive the comparison target as different from themselves.     

Happiness, time consciousness, and subjective life expectancy.

84 men and 141 women enrolled at a university reported their sexes and ages, rated their happiness and their time consciousness, and estimated how many more years they expected to live. Men significantly overestimated their subjective life span compared to actuarial data. Women (but not men) who were happier tended to be younger, had greater subjective life expectancies, and felt that they had lived a smaller percentage of their total lives. Both older men and older women tended to be more time conscious.     

Do They Know How Happy They Are? On the Value of Self-Rated Happiness of People With a Mental Disorder

Quality of life is often measured using questions about happiness. This method presumes that respondents are able to judge their life. Research suggest that this is typically the case, but this is not to say that everybody can. In that context one may doubt whether people with a mental disorder can judge their life adequately. Happiness can be rejected as a indicator for quality of life for people with mental disorders, because of affective and cognitive distortions. We therefore checked the validity of happiness and satisfaction measures in the context of mental disorders. Psychiatric diagnoses were determined at baseline and at 12 and 36 months follow-up in a representative sample (N = 7,076) of the Dutch population, using a full Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Respondents indicated how often they had felt happy during the past month and how satisfied they were with their lives in general. The measurements have a satisfactory concurrent, ecological and predictive validity for people with mental disorders. Though the level of happiness is lower among the people with mental disorders, conditions for happiness and contentment appear to be similar.     

Father identification,achievement, and occupational behavior of rural youth: One year follow-up

Rural economically deprived adolescent males, who had been previously surveyed as high school seniors concerning their post-high school plans, were surveyed again 1 yr later concerning their present occupational status and feelings of personal satisfaction. The Ss had been divided in an earlier study into two groups, low identification males (LIM) and high identification males (HIM) based upon independent evaluators' judgments of the adequacy of their fathers as identification models. Each group's responses to the survey were compared. The results indicate that there are no statistically significant differences between the two groups on the variables of satisfaction, having received counseling from others and optimism about the future. There are statistically significant differences between the current occupational status and future occupational plans of the two groups.     

Transitioning from sport: Life satisfaction,depressive symptomatology,and body satisfaction among retired female collegiate athletes

Retirement from sport has been associated with elevated levels of depression, anxiety and/or body dissatisfaction among athletes. Psychosocial dimensions, such as having reached sport goals and planned for life after sport, may affect how retired athletes’ respond psychologically. Thus, the primary aim of this study was to examine the association between psychosocial aspects of sports transition with body satisfaction, depressive symptoms and, life satisfaction among 217 female former NCAA athletes. Through hierarchical regression analyses, and after controlling for BMI and years since retirement, we determined that athletes who believed they had achieved their sport goals, developed a new life focus after their sport career, had focused on life areas other than just sport while competing, and remained involved in their sport in different ways after retirement reported being more highly satisfied with their lives and their bodies and experiencing fewer depressive symptoms; variance accounted for ranged from 24% to 28% across these outcomes. Athletes’ perceptions of what has occurred in their lives while transitioning from sport may have longstanding effects on their psychological well-being in retirement. Longitudinal methodologies are needed to determine the temporal influence of these psychosocial dimensions.