Are the Effects of Height on Well-Being a Tall Tale?

Numerous papers have documented a positive association between height and good physical health and also with good economic outcomes such as earnings. A smaller number have argued for an association with well-being. In this paper, the SHARE survey of over 50 year olds in Europe is used to analyse whether individuals’ height is associated with higher or lower levels of life-satisfaction using ordered probit estimation. In simple models there is a positive, concave relationship between height and life satisfaction. However it is shown that the results are quite sensitive to the inclusion of controls reflecting demographics and, in particular, human capital and health status. Where effects do exist, it is predominantly at low to medium levels of height. That is there is a penalty, in well-being terms, to being short but not necessarily a benefit to being tall. There is also evidence of heterogeneity across countries with the effects being best determined in France.     

What If Well-Being Measurements Are Non-Linear?

Well-being measurements are frequently used to support conclusions about a range of philosophically important issues. This is a problem, because we know too little about the intervals of the relevant scales. I argue that it is plausible that well-being measurements are non-linear, and that common beliefs that they are linear are not truth-tracking, so we are not justified in believing that well-being scales are linear. I then argue that this undermines common appeals to both hypothetical and actual well-being measurements; I first focus on the philosophical literature on prioritarianism and then discuss Kahneman's Peak-End Rule as a systematic bias. Finally, I discuss general implications for research on well-being, and suggest a better way of representing scales.     

Using Positive Psychological Interventions to Improve Well-Being: Are They Effective Across Cultures,for Clinical and Non-Clinical Samples?

Substantial research has shown that positive psychological interventions (PPIs) have beneficial effects on well-being. This article evaluates whether PPIs would be effective for everyone, across different cultures. It starts by reviewing the effectiveness of PPIs among the general population, as well as their effectiveness in ameliorating depressive symptoms and increasing well-being among clinical samples. Though generally beneficial, PPIs however, may not be equally effective across cultures. We present evidence showing that certain types of PPIs may be less effective for Asians than those from Western cultures. Next, the article examines whether prosocial behavior may be a PPI that is universally beneficial and the possible explanations for its widespread benefits. Finally, we proceed to propose how the current repertoire of PPIs may be expanded to include new types that may be more suited for those in collectivistic cultures. Synthesizing across these areas, this article concludes with suggestions on how PPIs can be adapted for use across cultures, as well as future directions for the field of PPIs.

     

Multidimensionality of Well-Being and Spillover Effects Across Life Domains: How Do Parenthood and Personality Affect Changes in Domain-Specific Satisfaction?

Whether having children improves our well-being is a long-standing topic of debate. Demographic and sociological research has investigated changes in individuals’ overall well-being and partnership satisfaction when they become parents. However, little is known about how becoming parent may produce vulnerability—observable as an enduring decrease in well-being—in life domains that are strongly interdependent with the family domain, such as work and leisure. Linking life-course and personality psychology perspectives, the authors examine the trajectories of subjective well-being—measured as satisfaction with life, work, and leisure—3 years before and 3 years after the transition to parenthood. The authors particularly focus on the moderating effects of gender and personality. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1984–2013) and multilevel growth curve modeling, the authors show strong gender-based vulnerability in how people react to parenthood. Although men display a nonlinear pathway of decreasing life satisfaction and a stable trajectory of job satisfaction, women experience more changes in their satisfaction with work and more dramatic decreases in leisure satisfaction. Contrary to most of our expectations, the moderating effects of personality were modest. Extraversion influenced the trajectories of work satisfaction, whereas neuroticism and conscientiousness affected the pathway of leisure satisfaction for women only. This article shows that the transition to parenthood influences well-being trajectories in specific domains, and this influence differs between women and men.     

Is Moving Gendered? The Effects of Residential Mobility on the Psychological Well-Being of Men and Women

To reexamine the negative psychological effects of residential mobility, secondary analyses were conducted using a representative sample. Mobility had significant effects on depression, after controlling for social class, marital status, gender, and employment. In separate analyses by gender, the mobility effect was significant for women only. The “exposure” hypothesis, that women experience more stress, was partially supported: housework, children, and career sacrifices predicted depression, but did not account for the mobility effect. The “vulnerability” hypothesis, that women respond differently to stressors, was partly supported: weak social ties affected women more than men, but did not account for mobility effects. It appears that moving may contribute to gender differences in depression.     

Do Active Labour Market Policies Promote the Subjective Well-Being of the Unemployed? Evidence from the UK National Well-Being Programme

In the past 5 years, the UK government has expanded its efforts to understand, measure and incorporate indicators of subjective well-being (SWB) into the policy-making process. Utilizing the new data collected as part of the government’s well-being agenda, this paper investigates whether active labour market programmes (ALMPs) are associated with increased SWB amongst the unemployed. Unemployment has long been shown to be detrimental to mental health and happiness. In recent years, ALMPs have been increasingly proposed as potential mechanisms to improve the SWB of the unemployed. Using multiple linear regression models, the findings suggest that ALMPs do improve the SWB of the unemployed. However, there are three caveats. First, the effect of ALMPs appears to be far stronger for evaluative measures of SWB over affective measures. Second, the effect of ALMPs is larger for men than for women. Third, the impact of an ALMP is dependent upon the type of intervention: work-oriented ALMPs are more effective than employment-assistance ALMPs. In light of these findings, the theoretical and policy consequences are discussed.     

Who Are the Handicapped?

Counselors and psychologists are increasingly involved with handicapped persons. The definition of various handicapping conditions is a major source of professional concern—what constitutes a disability and in what way(s) it impairs academic, social, or occupational functioning changes in relation to several variables. The more common and widely accepted categories of disability are intended to provide the reader with a basis for better understanding of the articles in this issue.     

How Effective Are the Things People Say to Apologize? Effects of the Realization of the Apology Speech Act

The Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (Blum-Kulka, House, & Kasper, 1989a) has identified five components of an apology speech act set: five strategies that speakers use to apologize. This study examines the effects of four of those strategies (illocutionary force indicating device, expression of responsibility, promise of forebearance, and offer of repair) on the judgments made by hearers about the speaker and about the apology. Each of the strategies is shown to have an independent effect in improving reactions to the speaker. Further, the magnitude of these effects appear to be roughly similar for each of the strategies. The things people say to apologize do seem to be effective in accomplishing the self-presentational goals of apologizers.     

Would you Value a few More Hours of work? Underemployment and Subjective Well-Being Across Chilean Workers

Underemployment has gained attention in recent years because of its effects on health and well-being (life satisfaction), it is a widespread phenomenon in the labor force that affects not only workers, but also households, companies and governments. This paper explores the relationship between underemployment and subjective well-being for a representative sample of Chilean workers using an ordered probit model. Also, by using different underemployment definitions and a latent class ordered probit model we analyze the observed and unobserved heterogeneity in this relationship. Finally, we assess the monetary valuation of well-being costs by estimating the amount of money that a worker is willing to accept in order to bear the potential negative effects of underemployment on well-being. Our results find a negative relationship between underemployment and subjective well-being, as the average worker is willing to accept an increase of CLP$64,009 (roughly 30.5% of the minimum wage) in her/his monthly wage for being underemployed. If we take into account the observed and unobserved heterogeneity, our results identify a group that is not sensitive to underemployment, while others are willing to accept an increase of CLP$146,622 in her/his monthly wage for being underemployed. Our work highlights the importance of well-being in the workplace and has implications for labor flexibility legislation and the empowerment of workers. Heterogeneous responses to underemployment imply that one-size-fits-all policies to regulate working hours might not suffice.

     

Are the psychophysical laws fine-tuned?

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion - Neil Sinhababu (Am Philos Q 54(1):89–98, 2017) has recently argued against the fine-tuning argument for God. They claim that the question of...     

Helping or Hovering? The Effects of Helicopter Parenting on College Students’ Well-Being

Parental involvement is related to many positive child outcomes, but if not developmentally appropriate, it can be associated with higher levels of child anxiety and depression. Few studies have examined the effects of over-controlling parenting, or “helicopter parenting,” in college students. Some studies have found that college students of over-controlling parents report feeling less satisfied with family life and have lower levels of psychological well-being. This study examined self-determination theory as the potential underlying mechanism explaining this relationship. College students (N = 297) completed measures of helicopter parenting, autonomy supportive parenting, depression, anxiety, satisfaction with life, and basic psychological needs satisfaction. Students who reported having over-controlling parents reported significantly higher levels of depression and less satisfaction with life. Furthermore, the negative effects of helicopter parenting on college students’ well-being were largely explained by the perceived violation of students’ basic psychological needs for autonomy and competence.     

Does Individualistic Culture Lower the Well-Being of the Unemployed? Evidence from Europe

The paper tests whether the well-being cost of own unemployment is higher in individualistic countries and among persons with more individualistic orientations. I consider two dimensions of individualism: family support and self-reliance. I adopt a multilevel regression methodology on data of the European Values Study (2008) for 42 European countries. The results confirm that in Europe individualism correlates with higher well-being cost of own unemployment. Specifically, the relationship between unemployment and well-being is moderated by the family support norm. Its effect size is substantial, similar to the effect of country unemployment rate. This paper is the first one to establish in a comparative context that the well-being cost of own unemployment is higher in individualistic countries. It is also the first one to investigate the mechanisms behind this regularity. In contrast to the theoretical predictions, the importance of personal orientations is much weaker than the one of normative factors. Consistently with previous literature, the results suggest that the support among family members depends more on social norms than on individual values.     

Which Are the Genuine Properties?

This article considers three views about which properties are genuine. According to the first view, we should look to successful commonsense and scientific explanations in determining which properties are genuine. On this view, predicates that figure in such explanations thereby pick out genuine properties. According to the second view, the only predicates that pick out genuine properties are those that figure in our best scientific explanations. On this view, predicates that figure in commonsense explanations pick out genuine properties only if such explanations are vindicated by the sciences. According to the third view, the only genuine properties are the fundamental, microphysical ones. On this view, although there are “higher‐level” predicates that figure in true commonsense and scientific explanations, there are no “higher‐level” properties corresponding to such predicates. The article argues that the third view is superior to the others.     

What Does the Narcissistic Personality Inventory Measure Across the Total Score Continuum?

The Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) is the most widely used measure of narcissism in the social-personality psychology literature. It contains 40 items that tap into a variety of traits that theoretically comprise narcissism, such as feelings of superiority and willingness to exploit others. Most researchers focus on the total score produced by the NPI and may logically assume that increments in total NPI score correspond with similar increments in underlying narcissism traits. However, research presented in this article suggests that the traits measured by the NPI do not increment at the same rate. Traits reflecting intrapersonally healthy qualities (e.g., leadership, superiority) increment most rapidly within the lower portions of the NPI total score continuum, whereas traits reflecting interpersonally harmful qualities (e.g., entitlement, exploitativeness) increment most rapidly within the upper portions of the NPI continuum. These differences have implications for the meaning of scores on the NPI and how they correlate with other variables. For example, we demonstrate that lower NPI scores best predict self-esteem and higher NPI scores best predict psychopathy.     

Lay Understanding of Happiness and the Experience of Well-Being: Are Some Conceptions of Happiness More Beneficial than Others?

The aim of the study was to understand aspects of life that men and women associate with happiness and to explore the connections between these associations and well-being (measured as positive affect, negative affect and life satisfaction) in different periods of life. Participants were 785 people who were asked to list associations that came to mind on hearing the word ‘happiness’. The moderating roles of gender and period of life (adolescence/adulthood, transition/no transition) were analysed. Participants associated happiness mostly with health and relationships. Other categories included knowledge, work, material goods and freedom. Those who associated happiness with work had higher levels of positive affect. Associating happiness with relationships predicted greater life satisfaction, whereas associating it with material goods predicted lower satisfaction. Gender moderated the relationship between associations and positive affect: associating happiness with material goods decreased positive affect among men but no such effect was observed among women; associating happiness with relationships was beneficial for women but unbeneficial for men. Additionally, associations with material goods predicted lower positive affect, especially in times of transition. Associating happiness with knowledge decreased positive affect in adolescents and increased it in adults. Some ways of understanding happiness improved life satisfaction but none were related to negative affect. The relationship between concepts of happiness and positive affect is complex; some concepts are unbeneficial only for some people and during certain periods of life.     

How Does More Attention to Subjective Well-Being Affect Subjective Well-Being?

There is an ongoing debate as to whether pursuing happiness is beneficial for people’s subjective well-being (SWB). To address this question, we tested whether attention to SWB – measured by participation in SWB surveys – is related to experienced SWB in two longitudinal studies. The initial study was conducted from November to December 2013 (N?=?129), and the replication study, three years later from November to December 2016 (N?=?120). The studies include two groups: one group (the control group) answered three SWB surveys over 4 weeks, and the other group (the experimental group) followed the same procedure but additionally tracked their SWB in detail using the experience sampling method four times a day and the day reconstruction method once a day using a smartphone application for two weeks to heighten their attention to their SWB. Both studies show higher SWB scores at later measurements compared to the first ones.     

Are the Natural Numbers Fundamentally Ordinals?

There are two ways of thinking about the natural numbers: as ordinal numbers or as cardinal numbers. It is, moreover, well‐known that the cardinal numbers can be defined in terms of the ordinal numbers. Some philosophies of mathematics have taken this as a reason to hold the ordinal numbers as (metaphysically) fundamental. By discussing structuralism and neo‐logicism we argue that one can empirically distinguish between accounts that endorse this fundamentality claim and those that do not. In particular, we argue that if the ordinal numbers are metaphysically fundamental then it follows that one cannot acquire cardinal number concepts without appeal to ordinal notions. On the other hand, without this fundamentality thesis that would be possible. This allows for an empirical test to see which account best describes our actual mathematical practices. We then, finally, discuss some empirical data that suggests that we can acquire cardinal number concepts without using ordinal notions. However, there are some important gaps left open by this data that we point to as areas for future empirical research.