The relations of generative concern and generative action to personality traits,satisfaction/happiness with life,and ego development

This research examined the relations that generative concern and generative action have to personality traits, satisfaction/happiness with life, and ego development. Generative concern is a general personality tendency or interest in caring for younger and anticipated individuals, while generative action addresses actual physical behaviors that promote the well-being of future generations. Two samples (79 and 152 adults) were employed. Generative concern scores were significantly related to scores for extraversion, openness, emotional stability (non-neuroticism), and agreeableness as well as to two agentic traits (achievement, dominance) and two communal traits (affiliation, nurturance). Generative action was significantly related to extraversion and openness. Generative concern but not generative action was found, as predicted, to be positively related to one's life satisfaction/happiness. Further, one's level of ego development determined, in part, the relation that generative concern had to satisfaction/happiness with life. Given that a subject scored high in ego development, his or her level of satisfaction/happiness varied as a function of generative concern such that those who scored low on generative concern were significantly less satisfied/happy than those that scored high on generative concern. The results are discussed within the context of the recently proposed theory of generativity.     

Personal and parents’ life stories in patients with borderline personality disorder

Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) display disturbances in understanding self and others. We examined whether these disturbances extended to how patients described their personal and parents’ life stories and to measures of identity, alexithymia, empathy, and emotional intelligence. Thirty BPD patients and 30 matched control participants described personal and parents’ life stories and completed measures of identity disturbance, alexithymia, empathy, and emotional intelligence. Compared to the controls, patients with BPD described their personal and their parents’ life stories more negatively and with fewer themes of agency and communion fulfillment. Patients and controls showed equally complex reasoning about their personal life stories, but patients displayed less complexity and more self‐other confusion, when reasoning about their parents’ stories. Patients also differed from controls on identity disturbance, alexithymia, and empathy. The results suggest that patients’ storied understanding of themselves and others are disturbed and should be taken into account to better understand BPD.     

The body as narrator: Body movement memory and the life stories of holocaust survivors

The present study explores the interaction between two narrative worlds of substance: verbal life stories and body movement expressions among Holocaust survivors. A narrative phenomenology approach was used to investigate the way in which people organize their lives, granting them meaning through their life stories and narratives. Sixteen Holocaust survivors participated in this study: men and women aged 73–93. Qualitative open and unstructured interviews were conducted and videotaped. Six major clusters were found. Each cluster presents unique characteristics of verbal and movement expressions: activity, passivity, arousal, self-reassurance, deadlock, and suffocation. These findings shed new light on the survivors’ traumatic life stories.     

Age differences in life stories and neuroticism mediate age differences in subjective well-being

We examined whether age differences in life stories and personality traits mediated age differences in subjective well-being. One hundred one young, 77 middle-aged, and 81 older participants completed measures of subjective well-being and personality traits. They described chapters and specific memories in their life stories and rated these on emotional tone and positive and negative self-event connections. Older participants scored higher on subjective well-being, rated their life stories as more positive, and scored lower on neuroticism compared with both young and middle-aged participants. Age differences in subjective well-being were mediated by life stories and neuroticism, with neuroticism being the strongest mediator. We suggest that changes in personality may enable older individuals to interpret events and themselves in a positive light, which help enhance their subjective well-being.     

No evidence for a General Factor of Personality in the HEXACO Personality Inventory

There have been an increasing number of articles that have speculated on the existence of a General Factor of Personality (GFP) similar to ‘g’ in intelligence research. In this study, I provide evidence that this general factor may be an artifact of the personality instrument used. Specifically, in two samples I show that depending on the type of analysis used there is either no evidence for a GFP in the HEXACO Personality Inventory or the GFP is found to be uncorrelated to GFPs based on Big Five or FFM instruments.     

Correlates of general quality of life are different in patients with primary insomnia as compared to patients with insomnia and psychiatric comorbidity

Chronic insomnia is known to have a negative influence on quality of life (QOL). To date, most studies on chronic insomnia have focused on health-related aspects of QOL. General QOL, which is a different construct, has not been studied in detail. Moreover, it is not known which factors are associated with general QOL in insomnia, and whether the presence of mental disorders, a condition known as comorbid insomnia, affects these variables. The present study focused on identifying sleep and psychosocial variables that might be associated with general QOL in primary and comorbid insomnia. Personality traits, coping variables, anxiety and depressive symptoms, fatigue and subjective sleep variables were assessed in 218 consecutive well-characterized patients with primary and comorbid insomnia, referred to a third line centre for sleep medicine. In primary insomnia, higher extraversion and lower discrepancies in social support were associated with higher QOL. Surprisingly, insomnia severity was not significantly associated with QOL in this group. However, lower fatigue, which can be seen as an important daytime consequence of insomnia was correlated with higher QOL in patients with primary insomnia. In both insomnia groups, low anxiety and depressive symptoms and low fatigue were associated with higher general QOL. In contrast with the primary insomnia group, lower insomnia severity was correlated with higher QOL in patients with comorbid insomnia. These results stress the importance of assessing and treating daytime fatigue in insomnia. In primary insomnia, improving social support might be an important treatment goal. Furthermore, this study supports the concept that treatment of insomnia should not be neglected in patients with comorbid insomnia. Indeed, both insomnia and indices of psychiatric disease are strongly associated with general QOL in this condition.     

Coping styles in adults with cystic fibrosis: implications for emotional and social quality of life

As life expectancy increases, interest has grown surrounding the factors that may influence quality of life (QOL) for people with cystic fibrosis (CF). The aim of the current study was to examine which specific coping styles were positively or negatively associated with social and emotional QOL in a CF sample. One hundred and twenty-two respondents aged 18 and over were recruited through an online support group. Respondents completed the ‘CF Questionnaire-Revised (CFQ-R)’ and the ‘Brief COPE’. The CFQ-R is a disease-specific instrument designed to measure the impact of CF on nine QOL domains and the Brief COPE is a 28 item questionnaire which assesses 14 coping scales. A multivariate regression model revealed that higher substance abuse and disengagement was associated with lower emotional QOL whereas greater use of religion, instrumental coping and acceptance was positively associated with emotional QOL. Active coping was linked to better social QOL and a negative association was reported between distraction coping with both emotional and social domains. Given the burden of CF, ascertaining which factors enhance or diminish emotion and social well-being is now an integral component of QOL research. The current findings may therefore have value in informing clinical interventions which aim to cater for the psychological needs of individuals with CF.     

Relationship of resilience to personality, coping, and psychiatric symptoms in young adults

Developing a comprehensive understanding of resilience across the lifespan is potentially important for mental health promotion, yet resilience has been vastly understudied compared to disease and vulnerability. The present study investigated the relationship of resilience to personality traits, coping styles, and psychiatric symptoms in a sample of college students. Measures included the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, NEO Five Factor Inventory, Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, and Brief Symptom Inventory. Results supported hypotheses regarding the relationship of resilience to personality dimensions and coping styles. Resilience was negatively associated with neuroticism, and positively related to extraversion and conscientiousness. Coping styles also predicted variance in resilience above and beyond the contributions of these personality traits. Task-oriented coping was positively related to resilience, and mediated the relationship between conscientiousness and resilience. Emotion-oriented coping was associated with low resilience. Finally, resilience was shown to moderate the relationship between a form of childhood maltreatment (emotional neglect) and current psychiatric symptoms. These results augment the literature that seeks to better define resilience and provide evidence for the construct validity of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale.     

Psychological predictors for health-related quality of life and disability in persons with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Objective: Individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exhibit low physical and mental health-related quality of life (HRQL) and high susceptibility to disability. We investigated the influence of psychological factors on HRQL and disability in COPD individuals recruited from the general population. In line with Leventhal’s common sense model, we expected psychological factors to be associated with HRQL and disability even after controlling for medical status.

Methods: Individuals with COPD (n = 502; 59.7 years old; GOLD grades were I: 3%, II: 17%, III: 34%, IV: 46%) were assessed through an online survey administered via COPD patient organisations in Germany. Individuals filled in the Short Form Health Survey (SF-12), COPD Assessment Test, Patient Health Questionnaire (modules: GAD-2, PHQ-15, PHQ-9), Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, a questionnaire that assesses causal illness attributions, and the internal illness-related locus of control scale of the ‘KKG questionnaire for the assessment of control beliefs about illness and health’. Multiple linear regressions were calculated.

Results: The investigated factors explained high variances (disability = 56%, physical HRQL = 28%, mental HRQL = 63%, p ≤ .001). Better mental health, more optimistic illness perceptions, attribution to psychological causes, and stronger internal locus of control were associated with lower disability and better HRQL. Comorbid somatic symptoms contributed to high disability and low quality of life.

Conclusion: Psychological factors, such as illness perception, attribution and internal locus of control, were associated with disability and HRQL. These factors should be considered when designing treatments for individuals with COPD, and adequate interventions should be provided to enhance illness understanding and self-management skills.     

Predictors of quality of life enjoyment and satisfaction in individuals living with HIV and AIDS in a resource-constrained setting in South Africa

The burden of HIV disease is concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in South Africa (SA). Whilst there have been many studies conducted on the biomedical and socio-psychological aspects of HIV and AIDS, insufficient attention has been paid to the quality of life of those infected with the virus. The primary purpose of the study was to determine the predictors of quality of life enjoyment and satisfaction (Q-LES) among individuals infected with HIV. A battery of questionnaires, which included the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Q-LES-Q), were administered to 121 participants. Data was analysed using SPSS. Of the total sample (n = 121), 74% were females. The study found that a large proportion (49.5%) of the sample within the age group 25–49 years old experienced psychological distress. Those who were not on antiretroviral treatment (ART) were significantly affected (66%). Psychological distress was significantly prevalent among HIV positive individuals and also the strongest predictor of Q-LES among these individuals.