Quality of Life Assessment for Physical Activity and Health Promotion

Despite the clear relationship of physical activity and quality of life (QoL), QoL measures are seldom targeted for physical activity and health promotion. The current research attempted to address that gap by developing a QoL measure based on a conceptual model that reflects positive health and is relevant for physical activity and health promotion programs. In the project, which extended over three phases, an initial 70-item QoL survey was administered to university students and community program participants (total n = 512) along with measures of satisfaction with life and physical activity. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed clear social, emotional, cognitive, physical, spiritual and functional (ADL) QoL factors as well as integrated QoL. The resulting 32-item QoL Survey fits the conceptual model, demonstrates logical relationships with physical activity and has sufficient psychometric properties for use in related research and health promotion programs.     

The effect of meaningfulness and integrative processing in expressive writing on positive and negative affect and life satisfaction

Meaningfulness and integrative processing of expressive writing may influence the effect of expressive writing. Participants completed measures of positive affect, negative affect and life satisfaction before and after an expressive writing intervention. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four expressive writing instruction conditions, which combined higher and lower levels of meaning and integrative processing instructions. Meaningfulness and integrative processing instructions had significant effects in increasing positive affect and there was a significant interaction between meaningfulness instructions and integrative processing instructions; participants in the high meaningfulness and high integrative processing instruction condition showed the greatest increase in positive affect. Meaningfulness had a significant effect in decreasing negative affect. The intervention did not influence life satisfaction. Both meaningfulness and integrative processing instructions led to more self-reported personal meaningfulness of the writing and more cognitive, emotional, behavioural and situational changes. More self-reported meaningfulness of the writing and more cognitive, emotional, behavioural and situational changes made as a result of the writing were in turn associated with greater increases in positive affect. The results of the study affirm the importance of meaningfulness and processing in expressive writing and potentially provide information regarding how to increase the effectiveness of expressive writing.     

Evidence for a Needs-Based Model of Organizational-Meeting Leadership

The aim of this study was to investigate whether an association exists between 19 meeting-leader behaviors of the type that tend to meet attendee needs and attendee ratings of satisfaction with the meeting and productivity of the meeting. An observer blind to the ratings of attendees recorded which of 19 needs-related behaviors the leader showed and then collected anonymous meeting-rating data from the attendees. The study included data from 60 organizational meetings and a total of 401 meeting attendees. The results indicate that the overall level of leader behaviors shown, out of 19 different behaviors observed, was significantly associated with attendee ratings of the meeting. Several individual meeting-leader behaviors showed significant associations with ratings of either meeting productivity or satisfaction with the meeting: arriving before the start of the meeting, speaking succinctly, moving the meeting along, encouraging participation, encouraging decision making, paraphrasing someone’s, smiling more than once, saying something positive about the future of the organization, and summarizing the decisions made. The results provide preliminary support for a new needs-based model of organizational-meeting leadership. The results also suggest specific leader behaviors that may contribute to meeting productivity and satisfaction.     

The history of training and research in Balint groups

SUMMARY

The aim of Balint groups has changed very little, if at all, over the last 20 years. Changes, however, have occurred in the techniques which the general practitioners study in the groups, and these are described in this paper.     

Characteristic emotional intelligence and emotional well-being

Both theory and previous research suggest a link between emotional intelligence and emotional well-being. Emotional intelligence includes the ability to understand and regulate emotions; emotional well-being includes positive mood and high self-esteem. Two studies investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence and mood, and between emotional intelligence and self-esteem. The results of these studies indicated that higher emotional intelligence was associated with characteristically positive mood and higher self-esteem. The results of a third study indicated that higher emotional intelligence was associated with a higher positive mood state and greater state self-esteem. The third study also investigated the role of emotional intelligence in mood and self-esteem regulation and found that individuals with higher emotional intelligence showed less of a decrease in positive mood and self-esteem after a negative state induction using the Velten method, and showed more of an increase in positive mood, but not in self-esteem, after a positive state induction. The findings were discussed in the light of previous work on emotional intelligence, and recommendations were made for further study.