Alternative Recipes for Life Satisfaction: Evidence from Five World Regions

In most cross-national research on Life Satisfaction (LS) an implicit assumption appears to be that the correlates of LS are the same the world over; ‘one size fits all’. Using data from the World Values Survey (1999–2014), we question this assumption by assessing the effects of differing personal values/life priorities on LS in five world regions: the West, Latin America, the Asian-Confucian region, ex-Communist Eastern Europe, and the Communist countries of China and Vietnam. We indicate that differing values - traditional family values, friendship and leisure values, materialistic values, political values, prosocial and environmental values, and religious values – are endorsed to varying degrees in different parts of the world, and vary in whether they have positive or negative effects on LS. Personal values provide the basis for alternative ‘recipes’ affecting LS. By ‘recipes’ we mean linked set of values, attitudes, behavioural choices and domain satisfactions that have a positive or negative effect on LS. We estimate structural equation models which indicate that differing values-based recipes help to account for large, unexpected differences between mean levels of LS in the five world regions, compared with the levels ‘predicted’ by GDP per capita. In particular, the high priority given to traditional family and religious recipes in Latin America helps to account for unexpectedly high LS in that region. Deficits in prosocial attitudes and behaviours partly account for low LS in ex-Communist Eastern Europe.

     

On anxiety-specific actions of tranquilizers

Abstract

This study examined the role of social support in the relationship between work demand and psychological distress (GHQ 12) in correctional officers (N=419), a high stress occupational group. Work demands were positively associated with strain. There was no evidence that social support buffered the negative impact of work demands. Rather, consistent with most previous research findings, support showed direct benefits and these were discussed in the context of worker participation and control. The hypothesis that officers high in negative affectivity, as measured by trait anxiety would show greater reactivity to work demands was not supported. However, trait anxiety appeared to inflate the relationship between work stressors (work demand and work support) and psychological distress supporting recent suggestions that the role of trait anxiety in occupational stress should not be disregarded. Trait anxiety combined additively with work demand to predict individual differences in psychological distress, however social support moderated the impact of trait anxiety on strain.     

Facial expressions in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) and their use by conspecifics

Facial expressions have been studied mainly in chimpanzees and have been shown to be important social signals. In platyrrhine and strepsirrhine primates, it has been doubted that facial expressions are differentiated enough, or the species socially capable enough, for facial expressions to be part of their communication system. However, in a series of experiments presenting olfactory, auditory and visual stimuli, we found that common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) displayed an unexpected variety of facial expressions. Especially, olfactory and auditory stimuli elicited obvious facial displays (such as disgust), some of which are reported here for the first time. We asked whether specific facial responses to food and predator-related stimuli might act as social signals to conspecifics. We recorded two contrasting facial expressions (fear and pleasure) as separate sets of video clips and then presented these to cage mates of those marmosets shown in the images, while tempting the subject with food. Results show that the expression of a fearful face on screen significantly reduced time spent near the food bowl compared to the duration when a face showing pleasure was screened. This responsiveness to a cage mate’s facial expressions suggests that the evolution of facial signals may have occurred much earlier in primate evolution than had been thought.     

The influence of sex hormones on functional cerebral asymmetries in postmenopausal women

Studies investigating changes in functional cerebral asymmetries (FCAs) with hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cycle in young women have led to controversial hypotheses about an influence of estrogen (E) and/or progesterone (P) on FCAs. Based on methodical, but also on principal problems in deriving conclusions about hormone effects from correlational designs, the present study investigated hemispheric asymmetries in postmenopausal women, who received hormone replacement either with E alone (E group, n = 32), an E–P combination (E–P group, n = 29) or no hormone substitution (control group, n = 31). Speed and accuracy of responses to a word- and a face decision task, both presented laterally by means of the visual half field technique, were assessed. The control group showed the typical pattern of hemispheric asymmetry with more correct responses to verbal stimuli presented in the right visual field (RVF) and to face stimuli presented in the left visual field (LVF). A hormone-effect was demonstrable only for the verbal task, in which the E group showed an enhanced performance of the right hemisphere (LVF). The E–P group showed no significant differences to the control group or the E group. The results suggest a role of E in the modulation of FCAs at least with regard to verbal processing.     

Emotional and learning behaviour in mice overexpressing heat shock protein 70

The effects of inducible heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) on emotional and learning behaviour as well as hippocampal long-term potentiation was investigated in transgenic HSP70 overexpressing mice. In active two-way avoidance learning (shuttle box) as well as spatial 8-arm radial maze learning, the HSP70 overexpressing mice showed diminished learning performance. In several tests there was no indication of differences in anxiety behaviour between transgenic mice and wild-type mice. This suggests that impairment in learning behaviour is unrelated to the learning task and motivational aspects of behaviour. To investigate the neurophysiological correlate of learning, long-term potentiation experiments were performed. In transversal hippocampal slices, an enhanced amplitude of the population spike was found in HSP70 overexpressing mice. It was hypothesised that enhanced potentiation in conjunction with potentiation effects due to learning led to learning impairment.     

Wissenserzeugung durch Beobachter?nderung

This article demonstrates that theory-laden perception is a pure fiction of some philosophers of science and does not in fact exist. It shows by examples from L. Fleck that non-neutral or person-bound observation is an important source of scientific knowledge and suggests that we can explain those changes in scientific knowledge that are caused by divergent perceptions of different observers by means of differences in the repertoires of visual concepts of the respective observers. Visual concept is introduced by means of a performance model of perception. It is contrasted with definable or language-generated concept and compared to Wittgenstein's family resemblance of concepts.

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Dieser Aufsatz geht zurück auf einen Vortrag im Kolloquium Beobachtung und Erfahrung an der TU Berlin im Februar 1984 unter Leitung von Herrn Prof. Dr. Hans Poser. Ich danke den Teilhehmern des Kolloquiums für Diskussion und Kritik sowie Herrn Prof. Dr. W. Lenzen und Herrn Prof. Dr. C.-U. Moulines.