Reciprocal relationships between personality traits and psychological well-being

This study used an American sample collected over a period of approximately 2 decades (at 3 time points) to examine the temporal relationships between psychological well-being and personality traits (i.e., neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience). The random-intercept cross-lagged panel model was used to separate between-person and within-person sources of variation. Between-person correlations were comparable to those of previous studies. New insights were gained at the within-person level. There were reciprocal relationships between psychological well-being and openness and extraversion, suggesting the joint development of plasticity-related traits and well-being over time. The relationships between psychological well-being and conscientiousness and agreeableness were unidirectional, with psychological well-being preceding these traits. Despite a strong between-person association between neuroticism and psychological well-being, the two were not related at the within-person level.     

Second Language Vocabulary Gains from Listening Versus Reading Comprehension Input: A Comparative Study

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - This study aims to investigate the acquisition of vocabulary recognition and vocabulary production in the short—and- long-term via listening and reading...     

Optimal human functioning around the world: A new index of eudaimonic well-being in 166 nations

As more and more people realize that wealth fails to fully capture the essence of human well-being, interest in non-monetary measures of well-being has intensified. Eudaimonic well-being (EWB; i.e., optimal psychosocial functioning) is a largely overlooked aspect of national well-being that has never been examined at the global level. This study uses data from nearly 1,800,000 respondents recruited probabilistically from 166 countries between the years of 2005 and 2017 to construct an index of EWB. EWB demonstrates moderate positive associations with other quality-of-life indicators (i.e., national life satisfaction, national prosperity, overall quality of life, and gross domestic product), indicating that it captures information not reflected by them. The distribution of EWB at national, regional, and global levels, as well as its global trend, is explored. The study also examines the relationships between EWB and a number of theoretically related individual- and country-level variables. Presented are also the results of multilevel modelling including a wide range of predictors.     

The role of pain behaviour and family caregiver responses in the link between pain catastrophising and pain intensity: A moderated mediation model

Objectives: This study investigated the mediating role of pain behaviours in the association between pain catastrophising and pain intensity and explored the moderating role of family caregivers’ responses to pain in the link between pain behaviours and pain intensity.

Methods: The sample consisted of 154 chronic pain patients and their family caregivers. Patients completed questionnaires regarding pain intensity, pain catastrophising, pain behaviours and their caregivers’ responses to their pain. Family caregivers reported their responses to the patients’ pain.

Results: Pain catastrophising was associated with pain intensity (r = 0.37) and pain behaviours partly mediated this association. The positive association between pain behaviours and pain intensity was significant only if patients reported that their family caregivers showed high levels of solicitous (effect = .49) and distracting responses (effect = .58), and if caregivers reported to show high levels of solicitous responses (effect = .51). No support was found for negative responses as a moderator neither based on patients’ perception of negative responses nor based on caregivers’ perception of negative responses.

Conclusions: The findings are in line with the idea that family caregivers’ solicitous and distracting responses convey to patients that their condition is serious, which may reinforce patients’ pain and pain behaviours, especially in those who catastrophise.     

Evaluating the Factor Structure of the MIDI Personality Scale Using Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling

This study investigated the factor structure of the 26‐item Midlife Development Inventory (MIDI) Personality Scale in a sample of 2,720 Americans. It was found that whereas confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) did not provide an acceptable fit to the data, exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) provided an acceptable fit. The results of ESEM revealed that the a priori five‐factor structure of personality was generally consistent with the data, and all items had salient loadings on their target factors. ESEM also revealed that some of the items contributed significantly to more than one personality factor. The results are in line with previous research, and indicate that ESEM is more suitable than CFA for the study of personality traits.     

Aversion to Happiness Across Cultures: A Review of Where and Why People are Averse to Happiness

A common view in contemporary Western culture is that personal happiness is one of the most important values in life. For example, in American culture it is believed that failing to appear happy is cause for concern. These cultural notions are also echoed in contemporary Western psychology (including positive psychology and much of the research on subjective well-being). However, some important (often culturally-based) facts about happiness have tended to be overlooked in the psychological research on the topic. One of these cultural phenomena is that, for some individuals, happiness is not a supreme value. In fact, some individuals across cultures are averse to various kinds of happiness for several different reasons. This article presents the first review of the concept of aversion to happiness. Implications of the outcomes are discussed, as are directions for further research.     

Eastern Conceptualizations of Happiness: Fundamental Differences with Western Views

The purpose of this review is to compare and contrast western and eastern conceptualizations of happiness and optimal functioning. Towards this end, accounts of happiness and optimal functioning provided in western philosophy and scientific psychology are compared with those in some eastern schools of thought (namely, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Sufism). Six fundamental differences in western and eastern conceptualizations of the good life are identified and discussed in the context of broader psychological theory. It is hoped that this theoretical analysis will stimulate more culturally informed research among happiness researchers.     

Fiscal Effects of Immigrants in Canada

In this paper, we present the estimates of the fiscal transfer to immigrants from native-born Canadians. The fiscal transfer is the amount of money that immigrants absorb in public services less the amount that they pay in taxes, suitably adjusted for scale effects in public provision of services, life cycle effects in tax payment, and so on. Our work builds on previous works in the literature, updating from the last scholarly work in this area by Akbari (Can Public Policy 15(4): 424–435, 1989) with new and richer data. Akbari found on the basis of the 1981 Census data a small fiscal transfer from immigrants to the native-born amounting to about $500 per year per immigrant. Over time, the composition and income attainment of immigrants has evolved somewhat unfavorably for immigrants, and we find on the basis of the 2006 census data, a small fiscal transfer from the native-born to immigrants of about $500 per year per immigrant.     

Latent State-Trait Modeling of Satisfaction with Life Scale: An Item-Level Analysis Using Dutch Panel Data

Journal of Happiness Studies - This study sought to examine the stability and change of the 5 items of the Satisfaction With Life Scale over several years. The multi-trait-multi-state model was...     

Longitudinal Relations Between Depressive Symptoms and Life Satisfaction Over 15 Years

The longitudinal relationships between depressive symptoms and life satisfaction were examined using the random intercept cross-lagged panel model. This model allows the study of the relationship between the two variables both at the within-person and between-person levels. Data were obtained from the German Ageing Survey (DEAS). Analyses were conducted at lags of 3 (N = 8,492) and 6 years (N = 4,878), with data collected over a period of approximately 15 years. At the within-person level, the bidirectional associations between the two variables were significant in the 3-year lag analysis, whereas in the 6-year lag analysis, only life satisfaction predicted future depressive symptoms. An implication is that dissatisfaction with life may signal the possibility of developing depressive symptoms in the future. Increasing life satisfaction may act as a preventive measure against future depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms may also be an indicator of future deterioration in subjective well-being.