Being good by doing good: Daily eudaimonic activity and well-being

Eudaimonic theories of well-being assert the importance of achieving one’s full potential through engaging in inherently meaningful endeavors. In two daily diary studies, we assessed whether reports of engagement in behaviors representative of eudaimonic theories were associated with well-being. We also examined whether eudaimonic behaviors were more strongly related to well-being than behaviors directed toward obtaining pleasure or material goods. In both studies, eudaimonic behaviors had consistently stronger relations to well-being than hedonic behaviors. Data also provided support for a temporal sequence in which eudaimonic behaviors were related to greater well-being the next day. Overall, our results suggest that “doing good” may be an important avenue by which people create meaningful and satisfying lives.     

Performance evaluation of recent information criteria for selecting multilevel models in Behavioral and Social Sciences

This study was designed to find the best strategy for selecting the correct multilevel model among several alternatives taking into account variables such as intraclass correlation, number of groups (m), group size (n), or others as parameter values and intercept-slope covariance. First, we examine this question in a simulation study and second, to illustrate the behavior of the criteria and to explore the generalizability of the findings, a previously published educational dataset is analyzed. The results showed that none of the selection criteria behaved correctly under all the conditions or was consistently better than the others. The intraclass correlation somewhat affects the performance of all selection criteria, but the extent of this influence is relatively minor compared to sample size, parameter values, and correlation between random effects. A large number of groups appears more important than a large number of individuals per group in selecting the best model (m ≥ 50 and n ≥ 20 is suggested). Finally, model selection tools such as Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) or the conditional AIC are recommend when it is assumed that random effects are correlated, whereas use of the Schwarz's Bayesian Information Criterion or the consistent AIC are advantageous for uncorrelated random effects.     

Mother–infant mutual eye gaze supports emotion regulation in infancy during the Still-Face paradigm

This study was designed to examine the sequential relationship between mother–infant synchrony and infant affect using multilevel modeling during the Still Face paradigm. We also examined self-regulatory behaviors that infants use during the Still-Face paradigm to modulate their affect, particularly during stressors where their mothers are not available to help them co-regulate. There were 84 mother–infant dyads, of healthy full term 4 month old infants. Second-by-second coding of infant self-regulation and infant affect was done, in addition to mother–infant mutual eye gaze. Using multilevel modeling, we found that infant affect became more positive when mutual gaze had occurred the previous second, suggesting that the experience of synchronicity was associated with observable shifts in affect. We also found a positive association between self-regulatory behaviors and increases in positive affect only during the Still-Face episode (episode 2). Our study provides support for the role of mother–infant synchronicity in emotion regulation as well as support for the role of self-regulatory behaviors in emotion regulation that can have important implication for intervention.     

Modeling the effects of within-person characteristic and goal-level attributes on personal project pursuit over time

The current study aims to overcome methodological constraints of previous goal pursuit research by exploring how people simultaneously rely upon person-level characteristic adaptations and unique goal-level attributes to pursue their personal projects. Undergraduate participants identified 10 projects they would pursue over an academic quarter and rated project meaningfulness, effort exerted, patience employed, and progress satisfaction at five time points. Multilevel structural equation models revealed the relative influence of person-level and project-level attributes on project appraisals. Person-level adaptations accounted for a large portion of variance in project pursuit appraisals, though significant project-specific trends were found over time as well, including mutual positive cross-lag influences between meaning, patience, and effort, and a negative predictive effect of progress satisfaction on meaning.     

Linking dimensions and dynamics in psychopathology research: An example using DSM-5 instruments

The DSM-5 includes two measures to assess dimensions of personality pathology (Personality Inventory for DSM-5; PID-5) and cross-cutting symptoms of psychopathology (DSM-5 Cross-cutting Symptom Measure; CCS). Few studies have evaluated these measures in an ecologically valid context. Participants (N = 248, student sample) completed self-report versions of the DSM-5 measures, and then completed a two-week daily diary of internalizing and externalizing outcomes. The CCS scales evidenced convergent and discriminant validity with these outcomes, PID-5 Negative Affectivity and Detachment were related to internalizing outcomes, and PID-5 Antagonism was related to externalizing outcomes. We also demonstrated the benefit of linking static dimensions to temporally-dynamic processes by examining how PID-5/CCS dimensions moderated the within-person associations among daily cognitive distortions and internalizing and externalizing outcomes.     

The dynamics of team coordination: A social network analysis as a window to shared awareness

Shared awareness was studied in one novice and one expert basketball team during real games. Teams were considered dynamic social networks with team members as nodes and members’ awareness of other members during ongoing performance as relations. Networks, and changes to them across games, were analysed at different levels of organization using social network analysis to identify patterns of awareness within the teams. The results showed that one team member in each team often heeded, or was heeded by, his teammates, indicating his leadership role in coordinating the team. Also, expert team members had a low level of awareness of their teammates, which may be explained by implicit coordination processes. Finally, there was less variability in intra-team relations in the expert (vs. novice) team, which may be explained by the enhanced ability of the expert team to achieve and maintain an optimal level of awareness during the game. At a practical level, teams might be alerted during performance when their network of connections approaches connectedness thresholds that predict coordination breakdowns, affording online regulation of team processes. Future studies should explore the generalizability of these early findings using larger samples.     

School and individual factors on game addiction: A multilevel analysis

This study investigated the protective or risk factors of game addiction at individual and school-level using multilevel modelling. Data from Korea Children and Youth Panel Survey was used for the analyses. The findings revealed that individual-level variables, including gender, delinquency, family intimacy, stress, self-esteem and self-control, were significant predictors of game addiction. Furthermore, protective school climate contributed to decreasing the level of game addiction and risky school climates positively predicted game addiction. The effect of individual-level variables on game addiction was different depending on the type or level of school-level variables. Based on the findings, implications and suggestions for future studies were discussed.     

The effect of implementation intentions on physical activity among obese older adults: A randomised control study

The objective of this study is to quantify situational impacts on coping compared to the impact of personal characteristics. A facet design was used to systematically vary three situational features (ambiguity, social context, and concern at stake) in twenty vignettes of stressful situations that were presented to a sample of 430 healthy persons to elicit coping responses. In addition, relevant personal characteristics (mental health, self-esteem, perceived social support, and dispositional coping styles) were assessed. A series of variance component analyses demonstrated that for eight types of coping behavior, variability within individuals across situations was larger than variability between individuals. Multilevel analyses, accounting for both the person level and the situation level in the data, were employed to identify the situational features and personal characteristics that were responsible for situation-related variance and person-related variance respectively. Results demonstrate that all three situational features proved significant contributors to differentiated situation-specific coping patterns. No single personal factor could be identified as relevant in shaping coping behaviors, although the combined impact of personal factors explained a considerable amount of variance at the personal level. It is concluded that the study of situational features is a promising way to understand in which way situations shape coping behavior, and may be helpful in guiding the development of coping scales tailored to specific situations.     

Fresh Start: A Multilevel Community Mobilization Plan to Promote Youth Development and Prevent Violence

While much has been written about community mobilization for health, few detailed expositions of the formation of community mobilization, especially focused on youth violence prevention exist. The Columbia Center for Youth Violence Prevention, in collaboration with the UNIDOS Inwood Coalition, developed a Community mobilization plan to guide youth violence prevention in Inwood. The plan was developed within the context of an evidence-based organizing framework-Communities that Care (CTC) and takes a multi-level approach to service coordination that includes activities at the Individual, Family, Block, Organizational and Built Environment levels. This article describes how the Community mobilization plan was created, illustrates the use of evidence-based practices to lead to the development of the plan, outlines the plan's community/organizational activities, and summarizes the principles and processes that can be replicated in other communities seeking to start their own community mobilization efforts to reduce youth violence.     

Predicting Perceived Risk of Crime: a Multilevel Study

With a sample of Italians selected from 71 Italian counties (N = 1,868), we performed two multilevel analyses aimed at predicting the perceived risk of crime at local (i.e., in the participants' county of residence) and at societal (i.e., in the context of Italian society) levels. A significant proportion of the variation in local risk perception was at the county level. The following individual variables predicted higher levels of this variable: indirect victimization, the perception of social and physical disorder, being a woman, being poorly educated, and being an older person. Among the ecological predictors, the crime rate and unemployment rate predicted higher levels of local crime risk perception, while the immigrant rate did not. Perceived risk of crime at the societal level did not show significant variation at the county level. Education, being a man, trusting people, and adhesion to post‐materialistic values predicted lower levels of societal crime risk perception, while number of sons/daughters and exposure to television news increased it. The limitations and possible development of this study are discussed.