Positive living: A pilot study of group positive psychotherapy for people with schizophrenia

Positive psychology interventions target positive emotions in order to increase happiness, engagement in life, and well being while also ameliorating the impact of symptoms on a person's life. We examined an adapted version of group positive psychotherapy for people with schizophrenia (Positive Living (PL)) in a pilot study. Sixteen participants were recruited to participate in two separate PL groups and were assessed at baseline, post-intervention and at 3-month follow-up. We examined feasibility of this intervention in addition to a preliminary exploration of well-being outcomes including psychological well-being, hope, savoring, and self-esteem as well as clinically related outcomes including symptoms, psychological recovery, and social functioning. Findings indicate that the PL group was feasible and associated with possible improvements in psychological well-being, hope, savoring, psychological recovery, self-esteem, and psychiatric symptoms.     

Positive organizational psychology,behavior, and scholarship: A review of the emerging literature and evidence base

The positive psychology movement seems to have stimulated new research and applications well beyond the discipline of traditional psychology. Among the various areas of inquiry, research and scholarship about positive organizations have received considerable attention from both researchers and practitioners. The current review examined the scholarly literature published between 2001 and 2009 on positive organizational psychology to provide a detailed picture of the current state of the field. This review sought to discover the overall growth rate, trends, and prevalent topics in the literature. It also aspired to provide an understanding of the empirical evidence for each topic through in-depth reviews. The findings suggest that there is a growing body of scholarly literature and an emerging empirical evidence base on topics related to positive organizations. Strengths, limitations, and implications of building a practical knowledge base for making significant improvements in the quality of working life and organizational effectiveness are discussed.     

Mediated conditioning versus retrospective revaluation in humans: The influence of physical and functional similarity of cues

Two experiments assessed whether similarity between the two elements of a compound would influence the degree of mediated extinction versus recovery from overshadowing in human causal judgements. In both Experiments 1 and 2, we assessed the influence of extinguishing one element of a two-element compound on judgements about the other element. In Experiment 1 we manipulated the physical similarity of the two elements of the compound; in Experiment 2, we used equivalence and distinctiveness pretraining in order to vary their functional similarity. We found that these procedures influenced mediated extinction and recovery from overshadowing as a function of both physical and acquired similarity and distinctiveness, respectively. The implications of these results for previously reported differences between humans and nonprimate animals are discussed.     

Associations among Challenge Stress,Hindrance Stress,and Employees' Innovative Work Behavior: Mediation Effects of Thriving at Work and Emotional Exhaustion

Employees' innovative work behavior (IWB) is one of the key factors in improving organizational competitiveness. Previous studies show that challenge and hindrance stress can impact employees' IWB, but our understanding of the exact mechanism underlying the impact is still limited. The present study employed four scales (Challenge and Hindrance Stress Scale, Thriving at Work Scale, Chinese Emotional Exhaustion Scale, and Employee Innovative Behavior Scale) to collect questionnaire data from 789 employees in diverse organizations via an online platform. A two-path mediation model was constructed. The results show that: (a) challenge stress positively predicted thriving at work and IWB; (b) thriving at work played a partial mediation effect between challenge stress and IWB; (c) hindrance stress negatively predicted thriving at work and positively predicted emotional exhaustion; and (4) hindrance stress did not directly impact IWB while thriving at work and emotional exhaustion were main mediators in the relationship between hindrance stress and IWB. These findings suggest that employees should sensibly cope with different work stresses, while managers should plan work tasks scientifically and give employees adequate opportunities to learn and rest in order to keep them in a positive state to solve problems and work creatively.     

Development Through Work and Play

Adopting a work-play framework that attends to the adaptive, self-enhancing potential of play in work and human development contributes to an enhanced conceptualization of careers, both within career theory generally and the developmental perspective on careers specifically. Such a framework also promotes investigations of the connections between these life domains. Five proposals are made to imbue the developmental perspective on careers with a work-play fusion. These proposals examine how a work-play integration in vocational development theory, research, and counseling practice can foster optimal human development and therein aim to advance a revitalized developmental paradigm of career. Ultimately, theory construction and research inquiry that comprehends and investigates an integration of life roles in the domains of work and play could foster adaptability in human life-span development.     

认知评价、心理控制感、社会支持与高考压力关系的研究

采用问卷法,随机选取河北省三类中学(重点、普通、私立)324名高三考生为被试,考察了学生对高考的认知评价、心理控制感、社会支持与高考压力的关系.结果表明:(1)重点中学、普通中学学生心理控制感显著高于私立中学学生,女生在社会支持的寻求上显著高于男生;(2)积极认知评价、心理控制感和社会支持与高考压力有显著负相关,而消极认知评价与高考压力有显著的正相关;(3)消极认知评价、心理控制感和社会支持对高考压力有直接影响;而积极认知评价通过心理控制感和社会支持间接影响高考压力.     

工作家庭冲突的初步研究

工作家庭冲突是一种特殊类型的角色交互冲突 ,它对于了解人的胜任特征模型和提高人力管理的效率有重要的意义。本研究通过在银行、科研单位和高新技术企业进行的有关工作家庭冲突的调查结果表明 ,较之家庭—工作冲突 ,工作—家庭冲突能较好预测员工的工作压力 ,它通过工作压力间接地对工作满意感起作用 ,女性员工的工作态度更容易受到工作—家庭冲突的影响。     

Meaningful patterns of activity amongst the long‐term inner city unemployed: a qualitative study

A number of studies have sought to establish the social psychological factors involved in the maintenance of active lifestyles during long‐term unemployment. The aim of this study was to describe and account for the development and maintenance of different patterns of activity, with reference to their perceived meaningfulness. This was undertaken with a sample of Birmingham's inner city, long‐term unemployed population recruited from three inner city Jobcentres, including men and women, and White, Asian and African Caribbean participants (N = 24). Interviews were conducted using a semi‐structured interview guide. Using the qualitative software program, NUD.IST, the data were analysed according to the principles of the grounded theory approach. Activities were characterized as: domestic; educational; work‐like; socializing; and none. A model of meaningful activity in the context of formal unemployment was developed. The main components of the model were: features of formal employment that inhibited participants' engagement in it; the requirements for personal meaningful activity (challenging activity, effort and commitment, and being valued by others); the consequences of meaningful activity (opportunities for self‐determination and self‐development, and achievement, competence, and confidence) and consolidating factors (social comparison, self‐appraisal, religious and political beliefs, and social support). Theories of unemployment of Jahoda, Warr, and Fryer are considered in the light of the present findings. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Acting with Feeling from Duty

A central claim in Kantian ethics is that an agent is properly morally motivated just in case she acts from duty alone. Bernard Williams, Michael Stocker, and Justin Oakley claim that certain emotionally infused actions, such as lending a compassionate helping hand, can only be done from compassion and not from duty. I argue that these critics have overlooked a distinction between an action's manner, how an action is done, and its motive, the agent's reason for acting. Through a range of examples I demonstrate how an emotion can determine an action's manner without also serving as the motive. Thus, it is possible for an agent to act compassionately from duty alone. This distinction between the manner and the motive of an action not only restores a central claim in Kantian ethics but it also allows for an expanded role of emotions in moral action.