Meaning in the Lives of Caregivers of Individuals with Parkinson's Disease

This study explores the contribution of finding meaning in general and finding meaning specific to caregiving as potentially important explanatory variables in predicting well-being in caregivers of individuals with Parkinson's disease. Fifty-eight caregivers of individuals diagnosed with Parkinson's disease were provided self-report questionnaires to assess well-being and meaning (general and specific). Results showed a significant proportion of the variance of positive affect (PASS) and negative affect (DYS) related to well-being, as assessed by the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist – Revised. Purpose and Existential Vacuum (two subtests of the Life Attitude Profile – Revised used to assess general meaning) predicted well-being. Purpose predicted 41.8% of the variance related to PASS; Existential Vacuum predicted 30.8% of the variance related to DYS. Meaning related specifically to caregiving (Finding Meaning Through Caregiving Scale) did not explain any additional variance. Our results suggest that finding meaning, beyond meaning specifically associated with caregiving, is the key to understanding well-being among caregivers of individuals with Parkinson's disease. The positive construct of finding meaning in general can empower researchers and professionals working with caregivers to better understand the variability in caregiver outcomes as well as assess and intervene more effectively.     

The Implicit Life Satisfaction Measure

The Implicit Association Test, developed by Greenwald and colleagues in 1998, was adapted to measure satisfaction with life by assessing the strength of automatic associations of My life with Good- versus Bad-related words. A series of studies explored some psychometric as well as methodological properties of the Implicit Life Satisfaction measure (ILS). The ILS demonstrated good internal consistency and moderate temporal stability. Studies revealed that: (i) the type of stimuli used for target and attribute categories influences the magnitude of the ILS effect; (ii) participants could voluntarily suppress their satisfaction with life on the ILS, but not enhance it; and (iii) handedness of categories did not affect the participants' performance on the ILS. Overall, the ILS measures are: (i) independent of traditional life satisfaction self-report measures; and (ii) positive for most people.     

Acculturation and Subjective well-being of Chinese Students in Australia

This study examined the relationships of two dimensions (host and co-national identification (HNI and CNI)), four modes (integration, separation, assimilation and marginalization) of acculturation to subjective well-being (SWB) of Chinese students in Australia. One hundred and fifty-seven Chinese overseas students completed a questionnaire including the acculturation index and the assessment of SWB. Analyses revealed that: (a) both strong HNI and CNI predicted enhanced SWB; (b) acculturation styles were also related to SWB and Chinese students who were integrated had significantly stronger SWB than their peers who were assimilated, separated or marginalized (c) there was no significant correlation between negative emotions and HNI or CNI. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Subjective Well-Being in Midlife: The Role of Involvement of and Closeness to Parents in Childhood

This study used data from the British National Child Development Study to examine the role of parenting in later subjective well-being (SWB). Parenting was defined as mother involvement and father involvement (measured at age 7) and as closeness to mother and closeness to father (measured at age 16). SWB was measured at age 42 and was defined as life satisfaction, psychological functioning (measured with the GHQ-12), and absence of psychological distress (measured with the Malaise Inventory). Control factors were parental social class at birth, parental family structure throughout childhood, domestic tension in the parental home, parental ill mental health in early childhood, psychological maladjustment in adolescence, financial difficulties throughout childhood, educational attainment, self-rated health in early adulthood, and current socio-demographic correlates of SWB (labour force participation, religion and being partnered). It was found that even after adjusting for these factors closeness to mother at age 16 predicted life satisfaction at age 42 in both men and women, whereas mother involvement at age 7 predicted life satisfaction at age 42 in men. Closeness to mother at age 16 was also negatively related to poor psychological functioning at age 42 in women.     

Same-sex parent families in Italy: Validation of the Coparenting Scale-Revised for lesbian mothers and gay fathers

Even though Italy is still struggling to establish equal rights and access to assisted reproduction techniques for sexual minorities, an increasing number of lesbian women and gay men are now becoming parents. There are only a few studies that have evaluated coparenting in same-sex couples. However, these addressed adoptive couples and not the lesbian and gay parent families through donor insemination or surrogacy, respectively. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Coparenting Scale-Revised and its relationship with dyadic adjustment, discipline management, and internalized sexual stigma in Italian same-sex-planned families. The factor structure showed a satisfactory internal consistency and criterion validity with correlates of coparenting behaviours. While Family Integrity factor was confirmed, Disparagement and Reprimand dimensions collapsed into Conflict factor. Non-genetic parents showed lower levels of conflict than genetic parents. Most importantly, coparenting emerged as a significant function not shaped by gender, but influenced by parental status and internalized sexual stigma.     

Prosocial behavior increases perceptions of meaning in life

Finding meaning in life is a fundamental personal need, and motivating prosocial behavior is a fundamental societal need. The present research tests whether the two are connected – whether helping other people can increase helpers’ perceptions of meaning in life. Evidence from a nationally representative data-set and two experiments support this hypothesis. Participants who engaged in prosocial behaviors – volunteering and spending money to benefit others – reported experiencing greater meaning in their lives (Studies 1–3). Study 3 also identifies increased self-worth as the mechanism – participants who spent money to benefit other people felt higher personal worth and self-esteem, and this mediated the effect of prosocial behavior on meaningfulness. The present results join other findings in suggesting that the incentives for helping others do not necessarily depend on the prospect of others’ reciprocity. Prosocial behavior can be incentivized through the psychological benefits it creates for prosocial actors.     

初中生生活满意度的发展趋势及心理韧性的影响:2年追踪研究

采用学生生活满意度量表和青少年心理韧性量表对2所学校的249名初一学生进行了2年4次的追踪调查,应用HLM分析初中生生活满意度的变化趋势,探讨性别、学校地区差异和心理韧性对生活满意度的影响。结果表明:(1)初中生的生活满意度从初一下学期到初三下学期这2年时间内存在着显著下降的发展趋势;(2)性别、学校地区差异对生活满意度发展的预测效应不显著;(3)初始测量心理韧性的情绪控制和家庭支持两因子对生活满意度发展的预测效应显著,而目标专注、积极认知、人际协助等三因子的预测效应不显著;(4)心理韧性中个体力对初中生生活满意度发展的影响主要表现为直接效应,其调节效应有限,而支持力的调节效应较大。     

大学生的社会支持、孤独及自尊对主观幸福感的作用机制研究

对389名大学生施测社会支持量表、自尊量表、社会与感情孤独量表及主观幸福感量表,以探讨孤独和自尊在社会支持与主观幸福感的关系中的作用。结果表明：（1）主观幸福感与社会支持、自尊、孤独呈显著相关。（2）路径分析表明,自尊、孤独分别在社会支持与主观幸福感之间起显著的中介作用。社会支持→自尊→孤独→主观幸福感的显著路径表明,这些变量间存在更为复杂的关系。这些结果对于大学生心理健康教育具有重要的意义。     

Succeeding competently: towards an anti-luck condition for achievement

Achievements are among the things that make a life good. Assessing the plausibility of this intuitive claim requires an account of the nature of achievements. One necessary condition for achievement appears to be that the achieving agent acted competently, i.e. was not just lucky. I begin by critically assessing existing accounts of anti-luck conditions for achievements in both the ethics and epistemology literature. My own proposal is that a goal is reached competently (and thus an achievement), only if the actions of the would-be-achiever make success likely, and that this is the reason why she acts that way.     

When groups do not cure: Group esteem moderates the social cure effect

Group membership enhances well-being. In two preregistered studies, we tested the assumption that only positively viewed groups yield this “social cure” effect and explored the impact of membership in negatively viewed groups, proposing that the social cure effect is qualified by group esteem (the degree to which ingroups are valued and liked). In Study 1 (N = 396), we manipulated social identity gain (vs. loss) and measured group esteem, and found that gaining (vs. losing) a group membership more strongly increased psychological need satisfaction when group esteem was higher. In Study 2 (N = 494), we manipulated identity gain (vs. loss) and group esteem, and found that gaining (vs. losing) a high-esteem group membership enhanced well-being via increased need satisfaction, whereas gaining (vs. losing) a low-esteem group membership undermined well-being via decreased need satisfaction. Our results contribute to conceptual models of how group membership influences individuals and suggest that membership in low-esteem groups can harm well-being.