Annamaria Di Fabio

• PhD
• Full Professor Work and Organizational Psychology at University of Florence

Since 2013, the UNESCO Chair of Lifelong Guidance and Counseling, together with its UNITWIN Network created in 2017, have been driving research, training, and interventions from a Life Design perspective to help people to navigate this uncertain world. This article is a UNESCO Chair position paper which aims to propose a new vision for career couns...

This contribution proposes a fourth paradigm for twenty-first century careers adopting a sustainable development framework. First the evolution of the career development field through three paradigms (individual differences, individual development, life design) of career science and practice is offered. Then sustainable development as a fourth para...

Giftedness is a lifelong journey; gifted adult workers need specific career counselling. The Psychology of Sustainability and Sustainable Development enhances the value of positive psychological resources for gifted and talented workers to sustain them in their careers and life projects. The study implemented a latent profile analysis (LPA) in adul...

Climate change has emerged as a tough challenge affecting the world’s society and economy in the twenty-first century. Furthermore, it has been determined that global warming and climate change have detrimental effects on human health both physical and psychological. In this framework, eco-anxiety has emerged as a new construct to assess the distre...

The Eco-Generativity Scale (EGS) is a recently developed 28-item scale derived from a 4-factor higher-order model (ecological generativity, social generativity, environmental identity, and agency/pathways). The aim of this study was to develop a short-scale version of the EGS to facilitate its use with university students ( N = 779) who will determ...

Rooted in the decent education as a precursor to decent work, this study investigated via network analysis the relationship between the work as meaning inventory for university students (WAMI-U) (positive meaning, meaning-making through study, greater good motivations) and the humor styles questionnaire (HSQ) (health-promoting styles: affiliative h...

To cope with the challenges of 21st-century careers, the research on psychology of sustainability and sustainable development complements the psychology of work perspective with an emphasis on factors that foster the workers’ well-being, decent work, and decent lives in healthy organizations. In this framework, individual eudaimonic well-being (EWB...

(1) Background: Environmental issues are among society’s most pressing concerns as they can significantly impact the environment and human health. The Eco Generativity Scale (EGS), a 28-item four-factor scale has been introduced to promote a constructive outlook on the matter. It encompasses two types of generativity, namely ecological and social g...

Introduction The psychology of sustainability and sustainable development aims to contribute to the establishment of a culture of sustainability regarding the 2030 Agenda and its 17 sustainable development goals. Methods In this framework, this study examined the associations between acceptance of change and well-being (hedonic and eudaimonic side...

Introduction Constructing positive and supportive relationships is fundamental for healthy workers and healthy organizations and to cope with the current challenging work scenario. Organizations need to acknowledge the relevance of the relationships for workers and organizational well-being and adopt managing practices that enhance healthy relation...

In this study, we investigated the relationship between the four humor styles (Affiliative, Self-enhancing, Aggressive, and Self-defeating) assessed via the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) and the ten facets of the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ) through network analysis. Four hundred and sixty-two Italian workers (61.3% women; Mage = 48.59; SD = 10....

Gratitude is a promising resource from a healthy organizational perspective. It is related to many positive outcomes at work. The Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test-Revised Short (GRAT-RS) is the most widely used self-report questionnaire to detect gratitude. The present study examined GRAT-RS (the Italian version) by implementing multidime...

This study investigated the relationship between the Big Three Perfectionism Scale–Short Form (BTPS-SF) (Rigid, Self-critical, and Narcissistic perfectionism) and the ten facets of the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ) through network analysis. The BTPS-SF and the BFQ were administered to 473 Italian workers. Both centrality indexes (Expected Influence...

Satisfaction with life is a core dimension of well-being that can be of great importance in the workplace, in light of the close link between worker health and organizational success highlighted by the perspective of healthy organizations. This study aimed at analyzing the factors associated with satisfaction with life, focusing on the role of resi...

In the contemporary world of work, workers are engaged more frequently in career choices to cope with changing work and working conditions. In this scenario, the well-being of workers is under threat. This study aims to examine the effect of career adaptability as a preventive resource on the relationship between self-esteem and meaning in life. Th...

In a healthy organization’s framework and strength-based prevention perspectives, gratitude represents an important resource. Gratitude is a worthy construct able to promote the well-being of both workers and organizations. Gratitude is also an interesting variable in relation to success, efficiency and productivity in organizations that can be inc...

Insight is a construct carried out into different theoretical orientations with increasing application out of the boundaries of clinical psychology. Recent studies have investigated insight also as a promising variable for organizational outcomes. Given the relevance of Insight in promoting change, this paper aimed at describing the psychometric an...

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly influenced people’s lives, with non-negligible consequences for the perception of well-being. This study sought to examine the effect of anxiety, post-traumatic impairment, and mature defenses on life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. One thousand three hundred thirty-nine Italian individuals (30% male;...

Background The present study examined the psychometric properties of the Big Three Perfectionism Scale–Short Form (BTPS-SF) using Rasch and Mokken item response theory (IRT) analyses, which have not previously been applied to the BTPS-SF. Materials and methods A total of 401 Italian workers (Mage = 46.78; SD = 10.1; male = 48.9%; female = 51.1%) c...

The present study examined the Italian version of the Work as Meaning Inventory and Work as Meaning Inventory for University students through a network perspective. Network analysis was applied to 505 Italian workers assessed via the Work as Meaning Inventory and 214 Italian university students assessed via the Work as Meaning Inventory for Univers...

The aim of the present article is to purpose new career counselling perspectives for vulnerable workers in the time of COVID-19 recession. We summarize perspectives on vulnerable workers following a recently advanced taxonomy on the work precarity framework characterized by three broad categories: precarity of work (i.e. fear and concern associated...

The context of contemporary work scenarios features constant change and innovation in the field of information and communication technologies, which result in frequent work transitions and job insecurity. Such circumstances are highly threatening to the well-being of workers. Moreover, the instability and precariousness of the labour market are agg...

The context of contemporary work scenarios features constant change and innovation in the field of information and communication technologies, which result in frequent work transitions and job insecurity. Such circumstances are highly threatening to the well-being of workers. Moreover, the instability and precariousness of the labour market are agg...

The aim of the present article is to purpose new career counselling perspectives for vulnerable workers in the time of COVID-19 recession. We summarize perspectives on vulnerable workers following a recently advanced taxonomy on the work precarity framework characterized by three broad categories: precarity of work (i.e. fear and concern associated...

The present study investigated the Italian version of the Decent Work Scale (DWS) with a sample of 645 workers (females = 65.1%; mean age = 43.9 years; SD = 10.9) according to a network perspective. We compared factorial and network models and estimated the regularized partial correlations for the five DWS domains: physically and interpersonally sa...

Psychology of working theory (PWT) and psychology of working framework (PWF) offered a psychological view of decent work. The present study examined the associations among personality traits, decent work and Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery Scale (OFER). Two hundred and thirty four participants filled out the Big Five Questionnaire, the Ita...

The study outlines the pillars of the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development. It applies a transdisciplinary approach to explore how the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development provides a common language for constructing well-being and quality-of-life of populations, regarding the natural, personal, social, organi...

This study discusses the contribution of the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development to the wellbeing of vulnerable workers. The psychology of sustainability and sustainable development is a current area of the research study in the field of sustainability science. It deals with sustainability as a framework to recognize and integr...

Job satisfaction has gained increasing interest in the world of work and a vast field of research has been stimulated regarding its antecedents. Among these, personality traits have received consistent and significant attention, with a particular emphasis on conscientiousness. To delve deeper and detail these aspects, in the present research, a mod...

The construct of job crafting is gaining increasing attention in the research and practice of work psychology in light of the positive effects it has on workers and the organizational context. On this basis, the present study aimed to explore the associations between the Big Five personality traits and job crafting (and its subdimensions, individua...

In recent years, the decent work agenda has called upon vocational psychologists to advance psychological research and intervention to promote work as a human right. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic is having disproportionate consequences on vulnerable workers, such as unemployment and underemployment, highlighting the need to enhance access to d...

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant influence on the lives of people around the world and could be a risk factor for mental health diseases. This study aimed to explore the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic by identifying patterns related to post-traumatic symptoms by considering personality and defensive styles. Specifically, i...

Given the relationship between attitudes and behaviors (Frymier and Nadler 2007), perceptions toward the environment are of concern in shaping environmental behaviors. Accordingly, understanding how to improve people’s connection to nature may be a vital research area linked to sustainability efforts. To further this understanding, the present stud...

The strength-based primary prevention perspective and the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development emphasize the importance of building strengths that will promote well-being and enhance the capacity to cope effectively and thrive despite challenge. In this preventive perspective, trait emotional intelligence represents a promising...

The present chapter delineates the relatively new research area of the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development and discusses its contribution in organizations. This research area introduces a psychological perspective into the field of sustainability science, enriching the transdisciplinary framework that is at the basis of sustain...

Within the framework of the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development, acceptance of change represents a promising resource for sustainability in organizations in the complex and the continuously changing twenty-first-century world of work. From primary and strength-based prevention perspectives, it is important to individuate variab...

The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic represents a worldwide emergency, which may have harmful consequences on people’s mental health. Parallel to research focused on risk factors, it could be useful to investigate the factors that help to cope with such crises at an emotional level. Therefore, this study aimed to strengthen the role of va...

The unconscious refers either to a hypothesized personality instance or to extremely fast cognitive processes both inaccessible to our introspection. It is an important concept in psychoanalysis and academic psychology, although it is understood and studied in different ways. It is now beyond any reasonable doubt that there are mental activities th...

Self‐report methods exist in the form of rating scales, interviews, and questionnaires and are used in the social sciences to elicit data. Their validity is sometimes questioned due to social desirability, which is the tendency for a respondent to favorably answer questions. A multitude of detection and measurement tools are used to address social...

The general factor of personality (GFP) is a construct that has recently been revitalized and if validated, it could make a revolutionary contribution to the field of positive psychology and more particularly, to the field of personality research. It is currently postulated that a single super‐factor or GFP exists at the top of the hierarchical str...

The construct of sensation seeking has been studied extensively, as indicated by the more than 4,000 publications displayed by PsycINFO with this search term at the beginning of 2016. First, we presented Zuckerman's (2015) definition of sensation seeking and the main difference with impulsivity. Then we highlighted the biological correlates of sens...

Subjective well‐being (SWB) consists of an emotional and a cognitive component and is associated with mental health and quality of life. The relationship between gender and SWB is not straightforward and researchers have reported conflicting findings. This is likely due to confounding factors such as age and cultural differences. For example, in de...

Entrepreneurship is considered an individual or organizational level behavioral phenomenon. The entrepreneurship‐specific domain incorporates the creation and management of new businesses, small businesses, and family businesses, as well as the characteristics and special problems of entrepreneurs. The key personality correlates of entrepreneurship...

This encyclopedia chapter deals with the developmental origins of honesty and its role as a personality characteristic. The chapter is guided by the Bases, Domains, and Targets trust framework (BDT) which identifies: (1) honesty beliefs; (2) behavior‐dependent honesty; and (3) honesty trustworthiness. It is concluded that these facets of honesty ar...

The concept of genius, typically defined as the co‐occurrence of creativity, achieved eminence, and superlative intellectual ability, is produced through the interaction of genetic and environmental (sociocultural) factors. Despite being a heterogeneous group with important differences between individuals, geniuses overall display a number of commo...

This entry presents an organizational framework for the study and measurement of motivation that distinguishes between motivational direction (motivators) and general motivational level (drive). The conceptualizations of motivators and drive are described with emphasis on psychological measurement. Measures of motivators vary from general (multiple...

Life satisfaction is defined as the personal judgment of one's life and is understood as the cognitive component of subjective well‐being. Research has revealed several demographic and socio‐economic factors, as well as personal variables, systematically related to life satisfaction. In the last decades, several measures of life satisfaction have b...

This biography celebrates Mark Savickas’ pivotal role in articulating a new framework for career counseling for the twenty‐first century; one that can be used to help clients choose careers and design successful lives. His contribution to vocational guidance and career counseling has immense theoretical and practical value for all of us involved in...

This chapter reviews risk taking, along with sensation seeking, a related construct that is also of relevance to understanding risky behaviors. A description of risk taking and sensation seeking is provided, along with primary findings of the field from four different perspectives, including cognitive, emotional, psychobiological, and social. The c...

Perfectionism refers to a dispositional tendency to strive compulsively for perfection, set unrealistically high goals, and have overly negative reactions to perceived failures or setbacks. Since the early 1990s, interest in perfectionism has increased at an exponential rate, in large part due to Frost, Marten, Lahart, and Rosenblate's (1990) and H...

Raymond B. Cattell, was born on March 20, 1905 in West Bromwich, England. He died on February 2, 1998 in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is buried in the Valley of the Temples, Oahu. Having won a full scholarship to the University of London, Cattell completed a BSc (Hons) degree in chemistry and physics in 1924, aged 19 years. Over a remarkable 70‐year caree...

The degree to which one is trustworthy embodies the belief that one exhibit sthe ability and integrity that is required to complete an act that is mutually beneficial to all parties involved or one that aims to benefit the trustor. Trust and trustworthiness are important traits to exhibit and display to others, as they inform the actions of others...

Profiling creative individuals has proven to be challenging for researchers, partly because of the difficulty in defining and operationalizing creativity. There is consensus regarding the “new and useful” definition of creativity, and integrative models have recognized the dynamic interaction of cognitive, affective‐personal and sociocultural compo...

Career self‐efficacy is an influential construct in social‐cognitive career theory (SCCT). Following the conceptualization of self‐efficacy as developed by Albert Bandura, career self‐efficacy pertains to an individual's beliefs or expectations about her or his capacity to succeed in career‐related tasks. Research has shown that career self‐efficac...

A number of techniques are used to measure personality including questionnaires, observational studies, and experimental designs. Other methods, such as twin studies and molecular exploration, are used to explore the genetic basis of personality. The study of behavioral genetics helps determine the extent to which individual differences in personal...

This entry provides a brief overview of current and recurrent issues in test anxiety theory, research, measurement, and clinical parameters. First, it provides a social backdrop for test anxiety research and presents several useful conceptualizations and distinctions, delineating key facets and components of test anxiety. Next, measurement and asse...

Self‐concept refers to the general description that individuals have of themselves. The process of creating the self requires individuals to assess themselves as entities (i.e. a person adopts the role of both the viewer and the viewed). This entry will cover what self‐concept is and how it is modeled, as well as offer an understanding of academic...

The construct of hopelessness, typically defined as the belief that negative events will occur and that one is powerless in influencing the onset of these events, is produced by the interaction between cognitive vulnerability and occurrence of negative events. This entry examines etiological factors and psychometric measures of hopelessness in clin...

Learned helplessness is a behavioral response that occurs when individuals realize that the outcomes following a response are uncontrollable. There are three major components of learned helplessness: motivational, emotional, and cognitive. Learned helplessness can have an impact on one's overall functioning, including affecting academic achievement...

The purpose of this chapter is to underline mood and, specifically, irritability as relevant states in the study of personality and individual differences. Defining mood, or mood states, according to their structures and influences facilitates the understandings of the etymology, characteristics, and causes of irritability, as well as its methods o...

The concept of coping has a long history in which it evolved originally from Freud's theory of defense mechanisms. Although the coping and defense mechanism literature utilizes similar measurement strategies (e.g. self‐report tools and observer ratings) and sought to predict similar life‐success and wellness outcome variables, the two areas have gr...

Major depressive disorder and dysthymia (or persistent depressive disorder) are debilitating disorders that are common, chronic, and often comorbid with other mental disorders and health problems. As a result, the depressive disorders are associated with significant personal, economic, and social cost. Depression is characterized, and in many cases...

Jeffrey Gray was a prominent biopsychological theorist in personality of the twentieth century. His distinguished contributions involved a comprehensive insight into human behavior, from the fundamentals of behavior at the molecular level, through to the manipulation of hippocampal neuronal activity, eventuating in the predictability of human behav...

Self‐construal refers to how individuals define themselves: as independent from others or as interdependent with others. Interdependent self‐construal has two components: relational interdependence (defining oneself in terms of close relationships) and collective interdependence (defining oneself in terms of groups). Independent and interdependent...

Defense mechanisms are unconscious, automatic efforts at reducing anxiety. The concept was introduced by Freud in an effort to explain mutual influences of the systems unconscious and conscious. Defense mechanisms are not pathological phenomena per se, but only if they are used too frequently and/or too rigidly that may lead to specific character s...

This entry is a biographical sketch of the psychologist Milhaly Csikszentmihalyi. It summarizes his main academic positions, his scholarly contributions, important formative experiences, and details from his private life.

Marvin Zuckerman is a leading expert in the social and biological bases of personality. He created the Sensation Seeking Scale following his work in sensory deprivation at the University of Delaware, reporting that people will vary in sensation seeking behavior depending on that individual's optimal level of arousal. These individual differences in...

The Big Five is a widely accepted model of human personality that includes five broad dimensions used to describe personality characteristics. These five factors are thought to represent the basic structure behind all personality traits and are labeled: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience. The fac...

The study of optimism and pessimism is essential to understanding how an individual's disposition to think positively or negatively about the future can affect various aspects of his or her life. Mental and physical health treatments also benefit from gaining a better understanding of how optimism and pessimism can impact an individual's outcomes a...

Aggression is a generally negative construct associated with the harming of another individual. There are a multitude of theories used to explain the existence and process of aggression. Biological and cultural factors also affect aggression. Personality characteristics are shown to correlate with aggression, either in a positive or negative manner...

The present chapter provides a concise review of the personality construct referred to as the Dark Triad. First, a broad overview of the Dark Triad is provided and the theoretical overlap between psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism is discussed. Following this, the unique aspects of subclinical psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianis...

The current chapter provides a brief review of both traditional and modern conceptualizations of psychopathy. First, an overview of psychopathy is provided, followed by descriptions of psychopathy as both a subclinical personality trait and as it relates to various psychopathologies. Next, the etiology of psychopathy will be described. Finally, a r...

Alexithymia is a personality trait characterized by an inability to identify and describe emotions, and by an externally‐oriented style of thinking. It is a dimensional and relatively stable trait, commonly found in individuals who suffered emotional abuse or neglect as a young child. Alexithymia is often elevated in persons with psychosomatic diso...

While the gender‐role traits of masculinity and femininity have long stood as the standards by which males and females, respectively, are rated across communities, androgyny has gained much more attention over the past several decades. Androgyny, or the equal presentation of traits traditionally considered masculine or feminine, is considered far m...

Culture and personality as a field of study originated during the 1930s. During this period, there was growing consensus that personality need be understood within the context of cultural norms. However, the popularity of culture and personality studies declined after WW II when attempts to characterize personality constructs to nation states were...

Trauma is a result of an internal or external event that stimulates the mind to an unbearable degree. It may cause short‐ or long‐term post‐traumatic disorders and influence the identity of individuals and – if of a social character and culturally accepted – of societies. Whether an individual traumatic experience leads to long‐term pathology depen...

Decisional styles can be considered as the response pattern exhibited by an individual in a decision‐making situation. It can be determined by the decision‐making situation, by the decision‐making task and by the individual decision‐maker. By contrast, Indecisiveness is a chronic inability to make decisions in a timely manner in different situation...

Douglas N. Jackson (1929–2004) was a leading authority on personality assessment and psychometrics. In collaboration with Samuel Messick, one of Jackson's major research contributions was the study of response styles in personality assessment. He was also an advocate of the construct‐based approach to personality‐scale construction, developing many...

The experience of guilt is one of our most private emotional states. Guilt is defined as a self‐conscious internal state that reflects our self‐evaluation, and is highly influenced by our morals and social norms. The purpose of this entry is to discuss the development of guilt across the lifespan, give a general understanding of the associations be...

Core self‐evaluation can be defined as positive self‐concept in terms of self‐esteem, general self‐efficacy, absence of pessimism, locus of control. Core self‐evaluation emerged as a different construct with respect to personality traits and positive/negative affectivity. Research showed associations between core self‐evaluation and many different...

Dean Keith Simonton is a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Davis. His research centers on the study of genius, creativity, leadership, and esthetics. Through his work, we are now better able to understand to what extent a myriad of factors contributes to greatness in the sciences, arts, and politics. This biography used the f...

Anger is a core emotion that results from the obstruction of a goal or from provocation. Many social situations can lead to anger, especially when provocation is perceived as intentional. The feeling of anger may include descriptions such as hot sensations, a jolt of energy, and a pulsating heart. Thoughts are focused on injustice and motives on ex...

Self‐control is the voluntary regulation of impulses and temptations that interfere with longer‐term goals and can be thought of as both a fundamental mechanism and a trait‐like individual difference dimension with clear biological substrates. Self‐control is constantly at play in people's lives as conflicting goals, temptations, impulses, and desi...

Long‐term personality influences on psychological and physical health are indicated from early to late life, and must be considered within psychological, social, and biological contexts. The personality variables extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, and honesty‐humility all have significant influences on health, th...

Compulsions are repetitive behaviors (e.g. washing, checking) and or mental acts (e.g. counting, reviewing) that an individual performs in response to rigid rules or as a way to reduce anxiety caused by obsessive thoughts. The most common types of compulsions include washing/cleaning, checking/rechecking, ordering/arranging, and counting. Some of t...

For the last six decades, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM‐V) and its predecessors have served to standardize the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders for clinical practice and research. A brief history of the DSM, the development and innovations of the latest edition, limitations of the classification syst...

Individual differences in motivation and approach behavior exist, and underlie independent dimensions of personality. The Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) and the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) refer to distinct neurophysiological systems that are proposed to govern two broad facets of personality: trait anxiety and impulsivity. These systems...

This entry defines compassion and offers a conceptual perspective on compassion as a correlate of personality. Light is shed on the 10 dimensions of compassion, all related to the concept of personality. Research has shown that compassion is associated with different behavioral manifestations and physical responses. The distinction between compassi...

This chapter provides a description of hostility in a cognitive, affective, and behavioral sense. Various methods of measuring hostility are described, including the Budd‐Durkee Hostility Inventory, the Aggression Questionnaire, the Cook‐Medley Hostility Inventory, and the Interpersonal Hostility Assessment Technique. The associations between hosti...

This chapter includes a description and conceptualization of mindfulness. Additionally, this chapter reviews mindfulness as it relates to positive psychological, social, and physiological outcomes, in addition to distinguishing mindfulness from other constructs. Conceptualizations of mindfulness from both intra‐ and inter‐personal perspectives are...

Persistence is a dimension of personality that is characterized by perseverance, industriousness, will power, flexibility, perfectionism, sense of duty, and strength in the pursuit of purposes despite frustration or tiredness. This article summarizes key tenets of persistence through a description of the construct and by a review of the principal r...

Self‐esteem remains one of social psychology's central constructs, despite disagreements about its theoretical interpretation and methods of measurement. This entry provides an overview of alternative views of structure and empirical controversies about the function of self‐esteem in personality. Special emphasis is placed on recent advancement in...

Altruistic or prosocial tendencies are behaviors that aim to assist others or the broader society even if helping incurs a cost to the helper. Several fields have been interested in understanding altruism in both human and non‐human social groups. The development of altruism is complex in humans, as the motives for helping change throughout one's l...

For over 55 years as a teacher, researcher, and practitioner, Salvatore R. Maddi has combined his interests in clinical psychology, personality psychology, and social psychology to develop a comprehensive model of hardiness to address the underlying dynamics of the interrelationship between stress management and creativity. Another characteristic f...