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Genetic and environmental influences on the positive traits of the values in action classification, and biometric covariance with normal personality

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Abstract

Virtually all human individual differences have been shown to be moderately heritable. Much of this research, however, focuses on measures of dysfunctional behavior and relatively fewer studies have focused on positive traits. The values in action (VIA) project is a comprehensive and ambitious classification of 24 positive traits, also known as character strengths (Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association), the majority of which have received no behavior genetic attention. Using a sample of 336 middle-aged twins drawn from the Minnesota Twin Registry who completed the VIA inventory of strengths, we detected significant genetic and non-shared environmental effects for 21 of 24 character strengths with little evidence of shared environmental contributions. Associations with a previously administered measure of normal personality found moderate phenotypic overlap and that genetic influences on personality traits could account for most, but not all, of the heritable variance in character strengths.

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... Virtuous character behaviors have also been the focus of a number of twin studies with the general finding that virtuous character behaviors are heritable (Knafo and Plomin 2006b;Lester et al. 2016;Rushton 2004;Steger et al. 2007;Volbrecht et al. 2007;Yuh et al. 2009). In adult twin samples, moderate heritable influences have been found for virtuous character behaviors (Steger et al. 2007), including social responsibility (Rushton 2004), prosocial obligations (Lewis and Bates 2011), and conscientiousness (Jang et al. 1996;Krueger and Johnson 2008). ...
... Virtuous character behaviors have also been the focus of a number of twin studies with the general finding that virtuous character behaviors are heritable (Knafo and Plomin 2006b;Lester et al. 2016;Rushton 2004;Steger et al. 2007;Volbrecht et al. 2007;Yuh et al. 2009). In adult twin samples, moderate heritable influences have been found for virtuous character behaviors (Steger et al. 2007), including social responsibility (Rushton 2004), prosocial obligations (Lewis and Bates 2011), and conscientiousness (Jang et al. 1996;Krueger and Johnson 2008). Interestingly, there are distinct patterns of findings that vary as a function of the specific virtuous behaviors and the developmental timing of the assessments. ...
... In childhood and adolescence, for example, heritable influences, although significant, are smaller than those reported in adults (Davis et al. 2015;Knafo et al. 2009;Lester et al. 2016;Spengler et al. 2012;Zahn-Waxler et al. 1992). Most adult twin studies find no evidence of shared environmental influences, influences common to siblings within the family, on virtuous behaviors (Lewis and Bates 2011;Steger et al. 2007;Yuh et al. 2009), while one study that included adolescents found significant shared environmental effects on social responsibility (Rushton 2004). Additional work has found that social responsibility in a sample of adolescent twin/siblings was heritable, but also there was no shared and only non-shared environmental influences (Reiss et al. 2000). ...
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Virtuous character development in children is correlated with parenting behavior, but the role of genetic influences in this association has not been examined. Using a longitudinal twin/sibling study (N = 720; Time 1 (T1) Mage = 12–14 years, Time 3 (T3) Mage = 25–27 years), the current report examines associations among parental negativity/positivity and offspring responsibility during adolescence, and subsequent young adult conscientiousness. Findings indicate that associations among parental negativity and offspring virtuous character during adolescence and young adulthood are due primarily to heritable influences. In contrast, the association between concurrent parental positivity and adolescent responsibility was due primarily to heritable and shared environmental influences. These findings underscore the contributions of heritable influences to the associations between parenting and virtuous character that have previously been assumed to be only environmentally influenced, emphasizing the complexity of mechanisms involved in the development of virtuous character.
... Trait forgivingness is closely related to prosocial dispositions such as agreeableness and perspective taking, as well as to antisocial personalities (Kovacsova et al., 2014;Liu et al., 2013;Wang, 2008). Interestingly, research has shown that forgiveness shares genetic foundations with antisocial personalities (Steger et al., 2007;Zwir et al., 2020). Based on the genetic links, we are interested in exploring the genetic basis of trait forgiveness. ...
... Previous studies have suggested that forgiveness and aggression share some genetic foundations (Steger et al., 2007;Zwir et al., 2020), and that the MAOA-uVNTR may be a factor in this relationship. Previous studies primarily focused on the dark side of MAOA-uVNTR on antisocial behaviors (Eisenberger et al., 2007;Manuck et al., 2000;McDermott et al., 2013;Volavka et al., 2004). ...
Article
The stress-and-coping theory of forgiveness posits that forgiveness and aggression are alternative ways of coping with stress of interpersonal offences. Inspired by the link between aggression and MAOA-uVNTR (a genetic variant involving in catabolism of monoamines), we investigated the relationship between this variant and forgiveness with two studies. Study 1 examined the relationship between the MAOA-uVNTR and trait forgiveness in students, and study 2 examined the effect of this variant on third-party forgiveness in response to situational offences in male inmates. The results showed that the MAOA-H (a high activity allele) was associated with higher trait forgiveness in male students and greater third-party forgiveness to accidentally committed harm and attempted but failed harm in male inmates than the MAOA-L. These findings highlight the bright side of MAOA on trait and situational forgiveness.
... Furthermore, change mechanisms proposed in models of personality traits might also apply, at least partially, to character strengths as positive traits. Changes in the person due to intrinsic maturation (for an overview, see Costa et al., 2019) seem plausible as character strengths were found to have a biological and genetic basis (Steger et al., 2007), which would imply that increases in strengths may be found especially in adolescence and young adulthood. Self-regulated personality change (Denissen et al., 2013;Hennecke et al., 2014) might also be a feasible mechanism for character strength development: People should have a desire to increase their level of strengths, and to the extent that they are able to habitually implement changes of strengths in their everyday lives, higher levels of strengths should eventually occur. ...
... Other developmental theories of personality traits emphasize the relevance of the environment, including life events, developmental tasks, and social roles (Bleidorn et al., 2018;Hutteman et al., 2014;Luhmann et al., 2014;Roberts & Wood, 2006;Specht et al., 2011). This is also likely to be relevant for strengths, given that they are influenced by environmental factors (Steger et al., 2007) and that one of their criteria entails changes by rituals and institutions (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). Again, to the extent that these situations and experiences are shared by many people (e.g. ...
Article
The present study comprises five meta-analyses (47 samples with a total N of 1,098,748) that investigate cross-sectional age differences in the 24 character strengths entailed in the VIA model. It is expected that most strengths show age differences, especially higher levels throughout adulthood. Ten age groups from early adolescence (10–12 years) to late adulthood (65+ years) were compared for each strength using random-effects models. Overall, significant age differences were found for 23 of the 24 character strengths (all except perspective) across the lifespan, with 91% of the effects indicating higher levels of the character strengths with age. Effect sizes were mostly very small, in line with age differences found for other traits. Most age differences were found for creativity, curiosity, love of learning, zest, and self-regulation as well as in middle adulthood. These results provide an impetus for research and applications on the development of character strengths.
... It should be noted that character strengths are influenced by environmental factors (Steger, Hicks, Kashdan, Krueger, & Bouchard, 2007) and personal characteristics, especially age and sex. In addition, character strengths are influenced by heredity (Steger et al., 2007) and are stable over time, but not unchanging. ...
... It should be noted that character strengths are influenced by environmental factors (Steger, Hicks, Kashdan, Krueger, & Bouchard, 2007) and personal characteristics, especially age and sex. In addition, character strengths are influenced by heredity (Steger et al., 2007) and are stable over time, but not unchanging. Thus, they approach the concept of personality traits (Park & Peterson, 2009), variables regarded as descriptions of people in terms of relatively stable patterns of behavior, thoughts and emotions (Parks-Leduc, Feldman, & Bardi, 2015), with which there is empirical evidence of relationships (Depaula, Azzollini, Cosentino, & Castillo, 2016;J. ...
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The objective was to verify to what extent the personality traits explain character strengths, controlling the effect of age and sex. A total of 251 individuals living in the Northeast region of Brazil (Mage = 18.51, SD = 9.03), 66.9% of which were women, answered a booklet containing the Character Strengths Scale, Five Major Factors Inventory (Big Five) and demographic issues. From the correlations, followed by multiple hierarchical regressions, it was found that age and sex were important to explain some strengths. Controlling the effect of these demographic variables, it was observed that the kindness, conscientiousness, extroversion and openness to experience personality traits directly explained these strengths, unlike the neuroticism trait, which did it inversely. Backed by the empirical evidence, it can be concluded that character strengths can be explained by personality traits and demographic variables (sex and age), collaborating with the expansion of knowledge in the area and understanding the positive aspects of the human being.
... This gap is significant because, although strengths are aptitude-like, and are thus stable across situations and time, they remain potentially flexible, with each character strength exhibiting a different degree of flexibility [6,17]. Moreover, while the 24 character strengths have a biological and genetic basis [26] they can also play different roles when their integral effect is evaluated during the second half of life [6,17,27,28] and may even improve throughout life via rituals and practices tailored to individual tendencies and needs [6,17,29]. Given that people in the second half of life tend to spend an increasing proportion of their time alone [30], we suggest that the 24 character strengths can be better utilized when combined with the skill of positive solitude. ...
Article
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Objectives: Aging may challenge life and even affect individuals’ wellbeing and flourishing. This includes the challenges of diminished social connections and the experience of solitude in later life while seeking to leverage personal strengths. The current study examines two important personal resources, i.e., the skill of positive solitude and the 24 character strengths, which may be associated with flourishing in old age. Methods: A convenience sample of 1085 community-dwelling adults (M = 57.20, SD = 6.24, range = 50–87) completed an online survey with demographic measures and scales measuring personal strengths, the skill of positive solitude, and flourishing. Results: As hypothesized, the 24 character strengths and positive solitude were each associated with flourishing, and positive solitude moderated the relationships between the 24 character strengths and flourishing. The relationship between the 24 character strengths and flourishing was stronger among participants with lower levels of positive solitude. Conclusions: These findings highlight the way in which, despite the decrease in social relations which often characterizes old age, the skill of positive solitude serves as a valuable resource for flourishing in the later stages of life.
... This makes the question of whether others are less or even more socially intelligent than Robert irrelevant. Additionally, scholars acknowledge that strengths are influenced, at least in part, by inherent genetic factors that predispose individuals to excel in specific tasks (Steger et al., 2007). This makes strengths more stable and trait-like compared to psychological capital which refers to more malleable individual psychological resources in terms of hope, optimism, self-efficacy and resilience (Luthans and Youssef-Morgan, 2017). ...
Article
Purpose While the career literature does acknowledge that personal strengths may function as protective factors that increase the likelihood of positive career outcomes, the topic of strengths has predominantly been studied in the context of career guidance for adolescents and young adults. However, the evolution of strengths persists throughout the entire career and individuals’ awareness and inclination to leverage their strengths change when aging. This paper aims to examine strengths over the (career) lifespan. Design/methodology/approach For this purpose, a conceptual analysis was made of the interplay between age and strengths application within the work environment, based on a narrative review of both empirical and conceptual literature on strengths and lifespan (career) development. Findings Based on lifespan development theory and results from studies that investigate the relationship between age and strengths, it can be expected that the prominence, awareness and use of strengths, as well as the active engagement in strengths development increase with age. Also, based on the corresponsive principle it is proposed that strengths prominence is reciprocally related to the awareness, use and development of strengths. Implications for future research and practice are discussed. Originality/value Whereas positive psychology has contributed to research on career development by its focus on healthy functioning, human potential and well-being the implications from theorizing and research on strengths for the career-lifespan are still relatively unclear. This paper develops testable propositions regarding the relationship between age and strengths and discusses implications for the types of organizational support for strengths that workers of different ages might need.
... To answer this question, some convincing studies have looked into seeking whether genetics could explain why some people find it easier to feel and express appreciation than others. Steger et al. (2007) found that identical twins who share the same DNA, showed a similar selfreported level of gratitude when compared with fraternal twins (who contribute only 50% of their DNA). Similarly, a specific variant in the CD 38 gene, responsible for the secretion of oxytocin, commonly named the "love hormone," has been observed to be highly linked with the expression of appreciation to a partner irrespective of the circumstances (Algoe & Way, 2014) which in turn help them build healthy and long-lasting romantic life (Algoe et al., 2017). ...
Book
The said piece of work is based on the concept behind gratitude and its various facets.
... Kindness has a deep evolutionary history (Hublin, 2009). Individual differences in kindness are partly due to differences in genes (Knafo A & Uzefovsky F, 2012;Lewis & Bates, 2011;Steger et al., 2007). Kindness emerges early in infant development (Warneken, 2018). ...
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What is kindness, and what makes an act kind? Previous theoretical and empirical research suggests that the kindness of an act depends not only on the benefits the act provides, but also the costs incurred to provide those benefits. Here we test these predictions by having 1,692 candidate acts of kindness (for family, friends, colleagues, and strangers) rated for perceived cost, benefit, and kindness, by a large sample of the US & UK public (Ntotal=16,064). As predicted, we found that benefit, cost, and benefit:cost interaction all positively predicted the kindness of the act (pseudo R2≈0.73), and did so for all types of recipients. We also found that less efficient acts are considered kinder than more efficient acts. We discuss the implications of these findings for discussions about the effectiveness of altruism, and the prospects for further research on the nature of kindness.
... Future research might also examine the consequences of partner similarity on the heritability of the strengths. Steger et al., 2007 found support for the existence of a genetic component to individual differences in the strengths (14 to 59% genetic effects; median = 42%). However, Steger et al.'s classical twin design did not allow for modeling effects of parental similarity on heritability and assumed random assortative mating. ...
Article
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We studied the similarity among partners' character strengths (i.e., positively valued traits) across two studies. In Study 1, N = 68 couples completed the 240-item VIA Inventory of Strengths and in Study 2, N = 143 couples completed a 24-item brief-form and measures of life-and relationship satisfaction. We computed raw, normative, and distinctive profile similarities for the 24 strengths and found support for partners' similarity in both studies (normative: rs ≥ .84; raw: rs ≥.23; distinctive: rs ≥ .06). Actor-Partner Interdependence Model analyses (Study 2) provided no evidence for the notion that similarity relates to couples' satisfaction. We discuss our findings regarding prior research, assortative mating preferences, and extensions to the study of partner-and ideal partner perceptions.
... Karakteristik manusia dipengaruhi oleh gen dan lingkungan (Steger et al., 2007;Azad et al., 2018;Petterson et al., 2019). Kedua hal tersebut membuat fisik dan fisiologis juga berbeda-beda. ...
Article
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Geographical conditions affect human physical and physiological conditions, one of the examples is the height of residence that can make the respiratory system different among population groups. This study aims to compare the respiratory system between highlanders and lowlanders in terms of hemoglobin levels, blood oxygen saturation, and breaths frequency. The research model used was a comparative study with a purposive sampling method based on: age criteria with a range of 16-19 years, a minimum of 6 months stayed at the research location, and there is no recorded respiratory system disease. Data analysis used was independent t-test with Shapiro-Wilk prerequisite test for normality and one-way ANOVA for homogeneity, then Mann-Whitney test for follow-up non-parametric test. The results showed that the highlanders generally have oxygen saturation and hemoglobin levels with an average value of 98.81% and 14.69g/dL higher than those in the lowlands with a value of 97.86% and 13.14g/dL. On the other hand, the average value of breath frequency of highlanders is 17.38/minute which tends to be lower than that of lowlanders with 24.17/minute. The prerequisite test showed highlanders oxygen saturation data that were not normally distributed with a significance value of 0.003, then oxygen saturation data and breath frequency were not homogeneous with a significance value of 0.000 and 0.003 respectively. The comparative test showed a significance value of 0.002 for hemoglobin through independent t-test, then obtained asymptomatic significance values of 0.004 and 0.000 for oxygen saturation and breaths frequency through the Mann-Whitney test. Based on the significance value obtained, it can be stated that there are significant differences in hemoglobin levels, oxygen saturation, and breaths frequency per minute between highland and lowland residents. It is recommended to conduct further research on lung capacity and chest cavity index to provide a more holistic explanation of the differences in the respiratory system between highland and lowland residents.
... Unlike the short-term, experienced or expressed gratitude emotion that is triggered by specific events and fluctuates across time and situations (Emmons & McCullough, 2003), a person's trait gratitude is a stable dispositional tendency (McCullough et al., 2002). It is shaped by both hereditary and environmental factors, such as genes, childhood experiences, parenting styles, and surrounding social culture (e.g., Algoe & Way, 2014;Emmons & Crumpler, 2000;Liu et al., 2017;Steger et al., 2007), and its formation is generally determined by long-term, persistent interventions and significant life events. Therefore, trait gratitude is relatively enduring and is not likely to change drastically for an adult within a short period. ...
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Although a leader’s affective characteristics are believed to influence team processes and outcomes, the impact of leaders’ discrete affective traits on team innovation remains unclear. This study addresses this issue by developing a multi‐stage team‐level model that explains how team leaders’ trait gratitude enhances team innovation. Specifically, we draw on the other‐praising perspective of gratitude to predict that leaders with trait gratitude tend to demonstrate humble behavior, which in turn promotes team voice and ultimately enhances team innovation. We also incorporate trait activation theory to theorize that leaders’ perception of organizational support enhances the impact of leaders’ trait gratitude on the leaders’ humble behavior and its indirect effect on team innovation (via humble behavior and team voice). We found support for our research model using data of 71 teams collected from three sources in four phases. This study offers important insights into how and when leaders with high trait gratitude can foster team innovation and advances the existing gratitude research in the team context.
... Character strengths have been considered in studies that seek to represent the positive functioning of humans, but historically, these strengths were seen as a personality aspect/trait (Allport, 1921;Allport & Vernon, 1930). In this line of thought, different studies aimed to determine whether these two constructs indeed overlap, concluding that, despite a substantial relationship, it is not possible to confirm any overlap, as personality, with a high genetic load and expressed in behaviors, influences the set of character strengths of the individual, which in turn are learned throughout life (McGrath et al. 2017;Park & Peterson, 2009;Steger et al., 2007). ...
Article
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The objective of this study is to test an explanatory model of posttraumatic growth in bereavement that combines personality traits, human values, and character strengths, to identify the linear relationship between value subfunctions and character strengths and the mediating role of human values in the relationship between personality and strengths. There were two samples, the first with 243 individuals (Mage = 27.88, SD = 9.74), 63.4% of whom were women, who answered the Character Strengths Scale, Big Five Inventory, Basic Values Questionnaire, and a demographic questionnaire, and the second totaling 207 individuals (Mage = 27.56, SD = 12.24), 74.8% of whom were women, who had gone through bereavement and answered the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. The calculated correlations, followed by regressions and mediation models, demonstrated the contributions of the extraversion and agreeableness traits, the normative subfunction, and character strengths in explaining posttraumatic growth. Thus, it is concluded that it is important to count on these variables in promoting positive experiences and overcoming adversities in the bereavement process.
... Second, there was a negative and significant association between restriction of leisure time and love. Love has been defined as valuing close relationships with others, particularly those in which sharing and caring are reciprocated (Park et al., 2004), and it is considered one of the character strengths most influenced by environmental factors (Steger et al., 2007). Accordingly, our finding could indicate that caregivers who ascribe greater value to their relationships with others may make more effort to set aside time for these relationships as part of their leisure activities. ...
Article
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Introduction: Being an informal caregiver can have both negative and positive consequences for well-being. Within the framework of the stress process model, few studies have examined values and perceived gains of caregiving as mediating variables of life satisfaction. Aim: To explore the role of character strengths and perceived gains as mediators in the association between life satisfaction and primary and secondary stressors in informal caregivers of persons with dementia. Method: Participants were 112 informal caregivers. Hierarchical regression, correlation and mediation analyses were performed. Results: Lower life satisfaction was associated with being female, unmarried, caring for someone with greater cognitive impairment, a higher level of stress, having restricted leisure time and perceiving financial difficulties. Hope mediated the associations between perceived stress and both life satisfaction and perceived gains of caregiving. Discussion: Hope is a key strength and its lack is one pathway through which stress may cause low satisfaction and low perceived gains from caregiving. Implications for practice: Without hope, it is difficult for caregivers to generate goals and be motivated to achieve them. Nursing and care staff should aim to promote a sense of purpose and achievement among informal caregivers so as to foster a more positive caring experience.
... Een ander wetenschappelijk model definieert persoonlijke sterktes veel breder als persoonlijkheidskenmerken die zich manifesteren als mensen optimaal functioneren (Wood, Linley, Maltby, Kashdan, & Hurling, 2011). Hoewel onderzoekers verschillen in hoe breed ze sterke punten definiëren, zijn ze het er wel over eens dat sterke punten op z'n minst gedeeltelijk gebaseerd zijn op genetische kenmerken die maken dat iemand 'van nature' goed is in bepaalde taken (Steger, Hicks, Kashdan, Krueger, & Bouchard, 2007). Verder zijn onderzoekers het erover eens dat sterke punten zich manifesteren op momenten van persoonlijke excellentie, waarbij we de prestaties van één persoon met elkaar vergelijken, in plaats van op momenten van comparatieve excellentie, waarbij we de prestaties van verschillende mensen met elkaar vergelijken (Roberts, Dutton, Spreitzer, Heaphy, & Quinn, 2005). ...
Article
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Waarom bestaan banen al voordat we de kwaliteiten kennen van de mensen die deze banen gaan vervullen? Waarom hebben veel organisaties slechts oog voor de talenten van 5-10% van hun medewerkers? En waarom managen zij de competenties van hun medewerkers vooral door naar de negatieve afwijkingen van de gouden standaard te kijken? Dit zijn de vragen die centraal staan in deze oratie, die ingaat op hoe organisaties de kwaliteiten van hun medewerkers beter kunnen benutten door banen aan te passen aan de mens, in plaats van andersom. Door de natuurlijke neiging van mensen om meer aandacht te besteden aan negatieve dan aan positieve informatie, laten organisaties kansen liggen om het welbevinden en de ontwikkeling van medewerkers te vergroten. In deze oratie wordt betoogd waarom het identificeren en benutten van talenten ertoe kan bijdragen dat medewerkers beter met werkdruk kunnen omgaan en meer initiatieven nemen in hun eigen ontwikkeling. Deze oratie illustreert verder hoe Human Resources-praktijken medewerkers kunnen helpen om meer vanuit hun unieke kwaliteiten te werken. Tot slot worden mogelijke richtingen voor vervolgonderzoek geschetst.
... Thus, these results should be interpreted with caution. Eventually, Steger, Hicks, Kashdan, Krueger, and Bouchard (2007) showed that genetic and non-shared environmental effects accounted for systematic differences in 21 of the 24 character strengths, thus suggesting a biological basis for the majority of strengths (the strengths that did not put forward significant genetic effects were teamwork, humility, and humor). Regarding malleability, Peterson and Seligman (2003) demonstrated that, on average, seven character strengths (e.g., gratitude, hope, kindness, leadership, love, spirituality, and teamwork) showed significant increases two months after September 11 in an U.S. American sample with effects that lingered ten months afterward. ...
Book
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Zusammen wachsen – Förderung der positiv-psychologischen Entwicklung von Individuen, Organisationen und Gesellschaft war das Thema der 3. Konferenz der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Positiv-Psychologische Forschung (DGPPF), die im Mai 2018 an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum stattfand. Basierend auf den dort präsentierten Beiträgen finden Sie in diesem Band aktuelle positiv-psychologische Forschung zu den Schwerpunkten „Individuum“, „Organisation“ und „Gesellschaft“. Die Sammlung enthält interdisziplinäre Beiträge in deutscher und englischer Sprache zu Themen wie • Charakterstärken in der Personalauswahl, • ein Vergleich positiv-psychologischer Forschungsmethoden, • Positive Psychologie und New Work, • Liebe und Lebensglück • sowie Lebenskunst. Die bunte Vielfalt der Beiträge soll zu spannenden Einsichten anregen sowie zum Nach- und Weiterdenken.
... Thus, these results should be interpreted with caution. Eventually, Steger, Hicks, Kashdan, Krueger, and Bouchard (2007) showed that genetic and non-shared environmental effects accounted for systematic differences in 21 of the 24 character strengths, thus suggesting a biological basis for the majority of strengths (the strengths that did not put forward significant genetic effects were teamwork, humility, and humor). Regarding malleability, Peterson and Seligman (2003) demonstrated that, on average, seven character strengths (e.g., gratitude, hope, kindness, leadership, love, spirituality, and teamwork) showed significant increases two months after September 11 in an U.S. American sample with effects that lingered ten months afterward. ...
Chapter
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Due to Allport's (1927) claim that character is merely personality evaluated (and personality is character devalued) and personality alone will do, "character" had largely been neglected when exploring individual differences. This however changed with the emergence of positive psychology, which brought a renaissance of the concept of character on personality psychology. Early in the search for the roots of a good life, character was rediscovered as key to investigating and fostering subjective, objective and societal fulfillment. In 2004, these considerations were recognized in the VIA classification, which introduced 24 character strengths and six virtues. The fundament of the classification are criteria that define character strengths by means of decisive and verifiable benchmarks. In this narrative review, we delineate the progression of the list of criteria for character strengths (from seven to 12). Furthermore, we discuss the extent to which the literature shows that the 24 strengths indeed satisfy these criteria. It is evident that many studies were published, for example, to demonstrate that character strengths predict various indicators of well-being. However, there is surprisingly little research into this very foundation of the classification, for example, whether all character strengths are inherently morally valued and whether character strengths could be selectively missing in a person altogether. We argue that more research should be directed at the study of these criteria as they form the backbone of what character strengths are and may be considered the nucleus of an emerging theory of character.
... Bukhori (2012) elaborated a life that is expected to get someone who supports him knows what is meant by choices received from the work environment and is not discriminated against by the pressures of the social environment. Meanings in life are those that oppose understanding of their experiences and have definite goals, which have been supported by previous studies (Steger, Hicks, Krueger, & Bouchard, 2007). Honorary teachers who have a meaningful life must have happiness in their lives. ...
... They lead to the good life (eudemonia) and flourishing . As a side note, drawing on a sample of 336 middle-aged twins from the Minnesota Twin Registry, scores on the Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence subscale of the VIA-IS were shown to have a heritability factor of 0.53 (Steger, Hicks, Kashdan, Krueger, & Bouchard, 2007). Such a heritability factor indicates that AoB has a very large genetic influence, but that it also can be highly influenced by the environment and perhaps by our personal choices. ...
Chapter
Existential psychologist Rollo May has explained, based on Plato, that Beauty outranks Truth and Goodness, because Beauty is harmony, and the test of the integrity of Truth and Goodness are whether they are harmonious. Post-modernists assure us there is no truth, only perspectives; beauty is in the eye of the beholder, there can be no objectivity in beauty experiences; morality is all about power, whoever has the power determines what is right and wrong; there is no right and wrong, they are just cultural concepts; there are no moral universals and cannot be. Nonetheless, as Howard Gardner has noted, these concepts continue to engage human beings, one way or another. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, in his Nobel lecture for the prize in Literature, pointed out that Dostoevsky’s famous remark, “Beauty will save the world,” is literally true. Einstein’s son said his father’s “highest praise for a good theory or good piece of work was not that it was correct nor that it was exact but that it was beautiful.” Every experience of love is an experience of beauty. Plato, in The Symposium, had Socrates argue that beauty is the object of all love. Nothing is more important than love and beauty.
... They lead to the good life (eudemonia) and flourishing . As a side note, drawing on a sample of 336 middle-aged twins from the Minnesota Twin Registry, scores on the Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence subscale of the VIA-IS were shown to have a heritability factor of 0.53 (Steger, Hicks, Kashdan, Krueger, & Bouchard, 2007). Such a heritability factor indicates that AoB has a very large genetic influence, but that it also can be highly influenced by the environment and perhaps by our personal choices. ...
Chapter
Emotions are involved in nearly every thought, decision, and action we make. Aesthetic emotions motivate us to approach or avoid any object of our aesthetic contemplation. Jonathan Haidt has shown that intuitions, which are much like emotions, guide our moral decisions. Sarah Rose Cavanaugh has summarized the use of emotions in Andragogy. Emotions cause us to pay attention in class and pay attention to assignments; maximize working memory potential; encode information into our long-term memory and to retrieve information from long-term memory; and to be motivated to attend class, to study for exams, and to complete assignments. Sona Farid-Arbab notes that attraction to beauty (the prototypical aesthetic emotion) motivates us toward personal and collective transformation. Panos Paris argues that moral beauty bridges the gap between making deliberative moral judgments and acting morally, by motivating us toward virtue and away from vice. General education courses, such as Introduction to Psychology and Developmental Psychology, can be infused with the beauty of story-telling, myth, paintings, music, and poetry; and thus motivate students more effectively. Developmental Psychology is an excellent course in which to encourage the morally beautiful development of college students while they are studying the moral development of children and adults.
... They lead to the good life (eudemonia) and flourishing . As a side note, drawing on a sample of 336 middle-aged twins from the Minnesota Twin Registry, scores on the Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence subscale of the VIA-IS were shown to have a heritability factor of 0.53 (Steger, Hicks, Kashdan, Krueger, & Bouchard, 2007). Such a heritability factor indicates that AoB has a very large genetic influence, but that it also can be highly influenced by the environment and perhaps by our personal choices. ...
Chapter
The first great philosophical work on Beauty, in the Western Canon, is Plato’s Symposium wherein he charts the stages of loving beauty: stage one, we fall in love with one particular beautiful body; stage two we love all beautiful bodies; stage three, the human soul (psyche) is more beautiful than the human body; stage four, a love of social order; stage five, loving knowledge and wisdom; and final stage six, loving the divine Beauty itself. Aristotle defines all of the human virtues as being beautiful, and that the telos (the purpose) of the virtues is to manifest moral beauty. Kant and Schopenhauer emphasized disinterest, having no goal concerning the object of beauty other than to appreciate it. Iris Murdoch focused on the ability for natural and artistic beauty to help us unself and become better human beings. Unity-in-diversity is shown as the most common definition for beauty by philosophers. Beauty experiences have both subjective and objective aspects. The feeling of beauty happens inside us, but there is something real about the beauty stimulus. It is the dialectic, the relationship, between the inner and the outer that creates an experience of beauty.
... They lead to the good life (eudemonia) and flourishing . As a side note, drawing on a sample of 336 middle-aged twins from the Minnesota Twin Registry, scores on the Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence subscale of the VIA-IS were shown to have a heritability factor of 0.53 (Steger, Hicks, Kashdan, Krueger, & Bouchard, 2007). Such a heritability factor indicates that AoB has a very large genetic influence, but that it also can be highly influenced by the environment and perhaps by our personal choices. ...
Chapter
Semir Zeki coined the word “neuro-esthetics” (neuroaesthetics) in 1999. The first neuroaesthetic study was published in 2000 (Hansen, Brammer, & Calvert), followed by three seminal papers in 2004 (Vartanian & Goel; Kawabati & Zeki; Cela-Conde et al.). Why do we find something beautiful? Evo Psyc might be able to tell us. How do we find things beautiful? Neuroaesthetics sheds light on that. “The aesthetic triad” comprises the interaction of three neural systems to create our aesthetic experiences: the sensory-motor system, the emotion-valuation system, and the knowledge-meaning system (Chatterjee & Vartanian, Trends in Cognitive Sciences 370–375, 2014, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 172–194, 2016). Experiences of beauty involve the pleasure centers and reward circuits of the brain; pleasure may be a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for experiences of beauty. The medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) may be involved in all or most experiences of beauty (Ishizu & Zeki, PLoS One e21852, 2011). However, caution is warranted in making such a claim. The meta-analytic review by Brown et al. (NeuroImage 250–258, 2011) indicated that the right anterior insula was the main nexus of all beauty experiences but that different kinds of beauty (taste, scent, visual, auditory) were processed in different parts of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Observing moral beauty may be simultaneously arousing and calming (activating both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems).
... They lead to the good life (eudemonia) and flourishing . As a side note, drawing on a sample of 336 middle-aged twins from the Minnesota Twin Registry, scores on the Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence subscale of the VIA-IS were shown to have a heritability factor of 0.53 (Steger, Hicks, Kashdan, Krueger, & Bouchard, 2007). Such a heritability factor indicates that AoB has a very large genetic influence, but that it also can be highly influenced by the environment and perhaps by our personal choices. ...
Chapter
The higher the level of trait Engagement with Natural Beauty (EnB), the more one loves all humanity; and also loves their friends, family, and romantic partners more. The Kaplans found that we are most strongly attracted to natural scenes that are coherent, with repeated scenery that is somewhat uniform, but at the same time complex (rich with diversity) and that also have mystery. Unity-in-diversity + mystery = beauty. EnB indirectly influences proenvironmental behavior through feeling connected to nature. EnB may cause generosity and trust indirectly through the effect of positive emotions. EnB may also make us better human beings because it is positively related to such transcendent traits as gratitude, spiritual transcendence, and awe; and negatively related to materialism. EnB may influence levels of caring, moral identity, fairness and justice; and it is related to universalism, spirituality, and benevolence. EnB makes us smarter through relieving attentional fatigue, increasing concentration, and being open-minded. EnB makes us happier; and it may increase our emotional well-being, social well-being, psychological well-being, and sense of meaning in life. The annual 30 Days Wild campaign in the UK has shown increases in participants’ health, happiness, proenvironmental behaviors, and EnB itself.
... They lead to the good life (eudemonia) and flourishing . As a side note, drawing on a sample of 336 middle-aged twins from the Minnesota Twin Registry, scores on the Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence subscale of the VIA-IS were shown to have a heritability factor of 0.53 (Steger, Hicks, Kashdan, Krueger, & Bouchard, 2007). Such a heritability factor indicates that AoB has a very large genetic influence, but that it also can be highly influenced by the environment and perhaps by our personal choices. ...
Chapter
A trait is defined as a stable pattern of behavior, cognition, emotion, and conation (choice making, the will); traits have a strong genetic component and are presumed to have adaptive value; but, nonetheless, can be substantially influenced by the environment, and thus develop and increase or deteriorate and lessen. In Positive Psychology, the traits of interest are called character strengths and virtues; appreciation of beauty (AoB) is one such trait. Traits can change levels fairly rapidly in childhood but become quite stable by age 30. The trait of Openness is highly associated with AoB. The trait of Openness increases from age 10 to 22; stays the same from age 22 to 50; has a small gain during age 50–60; and drops a fair amount from age 60 on. Based on a large meta-analytic study, it appears that Openness may be more difficult to intentionally change than any of the other four big traits. One study has found that giving elders inductive reasoning tasks to complete leads to an increase in trait Openness. There have been a handful of published studies which focused on interventions to increase AoB. One effective intervention, used across studies, is daily or weekly journaling about personal experiences of beauty (beauty logs).
... They lead to the good life (eudemonia) and flourishing . As a side note, drawing on a sample of 336 middle-aged twins from the Minnesota Twin Registry, scores on the Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence subscale of the VIA-IS were shown to have a heritability factor of 0.53 (Steger, Hicks, Kashdan, Krueger, & Bouchard, 2007). Such a heritability factor indicates that AoB has a very large genetic influence, but that it also can be highly influenced by the environment and perhaps by our personal choices. ...
Chapter
Evolutionary psychology explains the why of appreciation of beauty and neuroaesthetics explains the how of appreciating beauty. Evolutionary psychologists focus on two major reasons for why we admire the beauty of nature: sexual selection and natural selection/adaptation. Human physical beauty is based on sexual selection and what we find beautiful in nature is based on natural selection. Men find an hour-glass figure to be a fitness indicator that they find beautiful in women (a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.70 seems to be ideal); and a V-shaped body is a fitness indicator that women find beautiful in men. Women and men who have these qualities are perceived as likely to produce strong babies who will survive and later reproduce. The Savanna Hypothesis argues that it was adaptive to evolve to find attractive: (a) open spaces with short grass and groups of trees; (b) water nearby; (c) a panoramic view; (d) animals and birds present; and (e) greenery with flowers and fruits. Through natural and sexual selection, combined with the rise of human culture, we have learned to find beauty in myriad forms of art and craft. Through natural and sexual selection and natural cooperation, the human virtues developed and have taken on moral beauty.
... They lead to the good life (eudemonia) and flourishing . As a side note, drawing on a sample of 336 middle-aged twins from the Minnesota Twin Registry, scores on the Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence subscale of the VIA-IS were shown to have a heritability factor of 0.53 (Steger, Hicks, Kashdan, Krueger, & Bouchard, 2007). Such a heritability factor indicates that AoB has a very large genetic influence, but that it also can be highly influenced by the environment and perhaps by our personal choices. ...
Chapter
Traits are patterns of behavior, and the trait of engaging with moral beauty involves noticing the patterns of behavior that symbolize the moral beauty of the virtues; these patterns may be characterized as unity-in-diversity. Elevation is the emotion experienced when engaging with moral beauty; when experiencing elevation one desires to become a better person and is more likely to commit prosocial acts. Elevation, in experimentally designed studies, has been shown to cause volunteering; charitable donations; better mentoring; intentions to register as organ donor; increased cooperative behavior; reduction in prejudice against race or sexual orientation; increased belief in life as meaningful and in the benevolence of others; increase positive affect and prosociality (affiliation and compassionate goals) and decrease self-image goals; and increase in interest in the Paralympics, and a positive effect on the destigmatization of persons with disabilities in general. Longitudinal research has shown that experiences of elevation led to a decrease in anxiety and depression and improved interpersonal functioning in a clinical population. Moral beauty may be related to spiritual beauty. Will moral beauty save the world? Moral beauty level is unrelated to political persuasion (conservatives are just as likely to notice the moral beauty of others as are liberals).
... In conclusione, in un'ottica gestaltica, l'attenzione è focalizzata sul "sé in azione" nell'ambiente circostante e sulla consapevolezza che l'individuo ne ha [15]. Una possibile strada di ricerca della personalità è l'impiego dell'uso integrato e sincronizzato di strumenti psicometrici e biometrici [16] allo scopo di rilevare, i primi, le caratteristiche di funzionamento dell'individuo e, i secondi, le alterazioni degli elementi presimbolici coscienti e non coscienti durante la ripetizione dell'esperienza che il soggetto è chiamato a rivivere dai singoli item del test [17]. Ci aspettiamo che un'analisi correlazionale dei dati risultanti dall'impiego di questi strumenti fornisca la misura della consapevolezza che l'individuo ha di sé stesso durante la fase di risposta ai test psicometrici. ...
Article
Background: This article analyzes the current conceptualization of the personality construct, in until now prevalently understood in a psychopathological key, through categorical classification systems such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Subsequently, is presented an alternative perspective to the predominant and monolithic one, such as that offered by the Gestalt phenomenological approach: it identifies the constitutive elements of the personality, biological, relational and environmental/social, in order to identify maladaptive personality functioning. In view of a “stratified medicine” system, we support the idea that the need for therapeutic treatments is based on the integration of the current diagnostic-categorical classification systems with a holistic view of the individual is supported. Conclusions: This work aims to supports the phenomenological vision as a theoretical basis for a medium and long-term scientific study of personality, supported by the use of psychometric, biometric and neuroscience tools in the evaluation and treatment phases.
... Thus, utilizing their signature strength of kindness contributes to their own well-being as well as that of others. Even though twin studies have demonstrated that there is a small genetic tie to strengths, the strengths of humor, love, modesty, and teamwork are shaped by family environment and upbringing and thus, possible to modify (Steger et al., 2007). However, across one's lifetime, signature strengths generally remain constant and consistent with only slight changes . ...
Article
Graduating from high school and moving on to college is one of the most important transitions in a young person’s life. Unfortunately, the process leading up to that milestone—during which a student considers and applies to specific colleges—is often viewed as a pointlessly painful gauntlet rather than an opportunity for growth. It does not have to be that way. Rather than a negative and anxiety-provoking experience, the college search process has the potential to be a period of increasing positivity and openness to possibilities. Evidence has demonstrated that self-knowledge of character strengths can reduce stress, inspire optimism, and increase well-being, as it has been proven to do in relationships and in a variety of settings. This paper introduces the VIA Character Strengths to the college advising process and explores their potential benefit to high school students applying to college, using evidence-based research. A framework and suggestions for character strengths interventions are provided in the context of the college application timeline. Since the potential benefits of character strengths have not been validated with young people undergoing the unique situation of the college admission process, a research study is proposed to test the first of seven interventions. Additionally, a presentation introducing character strengths to college advisors is included. By improving outcomes such as diminishing stress and increasing attributes related to well-being, applying to college becomes an enriched process.
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Objectives: Aging may challenge life and even affect individuals' well-being and flourishing. This includes challenges of shrinking social relations and being by yourself in old age while using your personal strengths. The current study examines two important personal resources, i.e., the skill of positive solitude and the 24 character-strengths, that may be associated with flourishing in old age. Methods: A convenience sample of 1085 community-dwelling adults (M = 57.20, SD = 6.24, range = 50-87), completed an online self-report survey with demographic measures and scales measuring personal strengths, the skill of positive solitude, and flourishing. Results: As hypothesized, the 24 character-strengths and positive solitude, were each associated with flourishing, and positive solitude moderated the relationships between the 24 character-strengths and flourishing. The 24 character-strengths and flourishing relationship was stronger among participants with lower levels of positive solitude. Conclusion: These findings highlight that despite the decrease in social relations which often characterizes old age, the skill of positive solitude serves as a valuable resource for flourishing in the later stages of life.
Article
Drawing on self‐determination theory, this study examines how using personal strengths at work in the morning is associated with different types of performance throughout the workday. Momentary satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence are proposed as mechanisms that differentially link strengths use to four different performance outcomes: task accomplishment, goal attainment, organizational citizenship behaviour and counterproductive work behaviour. We collected data from 216 Dutch employees in a large variety of sectors twice a day for one workweek ( N = 1470 observations) using a smartphone application. Results of multilevel structural equation modelling showed that momentary satisfaction of the needs for autonomy and competence at noon mediated the positive relationship between morning strengths use and afternoon task accomplishment and goal attainment. Furthermore, satisfaction of the need for relatedness mediated the positive relationship between morning strengths use and afternoon organizational citizenship behaviour, but not the negative relationship between morning strengths use and counterproductive work behaviour. These findings deepen our understanding of strengths use theory and uncover novel insight on the temporal aspects of strengths use within a working day.
Chapter
This entry aims to provide an introduction to conceptualizations of character, with an emphasis on the VIA Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues. After describing the classification and the measurement of character strengths, the entry discusses findings of age‐related differences in adolescence as well as potential influences on the development of character in adolescents. These aspects are complemented by empirical results on the role of character strengths in different realms of adolescents' lives and on strengths‐based interventions.
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Introduction Curiosity is an important social-emotional process underlying early learning. Our previous work found a positive association between higher curiosity and higher academic achievement at kindergarten, with a greater magnitude of benefit for children with socioeconomic disadvantage. Because characteristics of the early caregiving and physical environment impact the processes that underlie early learning, we sought to examine early environmental experiences associated with early childhood curiosity, in hopes of identifying modifiable contexts that may promote its expression. Methods Using data from a nationally representative sample of 4,750 children from the United States, this study examined the association of multi-level ecological contexts (i.e., neighborhood safety, parenting quality, home environment, and center-based preschool enrollment) on early childhood curiosity at kindergarten, and tested for moderation by socioeconomic status. Results In adjusted, stratified models, children from lower-resourced environments (characterized by the lowest-SES tertile) manifested higher curiosity if they experienced more positive parenting, higher quality home environments, and if they lived in “very safe” neighborhoods. Discussion We discuss the ecological contexts (i.e., parenting, home, and neighborhood environments) that are promotive of early childhood curiosity, with an emphasis on the role of the neighborhood safety and the “neighborhood built environment” as important modifiable contexts to foster early childhood curiosity in lower-resourced families.
Article
Purpose This study aims to empirically explore the effect of virtuous leadership on the individual performance of an employee in light of “institutional theory”, considering work engagement and subjective happiness as parallel mediators with specific reference to the banking sector in India. Design/methodology/approach The data were gathered through a survey questionnaire from bank workers employed in branches across central India. After the survey, 453 responses were accepted for analysis after excluding incomplete returns. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses and validation of the proposed model. Findings The results revealed the integrated association of virtuous leadership and individual performance in relation to the Indian banking sector. This study also found a significant parallel mediating function of work engagement and subjective happiness in the positive relationship between virtuous leadership and self-assessed individual performance. Research limitations/implications Individual performance was assessed using respondents' perceptions of their own performance. Though appropriate care was made to avoid procedural and statistical common method bias, the possibility of an exaggerated relationship between constructs and single-source could not be excluded. Practical implications The findings indicate that banks may benefit from a greater emphasis on virtuous leadership in both staff selection and leadership development programmes. According to the present research, employees who believe in the virtuous character of their leader feel more engaged and happier and exhibit better performance; this can help the efficiency of Indian banks. Originality/value The study significantly bridges the gap in current literature by explaining the mechanism of the effect of virtuous leadership on individual performance in the Indian banking sector. The study has also addressed the gaps in individual performance literature and has empirically established the layered connection.
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Most extant research on parental socialization for child appreciation has either conflated appreciation and gratitude or fallen foul of a conceptual-operational mismatch, yielding theoretical controversies and inconsistent results. Using a matched conceptualization and operationalization of appreciation and based on three waves of data from 496 Chinese parent–child dyads (child age M = 10.25, SD = .69; 53.6% girls at Wave 1), this study examines: (a) associations among parental socialization goals and behaviors (e.g., I pointed out to my child that they have received something special) for child appreciation, parents’ own appreciation, and children’s appreciation; and (b) similarities and differences between appreciation and gratitude socialization processes. Results indicated that parental appreciation socialization goals at Wave 1 positively related to children’s appreciation at Wave 3 (i.e., 16 months later) via a positive association with parental socialization behaviors at Wave 2 (i.e., 8 months later). This mediation disappeared after incorporating parents’ own appreciation at Wave 2, which uniquely and positively related to children’s appreciation at Wave 3. When simultaneously including parents’ own appreciation and gratitude at Wave 2, only their appreciation positively related to both children’s appreciation and gratitude at Wave 3. Such findings highlight the importance of promoting parents’ own appreciation when facilitating children’s appreciation and differentiating between appreciation and gratitude.
Article
Purpose This study aims to review the development of strengths assessment in mental health services and evaluate the features of those newly developed strengths assessments. Method A systematic literature review approach was adopted to identify relevant articles from September 2010 to August 2021. Results The results reveals that 1) the Value in Action Inventory of Strengths is the most widely studied strengths assessment but contains shortcomings in the application of mental health services; 2) 12 strengths assessments have been newly developed, which demonstrated quantitative measure, brief questionnaire, and contextual consideration are the tendency of measure development; 3) domains of strengths assessments were categorized into individual strengths, environmental strengths, and interpersonal strengths, in which individual strengths was the most commonly focus; 4) strengths conceptualization and psychometric properties are two remained limitations of existing strengths assessments. Discussion Developing a brief, quantitative, holistic, contextualized, recovery-oriented, psychometrically sound, and strengths-based assessment for people with mental illnesses is promising.
Book
Introduction to Family Processes: Diverse Families, Common Ties serves to provide an explanation of the complex workings of inner family life. The text primarily focuses on family processes and dynamics (the "inside" of families) as opposed to sociological trends, political topics, or the individual psychological approach. The text further presents the research underlying these processes and effectively presents ways to increase the positive aspects of family life. Great book for introduction to family classes, as well as overview for graduates/professionals working with families. https://www.routledge.com/Introduction-to-Family-Processes-Diverse-Families-Common-Ties/Bodman-Van-Vleet-Day/p/book/9781138312876
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In modern culture, mathematics is the primary tool for comprehending science, engineering, and economics. Mathematics has historically been viewed as the primary measure of human intellect. Since the early stages, certain industrialised countries have been carefully considering the subject of fostering and generating geniuses among their people. This is because they recognise that individuals learn or remember knowledge the fastest throughout their first four years due to the prefrontal cortex’s resiliency. This vital period of human existence needs careful consideration. Previous study has revealed that a person’s mathematical skills develop from the day he or she is born. According to science, a person’s capacity to acquire math abilities allows them to develop many other talents faster, and infants are no exception. In this study, we looked at the behaviours or modules that contribute to the development of arithmetic skills or capacities in newborns from birth (0 months) to 4 years old (48 months). In this study, a two-layer neural network with tansig transfer function in the first layer and purelin transfer function in the second layer was used. Because many parents and instructors are focused on the programmes offered at childcare facilities, or the so-called nursery, Montessori, or kindergarten, an innovative mobile application called ‘Todd- Acts’ was created. This mobile application aims to assist parents and teachers with standardised modules that they can practise at home or on their premises, primarily to improve the arithmetic skills of babies in the five critical stages of human life: 0 to 6 months, 6 to 12 months, 12 to 24 months, 24 to 36 months, and 36 to 48 months.
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The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between indebtedness and attachment styles among university students. The study was designed as a correlational study. The participants of the study consisted of 332 (246 women and 86 men) university students who were enrolled in education faculty at a state founded university in Turkey. As data collection tools, the Indebtedness Scale (ISR-S), the Attachment Styles in Interpersonal Relations Scale (ATIRS), and the Personel Information Form developed by the researchers were administered. According to the structural equation model created to examine the relationship between indebtedness and attachment styles of university students, the results revealed that secure attachment had a negative effect on indebtedness, and avoidant and anxious attachment had a positive effect on indebtedness. The model was found to fit acceptable (x2 / df. = 1.80, GFI = .88 AGFI = .86, IFI = .90, RMSEA = .05).
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This study aims to observe and analyze the practice of social participation of tunarunggu students in realizing character strengthening on the inclusive campus of Lambung Mangkurat University, Banjarmasin. Research respondents were 31 people in one class, consisting of 5 deaf students and 26 other peer students. Social participation is examined through three key elements, namely: social relations of friendship, acceptance of classmates, and student perceptions. The study uses a quantitative approach with survey methods. Data collection techniques using interviews, questionnaires, and documentation. Data analysis techniques using descriptive statistics. The results of the study show the success of strengthening character education through social participation in inclusive settings for students who are disabled with their peers or vice versa
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Good character is a principal area in Positive Psychology. The current thesis assesses character strengths with mixed method: quantitative though factor analysis and qualitative using content analysis. Main purpose is evaluate and analyze the character strengths factors in participants from Ecuador, Peru and Paraguay to identify whether international findings are replicated; and verify replication in each country independently. A non probabilistic intentional sample was used: 854 university students (273 Ecuadorians, 277 Peruvians and 304 Paraguayan). Participants completed Inventario de Virtudes y Fortalezas del Carácter IVyF (Cosentino & Castro Solano, 2012) and Protocolo de Cualidades Positivas (Castro Solano & Cosentino, 2013). Main results show three character strengths factors: moderation, progress and fraternity. Secondly, this three factor model is the most parsimonious and replicable despite some differences. Finally, dimensional structure has intercultural differences because each countries have specific relations. Main conclusion show three factors of character strengths and intercultural differences in dimensional structure of each country. Data has limitations: used sample could not be an average citizen of each culture and countries were considered as national culture. Future studies should research intracultural differences in character strengths, identify causes of intercultural differences in each population and analyze character strengths in others Latin-American countries.
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The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between character strengths and mental health in informal dementia caregivers. Variables included depression, anxiety, stress, caregiver burden, and mental health problems. We conducted a series of canonical-correlation analyses. The first set of variables comprised character strengths, classified into virtues, and the second set comprised the mental health variables. Results show significant intercorrelations between character strengths and informal caregivers’ mental health. Informal caregivers who tended to have higher scores in character strengths from the virtues of courage, humanity, and transcendence, also tended to have lower scores in depression, stress, caregiver burden, and mental health problems. Specifically, significant relationships were found between bravery, zest, love, social intelligence, appreciation of beauty, gratitude, hope, and humor. The findings from this study suggest that intervention programs based on the promotion and development of these character strengths might improve the psychological health of caregivers.
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This correlational study of 346 college students examined how mindfulness (broadly construed as a manifold of self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence) is related to the three Values in Action (VIA) virtues (inquisitiveness, caring, and self-control) and to eudemonic wellbeing (personal growth, self-acceptance, purpose in life, and positive relationships). The mindfulness manifold explained between 6% and 16% of variance in virtues over and beyond the effects of the Big Five personality traits and gender. The virtue most strongly explained by mindfulness was inquisitiveness. Mindfulness and virtues had strong effects on eudemonic wellbeing; mindfulness related to most aspects of wellbeing, whereas virtues showed more specific relationships (inquisitiveness with personal growth; caring with self-acceptance and positive relationships; self-control with purpose in life and self-acceptance). All variables combined explained between 46% and 62% of the total variance in eudemonic wellbeing. There was little evidence that the virtues mediated the effects of mindfulness on eudemonic wellbeing, suggesting that mindfulness and virtue each have unique (and thus additive) contributions to eudemonic wellbeing. Mindfulness aspects most strongly associated with virtue and wellbeing were self-awareness and self-transcendence.
Article
Objective We investigated associations between adults’ beliefs about the heritability of virtue and endorsements of the efficacy of specific parenting styles. Design. In Studies 1 (N = 405) and 2 (N = 400), beliefs about both the genetic etiology of virtuous characteristics and parenting were assessed in samples of parents and non-parents. In Study 3 (N = 775), participants were induced to view virtue as determined by genes or as determined by social factors. Heritability beliefs and authoritarian parenting endorsements were subsequently measured. Results. Study 1 and Study 2 converged to reveal that tendencies to view characteristics as determined by genes were positively associated with endorsement of authoritarian parenting styles. This association occurred independent of individual differences in essentialism and right-wing authoritarianism. Study 3 revealed that exposure to genetic accounts of virtue increased beliefs that virtue is caused by genes, which in turn was positively associated with endorsements of authoritarian parenting responses to child problem behavior. Exposure to genetic accounts of virtue increased endorsement of authoritarian parenting among parents, but was unrelated to authoritarian parenting among non-parents. Conclusions. These studies suggest that genetic accounts of virtuous characteristics reliably relate to more positive beliefs about harsh and controlling parenting practices, illuminating an unrecognized cognitive factor associated with authoritarian parenting endorsement.
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El estudio de las virtudes y fortalezas del carácter es uno de los temas más importantes dentro de la psicología positiva. Peterson y Seligman (2004) determinaron que 24 fortalezas del carácter estaban vinculadas a 6 virtudes y llamaron via a esa clasificación. Nuestro trabajo está incluido en la investigación sobre esa clasificación. Se desarrolló un instrumento de medición de 24 ítems de autopuntuación global directa para evaluar las 24 fortalezas del carácter de la clasificación de Peterson y Seligman (2004). Este instrumento es la versión corta del IVyF. Se analizaron las características psicométricas de este instrumento llamado IVyF abreviado (IVyFabre; Strength of Character Inventory Brief Form, sci-bf, en inglés) con muestras que incluyeron mujeres y hombres. Los resultados mostraron que el IVyFabre tiene tanto adecuada confiabilidad de tipo test-retest y validez con un criterio externo (observadores), como las esperadas asociaciones con los rasgos de personalidad del Big Five, satisfacción con la vida y deseabilidad social. Análisis factoriales exploratorios y confirmatorios, realizados con muestras diferentes, respaldan que la estructura factorial de las fortalezas en población argentina está compuesta por tres factores que representan las características vinculadas a lo social (factor interpersonal), lo individual (factor empuje/inteligencia) y la armonía de lo individual con lo social (factor restricción). Este resultado es consistente con estudios previos realizados por investigadores locales de Argentina, Estados Unidos y China. Palabras clave: psicología positiva, virtud, fortalezas del carácter, construcción de test, estructura factorial.
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Each individual possesses character strengths, the most significant of which are classified as signature strengths. With a sample of 164 individuals who were employed at least part-time in a variety of industries, we examined application of signature strengths and well-being both between-persons (global) and within-persons (daily). Global application of signature strengths was associated with global job satisfaction and strain; however, no significant mediation effects on intent to turnover were found. We also found that daily variations in application of signature strengths were related to daily job satisfaction and strain. Common method bias associated with trait positive and negative affect differed by level of analysis: At the between-person (global) level, trait affect produced substantial inflation of estimates, but at the within-person (daily) level, inflation was negligible. The results suggest the importance of daily opportunities to apply signature strengths and of accounting for variance attributable to trait affect in between-person analyses.
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Using samples of twins and singletons totaling 715 individuals, the authors document heritable influences on various temperamental dimensions during the toddler and preschooler age ranges, which have been somewhat understudied relative to infants and older adolescents. In contrast to instruments on which prior literature is based, the Toddler Behavior Assessment Questionnaire and the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire offer assessment of positive affectivity (separately from negative affectivity) and of emotional regulation. Positive affect reveals substantial shared environmental influence, and emotion regulation reveals additive genetic influence. Evidence for genetic variance in temperament is strengthened because intraclass correlations from many of these questionnaire scales show no evidence of “too-low” dizygotic correlations that imply contrast effects. Suggestive evidence is offered that psychometric characteristics of the questionnaires can affect biometric inferences.
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Modern trait theories of personality include a dimension reflecting positive emotionality (PE) based on sensitivity to signals of incentive-reward. In animals, responsivity within an emotional system analog of PE is dependent on brain dopamine (DA) activity. To determine whether human PE trait levels are also associated with central DA, effects of a specific DA D 2 receptor agonist were assessed in Ss who were widely distributed along the trait dimension of PE. The degree of agonist-induced reactivity in two distinct central DA indices was strongly and specifically associated with trait levels of PE, but not with other personality traits. The results suggest that the trait structure of personality may be related to individual differences in brain DA functioning.
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Phenotypic research on leadership style has long considered the importance of individual differences in personality when identifying the behaviors associated with good leaders. Although leadership and many personality traits have been separately shown to be heritable, these constructs have not been examined with genetically informative data to identify common sources of heritability in the two domains. A logical extension to current research, therefore, is to examine the extent to which factors of personality are predictive of leadership dimensions and the extent to which unique genetic contributions to the relationship between personality and leadership style may be identified. Adult twin pairs (183 MZ and 64 same-sex DZ) completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) and the Personality Research Form (PRF). Univariate analyses indicated that both leadership factors (transformational and transactional leadership) and all five of the “Big Five” factors (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, disagreeableness, and neuroticism) were best fit by genetic models. Multivariate genetic analyses suggest that transformational leadership shows a statistically significant positive genetic correlation with conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness to experience. Transactional leadership shows a significant negative genetic correlation with conscientiousness and extraversion, and a significant positive genetic correlation with disagreeableness. These results underscore the importance of conscientiousness and extraversion in predicting leadership style, and illustrate important differences between transformational and transactional leaders.
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There is now a large body of evidence that supports the conclusion that individual differences in most, if not all, reliably measured psychological traits, normal and abnormal, are substantively influenced by genetic factors. This fact has important implications for research and theory building in psychology, as evidence of genetic influence unleashes a cascade of questions regarding the sources of variance in such traits. A brief list of those questions is provided, and representative findings regarding genetic and environmental influences are presented for the domains of personality, intelligence, psychological interests, psychiatric illnesses, and social attitudes. These findings are consistent with those reported for the traits of other species and for many human physical traits, suggesting that they may represent a general biological phenomenon.
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Responds to comments by A. C. Bohart and T Greening, S. B. Shapiro, G. Bacigalupe, R. Walsh, W. C. Compton, C. L. McLafferty and J. D. Kirylo, N. Abi-Hashem, A. C. Catania, G. K. Lampropoulos, and T. M. Kelley (see records 2002-15384-010, 2002-15384-011, 2002-15384-012, 2002-15384-013, 2002-15384-014, 2002-15384-015, 2002-15384-016, 2002-15384-017, 2002-15384-018, and 2002-15384-019, respectively) on the January 2000, Vol 55(1) special issue of the American Psychologist dedicated to positive psychology. M. E. P. Seligman and M. Csikszentmihalyi expand on some of the critical themes discussed in the commentaries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Scientific theories in the natural sciences posit invisible forces operating with measurable effects on physical bodies, but the scientific study of invisible forces acting on human bodies has made limited progress. The topics of sociality, spirituality, and meaning making are cases in point. The authors discuss some of the possible reasons for this as well as contemporary developments in the social sciences and neurosciences that may make such study possible and productive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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A birth-record based Registry is nearing completion of some 8,000 pairs of twins born in Minnesota from 1936 to 1955, plus some 1,200 pairs of male twins born 1971-81. The middle-aged twins were recruited with graded incentives so that ease of recruitment could be measured; it was found that pairs concordant for ease of recruitment were no more similar than discordant pairs in education, socioeconomic status (SES), or a variety of personality and interest factors, ie, that selection bias may not be a problem in research with adult twins when contacts are only by mail. A 50% decrease in neonatal mortality from 1936-55 to 1971-81 was associated with an increase from 3.5 to 4.0 per thousand in the frequency of viable MZ twin births. The broad heritability of SES, educational attainment, fecundity, and risk for divorce ranges from 0.30 to 0.50, although all 4 variables are plainly multifactorial and the latter 2 both involve variance contributed by a second person. Investigators interested in making use of this research resource are invited to submit proposals.
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Five questionnaires measuring altruistic and aggressive tendencies were completed by 573 adult twin pairs of both sexes from the University of London Institute of Psychiatry Volunteer Twin Register. The questionnaires measured altruism, empathy, nurturance, aggressiveness, and assertiveness. The intraclass correlations for the five scales, respectively, were .53, .54, .49, .40, and .52 for 296 monozygotic pairs, and .25, .20, .14, .04, and .20 for 179 same-sex dizygotic pairs, resulting in broad heritability estimates of 56%, 68%, 70%, 72%, and 64%. Additional analyses, using maximum-likelihood model-fitting, revealed approximately 50% of the variance on each scale to be associated with genetic effects, virtually 0% with the twins' common environment, and the remaining 50% with each twins' specific environment and/or error associated with the test. Correcting for the unreliability in the tests raised the maximum-likelihood heritabilities to approximately 60%. Age and sex differences were also found: altruism increased over the age span from 19 to 60, whereas aggressiveness decreased, and, at each age, women had higher scores than men on altruism and lower scores on aggressiveness.
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Modern trait theories of personality include a dimension reflecting positive emotionality (PE) based on sensitivity to signals of incentive-reward. In animals, responsivity within an emotional system analog of PE is dependent on brain dopamine (DA) activity. To determine whether human PE trait levels are also associated with central DA, effects of a specific DA D2 receptor agonist were assessed in Ss who were widely distributed along the trait dimension of PE. The degree of agonist-induced reactivity in two distinct central DA indices was strongly and specifically associated with trait levels of PE, but not with other personality traits. The results suggest that the trait structure of personality may be related to individual differences in brain DA functioning.
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Using samples of twins and singletons totaling 715 individuals, the authors document heritable influences on various temperamental dimensions during the toddler and preschooler age ranges, which have been somewhat understudied relative to infants and older adolescents. In contrast to instruments on which prior literature is based, the Toddler Behavior Assessment Questionnaire and the Children's Behavior Questionnaire offer assessment of positive affectivity (separately from negative affectivity) and of emotional regulation. Positive affect reveals substantial shared environmental influence, and emotion regulation reveals additive genetic influence. Evidence for genetic variance in temperament is strengthened because intraclass correlations from many of these questionnaire scales show no evidence of "too-low" dizygotic correlations that imply contrast effects. Suggestive evidence is offered that psychometric characteristics of the questionnaires can affect biometric inferences.
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This report presents findings for the Intrinsic (IR) and Extrinsic (ER) religiousness scales from the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart. The scales were shown to be internally consistent, sufficiently distinct from the scales of the California Psychological Inventory and the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire and unrelated to a number of measures of response style to justify treating them as distinct traits. The I scales also showed considerable evidence of construct validity in its correlations with religious fundamentalism and authoritarianism as assessed by the MMPI and Altemeyer's Right-Wing Authoritarianism scale. Data on IR and ER from 35 pairs of monozygotic twins reared apart (MZA) and 37 pairs of dizygotic twins reared apart (DZA) were fitted to a biometric model and demonstrated significant heritability (0.43 and 0.39), with a model containing genetic plus environmental factors fitting significantly better than a model containing only an environmental component. Twin similarity could not be explained by placement on a self-reported measure of family Moral Religious Emphasis as measured by the Family Environment Scale.
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A science of positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions promises to improve quality of life and prevent the pathologies that arise when life is barren and meaningless. The exclusive focus on pathology that has dominated so much of our discipline results in a model of the human being lacking the positive features that make life worth living. Hope, wisdom, creativity, future mindedness, courage, spirituality, responsibility, and perseverance are ignored or explained as transformations of more authentic negative impulses. The 15 articles in this millennial issue of the American Psychologist discuss such issues as what enables happiness, the effects of autonomy and self-regulation, how optimism and hope affect health, what constitutes wisdom, and how talent and creativity come to fruition. The authors outline a framework for a science of positive psychology, point to gaps in our knowledge, and predict that the next century will see a science and profession that will come to understand and build the factors that allow individuals, communities, and societies to flourish.
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The Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; A. Tellegen, 1982, in press) provides for a comprehensive analysis of personality at both the lower order trait and broader structural levels. Its higher order dimensions of Positive Emotionality, Negative Emotionality, and Constraint embody affect and temperament constructs, which have been conceptualized in psychobiological terms. The MPQ thus holds considerable potential as a structural framework for investigating personality across varying levels of analysis, and this potential would be enhanced by the availability of an abbreviated version. This article describes efforts to develop and validate a brief (155-item) form, the MPQ-BF. Success was evidenced by uniformly high correlations between the brief- and full-form trait scales and consistency of higher order structures. The MPQ-BF is recommended as a tool for investigating the genetic, neurobiological, and psychological substrates of personality.
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How are retrospective accounts of family rearing environments linked to adult personality? We addressed this question by measuring both domains in a sample of 180 reared-apart twins. Twins completed extensive measures of rearing environments (the Minnesota-Briggs History Record, the Block Environmental Questionnaire, the Family Environment Scale, and the Physical Facilities Questionnaire) and an omnibus measure of adult personality (the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire). Retrospective accounts of family environments were partially heritable and all the heritable variance in environmental measures could be accounted for by heritable variance in personality. In addition, differences between twins in their accounts of their rearing environments (nonshared environmental factors) were not significantly linked to differences between twins in their personalities. Hence, family environmental measures appear to be heritable because personality genes influence the way people shape and recall their rearing environments. In addition, differences in reared-apart twins' retrospectively recalled rearing environments appear to have little impact on differences in their personalities in adulthood.
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Phenotypic research on leadership style has long considered the importance of individual differences in personality when identifying the behaviors associated with good leaders. Although leadership and many personality traits have been separately shown to be heritable, these constructs have not been examined with genetically informative data to identify common sources of heritability in the two domains. A logical extension to current research, therefore, is to examine the extent to which factors of personality are predictive of leadership dimensions and the extent to which unique genetic contributions to the relationship between personality and leadership style may be identified. Adult twin pairs (183 MZ and 64 same-sex DZ) completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) and the Personality Research Form (PRF). Univariate analyses indicated that both leadership factors (transformational and transactional leadership) and all five of the "Big Five" factors (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, disagreeableness, and neuroticism) were best fit by genetic models. Multivariate genetic analyses suggest that transformational leadership shows a statistically significant positive genetic correlation with conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness to experience. Transactional leadership shows a significant negative genetic correlation with conscientiousness and extraversion, and a significant positive genetic correlation with disagreeableness. These results underscore the importance of conscientiousness and extraversion in predicting leadership style, and illustrate important differences between transformational and transactional leaders.
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Estimates of the degree of genetic and environmental influences on religiousness have varied widely. This variation may, in part, be due to age differences in the samples under study. To investigate the heritability of religiousness and possible age changes in this estimate, both current and retrospective religiousness were assessed by self-report in a sample of adult male twins (169 MZ pairs and 104 DZ pairs, mean age of 33 years). Retrospective reports of religiousness showed little correlation difference between MZ (r=.69) and DZ (r=.59) twins. Reports of current religiousness, however, did show larger MZ (r=.62) than DZ (r=.42) similarity. Biometric analysis of the two religiousness ratings revealed that genetic factors were significantly weaker (12% vs. 44%) and shared environmental factors were significantly stronger (56% vs. 18%) in adolescence compared to adulthood. Analysis of internal and external religiousness subscales of the total score revealed similar results. These findings support the hypothesis that the heritability of religiousness increases from adolescence to adulthood.
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Positive psychology has flourished in the last 5 years. The authors review recent developments in the field, including books, meetings, courses, and conferences. They also discuss the newly created classification of character strengths and virtues, a positive complement to the various editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (e. g., American Psychiatric Association, 1994), and present some cross-cultural findings that suggest a surprising ubiquity of strengths and virtues. Finally, the authors focus on psychological interventions that increase individual happiness. In a 6-group, random-assignment, placebo-controlled Internet study, the authors tested 5 purported happiness interventions and 1 plausible control exercise. They found that 3 of the interventions lastingly increased happiness and decreased depressive symptoms. Positive interventions can supplement traditional interventions that relieve suffering and may someday be the practical legacy of positive psychology.
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The Minnesota Twin Registry is a birth-record-based twin registry. Begun in 1983, it includes data for 4307 surviving intact pairs born in Minnesota between 1936 and 1955. In addition, the Registry includes 901 twin pairs born in Minnesota from 1904 to 1934, as well as 391 male pairs born in Minnesota from 1961 to 1964. The research focus is primarily on human individual differences assessed by self-report. Questionnaires completed by the participants include measures of personality, occupational interests, demographics, and leisure-time activities. We outline major contributions that have resulted from Registry research, as well as current and future research directions.
Book
Preface. List of Figures. List of Tables. 1. The Scope of Genetic Analyses. 2. Data Summary. 3. Biometrical Genetics. 4. Matrix Algebra. 5. Path Analysis and Structural Equations. 6. LISREL Models and Methods. 7. Model Fitting Functions and Optimization. 8. Univariate Analysis. 9. Power and Sample Size. 10. Social Interaction. 11. Sex Limitation and GE Interaction. 12. Multivariate Analysis. 13. Direction of Causation. 14. Repeated Measures. 15. Longitudinal Mean Trends. 16. Observer Ratings. 17. Assortment and Cultural Transmission. 18. Future Directions. Appendices: A. List of Participants. B. The Greek Alphabet. C. LISREL Scripts for Univariate Models. D. LISREL Script for Power Calculation. E. LISREL Scripts for Multivariate Models. F. LISREL Script for Sibling Interaction Model. G. LISREL Scripts for Sex and GE Interaction. H. LISREL Script for Rater Bias Model. I. LISREL Scripts for Direction of Causation. J. LISREL Script and Data for Simplex Model. K. LISREL Scripts for Assortment Models. Bibliography. Index.
Chapter
This chapter shows that genetic variation is an important feature of virtually every human psychological trait and must be taken into account in any comprehensive explanation (theory) of human behaviour. It begins by discussing the mistaken but widely held belief that 'genetic variance' is an indicator of the biological or evolutionary unimportance of a trait. It then turns to the role of quantitative genetic methods in modern biology. Application of these methods across a very large number of quantitative characteristics of an equally large number of species leads to the conclusion that almost all quantitative characters are heritable. This truism is illustrated for the major domains of normal human individual differences: mental ability, personality, psychological interests, and social attitudes. It is shown that compared with effects in social psychology, ecology, and evolution, as well as psychological assessment and treatment, known quantitative genetic influence on human psychological traits should be considered large in magnitude. The argument that ' there are no genes for behaviour' is refuted using 'clockwork'genes as an example. Using the example of corn oil, it is also shown the fact that finding genes for a quantitative character can be very difficult. The chapter concludes by pointing out that molecular genetics will not replace quantitative genetics; rather, the two levels of analysis will fit together seamlessly.
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Exploring personality through test construction: Development of the multidimensional personality questionnaire Construction of a self-report personality inventory can be a straightforward undertaking. We may take a ‘rational’ or ‘deductive’ approach (Burisch, 1984) and begin by formulating a construct from which to ‘deduce’ basic descriptors — in our case a set of construct-based self-report items. We might even draw on already developed constructs and start writing items immediately; Murray's (1938) carefully elaborated motivational trait constructs have served that function several times. Once enough items have been generated, scale construction, if purely deductive, is complete. A deductive orientation does not rule out the use of data to improve one's initial scales. Data-based deletion or addition of items can increase the internal consistency of a deductive scale. If our objective is to create a multi-scale inventory, we can also empirically enhance scale distinctiveness and independence. But even if deductive scale construction includes extensive ...
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Background: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of an adverse adoptive home environment on adoptee conduct disorder, adult antisocial behavior, and two measures of aggressivity, all of which are behaviors that contribute to adult antisocial personality disorder and that also are associated with increased vulnerability to drug abuse and/or dependence.Methods: The study used an adoption paradigm in which adopted offspring who were separated at birth from biologic parents with documented (by prison and hospital records) antisocial personality disorder and/or alcohol abuse or dependence were followed up as adults. They and their adoptive parents were interviewed in person. These adoptees were compared with controls whose biologic background was negative for documented psychopathologic behavior. Subjects were 95 male and 102 female adoptees and their adoptive parents.Results: Multiple regression analysis was used to measure separately genetic and environmental effects. It showed that (1) a biologic background of antisocial personality disorder predicted increased adolescent aggressivity, conduct disorder, and adult antisocial behaviors, and (2) adverse adoptive home environment (defined as adoptive parents who had marital problems, were divorced, were separated, or had anxiety conditions, depression, substance abuse and/or dependence, or legal problems) independently predicted increased adult antisocial behaviors. Adverse adoptive home environment interacted with biologic background of antisocial personality disorder to result in significantly increased aggressivity and conduct disorder in adoptees in the presence of but not in the absence of a biologic background of antisocial personality disorder.Conclusions: Environmental effects and geneticenvironmental interaction account for significant variability in adoptee aggressivity, conduct disorder, and adult antisocial behavior and have important implications for the prevention and intervention of conduct disorder and associated conditions such as substance abuse and aggressivity.
Article
The role of genetic and environmental factors in the expression of religious interests, attitudes, and values was examined using data from adult twins reared apart and adult twins reared together. The Religious Values scale of the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values, a Religious Interest scale from the Strong Campbell Interest Inventory, the Wiggins Religious Fundamentalism scale from the MMPI, a Leisure Time Religious Interest scale, and a second measure of Occupational Religious Interest were administered to 53 identical and 31 fraternal twin pairs who had been reared apart. The Leisure Time Religious Interest Scale and the second measure of Occupational Religious Interest were also administered to 458 identical and 363 fraternal twin pairs who had been reared together. Biometric model fitting indicated that approximately 50% of the observed variance of all five measures is genetically influenced.
Book
Preface Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. Individual differences and group differences 3. Quantitative genetics as the basis for a general theory of individual differences 4. The Colorado Adoption Project 5. Transitions and changes: description and prediction 6. Transitions and changes: genetic and environmental etiologies 7. Introduction to model fitting 8. Fitting sibling and parent-offspring models in the Colorado Adoption Project 9. Interactions 10. Genotype-environment correlation 11. Genetics and measures of the family environment: the nature of nurture 12. Conclusions References Author index Subject index.
Article
Research in several disciplines reveals large individual differences in orientations to romantic love, yet the origins of the differences have been unclear In this first behavior genetic study of romantic love, biometric model fitting reveals that in contrast to other personality and attitude domains, where genetic factors account for approximately 50% of the reliable variance and shared environment has little effect, individual differences in romantic love are due almost exclusively to environment Moreover, the common family environment plays a sizable role in determining love styles, a finding compatible with theories stressing the importance of family inter-actions in personality development
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We investigated the relationship between various character strengths and life satisfaction among 5,299 adults from three Internet samples using the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths. Consistently and robustly associated with life satisfaction were hope, zest, gratitude, love, and curiosity. Only weakly associated with life satisfaction, in contrast, were modesty and the intellectual strengths of appreciation of beauty, creativity, judgment, and love of learning. In general, the relationship between character strengths and life satisfaction was monotonic, indicating that excess on any one character strength does not diminish life satisfaction.
Article
Behavior genetics has demonstrated that genetic variance is an important component of variation for all behavioral outcomes, but variation among families is not. These results have led some critics of behavior genetics to conclude that heritability is so ubiquitous as to have few consequences for scientific understanding of development, while some behavior genetic partisans have concluded that family environment is not an important cause of developmental outcomes. Both views are incorrect. Genotype is in fact a more systematic source of variability than environment, but for reasons that are methodological rather than substantive. Development is fundamentally nonlinear, interactive, and difficult to control experimentally. Twin studies offer a useful methodological shortcut, but do not show that genes are more fundamental than environments.
Article
Although recent research suggests links between optimism and mental health, little is known about the genetic and environmental origins of these links or of optimism itself. The Life Orientation Test of optimism and pessimism and various measures of self-reported mental health (depression, life satisfaction, paranoid hostility, and cynicism) were administered to over 500 same-sex pairs of middle-aged identical and fraternal twins, half of whom were reared together and half adopted apart early in life. Twin/adoption analyses yield significant heritability estimates of about 25% for both optimism and pessimism; shared rearing environmental influence was also significant for optimism but not for pessimism. Both optimism and pessimism contributed independently to the prediction of depression and life satisfaction; pessimism but not optimism predicted paranoid hostility and cynicism. These associations diminished little when neuroticism was controlled. Multivariate genetic analyses of the multiple correlations for the mental health variables suggest that genetic factors contribute appreciably to associations between optimism/pessimism and mental health.
Article
Genetic and environmental factors in subjective well-being were investigated. Special attention was paid to sex-specific effects. A classical twin design was applied, based upon data from 5140 young adult twins (same and opposite-sex). Structural equation modelling was used to estimate effects from additive genes, genetic interaction, common environment and non-shared environment. The best fitting model involved an additive genetic factor and non-shared environment. There were only marginal sex differences in mean levels of subjective well-being, and no differences in variance. Yet, there were sex differences in the degree of heritability (0.54 for women and 0.46 for men). Additionally, the correlation between the male and female genetic factors was 0.64, suggesting that, in part, different sets of genes may influence variation in subjective well-being for men and women. A dual mechanism process of genetic influence upon well-being is proposed, comprising the notion of interaction between genotypes and cultural value systems.
Article
Short versions of four Eysenck personality scales had been included in questionnaires given to several adult samples from the Australian Twin Registry, comprising altogether some 5400 pairs. Means and regressions with age are compared for three samples at average ages of 23, 37, and 61 years, and for two samples of retested individuals, one tested twice at average ages of 29 and 37 years, and one tested three times at average ages of 48, 56, and 62 years. For both males and females the trends for Psychoticism (P), Extraversion (E), and Neuroticism (N) were generally downward with age, and for Lie (L), upward. However, in the longitudinal sample between ages 56 and 62 the trends for P, E, and L stopped or reversed, although N continued downward. Heritabilities were reasonably stable across age for P, E, and N, and the effects of shared environments negligible, but L showed some influence of shared environment as well as genes in all but the oldest age group.
Article
The purpose of this study was to determine whether Cloninger's revised 7-factor model of personality showed incremental validity over his four dimensions of temperament. A sample of 2517 Australian twins aged over 50 between 1993 and 1995 returned completed self-reported measures of Self-directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence from Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory. Many of these twins had participated in a 1988 study containing Cloninger's temperament measures of Harm Avoidance, Novelty Seeking, Reward Dependence and Persistence. Contrary to theoretical expectations, univariate analyses revealed that familial aggregation for the character dimensions could be entirely explained by additive gene action alone. Although temperament explained 26, 37 and 10% of additive genetic variance in Self-directedness, Cooperativeness and Self-transcendence, respectively, seven genetic factors were required to explain the genetic variance among the TPQ dimensions, and almost all of the non-shared environmental variance was unique to each dimension of character. Our results indicate that the inclusion of all seven dimensions in a taxonomy of personality is warranted.
Article
The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of an adverse adoptive home environment on adoptee conduct disorder, adult antisocial behavior, and two measures of aggressivity, all of which are behaviors that contribute to adult antisocial personality disorder and that also are associated with increased vulnerability to drug abuse and/or dependence. The study used an adoption paradigm in which adopted offspring who were separated at birth from biologic parents with documented (by prison and hospital records) antisocial personality disorder and/or alcohol abuse or dependence were followed up as adults. They and their adoptive parents were interviewed in person. These adoptees were compared with controls whose biologic background was negative for documented psychopathologic behavior. Subjects were 95 male and 102 female adoptees and their adoptive parents. Multiple regression analysis was used to measure separately genetic and environmental effects. It showed that (1) a biologic background of antisocial personality disorder predicted increased adolescent aggressivity, conduct disorder, and adult antisocial behaviors, and (2) adverse adoptive home environment (defined as adoptive parents who had marital problems, were divorced, were separated, or had anxiety conditions, depression, substance abuse and/or dependence, or legal problems) independently predicted increased adult antisocial behaviors. Adverse adoptive home environment interacted with biologic background of antisocial personality disorder to result in significantly increased aggressivity and conduct disorder in adoptees in the presence of but not in the absence of a biologic background of antisocial personality disorder. Environmental effects and genetic-environmental interaction account for significant variability in adoptee aggressivity, conduct disorder, and adult antisocial behavior and have important implications for the prevention and intervention of conduct disorder and associated conditions such as substance abuse and aggressivity.
Article
The authors sought to 1) understand the sources of familial resemblance for religiosity, 2) clarify the relationship between religiosity and current psychiatric symptoms, current substance use, lifetime psychiatric disorders, and lifetime substance dependence, and 3) explore the stress-buffering properties of religiosity. Data were obtained by personal interview of 1,902 twins from female-female pairs in the population-based Virginia Twin Registry. Measures included 1) 10 items reflecting a range of religious behavior and beliefs, 2) a scale of institutional conservatism of current religious affiliation, 3) previous history of stressful life events, 4) current psychiatric symptoms and substance use, and 5) lifetime psychiatric disorders and substance dependence. Statistical methods used included factor analyses, Cox and linear regression, and twin modeling. Personal devotion and personal and institutional conservatism were all strongly familial, and model fitting suggested that this familial resemblance was due largely to the effect of environmental factors. None of the dimensions of religiosity was strongly associated with lifetime psychopathology or current symptoms, but low levels of depressive symptoms were related to high levels of personal devotion. By contrast, personal devotion and personal and institutional conservatism were significantly and inversely associated with current levels of drinking and smoking as well as lifetime risk for alcoholism and nicotine dependence. Personal devotion, but not personal or institutional conservatism, buffered the depressogenic effects of stressful life events. The dimensions of religiosity are not strongly related to risk for psychiatric symptoms and disorders. However, religiosity may be one of the more important familial-environmental factors that affect the risk for substance use and dependence. Religious devotion but not conservatism assists in coping with stress.
Article
Modern neuroscientific and genetic technologies have provoked intense disagreement between scientists who envision a future in which biogenetic theories will enrich or even replace psychological theories, and others who consider biogenetic theories exaggerated, dehumanizing, and dangerous. Both sides of the debate about the role of genes and brains in the genesis of human behavior have missed an important point: All human behavior that varies among individuals is partially heritable and correlated with measurable aspects of brains, but the very ubiquity of these findings makes them a poor basis for reformulating scientists' conceptions of human behavior. Materialism requires psychological processes to be physically instantiated, but more crucial for psychology is the occasional empirical discovery of behavioral phenomena that are specific manifestations of low-level biological variables. Heritability and psychobiological association cannot be the basis for establishing whether behavior is genetic or biological, because to do so leads only to the banal tautology that all behavior is ultimately based in the genotype and brain.
Article
Measures of self-transcendence, physical health and psychological well-being were included in a self-report Health and Lifestyle questionnaire administered to Australian twins aged over 50 between 1993 and 1995. Self-transcendence appears to be higher among older Australian women than men, and was significantly associated with religious affiliation, marital status (in women) and age (in men). No strong correlations were observed between self-transcendence and any measure of psychological or physical health. Additive genetic effects were found to be important in influencing self-transcendence, with heritability estimates of 0.37 and 0.41 for men and women respectively, whilst shared environment effects were not found to be significant. Multivariate modelling of self-transcendence scores and self-reported church attendance behavior indicated substantially different etiologies for these variables, with implications for methods of investigation of religiosity and spirituality.
Article
Although the transmission of religiousness has been assumed to be purely cultural, behavior genetic studies have demonstrated that genetic factors play a role in the individual differences in some religious traits. This article reviews the extant behavior genetic literature and presents new analyses from the "Virginia 30,000" on the causes of variation in religious affiliation, attitudes, and practices, and relates these to personality as construed by Eysenck. Results indicate that religious affiliation is primarily a culturally transmitted phenomenon, whereas religious attitudes and practices are moderately influenced by genetic factors. Further, Eysenck's personality traits do not mediate genetic influences on religiousness, but significant negative genetic correlations are found between church attendance and liberal sexual attitudes. Implications and possibilities for future studies are discussed.
Article
The relationship between altruism and antisocial behavior has received limited attention because altruism and antisocial behavior tend to be studied and discussed in distinct literatures. Our research bridges these literatures by focusing on three fundamental questions. First, are altruism and antisocial behavior opposite ends of a single dimension, or can they coexist in the same individual? Second, do altruism and antisocial behavior have the same or distinct etiologies? Third, do they stem from the same or from distinct aspects of a person's personality? Our findings indicate that altruism and antisocial behavior are uncorrelated tendencies stemming from different sources. Whereas altruism was linked primarily to shared (i.e., familial) environments, unique (i.e., nonfamilial) environments, and personality traits reflecting positive emotionality, antisocial behavior was linked primarily to genes, unique environments, and personality traits reflecting negative emotionality and a lack of constraint.
Article
The Minnesota Twin Registry is a birth-record-based twin registry. Begun in 1983, it includes data for 4307 surviving intact pairs born in Minnesota between 1936 and 1955. In addition, the Registry includes 901 twin pairs born in Minnesota from 1904 to 1934, as well as 391 male pairs born in Minnesota from 1961 to 1964. The research focus is primarily on human individual differences assessed by self-report. Questionnaires completed by the participants include measures of personality, occupational interests, demographics, and leisure-time activities. We outline major contributions that have resulted from Registry research, as well as current and future research directions.
Article
Did Americans change following the September 11 terrorist attacks? We provide a tentative answer with respect to the positive traits included in the Values in Action Classification of Strengths and measured with a self-report questionnaire available on-line and completed by 4,817 respondents. When scores for individuals completing the survey in the 2 months immediately after September 11 were compared with scores for those individuals who completed the survey before September 11, seven character strengths showed increases: gratitude, hope, kindness, leadership, love, spirituality, and teamwork. Ten months after September 11, these character strengths were still elevated, although to a somewhat lesser degree than immediately following the attacks.
Article
During the second half of the 20th century there was an immense increase in both empirical findings on, and conceptual understanding of, the effects of nature, nurture, and developmental processes on psychological functioning--both normal and abnormal. Unfortunately, the good science has also been accompanied by excessive polarizing claims and by unwarranted extrapolations. This article provides a summary review of the real gains in knowledge, outlines some of the misleading claims, and notes the potential for research and for science-led improvements in policies and practice. The need to bring about a better interpretation of genetic, psychosocial, and developmental research strategies and theoretical concepts is emphasized.
Article
Although 51 twin and adoption studies have been performed on the genetic architecture of antisocial behaviour, only four previous studies have examined a genetic contribution to pro-social behaviour. Earlier work by the author with the University of London Institute of Psychiatry Adult Twin Register found that genes contributed approximately half of the variance to measures of self-report altruism, empathy, nurturance and aggression, including acts of violence. The present study extends those results by using a 22-item Social Responsibility Questionnaire with 174 pairs of monozygotic twins and 148 pairs of dizygotic twins. Forty-two per cent of the reliable variance was due to the twins' genes, 23% to the twins' common environment and the remainder to the twins' non-shared environment.
02 (0, .09) .40 (.27, .58) 77 .83 (.51, 1.00) Personality .32 (.09, .54) .68 (.46, .91) Appreciation of beauty
  • Transcendence Spirituality
Transcendence Spirituality .58 (.40,.72) .42 (.28,.60) .40 (.14,.70) .18 (0,.44) .02 (0,.09) .40 (.27,.58) 77 .83 (.51, 1.00) Personality .32 (.09,.54) .68 (.46,.91) Appreciation of beauty .50 (.26,.67) .50 (.33,.74) .30 (.14,.46) .20 (0,.41) 0 (0,.05) .50 (.33,.73) 96 .77 (.54, 1.00) Personality .62 (.45,.74) .38 (.26,.55)
Unpublished computer program
  • M C Neale
Neale, M. C. (1997). Mx: Statistical modeling (4th ed.). Unpublished computer program, Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Virginia.
04 (0, .19) .58 (.38, .85) 69 .56 (.25, 1.00) Personality
  • Gratitude
Gratitude .38 (.09,.59) .62 (.41,.91) .12 (.02,.29) .26 (0,.47) .04 (0,.19) .58 (.38,.85) 69 .56 (.25, 1.00) Personality .63 (.45,.75) .37 (.25,.55) Humor .12 (0,.36) .88 (.64, 1.00) .04 (0,.30) .08 (0,.29) .18 (.03,.40) .70 (.49,.88) 45 .60 (.09, 1.00) Personality .74 (.60,.82) .26 (.18,.40)
Understanding biological and social inXuences on religious aYliation, attitudes, and behaviors: A behavior genetic perspective
  • D' Onofrio
  • B M Eaves
  • L J Murrelle
  • L Maes
  • H H Spilka
D'Onofrio, B. M., Eaves, L. J., Murrelle, L., Maes, H. H., & Spilka, B. (1999). Understanding biological and social inXuences on religious aYliation, attitudes, and behaviors: A behavior genetic perspective. Journal of Personality, 67, 953-984.
Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classiWcation. Washington
  • C Peterson
  • M E P Seligman
Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classiWcation. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.