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Did curiosity kill the cat? Evidence from subjective well-being in adolescents
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore the relations between trait curiosity and the well-being of adolescents. The differences between adolescents with high, average and low trait curiosity on a number of subjective well-being (SWB) and distress measures have been examined. The sample consisted of 408 high school students, with an average age of 16.6years. The results showed that adolescents high in trait curiosity have higher levels of life satisfaction and positive affect and greater sense of purpose in life and hope than adolescents with both low and average curiosity. Contrary to significant differences on positive well-being measures, there were no robust differences between adolescents with high, average and low curiosity in distress. The findings of this research indicated that curiosity is a specific predictor of positive well-being and gave support to the two continua model of mental health, which view positive and negative well-being as relatively independent constructs.
... Thus, curiosity was considered as the desire to eliminate an informational lack when rewards were absent (Golman & Loewenstein, 2015), the desire resulting from the discrepancy between what we know and what we want to know (Loewenstein, 1994) or as the desire and will to explore the new events, especially when there are situations that have learning potential (Kashdan et al., 2018). Studies show that when we are curious, when we gladly receive the idea that novelty matters more than what we already know, we extract more pleasure and meaning from the world we live in (Jovanovic & Brdaric, 2012;Kashdan, 2013). More specifically, Kashdan (2013) emphasises that when we question the existing state, when we anticipate the emotion of discovering something or when we live the desired experience, we have positive feelings from the intrinsic reward and we feel excited, enchanted and pleased. ...
... One of the most analysed correlates of curiosity is well-being (Jovanovic & Brdaric, 2012;Kashdan & Steger, 2007;Kashdan et al., 2009;2018;Wang & Li, 2015). For example, Kashdan et al. (2009) demonstrated the relationship between curiosity and its subcomponents (stretching and embracing) and all three forms of well-being: subjective (positive affectivity and happiness), psychological (measured after the model of Ryff & Singer, 1998) and, primarily, social (measured by the Mental health continuum (MHC) scale developed by Keyes in 1998). ...
... Studies have shown that both curiosity and personality are significantly related to SWB (Jovanovic & Brdaric, 2012;Kashdan & Steger, 2007;Kashdan et al., 2018). The results of this research show that curiosity predicts SWB if it is accompanied by particular traits. ...
This study aims to investigate the influence of curiosity on subjective well-being (SWB). More specifically, we examine the mediating role that the Big Five personality traits play in the relationships between these two variables. To this purpose, we used questionnaires in order to measure curiosity (Curiosity and Exploration Inventory-II), SWB (Satisfaction with Life Scale and Scale of Positive and Negative Experiences) and the Big Five personality factors (Big Five Inventory-10) in a case of a sample of 330 undergraduates (Mean age = 18.93). The analysis carried out is based on correlations, regressions and structural equation modelling. The model obtained using structural equation modelling revealed a significant relationship between curiosity and SWB via personality characteristics (χ²/df =1.74; comparative fit index = 0.95; root mean square error of approximation = 0.051; standardised root mean square residual = 0.032). Therefore, curiosity correlates significantly with SWB, but individuals characterised by a high degree of curiosity tend to have well-developed well-being since they tend to be extroverted, perseverant and emotionally stable. Future studies should also focus on other types of personality traits. Keywords: Arterial Five personality traits, curiosity, mediation, subjective well-being.
... Curiosity is an essential element and a key motive for both animal and human behaviors, "essential to the survival not only of the individual but of the species" (Bruner, 1966, p. 115). It also plays an important role in helping individuals adapt to an ever-changing environment (Loewenstein, 1994) and maintain optimal psychological well-being (Jovanovic & Brdaric, 2012). Throughout an individual's life span, curiosity can facilitate the development of secure attachments and selfidentity (Kashdan et al., 2013) and contribute to desirable outcomes including global life satisfaction, work satisfaction, living a pleasurable life, living an engaging life, and living a meaningful life ). ...
... Finally, past research has commonly used the total score of the CEI-II without differentiating the two subscales (e.g., Connelly, 2011;Kashdan, McKnight, Fincham, & Rose, 2011). Even among the few studies that calculated and analyzed the two subscale scores separately (e.g., Jovanovic & Brdaric, 2012;Kashdan et al., 2009), the correlations of these scores with other measures were quite similar in terms of their significance and valence. ...
... First, it would be helpful to further examine the structures and functions of trait curiosity in a different cultural context. As shown in the literature review, despite the significant development of theories and research on curiosity, most previous work has been done in Western cultures (e.g., Jovanovic & Brdaric, 2012;Kashdan et al., 2009;Litman & Silvia, 2006). Although various measurement models and associations of curiosity with other constructs have been reported in the literature, the extent to which these findings can be generalized to other cultures has not been well understood. ...
This study aimed at validating the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory–II (CEI–II; Kashdan et al., 200946.
Silvia, P. J., & Kashdan, T. B. (2009). Interesting things and curious people: Exploration and engagement as transient states and enduring strengths. Social Psychology and Personality Compass, 3, 785–797.View all references) in a Chinese context. A total of 294 Chinese first-year undergraduate students in Hong Kong completed the CEI–II and measures of satisfaction with university life, the Big Five personality traits, and human values. The results of exploratory structural equation modeling, parallel analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis supported a 1-factor solution and did not replicate the original 2-factor structure. Time invariance of the 1-factor structure was obtained among 242 participants who completed the questionnaires again after 4 months. The latent means and correlation indicated that curiosity as measured by the CEI–II was quite stable over the period of investigation. The CEI–II was found to be positively correlated with satisfaction with university life, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and openness to change values, but negatively with neuroticism and conservation values. The results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that the CEI–II score had incremental validity above and beyond the Big Five personality traits in predicting human values and satisfaction with university life.
... Psychological health refers to people's cognitive and emotional evaluations of their lives, which includes positive subjective wellbeing such as happiness and life satisfaction and negative emotions such as stress and loneliness (Vaillant et al. 2006). Previous studies have indicated that positive psychological health outcomes such as happiness can contribute to collaborations between co-workers (Johnson and Acabchuk 2018), promote employees' curiosity, creativity, and innovation (Jovanovic and Brdaric 2012), and motivate people to succeed at work and to persist with efforts to achieve their goals (Böckerman and Ilmakunnas 2012;Diener et al. 2002). Besides, workers who have higher life satisfaction are more likely to be healthy and productive because healthier workers usually take fewer sick leaves (Tay 2013). ...
... Individual income refers to the total annual income received by a respondent, which includes income from farm and/or off-farm activities. 1 Table 1 presents the definitions and descriptive statistics of the variables used in the present study. The control variables were selected drawing upon the existing literature on ICT adoption, income and psychological health (e.g., Bauer 2018; Goldfarb and Prince 2008;Jovanovic and Brdaric 2012;Leng et al. 2020;Ma et al. 2018a, b;Nie et al. 2020;Zhu et al. 2020a). The table shows that the mean scores of happiness and life satisfaction were 3.52 out of 5 and 6.33 out of 10, respectively. ...
This paper examines the joint effects of the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and individual income on farmers’ psychological health, measured by happiness, life satisfaction, stress and loneliness. We employ a two-stage residual inclusion approach combined with a conditional mixed process model to analyse data collected from 7,065 rural households in China. The econometric strategy addresses the potential endogeneity issues of ICT adoption and individual income and captures the possible interdependence between the two variables. The empirical findings reveal that both ICT adoption and high individual income are significantly associated with higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction, but are significantly associated with lower levels of stress and loneliness. Further analysis reveals that there exists a positive interaction effect between farmers’ decision to adopt ICTs and their income.
... To this end, this study explores the relationship between two such positive personal attributes, resilience and curiosity, with a third construct, self-compassion. All three traits have been independently associated with measures of positive mental health and well-being (Hu et al. 2015;Jovanovic and Brdaric 2012;Zessin et al. 2015), and therefore would be expected to promote positive adolescent outcomes. Since self-compassion is a modifiable trait (Bluth and Eisenlohr-Moul 2017;Bluth et al. 2016a;Galla 2016Galla , 2017Neff and Germer 2012), interventions can be created that cultivate and enhance self-compassion, and thereby potentially strengthening resilience and curiosity. ...
... While some have cautioned that the embracing aspect of curiosity may be associated with negative adolescent risk-taking behaviors under certain circumstances (Jovanović and Gavrilov-Jerković 2014), research has highlighted the many benefits of the constructive risks curious people seek, including motivation, feelings of accomplishment and pleasure, and personal growth (Kashdan et al. 2004). Similar to adult findings on curiosity, a study of over 400 Serbian adolescents showed that high levels of curiosity are significantly associated with multiple measures of wellbeing, including positive affect and hope (Jovanovic and Brdaric 2012), leading some to conclude that encouraging natural curiosity in this age group can be beneficial. ...
The adolescent developmental stage is characterized by multiple transitions, both physiological and environmental, and physical, cognitive and socioemotional growth that often leads to both challenges and opportunities. Developing coping strategies to contend with these challenges, such as strengthening resilience and being open to new experiences, can potentially facilitate traversing this developmental period with greater ease. Although previous research has supported the premise that self-compassion buffers the negative effects of these emotional challenges, little research to date has examined the link between strengths-based attributes such as resilience and curiosity/exploration (i.e., being open to and embracing new experiences) and self-compassion, and whether age or gender moderates these relationships. As such, the purpose of this study was to explore these relationships among a large adolescent sample. Results of 786 public school adolescents and 271 private school adolescents (68% white, 65% female, Mage = 15.6) who responded to questions in an online survey indicated that self-compassion was positively associated with both curiosity/exploration and resilience, and gender moderated the relationship between self-compassion and resilience such that this association was stronger among males than females. Age did not moderate the relationship between self-compassion and either resilience or curiosity/exploration, indicating that self-compassion is associated with both resilience and curiosity/exploration at all ages across adolescence. Implications are that interventions that cultivate self-compassion among adolescents may strengthen resilience and curiosity/exploration, offering new and healthy ways to cope with these challenges leading to improved emotional well-being.
... ., readiness to accept new situations) perspectives (Jovanovic & Gavrilov-Jerkovic, 2014) . Researchers identified curiosity as a characteristic of personal growth and psychological strength (Kashdan, Rose, & Fincham, 2004;Peterson & Seligman, 2004) that is related to life satisfaction, hope (Jovanovic & Brdaric, 2012;Kashdan, McKnight, Fincham, & Rose, 2011), academic success, and positive perceptions of learning environments (Kashdan & Yuen, 2007) . ...
... Reliability coefficients range from .76 to .77 (Jovanovic & Brdaric, 2012;Jovanovic & Gavrilov-Jerkovic, 2014) . For the current study, Cronbach's alpha was .88 . ...
This study examined how character strengths and the importance of family influenced Mexican American college students' (N = 129) career decision self-efficacy. Findings from a multiple regression analysis indicated that psychological grit and curiosity were significant predictors of career decision self-efficacy. The authors discuss the importance of these findings and provide recommendations for future research.
... Secondly, curious individuals engage in novel and challenging activities which enable them to build personal resources (Silvia, 2006), like self-efficacy and resilience, leading to greater well-being (Jovanovic and Brdaric, 2012). A growing number of recent findings (e.g. ...
... A growing number of recent findings (e.g. Gallagher and Lopez, 2007;Kashdan and Steger, 2007;Kashdan et al., 2009) demonstrated that curiosity was positively associated with various measures of subjective, psychological and social well-being (Jovanovic and Brdaric, 2012). ...
The main purpose of this paper is to present empirical analysis of the relation between entrepreneurial curiosity and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. A detailed literature review in a broad field of entrepreneurship, narrow field of entrepreneurship psychology, and organizational sciences revealed, at one hand different connections between determinants influencing entrepreneurs, and latest scientific research trends on the other hand. Although the significance of curiosity in motivating and learning has received expressive scholarly support, like also entrepreneurial self-efficacy as one of the most studied personal attributes among entrepreneurs, no study to our knowledge existed in relation to entrepreneurial curiosity connected with entrepreneurial self-efficacy. An online multi-country survey was conducted in Slovenia and USA among entrepreneurs and results of structural equation modeling showed that entrepreneurial curiosity and entrepreneurial self-efficacy are related. Entrepreneurial curiosity has a positive impact on entrepreneurial self-efficacy of running entrepreneurial tasks. The findings of this research have both theoretical and practical implications.
http://organizacija.fov.uni-mb.si/index.php/organizacija/article/view/540/971
... Curiosity is described as the motivational drive to seek out information in new, uncertain, or complex situations (Loewenstein, 1994;Litman, 2005;Jirout and Klahr, 2012), and in young children, it is often expressed by exploratory behavior (Berlyne, 1954), novelty seeking (Berlyne, 1960), and the joy of learning. Higher curiosity has been associated with adaptive outcomes throughout the lifespan, including better academic and interpersonal outcomes in middle childhood (Maw and Maw, 1975;Lepper et al., 2005), adolescence (Kashdan and Yuen, 2007;Jovanovic and Brdaric, 2012;Froiland et al., 2015), and adulthood Kashdan et al., 2013a). Given the beneficial outcomes associated with curiosity across the life-course, we were interested in examining the environmental contexts associated with higher curiosity in early childhood. ...
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.
... Continuing to pursue hobbies or mental training activities because one likes them may happen to be very useful since rewards might not come as easily as in younger years. Curiosity has been associated with wellbeing (Jovanovic & Brdaric, 2012). This fact has been explained by the reward mechanism and intrinsic motivation system that it sets in action. ...
Similar to physical ageing, cognitive ageing is mostly associated with decline and loss (e.g. in terms of memory, executive functions, visual and linguistic abilities) making it hard to envision positive changes. Both negative stereotypes (e.g. older people suffering from dementia) and positive stereotypes of ageing (e.g. wise older individuals) influence cognitive evolution across the later stages of life. Understanding both gains and losses associated with cognitive ageing and proposing interventions that foster strengths rather than prevent deficits represents an interesting challenge. This chapter explores cognitive ageing and development from a positive psychology perspective. First, it examines the potential meanings of cognitive development in midlife and older age, as proposed by theoretical models and the perspectives of ageing individuals. Then, it goes on to summarize a few instruments that can help measure cognitive improvement in older age. Next, it explores the relevance of cognitive development and how it is linked to other forms of development in midlife and older age (i.e. emotional growth, social skills improvement, physical and personality change). Finally, the chapter provides information on how to foster cognitive development among older individuals and prevent dementia by using positive psychology principles and a developmental assets approach.
... (Jovanovic & Bradaric, 2012) (Haslam et al., 2009) (Diener & Lucas, 1998) ...
... A rising number of studies have indicated the association of wellbeing indicators with many individual-level qualities, such as health and longevity, self-efficacy, optimism and self-esteem, pro-social behaviour and sociability, creativity, and cognitive flexibility. (Blanchflower, Oswald and Stewart-Brown 2012;Schneider et al. 2009;Jovanović and Brdarić 2012;Davis 2009;Lyubomirsky, King and Diener 2005;Tay and Diener 2011). There is also evidence that many aggregate-level factors, such as GDP per capita, the unemployment rate, the quality of government, economic, political, and personal freedom, inflation rate, corruption rate, the rule of law, the standard of public goods, and labour protection, have a strong effect on people's wellbeing (Clark 2018;Frey and Stutzer 2002;Boarini et al. 2013;Preziosi 2013;Di Tella, MacCulloch and Oswald 2003;Helliwell 2005). ...
The association between age and subjective wellbeing has been examined across
different samples and observational time frames, most often indicating a
decline in subjective wellbeing with age or a U-shaped relation. Although
various contextual variables have been examined as moderators of this
relation, the moderating effect of social spending has not been investigated
so far. Given that social spending is potentially beneficial for wellbeing
and that social spending in Europe is primarily elderly-oriented, we assumed
that in countries with higher social spending expenditures, there is a more
positive effect of age on subjective wellbeing. We used cross-sectional
hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) analysis and the data from the ninth
round of the European Social Survey, including 29 countries. Our results
show that age is generally negatively related, while age squared is
positively related to subjective wellbeing, indicating a U-shaped relation
between age and wellbeing. Additionally, social spending at the aggregate
level is a significant determinant of wellbeing at the individual level.
Most importantly, social spending is a significant positive moderator of
this association: with increasing social spending levels, aging is more
positively related to wellbeing.
... Other articles set in the clinical domain include therapy, myocardial infarction, and schizotypy [73][74][75]. Lastly, eight (3%) articles focused on curiosity and health, primarily on well-being [38,[76][77][78][79][80], personal growth [81], and quality of life [82]. ...
The study of curiosity as a construct has led to many conceptualisations, comprising of different dimensions. Due to this, various scales of curiosity have also been developed. Moreover, some researchers have conceived of curiosity as a general trait-like, while others have included contexts, such as the workplace, or education when investigating curiosity. This scoping review aims to scope the extant psychological literature on curiosity in order to better understand how it has been studied, specifically with regard to its dimensions, measures, and contexts. A total of 1194 records were identified, with 245 articles meeting the inclusion criteria. Results suggest that the majority of curiosity research examined curiosity as having multiple dimensions and analysed the dimensions individually, with a deprivation-type curiosity playing the biggest role. The measure most commonly used was the Epistemic Curiosity Scale, which also consisted of a deprivation-type curiosity as one of the dimensions. Findings also implied that curiosity was most studied in the context of the workplace. Supplementary findings included a lack of representation of non-Western countries, as well as needing to cross-validate a recently developed curiosity scale. This scoping review represents a consolidation of the curiosity literature and how it can further prosper.
... Fungsi inti dari rasa ingin tahu adalah memperoleh informasi untuk mendorong pembelajaran, pengembangan, dan adaptasi dalam perkembangan kehidupan manusia (Berg & Sternberg, 1985;Reio & Sanders-Reio, 2020). Rasa ingin tahu juga diketahui berperan dalam kebijaksanaan, kebahagiaan, makna hidup, toleransi terhadap kesulitan (Jovanovic & Brdaric, 2012;Silvia, 2006); memuaskan hubungan sosial (Kashdan dkk., 2009); meningkatkan keterampilan pemecahan masalah (Voss & Keller, 1983); dan kesejahteraan (Miljković & Jurčec, 2016;Sakaki dkk., 2018;Setyowati dkk., 2020;Vasileiou dkk., 2021). ...
Toleransi ambiguitas dan usia diduga memiliki hubungan interaktif yang berpengaruh terhadap rasa ingin tahu individu. Penelitian sebelumnya menunjukkan bahwa usia berpengaruh secara negatif terhadap rasa ingin tahu individu, namun ada juga beberapa penelitian yang menunjukkan hasil yang tidak konsisten. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui (1) apakah ada hubungan antara toleransi ambiguitas dan rasa ingin tahu; dan (2) apakah usia berperan sebagai moderator pada hubungan antara toleransi ambiguitas dan rasa ingin tahu. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan metode cross-sectional survei secara daring. Sebanyak 196 partisipan berusia diatas 18 tahun (M=29.4; SD=12.5) menjawab pertanyaan dari skala Curiosity and Exploration Inventory-II dan skala Multiple Stimulus Types Ambiguity Tolerance-II. Analisis data dilakukan menggunakan teknik moderated regression analysis dengan metode bootstrap. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa toleransi ambiguitas memiliki efek yang kuat dengan rasa ingin tahu secara signifikan. Sedangkan, hasil moderasi antara toleransi ambiguitas dan usia memiliki efek yang tidak signifikan.
... Curiosity is a fundamental element of our cognition that influences various aspects of human life from a child's academic performance (Shah et al., 2018) to an adolescent's well-being (Jovanovic & Brdaric, 2012). Self-curiosity, which focuses on individuals' inner world, is currently attracting attention in the field of clinical psychology. ...
Recently, self-curiosity has attracted scholarly attention as a crucial factor in psychological tests and therapy processes. To measure individuals’ degree of self-curiosity, researchers developed the self-curiosity attitude–interest (SCAI) scale; it originated in Italy and has been applied across cultures. This study investigates whether the original SCAI scale can be adapted in Japan and explores the characteristics of the structure of self-curiosity in Japan. Data from 257 undergraduate students were collected through a website, and exploratory factor analysis was conducted. The original 7-item version of the scale exhibited a poor fit. Therefore, nine new items were added to the statements included in the original scale, and the 16 resulting items were employed to investigate the structure of self-curiosity in Japan. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that the Japanese version of the SCAI scale (SCAI-J) comprises seven new items and follows the two-factor structure (i.e., attitude and interest) of the original SCAI scale. In terms of construct validity, the SCAI-J scale produced significant correlations with the Japanese versions of the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the Rumination–Reflection Questionnaire as well as the short form of the Japanese Big-Five scale. These results suggest that self-curiosity is a common concept despite the differences among European, Central American and Asian cultures.
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A recent offender rehabilitation theory, the ‘Good Lives Model’ (GLM), states that effective interventions should not only focus on risk factors, but also on improving well-being by meeting a universal set of human needs, such as relatedness with friends and family, inner peace and excellence in agency, called ‘primary goods’. Little empirical research however exists examining the GLM's underlying etiological assumptions, especially for youngsters. Due to their developmental phase, adolescents may have different needs or they may prioritize them differently compared to adults. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of the existing literature on adolescent well-being. A multi-level meta-analysis was conducted to assess the extent to which the 11 GLM primary goods are related to overall subjective well-being in adolescents. We systematically searched databases for terms related to well-being and adolescence, resulting in 139 publications included in the meta-analysis. Almost all of the GLM primary goods were related to subjective well-being in adolescents. Some goods however may be more salient or manifest themselves differently in this particular development phase. Offender rehabilitation interventions should carefully assess which primary goods are important for the youngster, how they (try to) achieve them and in which way the goods are related to their delinquent behavior.
... Job satisfaction, well-being, and health. Research has also documented the functional (generative) effects of curiosity on individuals' quality of life (Gallagher & Lopez, 2007;Heintz & Ruch, 2020;Jovanovic & Brdaric, 2012;, which links curiosity to key organizational topics such as wellness or job satisfaction. Generally, curiosity has been perceived to be one of five character strengths (besides zest, hope, love, and gratitude) that correlate most with life satisfaction (e.g., Park, Peterson, & Seligman, 2004) and overall job satisfaction. ...
This paper focuses on the emergent importance of curiosity at work for individuals and organizations by reviewing management research on curiosity at work. We start by leveraging prior reviews on early and contemporary foundations of the curiosity construct in the larger psychological literature, with a focus on definitional clarity, dimen-sionality, and differences with other constructs in its nomological network. Next, we review different streams of management research on curiosity at work (i.e., broad generative and nongenerative effects, curiosity as a catalyst for personal action, curiosity as a catalyst for interpersonal action, curiosity as a catalyst for leadership, curiosity as an organizational or professional norm, and curiosity as a catalyst for organizing). Inter-weaving these diverse literatures and research streams gives us the wherewithal to provide conceptual clarity to curiosity research and highlight how curiosity not only has generative effects at the individual level but also acts as a more dynamic, interpersonal, and organizational property. In addition, our review brings attention to the potential dark side of curiosity. We end by outlining how the more nuanced insights of the role of curiosity at work generated by our review provide an impetus for future research.
... Despite promising results of the randomized control trials supporting the efficacy of IFS with trauma, research has yet to examine the relationship between childhood trauma and Self-Leadership and Self-Qualities in the context of mental and relational health. Although research has noted that individual characteristics of Self, such has mindfulness, compassion, curiosity, and calm mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and adult mental health (Bolduc et al., 2018;Jovanovic, & Brdaric, 2012;Kalill et al., 2014;McGill et al., 2020;Ross et al., 2019;Tanaka et al., 2011;Wu et al., 2018), investigation into Self from an IFS perspective has been sparse. Thus, it remains unclear whether Self-qualities (e.g., compassion) and Self-Leadership (e.g., calmness in a tense situation) have on adult mental and relational health outcomes. ...
Among adults, childhood maltreatment is widely known to increase depressive symptoms and reduce quality of adult’s intimate relationships. Considering the association between childhood maltreatment and adult depression and relationship quality from systemic theories may help clinicians conceptualize and intervene with their clients. Internal Family Systems is an evidenced based psychotherapy and is a trauma-informed model. Self is one of the core concepts of the Internal Family Systems model and it is theorized to reduce mental health problems such as depression and strengthen adult romantic relationships. Despite this theoretical proposition there is no supporting empirical research. To address this gap, the current study examined Self, specifically the qualities of Self (e.g., compassion) and Self-Leadership (e.g., staying calm in face of distress) as pathways linking childhood maltreatment to depression and relationship quality. Using a sample of adults in a romantic relationship, the current study examined Self-Qualities and Self-Leadership as mediators linking retrospective reports of child maltreatment to current depressive symptoms and relationship quality. Results indicate that the indirect (mediating) effects from childhood maltreatment to depressive symptoms and relationship quality were significant through Self-Qualities, but not Self-Leadership. Findings suggest that childhood maltreatment is associated with less frequent access to the qualities of Self, such as compassion and confidence which, in turn, were associated with fewer depressive symptoms and higher levels of relationship quality. For clinicians, the use of IFS and specifically helping clients increase the Self-Qualities may reduce depressive symptoms and strengthen romantic relationships.
... Keyes [26,27] discusses flourishing as a syndrome of hedonia (positive feelings) and eudaimonia (positive functioning), and operationalized this concept through a combination of emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing measures [22,27]. Research suggests that mental wellbeing can exist in parallel with mental ailments [22,[28][29][30] and it is increasingly acknowledged that the absence of mental illness does not necessarily equate to mental health [26,28]. Keyes argued that achieving a complete state of mental health requires the presence of something positive, that is, wellbeing [22]. ...
Emerging adulthood is a transitional life stage with increased probability of risky and unhealthy lifestyle behaviours that are known to have strong links with premature mortality and morbidity. Wellbeing, as a positive subjective experience, is identified as a factor that encourages self-care and may steer individuals away from risky lifestyle behaviours. Investigating wellbeing–behaviour links in the emerging adult population may increase understanding of the factors that lead to, and ways to prevent, engagement in risky behaviours. This study examines the association between flourishing, that is, the experience of both high hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing, and a broad range of risky and unhealthy lifestyle behaviours among emerging adults in Australia. A cross-sectional survey of 1155 emerging adults aged 18–25 years measured wellbeing, socio-demographics, and six groups of lifestyle behaviours surrounding substance use, physical activity, diet, sex, sun protection, and driving. Bivariate and multivariate statistics were used to analyse the data. The findings revealed that flourishing was negatively associated with more dangerous types of risk behaviours, such as driving under the influence of drugs, and positively associated with self-care behaviours, such as healthier dietary behaviour and sun protection. If enabling emerging adults to flourish can contribute to reduced engagement in risky/unhealthy lifestyle behaviours, then promoting it is an important goal for health promotion efforts not only because flourishing is desirable in its own right, but also to bring about sustainable change in behaviour. Further research is needed to inform the designs of such interventions.
... Igualmente se encontró que las fortalezas del carácter predijeron el bienestar psicológico y sus dimensiones, hecho que es congruente con la literatura científica7,24,25,[83][84][85] . En tal sentido, la investigación indica que algunos de estos atributos tuvieron efecto sobre el control, el cual se predijo a partir de la creatividad, honestidad, persistencia, entusiasmo, perdón, moderación, autorregulación y apreciación de la belleza. ...
El constructo de las virtudes y fortalezas del carácter surge a raíz de la investigación emprendida por Peterson y Seligman. Con base en esta teoría, García-Álvarez propuso una alternativa de medición conocida como «creciendo fuertes», escala dirigida a evaluar dicha variable en adolescentes. Los objetivos del trabajo fueron determinar las propiedades psicométricas de este instrumento en adolescentes marabinos, así como también establecer diferencias según sexo, edad y esclarecer cuáles de estas fortalezas eran predictores de las estrategias de afrontamiento y del bienestar psicológico. Se llevó a cabo una investigación instrumental, transaccional, correlacional y no experimental, la cual contó con la participación de 528 adolescentes. El análisis factorial confirmatorio sugiere que los datos concuerdan con el modelo hexadimensional teórico, encontrándose cifras de ajuste adecuadas. Se encontraron además evidencias de validez convergente, discriminante e índices globales elevados de consistencia in- terna, aunque algunos de los coeficientes de las subescalas fueron bajos. Las adolescentes exhibieron mayores puntajes que los adolescentes en rasgos como la mente abierta, perspectiva, honestidad, amabilidad, inteligencia social, equidad, perdón, gratitud y espiritualidad; mientras que los varones puntuaron por encima solo en el entusiasmo. También hubo diferencias de acuerdo con la edad, favoreciendo la adolescencia tardía. Todas las fortalezas resultaron predictores significativos de las estrategias de afrontamiento, a excepción de la vinculada al uso del alcohol y drogas. Asimismo, estos atributos predijeron el bienestar psicológico en la muestra adolescente de manera global y en lo que concierne a sus dimensiones. Se concluye que la escala «creciendo fuertes» es una opción adecuada para medir el constructo en adolescentes, tanto para fines de investigación, como para la atención terapéutica, promoción de la salud mental y otras modalidades de prevención en el campo de salud adolescente
... In particular, O-as a factor capturing plasticity and flexibility-helps people perceive ambiguous situations as opportunities and adapt to changes (De Young 2010). By changing the perception of life situations, facilitating adjustment to transitions, and influencing well-being (Bardi et al. 2009), O contributes to positive emotional experiences and increases life satisfaction (Jovanović and Brdarić 2012). Furthermore, being open may be associated with lower egocentrism, which may be useful for reducing vicious cycle of negative thoughts and rumination. ...
In this paper, we highlighted links between personality traits and successful ageing through a systematic review of recent empirical studies. Particularly, we addressed the question of whether personality traits are related to successful ageing and, if so, why and how? Answers to this question provided, for example, arguments that supported personality’s role in planning an individual’s future based on self-knowledge, thereby contributing to a sense of identity throughout their life. Then, considering longitudinal studies, we examined whether personality is stable over one’s life course, or does it change and, if so, why and under what conditions? Answers to this question gave substance to the idea that a stable personality allows for continuous and consistent development. In addition, certain personality changes are likely to allow an individual to develop the resilience to better adapt to life’s challenges. Therefore, the arguments brought by these two questions can help clarify the modulating role of personality for successful ageing via health and well-being outcomes. These insights may contribute to the development of new prevention approaches, more focused on inter- and intraindividual differences, to promote successful ageing.
... These researchers further suggested that being curious might have allowed these surviving older adults to cope with the physical and environmental challenges in old age better than their non-surviving peers. In terms of psychological well-being, curiosity is positively associated with life satisfaction, positive effect, and meaning of life (Gallagher and Lopez 2007;Jovanovic and Brdaric 2012;Jovanović and Gavrilov-Jerković 2014;Kashdan and Steger 2007;Wang and Li 2015). Regarding cognitive well-being, curiosity was linked to better memory performance in both behavioral (McGillivray et al. 2015) and fMRI (Kang et al. 2009) studies. ...
This study aimed to examine the underlying mechanism behind the association of age and intellectual curiosity. Previous studies generally showed a negative association between age and intellectual curiosity. To shed light on this association, we hypothesize that older adults become more selective in where they invest their curiosity compared with younger adults. The present study (N = 857) first examined the association between age and intellectual curiosity and then the mediation roles of future time perspective and perceived importance of curiosity in the association. The moderation effect of culture was also included to test the generalizability of this model across European Americans, Chinese Americans, and Hong Kong Chinese. The findings suggested that there was a significant negative association between age and intellectual curiosity, even after controlling for sex, culture, and education level. The moderated serial multiple mediation model demonstrated that the indirect effect of age on curiosity through future time perspective and importance of curiosity was significant across all three cultural groups while age did not have a direct effect on intellectual curiosity. This finding suggested that, as future time becomes more limited with age, curiosity is less valued; hence, curiosity is negatively associated with the advance of age. This study illustrates the importance of future time and perceived importance of curiosity in explaining age-related differences in curiosity and sheds light on the situations in which older adults may be as intellectually curious as younger adults.
... Taking into account the specialized literature (Kashdan et al., 2009;Jovanović, & Brdaric, 2012), we hypothesized that SWL score would correlate positively with Curiosity, Stretching and Embracing, with Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and negatively with Neuroticism.As for the factors Agreeableness and Openness, several studies demonstrate that the latter havenot proven to be predictors of life satisfaction. For example, studies on teenagers empirically claim that Openness is not a predictor of life satisfaction (Glaesmer et al., 2011) or it is a very weak predictor (β = .08) ...
The purpose of the article was the adaption and the validation of Satisfaction with Life Scale in correlation with
measures of the curiosity and the Big Five personality traits in the case of a sample of emerging adults. In addition to
SWLS, we applied inventories for curiosity (CEI-II) and Big Five personality traits (BFI-10) on a group of students
emerging as adults (N = 520;
age = 19,70). Both the exploratory factor analysis and the confirmatory factor analysis
showed an adequate fit of a single-factor model (χ²/df = 2,19; CFI = .99; RMSEA = .049). This structure was confirmed by
a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and gender invariant. SWLS shows acceptable internal consistency (α = .79).
Supporting its criterion-related validity, the SWLS correlated positively with curiosity and its factors, stretching and
embracing, with all the personality traits, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, except for openness, and
negatively with neuroticism. The results show that SWLS is fit for the work with emerging adults.
... The abilities of cognitive flexibility, willingness to think through multiple options, and generating greater diversity of ideas and problem solving techniques all seem to be beneficial skills for the workplace. Those in positive moods have been found to be more creative (Amabile et al., 2005) and curious (Jovanovic & Brdaric, 2012;Leitzel, 2000). In experimental studies when positive mood was induced, the group was able to generate more original ideas (Grawitch et al., 2003) and individuals were more creative (Amabile et al., 2005). ...
Well-being has been strongly linked to many important life facets ranging from physical and mental health to social relationships to academic and work performance. Not only has it been associated with many beneficial outcomes across these realms, but it has also been demonstrated to predict positive changes in these key areas of functioning. In this article, we will review the benefits of high subjective well-being (high positive affect and life satisfaction and low negative affect) for health, resilience, work performance, and social relationships. Using multi-method assessments and approaches as well as cross-cultural findings, we review the evidence which vastly supports a strong link between well-being and crucial life domains. Gaps in our understanding of this connection and areas for future research to address the limits of our knowledge assessing the beneficial outcomes of well-being will be discussed. Implications of the link between well-being and important life outcomes for practical applications including interventions and preventative policy work are provided.
... Curiosity and self-efficacy have a positive correlation (Jeraj & Maric, 2013;Jovanović & Brdaric, 2012). Karwowski (2012) reported that curiosity has a significant positive relationship with CSE. ...
... The total CEI-II score ranged from 0 to 40, with higher scores indicating more curiosity. The CEI-II has shown sufficient internal consistency and construct validity in both adult and adolescent samples (Jovanovic & Brdaric, 2012;Kashdan et al., 2009). In the current study, the child friendly version of the CEI-II had good reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .75). ...
Attachment theory assumes that trust in caregivers’ support and exploration are closely related. Little research tried to investigate this link, nor focuses on mechanisms that might explain this association. The present studies examined whether trust is related to exploration through a serial indirect effect of openness to negative affect and self-regulation. In Study 1, 212 children, aged 8-13, completed questionnaires assessing trust, openness to negative affect, self-regulation and exploration. The results showed that trust predicted exploration, but only to the extent to which openness to negative affect and self-regulation were involved too. Study 2 refined these findings (n = 59, aged 9-12) using a behavioral measure of openness to negative affect and exploration, and with mother-reported self-regulation. Replicating this serial indirect effect of openness to negative affect and self-regulation with multiple informants and methods, the present studies advance our understanding of how trust might foster exploration in preadolescence.
... Looking at curiosity, positive relationships between curiosity, PA and LS (e.g., Jovanovic & Brdaric, 2012) were found. Although it is evident that curiosity does not directly contribute to positive emotional results, high levels of curiosity can promote SWB, but low levels of curiosity do not imply a greater experience of NA. ...
Este estudio realizó una revisión integradora de la producción científica (nacional e internacional) sobre el bienestar subjetivo (BS) de los niños/as y adolescentes en el período 2005 a 2016. Con PubMed, PsycINFO, SciELO, PEPSIC, LILACS e IndexPsi se identificaron 43 estudios después de la aplicación de los criterios de inclusión/exclusión. La mayoría de los estudios fueron internacionales (empírico, transversal, cuantitativo, correlacional) en estudiantes adolescentes. Se encontró un número creciente de publicaciones centradas en aspectos positivos, que indican la relación entre BS y variables abordadas en la Psicología Positiva, con énfasis en el afrontamiento, optimismo, gratitud y curiosidad. Sin embargo, la necesidad de diferenciar entre BS y constructos relacionados se hace cada vez más necesaria. Además, hay una brecha en cuanto a estudios con población no normativa y niños. Por último, cabe destacar que una ciencia que tiene como objetivo estudiar el desarrollo positivo y promoción del bienestar debe prestar atención a la diversidad de contextos y etapas del ciclo de vida.
... and .26; p < 0,01) ( Gallagher and Lopez, 2007;Jovanović and Brdaric, 2012) and life satisfaction (Kashdan and Steger, 2007;Brink, 2007). ...
The article sums up the results of a psychometric study carried out on a sample of Romanian students (N = 320; 182 females) in order to assess the psychometric qualities of Curiosity and Exploration Inventory-II (CEI-II). The questionnaire measures curiosity by taking into consideration two of its components: Stretching (the exploration of new experiences-5items) and Embracing (the will to embrace new, unpredictable situations-5 items). The instrument show good internal consistency, with coefficients between .66 and .79 (the total sample), between .67 and .81 (female subjects) and between .62 and .75 (male subjects). The convergent validity is demonstrated by the fact that CEI-II correlates with all the measures applied in the study for: subjective well-being (happiness, life satisfaction, positive affect, self-esteem), psychological well-being, the seeking sensation, Big Five personality characteristics, as well as exploration and achievement of the purpose. The Exploratory factorial analysis highlighted a three-factor solution different from the factorial structure of original version. After analyzing the models obtained in the Confirmatory factorial analysis, we considered that the three-factor structure is the best fitting model. On the whole, the evidence indicates that CEI-II has good psychometric properties. Cuvinte-cheie: curiozitate, CEI-II, expansiune, acceptare, proprietăţi psihometrice.
... First, although we found a modulation effect of curiosity on life satisfaction, the effect on depression was not robust. This finding may be due to a particularly strong effect of rejection sensitivity on depression (Romero-Canyas et al., 2010), as well as a relatively specific effect of curiosity on positive psychological functions (Javanovic & Brdaric, 2012). Given that social rejection causes dynamic processes in our brain, processes that impact cognition, affect, and behavior (Kawamoto, Ura, & Nittono, 2015), future studies should experimentally investigate how curious people respond to social rejection. ...
Recent studies have revealed that curiosity—seeking new information and experiences—can improve psychological and social functioning. However, the social nature of curiosity remains poorly understood. We tested whether curious people show better psychological adaptation because (1) they have less rejection sensitivity, and (2) they are less susceptible to daily social rejection experiences. These two hypotheses were supported by a cross-sectional study (N = 500, 20–39 years old). We found that rejection sensitivity partially mediates the relationship between curiosity and psychological adaptation (life satisfaction and depression). Furthermore, curiosity moderated the relationships between perceived daily social rejection experiences and life satisfaction: Curious people are buffered against such aversive effects, relative to less curious people. Our findings suggest one possible explanation for why curious people experience better psychological functioning: They appear to be less affected by social rejection.
... They found that on days when they are more curious, people high in trait curiosity reported more frequent growth-oriented behaviors and life satisfaction. Jovanović and Brdarić (2012) found out that adolescents high in trait curiosity have higher levels of life satisfaction and positive affect, and a greater sense of purpose in life and hope than adolescents with both low and average curiosity. Ryan and Deci (2001) integrated and organized the field of well-being into two broad traditions: one dealing with happiness (hedonic well-being), and the other dealing with human potential (eudaimonic well-being). ...
The aim of the study was to assess the relationship between curiosity and well-being in the sample of university students. A total of 318 college students from the Faculty of Teacher Education and the Faculty of Kinesiology (100 males and 215 females) participated in the study. The students ranged in age from 18 to 26. Four questionnaires were administered: Curiosity and Exploration Inventory - CEI-II (Kashdan et al., 2009), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule - PANAS (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), Flourishing Scale – FS (Diener et al., 2009) and Basic Needs Satisfaction Scale (Gagné, 2003).
Results of ANOVAs showed that students of the Faculty of Kinesiology had higher scores on both curiosity scales: Curiosity Stretching and Curiosity Embracing. Curiosity stretching reflects the motivation to seek out knowledge and new experiences while embracing dimension is related to willingness to embrace the novel, uncertain, and unpredictable nature of everyday life. They also scored higher on positive affect and lower on negative affect. There was no statistical difference between students from the two faculties on the flourishing scale and the scale used to measure satisfaction of basic psychological needs. Gender differences were found only for negative affects, with females scoring higher on the negative affect scale.
Both curiosity scales were correlated to well-being scales, but as the results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed, only curiosity stretching was a significant predictor of basic needs satisfaction, positive affect and flourishing. Among students of the Faculty of Kinesiology, motivation to seek out knowledge and new experiences has a greater role in their well-being. This suggests the possibility of positive influence of curiosity on well-being and the need to pay more attention to methods for developing curiosity in teaching and learning at the university level.
... After the SES factors related to coping, it is necessary to take into consideration also the stable internal resources (Table 3b) and the positive coping strategies (Table 3c) in adolescence. Seven studies dealt with this theme and stressed the following stable internal resources that were associated with a better subjective/psychological well-being and school performance/well-being and minor frequency of risk behaviors: intellectual and temperance strengths (Shoshani et al., 2013), neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, persistence and self-directedness (Garcia et al., 2014), self-esteem (Biro et al., 2006;Tian et al., 2013), the emotional self-efficacy (Valois et al., 2015), curiosity (Jovanovic et al., 2012), trait emotional intelligence (Gugliandolo et al., 2014). ...
Attention toward coping in healthy adolescents is the result of the important role of protective and risk factors that could influence well-being. If adolescents improve their coping skills, they can perceive and react to stressors in ways that yield positive healthoutcomes. Adolescents experience many stressor situations, ranging from pubertal changes to family and peer relationship conflicts. This chapter will review the research published in the last 10 years on coping skills in adolescence and their association with well-being. Articles were found using the most relevant electronic databases, PubMed, Psychology and Behavioural Science, PsycINFO, Sciencedirect and Scopus, employing various search strategies: the search terms used included MeSH, headings, text words or keywords relevant to the following terms: "Coping," "adolescent," "well-being," "psychosocial." Text word and thesaurus searches were used to minimize chances of missing relevant articles. Identified articles were examined for additional references. The search was limited to English-language literature published in the last 10 years (2005- 2015). We considered the full text of the selected papers to examine all the specific characteristics of each study. One of the eligibility criteria was that the papers dealt with adolescents, but we also considered studies where parents were the participants, only when they constituted a source of information about their adolescents' coping strategies and health. We excluded all the articles related to specific health diseases, such as chronic illnesses (cancer, diabetes, etc.) or other specific pathologies, physical, psychiatric or contextual (i.e., eating disorders, sleep deficits, terrorism/emergency events, mental disorders). Some important topics associated with adolescents' psycho-social well-being that emerged from the review of the literature were: Health related quality of life and health beliefs area; Mental well-being area (psychopathology symptoms); Perceived stress and coping strategies to front the daily problems area: SES and coping, stable internal resources, positive coping, coping related to academic performance; Relationship and perceived social support area and Family influences on adolescents' well-being. These information will be discussed and directions for future research and psychological interventions will be proposed.
... After the SES factors related to coping, it is necessary to take into consideration also the stable internal resources (Table 3b) and the positive coping strategies (Table 3c) in adolescence. Seven studies dealt with this theme and stressed the following stable internal resources that were associated with a better subjective/psychological well-being and school performance/well-being and minor frequency of risk behaviors: intellectual and temperance strengths (Shoshani et al., 2013), neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, persistence and self-directedness (Garcia et al., 2014), self-esteem (Biro et al., 2006Tian et al., 2013), the emotional self-efficacy (Valois et al., 2015), curiosity (Jovanovic et al., 2012), trait emotional intelligence (Gugliandolo et al., 2014). ...
... It also captures their satisfaction with both tangible and intangible aspects of the workplace (Brunetto, Farr-Wharton, & Shacklock, 2011 less is known about how curiosity impacts well-being of employees, previous studies have provided some evidence. Recent research has shown that curiosity could improve people's wellbeing (Jovanovic & Dragana, 2012;Kashdan & Steger, 2007;Park, Peterson, & Seligman, 2004). That is, curiosity influences their daily lives, including the development and persistence of well-being and overall life satisfaction (Kashdan & Steger, 2007;Park et al., 2004). ...
This study investigates how trait curiosity influences employees’ psychological well-being and emotional exhaustion. Specifically, it proposes the mediating role of personal initiative in the abovementioned relationships. A total of 380 employees in China completed questionnaires that assessed their trait curiosity, personal initiative, psychological well-being, and emotional exhaustion states. Results indicate that personal initiative partially mediates the relationship between curiosity and psychological well-being, and fully mediates the relationship between curiosity and emotional exhaustion. Implications for future research of the current study are discussed.
... It meant that the more the adolescents were likely to act under non-structured and at risk situations, the more they obtained high levels of impulsivity and of assertiveness and worthy ability in social skills and, on the contrary, low levels of stress in social situations. These results provided new indications in reference to the impact of creativity, in terms of personality traits, on the psychological adaptation of individuals, as just reported by Csikszentmihalyi (1996) and, more recently, by Jovanovic and Brdaric (2012) in adolescents. ...
The relationship between factors of creative personality and interpersonal adjustment was analysed in 130 Sicilian adolescents aged 14-18 years. Test of creative personality (Williams, 1994) was used for the evaluation of curiosity (Cu), preference for complexity (Co), imagination (Im), and willingness to risk-taking (Wr); Interpersonal Adjustment Questionnaire (Di Nuovo, 1998) was utilized for the analysis of passivity, impulsivity, narcissism, Self-image worry, and social stress. Results showed that Cu and Wr correlated both negatively with passivity, and Wr correlated negatively with stress in social situations. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
... Workers are more creative when they experience positive moods (Amabile, Barsade, Mueller, & Staw, 2005;George & Zhou, 2007). Positive affect, but not distress, is associated with curiosity (Jovanovic & Brdaric, 2012). Happy people are more likely to feel energetic and interested in doing things, and score higher on curiosity scales (Leitzel, 2000). ...
Evidence shows that people feel mild positive moods when no strong emotional events are occurring, a phenomenon known as positive mood offset. We offer an evolutionary explanation of this characteristic, showing that it improves fertility, fecundity, and health, and abets other characteristics that were critical to reproductive success. We review research showing that positive mood offset is virtually universal in the nations of the world, even among people who live in extremely difficult circumstances. Positive moods increase the likelihood of the types of adaptive behaviors that likely characterized our Paleolithic ancestors, such as creativity, planning, mating, and sociality. Because of the ubiquity and apparent advantages of positive moods, it is a reasonable hypothesis that humans were selected for positivity offset in our evolutionary past. We outline additional evidence that is needed to help confirm that positive mood offset is an evolutionary adaptation in humans and we explore the research questions that the hypothesis generates.
... There have been several studies supporting the beneficial role of curiosity, showing that people who exhibit high levels of curiosity experience higher levels of well-being (e.g., Gallagher & Lopez, 2007), greater meaning in life and life satisfaction (Kashdan & Steger, 2007), as well as greater positive emotions and closeness in social interactions (Kashdan, McKnight, Fincham & Rose, 2011). Although similar results have been obtained in adolescent samples (Jovanovi c & Brdari c, 2012;Kashdan & Yuen, 2007), it remains unknown whether trait curiosity may lead to maladaptive behaviors. ...
Previous studies have shown that enhanced trait curiosity has positive influence on well-being. It remains an open question, however, whether curiosity has any detrimental effects on behavioral outcomes in adolescence. The main aim of this research was to investigate the role of trait curiosity in the prediction of risky behavior engagement and subjective well-being (SWB) among adolescents. A total of 371 Serbian adolescents (mean age 15.5, SD = 0.57) participated in the 5-month follow up study. The results showed that the embracing component of curiosity (but not stretching) predicted risky behavior engagement, while the stretching component of curiosity (but not embracing) predicted positive affect. In addition, neither embracing nor stretching was a significant predictor of negative affect and life satisfaction. The results of this study call into question the conceptualization of curiosity as a completely positive emotional-motivational system, and suggest that curiosity can contribute to negative outcomes in adolescence.
... Life satisfaction among young people is found to be significantly related to life experiences, parent-child relationships, stress, anxiety and loneliness (Edwards and Lopez 2006;Gilman and Huebner 2003;Kapikiran 2013). Low life satisfaction is thought to be associated with a range of psychological and social problems (Park 2004), as well as positive mental health (Gilman and Huebner 2006), and personality traits such as curiosity (Jovanovic and Brdaric 2012). Risk behaviours such as alcohol, nicotine and cannabis use have also been associated with adolescent life satisfaction, as have fighting and weapon injuries (Mason and Spoth 2011;Raphael et al. 1996;Valois et al. 2001;Zullig et al. 2001). ...
There are a number of measures of life satisfaction for use with adolescent samples. The adapted Cantril Ladder is one such measure. This has been collected by the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in HBSC member countries across Europe and North America for several survey cycles, dating back to 2002. Although this measure has been piloted in the HBSC member countries, and analysed and reported in several international scientific journals and reports, it has never been formally validated. This study aims to be a first step in validating the adapted Cantril Ladder to establish if it is fit for purpose in the measurement of global life satisfaction among adolescents in Scotland. The study found that across samples of 11–15 year old pupils, the Cantril Ladder showed good reliability, and among 11 year olds, better than that of the Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale, an often used measure in adolescent samples. The Cantril Ladder also showed good convergent validity with other emotional well-being measures, perceived health and subjective health. Gender differences were noted in the convergent analysis suggesting gender differences in factors influencing or influenced by life satisfaction measured using this instrument.
We conducted an empirical test of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s, 1990 A General Theory of Crime in this exploratory study to introduce the concept of curiosity to criminological theory. Specifically, we tested whether self-control was significantly associated with curiosity and whether curiosity significantly predicted a crime/deviance index beyond the effects of self-control. An original eight item curiosity scale was created that measured both an attitudinal curiosity dimension and a behavioral curiosity component and compared the ability of this new measure with the capability of the most commonly used self-control scale in predicting a crime/deviance index. Data was derived from a convenience sample of college students. As theoretically predicted, self-control was significantly correlated with curiosity, and the curiosity scale significantly predicted the crime/deviance index, beyond the effects of the self-control scale. More conservative tests demonstrated that curiosity also significantly predicted involvement in more specific illegal/deviance measures, including those involving somewhat serious delinquent/criminal conduct. The findings led us to conclude that curiosity may be another additional cause of crime/deviance beyond the effects of self-control, curiosity explains more than just involvement in exploratory types of illegal/deviant behavior, and that curiosity has been an overlooked concept in the crime/deviance decision-making process.
Background
Resilience and positive mental health may be negatively influenced by childhood maltreatment. While many scholars have noted that adolescents exposed to childhood emotional abuse could meet the criteria for flourishing, little research has investigated the mediating effect of self-compassion and the moderating effect of curiosity on the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and adolescent flourishing.
Objective
This study proposed and tested a moderated mediation model that attempted to explain the pathway from childhood emotional abuse to adolescent flourishing.
Participants and setting
The sample consisted of 315 female students (mean age 12.81 years, range 12–14 years) in a girls' secondary school in Hong Kong, China.
Methods
We conducted a three-wave study with six-month intervals. The participants completed self-administered questionnaires at school under the guidance of trained research assistants.
Results
Self-compassion at Time 2 mediated the relationship between childhood emotional abuse at Time 1 and adolescent flourishing at Time 3. Furthermore, the mediating effect was moderated by adolescent curiosity at Time 1 and Time 2.
Conclusions
The findings of this study suggested that although childhood emotional abuse may hinder the development of self-compassion, reduced levels of self-compassion and curiosity (especially the stretch dimension of curiosity) could work together to promote flourishing in adolescents with a history of childhood emotional abuse. The results lent further support to the developmental psychopathology and resilience perspectives in explaining the relationship between childhood trauma and positive developmental outcomes.
This Element presents original research into how young people interact with violent extremist material, including terrorist propaganda, when online. It explores a series of emotional and behavioural responses that challenge assumptions that terror or trauma are the primary emotional responses to these online environments. It situates young people's emotional responses within a social framework, revealing them to have a relatively sophisticated relationship with violent extremism on social media that challenges simplistic concerns about processes of radicalisation. The Element draws on four years of research, including quantitative surveys and qualitative focus groups with young people, and presents a unique perspective drawn from young people's experiences.
Why does curiosity matter? When you're curious about something, you process it deeply, rather than superficially. You also voluntarily spend more time learning about things that spark your curiosity. As a result, you more readily remember what you learn. In general, people who are more curious are happier and better liked.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is an effective model of psychotherapy. The central concept of IFS is the Self, characterized by compassion, calm, and courage. The Self is theorized to reduce adult mental health problems and strengthen intimate relationships. The current study examined the associations between Self-Leadership and adult symptoms of anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, and dissociation, as well as relational outcomes including positive relationship quality, negative relationship quality, and attributions. Results indicate that Self-Leadership was uniquely associated with of all mental and relational health outcomes. Helping clients increase Self-Leadership can reduce mental health symptoms and strengthen adult intimate relationships.
Curiosity refers to a demand for information that has no instrumental benefit. Because of its critical role in development and in the regulation of learning, curiosity has long fascinated psychologists. However, it has been difficult to study curiosity from the perspective of the single neuron or the circuit – that is, at the systems level. Recent advances; however, have made doing so more feasible. These include theoretical advances in defining curiosity in animal models, the development of tasks that manipulate curiosity, and the preliminary identification of circuits responsible for curiosity-motivated learning. Taken together, resulting scholarship demonstrates the key roles of executive control, reward, and learning circuits in driving curiosity and has helped us to understand how curiosity relates to information-seeking more broadly. This work has implications for mechanisms of reward-based decisions. Here we summarize these results and highlight important remaining questions for the future of curiosity studies.
We investigate whether the polygenic risk score (PRS) of subjective well-being (SWB), a weighted combination of multiple genetic variants which captures an individual’s time-invariant genetic predisposition to SWB, influences the choice of self-employment and whether it explains differences in earnings between older self-employed and employed workers. In a sample of 4,571 individuals (50 to 65 years old) representing 14,937 individual-year observations from the Health and Retirement Study, we find that the PRS of SWB is positively associated with self-employment and earnings. However, contrary to our expectations, the positive association with earnings is not significantly different between self-employed and employed individuals.
We propose and construct an indicator of labour market well-being in
Poland for the year 2013. The indicator is positively related to the degree of
civilizational welfare, social welfare, material welfare and psychological wellbeing
in Poland. We conclude that ameliorating the labour market situation
improves the quality of the public’s life. The link between our labour market
indicator and the total fertility rate turned out to be statistically insignificant.
Welcome to this first edition of: ‘The Child and Family Clinical Psychology Review’, the new publication from the Division of Clinical Psychology’s Faculty for Children, Young People & their Families, which replaces the previous publication ‘Service & Practice Update’. The review has the goal of promoting and sharing good quality clinical writing and research within the field of child, adolescent and family clinical psychology. The aim is to publish themed editions expressing a range of views and ideas and research around a pertinent topic. For this first edition the theme is ‘Demonstrating Clinical Outcomes and Psychological Wellbeing in Children, Young People and Families’ which brings together papers that cover the broad area of the use of service user feedback and outcomes tools, measures of mental health and wellbeing, to sharing ideas, and stimulating debate.
There are fewer topics that are more pertinent to discuss right now. Over the past decade clinical outcome monitoring in CAMHS has become part of the therapy landscape; its importance has grown both due to grass root interest from clinicians wanting to understand and improve their practice and, as a result of top-down political drivers to setting out the need to monitor and evaluate services. The tide has turned; no longer is the debate about whether to demonstrate the clinical effectiveness of our work, but how best to do it – what should be measured, how it should be measured, and most importantly of all, how the information from such measures can be used to improve the quality of the work we undertake.
There are three broad reasons for the use of clinical outcome tools and wellbeing measures: they give voice to service users, guide service and policy development, and facilitate better clinical practice. Lets look at each of these in turn.
1. Service User Voice
Young service users, and carers, quite rightly, want their voice heard in interventions decisions, and to collaborate in service development. They see the use of feedback and outcomes tools as an important aspect of this process (Badham 2011). Properly used, outcomes and wellbeing tools should support the voice of service user as part of collaborative practice and shared decision-making, bringing the service users’ views of outcomes and well-being directly into policy, commissioning and, therapy decisions.
2. To Guide Service and Policy Development
Commissioners and government have increasingly been interested in receiving evidence that the services they commission provide good value and effectiveness, and supervisors and service managers have encouraged clinicians to produce more objective information to evidence their practice. Over recent years this movement has gathered pace; we must demonstrate clinical effectiveness to ensure good services continue to be commissioned. In addition to commissioners wanting information, there is a drive from the national wellbeing agenda - which seeks to find effective ways to measure and track, not just the economic wellbeing, but also, and more vitally, the emotional wellbeing of the nation’s children, to monitor the effects of government policy.
3. To Facilitate Better Clinical Practice
Fundamentally, the most important reason for using outcome measures must be to improve the relationship between service users and therapists and, in turn, to enhance clinical practice. There is good evidence that the relationship between therapist/practitioners and the children and families they work with, contributes significantly to clinical outcomes regardless of the model of therapy that is used in the intervention (Lambert 2005). This relationship relies on good feedback from children, young people and families to the therapist working with them. There is positive, emerging evidence that good collaborative practice between service users and clinicians can be significantly supported by feedback from frequent outcome monitoring (Miller et al 2006) reducing drop-out, and improving clinician outcomes. Furthermore, these improvements in outcomes can occur across the broad spectrum of CAMHS regardless of the therapeutic model (Bickman et al 2011). Simply put: using questionnaire based outcomes and feedback tools can help us provide better therapy.
This edition of The Child and Family Clinical Psychology Review brings together a diverse range of papers that cover all these areas. We start with an invited piece from Raph Kelvin, who until recently was the National Clinical Advisor to the Department of Health for CAMHS, who sets out the current political landscape around the use of outcomes. The next section brings together a group of papers around a theme very close to my own heart: the use of Goals and Goal Based Outcomes tools, the papers cover the themes that are emerging goal setting in CAMHS (Bradley et al) to their clinical use (Troupp and, Pender et al) , through service users’ experience of the tools (Bromley and Westwood). This leads on to two papers that look at the additional challenge of using outcomes tools that capture change at the level of the family, both focusing on the SCORE15 (Collins and, Noble et al). The final section focuses in on the use of outcomes tools and measures in specific settings: School based services (Xu and Atkinson), learning disability (Rossiter et al) and, anxiety (Bernardes et al). A paper specifically looking at wellbeing measures for children and young people (Magnusson, Klemera and Brooks) brings this edition to a close. What binds these papers is not just their focus on outcomes and wellbeing measures, but the need to explore and experiment with current measures, to develop both the tools and how they are used in real world clinical practice.
Psychologists are at the forefront of the development and clinical use of outcomes tools. Our skills and training as applied scientist, drawing on a range of sound clinical theory and evidence, in combination with our robust research knowledge and audit skills, means we are uniquely placed to continue the challenge of how best to demonstrate clinical outcomes and well-being, and how best to embed their use in clinical practice and supervision. This is no easy challenge, not least because of the need for support from organisations to provide adequate infrastructure – IT and admin support – to support effective use, nor the potential for data to be misused and misinterpreted. We must work hard to ensure tools are used appropriately and effectively and educate those who have sight of the data – service users and commissioners alike, to ensure they understand its complexity and its limitations, as well as its value. There is potential for real rewards for the profession and the clients we work with – both to demonstrate and celebrate our effectiveness and also to highlight areas of practice needing development. Furthermore, by combining clinical outcomes and service user feedback tools, across a range of clinical settings, with the application of evidence based interventions (Kazdin and Weisz 2010), we can begin to assess the best that research evidence has to offer in real world therapeutic encounters – a synthesis of evidence based practice with practice based evidence.
This publication is one of the markers of the beginning of this journey. As tools are used more, and better ones developed, and as information technology progresses I hope we will find more creative and effective ways to use and interpret data. There are interesting developments in progress – working in collaboration with service users to develop tools and measures that are built around them (Cooper and Camic 2012), and moves to break away from traditional paper and pencil tools into a world that more closely and comfortably fits the world of the child – in short the challenge is to find ways of demonstrating and using outcomes and wellbeing measures that are as creative and adaptive as the children and families we aim to serve.
Wissbegierde, das Verlangen danach, die Welt zu verstehen, ist Triebkraft von persönlichem Wachstum, gesellschaftlichem Fortschritt und Innovation. Schon von klassischen Philosophen wurde Wissbegierde daher als positive Tugend gesehen. In der Psychologie gab es in den letzten hundert Jahren verschiedene Auffassungen davon, ob Wissbegierde ein Trieb, ein von der Situation hervorgerufener Zustand oder eine Persönlichkeitseigenschaft ist. Nicht zuletzt durch Beiträge der Neurowissenschaften wird alle Forschung nun zu einem schlüssigen Ganzen integriert, sodass man derzeit zwischen einem neugierigen Zustand, wissbegierigem Verhalten und Wissbegierde als negativem Gefühl des Mangels an Wissen unterscheidet. Wissbegierde kann als instrumenteller Wert gesehen werden, den es sich zweifellos lohnt zu fördern, denn Wissbegierde hängt mit vielen positiven Dingen wie beruflichem Erfolg, weniger Aggression und sogar mit Glück zusammen.
We examined how character strengths and family importance influenced Mexican American college students’ life satisfaction. Using multiple regression analysis, findings indicated that optimism, grit, and gratitude were significant predictors of life satisfaction. We provide a discussion regarding the importance of these findings as well as recommendations for future research.
Clinical Psychology Faculty for Children, Young People & Their Families, which replaces Service & Practice Update. The review's goal is to promote and share good quality clinical writing and research within the field of child, adolescent and family clinical psychology. The aim is to publish themed editions expressing a range of views and ideas and research around a pertinent topic. The theme of this issue heme is demonstrating clinical outcomes and psychological well-being in children, young people and families, which brings together papers that cover the broad area of the use of service user feedback and outcomes tools, measures of mental health and well-being, to sharing ideas, and stimulating debate. There are fewer topics that are more pertinent to discuss right now. Over the past decade clinical outcome monitoring in CAMHS has become part of the therapy landscape; its importance has grown both due to grassroot interest from clinicians wanting to understand and improve their practice and, as a result of top-down political drivers, to setting out the need to monitor and evaluate services. The tide has turned; no longer is the debate about whether to demonstrate the clinical effectiveness of our work, but how best to do it – what should be measured, how it should be measured, and most importantly of all, how the information from such measures can be used to improve the quality of the work we undertake. There are three broad reasons for the use of clinical outcome tools and well-being measures: they give voice to service users, guide service and policy development, and facilitate better clinical practice. Let's look at each of these in turn.
The purposes of this study were to identify predictors of hope in the literature reviewed, to use meta-analysis to determine the mean effect size (ES) across studies between each predictor and hope, and to examine four moderators on each predictor-hope relationship. Using preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines for the literature reviewed, 77 published studies or doctoral dissertations completed between 1990 and 2012 met the inclusion criteria. Eleven predictors of hope were identified and each predictor in relation to hope was subjected to meta-analysis. Five predictors (positive affect, life satisfaction, optimism, self-esteem, and social support) of hope had large mean ESs, 1 predictor (depression) had a medium ES, 4 predictors (negative affect, stress, academic achievement, and violence) had small ESs, and 1 predictor (gender) had a trivial ES. Findings are interpreted for the 11 predictors in relation to hope. Limitations and conclusions are addressed; future studies are recommended.
© The Author(s) 2014.
This study involving 463 adolescents examined the impact of pressured information management with mothers on boys' and girls' subsequent psychological functioning. This novel concept of pressured information management involved both pressured secrecy and disclosure and was defined as the degree to which adolescents feel they have no choice but to engage in these strategies. While pressured secrecy was especially aversive for girls, yielding associations with both depression and anxiety, it was related to stress only in boys. Pressured disclosure was less detrimental, and in fact, had a positive influence on girls' anxiety over time. Alternate models for these effects were considered but not supported by the data. Together, these findings highlight the importance of considering teens' reasons for engaging in different information management strategies and suggest adolescents who feel they have no choice but to keep secrets or disclose information to mothers may experience psychological consequences that are gender-specific.
The main purpose of this study was to evaluate psychometric properties of the Serbian version of the Multidimensional Students’
Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS). The research was carried out on a sample of 408 high school students (250 females, 158 males),
with the mean age 16.6. The Serbian version of the MSLSS has demonstrated good psychometric properties. The internal consistency
coefficients (Cronbach’s α) for the MSLSS domain and total scores were adequate. Support for the validity of the MSLSS was
provided by the pattern of correlations with various positive and negative indicators of well-being. However, it has been
suggested that shortening the scale from 40 items to 25 items could provide more accurate measure of adolescents’ life satisfaction
for the future research.
According to Tellegen et al.'s Two-factor model, commonalities between depression and anxiety are due to their shared variance with Negative affect (NA), a broad dimension of general distress. Low Positive affect (PA), a dimension of pleasurable emotions, is believed to be uniquely related to depression. In this study, we tested these basic assumptions. A sample of 141 students at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad filled out a state measure of PA, NA, and basic emotions (SIAB-PANAS), a depression scale (BDI-II), and a state anxiety scale (STAI-S). Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to estimate the unique contributions of PA, NA, and basic emotions in the prediction of dysphoria and anxiety. The hypothesis that NA is a general dimension related to both dysphoria and anxiety was supported. Sadness and fear added incrementally to the prediction of both criteria. However, contrary to our hypothesis, PA was related to both dysphoria and anxiety. Joviality, attentiveness, and self-assurance were better predictors of anxiety than dysphoria. Methodological and clinical implications of the results were discussed.
Assuming that children are goal-oriented, it is suggested that their thoughts are related to two components-agency and pathways.
Agency thoughts reflect the erception that children can initiate and sustain action toward a desired goal; pathways thoughts
reflect the children's perceived capability to produce routes to those goals. Hope reflects the combination of agentic and
pathways thinking toward goals. A six-item dispositional self-report index called the Children's ope Scale is introduced and
validated for use with children ages 8-16. Results suggest that the scale evidences internal consistency, and is relatively
stable over retesting. Additionally, the scale exhibits convergent, discriminant, and incremental alidity. Limitations and
uses of the scale are discussed.
D. Watson and A. Tellegen (1985) proposed a "consensual" structure of affect based on J. A. Russell's (1980) circumplex. The authors' review of the literature indicates that this 2-factor model captures robust structural properties of self-rated mood. Nevertheless, the evidence also indicates that the circumplex does not fit the data closely and needs to be refined. Most notably, the model's dimensions are not entirely independent; moreover, with the exception of Pleasantness–Unpleasantness, they are not completely bipolar. More generally, the data suggest a model that falls somewhere between classic simple structure and a true circumplex. The authors then examine two of the dimensions imbedded in this structure, which they label
Negative Activation (NA) and
Positive Activation (PA). The authors argue that PA and NA represent the subjective components of broader biobehavioral systems of approach and withdrawal, respectively. The authors conclude by demonstrating how this framework helps to clarify various affect-related phenomena, including circadian rhythms, sleep, and the mood disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Although theorists have proposed the existence of multiple distinct varieties of positive emotion, dispositional positive affect is typically treated as a unidimensional variable in personality research. We present data elaborating conceptual and empirical differences among seven positive emotion dispositions in their relationships with two core personality constructs, the ''Big Five'' and adult attachment style. We found that the positive emotion dispositions were differentially associated with self-and peer-rated Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Openness to Experience, and Neuroticism. We also found that different adult attachment styles were associated with different kinds of emotional rewards. Findings support the theoretical utility of differentiating among several dispositional positive emotion constructs in personality research.
There is a growing body of research devoted to the examination of character strengths as conceptualized by Values-In-Action
(VIA) strengths classification system. However, there remains a dearth of research examining generic strengths use and its
relationship with well-being, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and VIA character strengths. In this crosssectional
study, 135 undergraduate university students completed measures of strengths use, subjective well-being (SWB), self-esteem,
self-efficacy, and HRQOL, and endorsed five top VIA strengths. Results revealed strengths use is a unique predictor of SWB,
but not HRQOL. The VIA strengths of hope and zest were significant positive predictors of life satisfaction. The most commonly-endorsed
VIA strengths were: love, humor, kindness, social intelligence, and open-mindedness. The least-endorsed VIA strengths were:
leadership, perseverance, wisdom, spirituality, and self-control. Overall, results suggest an important link between generic
strengths use and specific VIA strengths and their impact on SWB.
KeywordsStrengths use–Subjective well-being–Life satisfaction–Health-related quality of life
Why are certain character strengths more associated with life satisfaction than others? A sample of U.S. adults (N = 12,439) completed on-line surveys in English measuring character strengths, orientations to happiness (engagement, pleasure, and meaning), and life satisfaction, and a sample of Swiss adults (N = 445) completed paper-and-pencil versions of the same surveys in German. In both samples, the character strengths most highly linked to life satisfaction included love, hope, curiosity, and zest. Gratitude was among the most robust predictors of life satisfaction in the U.S. sample, whereas perseverance was among the most robust predictors in the Swiss sample. In both samples, the strengths of character most associated with life
satisfaction were associated with orientations to pleasure, to engagement, and to meaning, implying that the most fulfilling character strengths are those that make possible a full life.
The measurement of child well-being has become increasingly important in child welfare practice in the past ten years with the federal emphasis on measuring positive outcomes for children and families. Practical and methodological barriers to evaluating well-being exist alongside positive developments in the field. This article reviews the research literature related to child and youth well-being, providing a context for the discussion of measurement issues in child welfare settings. Based on a structured review of the literature, the article discusses instruments that appear to be most appropriate for use in a child welfare setting. Instruments are presented within stages of development, including (1) Infancy and Early Childhood, (2) Middle Childhood, and (3) Adolescence. Implications for the design and use of child well-being instruments in child welfare practice are discussed.
We investigated cultural influences on the distribution of character strengths, gender differences in character strengths,
and the relationship of happiness to character strengths. Young adults from the United States (n=1099) and Japan (n=308) completed the English or Japanese versions of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths. American and Japanese showed
similar distributions of the 24 strengths measured: Higher strengths included love, humor and kindness, and lesser strengths
included prudence, self-regulation, and modesty. Gender differences across cultures were also similar: Females were more likely
than males to report strengths of love and kindness, whereas males were more likely to report bravery and creativity. In both
samples, associations with happiness were found for zest, hope, curiosity and gratitude. The present study is a first step
in an international study of character strengths, and we discuss the ubiquity and variation of character across culture.
116 Catholic (50 9th graders and 66 12th graders) and 92 public high school students (52 9th graders and 40 12th graders) completed questionnaires concerning sexual knowledge and information about sexual activity. Analysis indicates that 33% of the Catholic and 73% of the public 12th graders had previous sexual experience. The Catholic school 12th graders had significantly higher scores on a sex knowledge test than the public school students, however, there were no significant correlations between these scores and sexual activity for either school. The factors that students said encouraged sexual experimentation included curiosity, need for love, and peer pressure, while the factors that discouraged these behaviors were fear of pregnancy and sexually transmissible diseases. Fear of contracting AIDS and religious beliefs did not strongly influence sexual behavior.
The objective of this study was to investigate whether the level of drug dependence in adolescents can be predicted by any of the following factors: the reasons to which the first use or non-use of drugs is attributed, living arrangements, economic situation, family history of alcohol use, or school delay. 213 Brazilian adolescents were classified according to DSM-III-R criteria as: 71 non-drug-dependent users (Group 1), 71 lightly/moderately dependent users (Group 2), and 71 severely dependent users (Group 3). Logistic regression identified the following predictors of current drug use patterns: low economic level, school delay, living only with the mother, having a poor/bad family relationship, and "influence of friends," "pleasure seeking," or "curiosity" as reasons for initial drug use. Among Groups 1 and 2, "never felt like trying," "fear of dying from an overdose," and "religious reasons" were the main reasons for not using other drugs. School delay and troubled family relationships were important predictors of current drug dependence, and "pleasure seeking" was a prominent reason for initial drug use. This suggests that drug use prevention should not simply focus on reducing drug availability but also on helping young people to develop good family/peer relationships and finding healthy ways to enjoy themselves.
The basic premise of positive psychology is that the happiness and fulfillment of children and youth entail more than the identification and treatment of their problems. This article provides an overview of positive psychology and the Values in Action (VIA) project that classifies and measures 24 widely recognized character strengths. Good character is multidimensional, made up of a family of positive traits manifest in an individual's thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Recent research findings are presented concerning the correlates and the consequences of the VIA character strengths for positive youth development. Character strengths are related to achievement, life satisfaction, and well-being of children and youth. Further, the implications and specific techniques informed by positive psychology are discussed for school counselors in the context of a strengths-based approach.
Emotional processes influence a wide range of mental and physical systems, which makes them difficult to understand from a single perspective. In this special issue of the Review of General Psychology, contributing authors present 4 articles that draw from several areas within psychology in the service of understanding a topic relevant to emotion. In this overview, the authors argue that the long neglect of the scientific study of complex processes such as emotion might be linked, in part, to the fractionation of the field into specialized subdisciplines. Just as emotions were of central concern in the early years of psychology (which was a generalist's era), as psychology moves toward more integration in the late 20th century broad phenomena such as emotions are once again central interests. The 4 articles of this special issue are briefly reviewed as exemplars of an integrated approach to understanding emotional phenomena.
Over the years, various psychologists have issued calls for greater attention to a science of positive psychology, which focuses on studying conditions that promote optimal human and societal development. Recent calls (e.g., McCullough and Snyder, 2000; Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) have furthered interest in studies of the nature and determinants of the good life. Such a science, along with the creation of prevention and intervention programs informed by the expanded scientific framework, is expected to improve the quality of life for all individuals, not just individuals who are at risk or who already demonstrate psychopathological conditions. To contrast with the previous emphasis on psychopathology, the development of a positive psychology requires constructs and measures that reflect the full range of human functioning, incorporating indicators of high levels of wellness as well as psychopathological functioning. This article discusses one such construct, life satisfaction, that has been studied extensively in adulthood (see Diener et al., 1999), but which has only recently gained attention with children and adolescents (see Bender, 1997; Huebner, 1997). This article reviews life satisfaction assessment research with children and adolescents, specifically with regard to construct validity. In doing so, the following areas are addressed: models of life satisfaction; convergent validity; discriminant validity; relationships with other well-being measures; relationships with external, environmental circumstances; relationships with demographic variables; cultural factors; group differences on life satisfaction measures; predictive relationships; and stability of life satisfaction reports. Conclusions regarding the validity of the life satisfaction construct are formulated. Recommendations for future research are also discussed.
The evolutionary continuity between humans and other animals suggests that some dimensions of personality may be common across a wide range of species. Unfortunately, there is no unified body of research on animal personality; studies are dispersed across multiple disciplines and diverse journals. To review 19 studies of personality factors in 12 nonhuman species, we used the human Five-Factor Model plus Dominance and Activity as a preliminary framework. Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Agreeableness showed the strongest cross-species generality, followed by Openness; a separate Conscientiousness dimension appeared only in chimpanzees, humans' closest relatives. Cross-species evidence was modest for a separate Dominance dimension but scant for Activity. The comparative approach taken here offers a fresh perspective on human personality and should facilitate hypothesis-driven research on the social and biological bases of personality.
According to Tellegen et al.'s Two-factor model, commonalities between depression and anxiety are due to their shared variance with Negative affect (NA), a broad dimension of general distress. Low Positive affect (PA), a dimension of pleasurable emotions, is believed to be uniquely related to depression. In this study, we tested these basic assumptions. A sample of 141 students at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad filled out a state measure of PA, NA, and basic emotions (SIAB-PANAS), a depression scale (BDI-II), and a state anxiety scale (STAI-S). Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to estimate the unique contributions of PA, NA, and basic emotions in the prediction of dysphoria and anxiety. The hypothesis that NA is a general dimension related to both dysphoria and anxiety was supported. Sadness and fear added incrementally to the prediction of both criteria. However, contrary to our hypothesis, PA was related to both dysphoria and anxiety. Joviality, attentiveness, and self-assurance were better predictors of anxiety than dysphoria. Methodological and clinical implications of the results were discussed.
In this article, the author describes a new theoretical perspective on positive emotions and situates this new perspective within the emerging field of positive psychology. The broaden-and-build theory posits that experiences of positive emotions broaden people's momentary thought-action repertoires, which in turn serves to build their enduring personal resources, ranging from physical and intellectual resources to social and psychological resources. Preliminary empirical evidence supporting the broaden-and-build theory is reviewed, and open empirical questions that remain to be tested are identified. The theory and findings suggest that the capacity to experience positive emotions may be a fundamental human strength central to the study of human flourishing.
In this article, the author describes a new theoretical perspective on positive emotions and situates this new perspective within the emerging field of positive psychology. The broaden-and-build theory posits that experiences of positive emotions broaden people's momentary thought-action repertoires, which in turn serves to build their enduring personal resources, ranging from physical and intellectual resources to social and psychological resources. Preliminary empirical evidence supporting the broaden-and-build theory is reviewed, and open empirical questions that remain to be tested are identified. The theory and findings suggest that the capacity to experience positive emotions may be a fundamental human strength central to the study of human flourishing.
Psychologists have always been intrigued in interest, and modern research on interest can be found in nearly every area of the field: researchers studying emotions, cognition, development, education, aesthetics, personality, motivation, and vocations have developed intriguing ideas about what interest is and how it works. This book presents an integrated picture of how interest has been studied in all of the wide-ranging areas of psychology. Using modern theories of cognition and emotion as an integrative framework, it examines the nature of interest, what makes things interesting, the role of interest in personality, and the development of people's idiosyncratic interests, hobbies, and avocations. The examination reveals deep similarities between seemingly different fields of psychology and illustrates the profound importance of interest, curiosity, and intrinsic motivation for understanding why people do what they do. A comprehensive work devoted to interest, this book reviews the history of psychological thought on interest, presents classic and modern research, and suggests fruitful directions for future work.
The evolutionary continuity between humans and other animals suggests that some dimensions of personality may be common across a wide range of species. Unfortunately, there is no unified body of research on animal personality; studies are dispersed across multiple disciplines and diverse journals. To review 19 studies of personality factors in 12 nonhuman species, we used the human Five-Factor Model plus Dominance and Activity as a preliminary framework. Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Agreeableness showed the strongest cross-species generality, followed by Openness; a separate Conscientiousness dimension appeared only in chimpanzees, humans' closest relatives. Cross-species evidence was modest for a separate Dominance dimension but scant for Activity. The comparative approach taken here offers a fresh perspective on human personality and should facilitate hypothesis-driven research on the social and biological bases of personality.
This paper describes an attempt to construct a measuring instrument for loneliness that meets the cri teria of a Rasch scale. Rasch (1960, 1966) proposed a latent trait model for the unidimensional scaling of di chotomous items that does not suffer from the inade quacies of classical approaches. The resulting Rasch scale of this study, which is based on data from 1,201 employed, disabled, and jobless adults, consists of five positive and six negative items. The positive items assess feelings of belongingness, whereas the negative items apply to three separate aspects of miss ing relationships. The techniques for testing the as sumptions underlying the Rasch model are compared with their counterparts from classical test theory, and the implications for the methodology of scale con struction are discussed.
Recent conceptualizations of curiosity have identified two underlying factors that together represent trait curiosity: exploration (the disposition to seek out novel/challenging situations) and absorption (the disposition to become fully engaged in these interesting situations) (Kashdan, Rose, & Fincham, 2004). These factors have been proposed to broaden the thought–action repertoire by promoting interest in novel/challenging situations and to incrementally build knowledge and well-being in a manner consistent with the Broaden-and-Build Theory (Fredrickson, B. L., 1998). This article reports findings from a study which examined associations between the exploration and absorption components of curiosity and continuous and categorical indices of well-being. Replicating and extending previous findings, the exploration (more so than absorption) component of curiosity exhibited moderate positive associations with measures of well-being. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.
believe that attempts to relate the structure of central nervous system neurobiology and neurochemistry to the structure of personality . . . require a clear conceptual framework / a theoretical strategy is needed to guide selection of the neurobiological and personality variables hypothesized to relate / our theoretical approach to the neurobiology of personality is first explicated / began by broadening our understanding of [personality] structure by assessing the structure of behavioral systems as defined by ethology and psychology / the structure of behavior reflects the existence of neurobehavioral-emotional systems that elicit and motivate certain subjective emotional experiences and overt patterns of behavior to particular classes of stimulus / thus, a particular class of stimulus, the emotional feelings and motivation generated, and the behavior patterns expressed all form integral components of a coherent emotional system
analogous structure of neurobehavioral-emotional systems and personality [types and organization of neurobehavioral systems, the structure of a general neurobehavioral-emotional system, the structure of personality and its superfactors] / putative neurobiology of three personality superfactors [positive emotionality, constraint, negative emotionality] / studies of the relationship of DA [dopamine] to positive emotionality and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) to constraint / implications for personality disorders [implications for the development of substance abuse] (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The tenets of a cognitive, motivational model called hope theory (Snyder et al., 1991) are reviewed, along with the two accompanying instruments for measuring hope in children and adolescents. More than a decade of research on hope theory as it relates to students, teachers, and schools is summarized. Likewise, the applications of hope theory for school psychologists are reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two studies describe the development and preliminary validation of a multidimensional measure of children's life satisfaction, the Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS). In the 1st study, a preliminary version of the MSLSS was administered to a sample of 312 elementary school students. The final version of the scale demonstrated a 5-factor solution and acceptable internal consistency for the total and subscale scores. In the 2nd study, the factor structure findings were cross-validated with an independent sample of 413 elementary school students. Acceptable internal consistency estimates were obtained again for total and subscale scores. For the most part, MSLSS subscales correlated in expected ways with various criterion measures. Total satisfaction scores also related predictably to demographic variables. The MSLSS appears useful for research purposes with preadolescent students (Grades 3–5). Suggestions for further research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The present study tested whether the perceived academic values of a school moderate whether highly curious students thrive
academically. We investigated the interactive effects of curiosity and school quality on academic success for 484 Hong Kong
high school students. Chinese versions of the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory, Subjective Happiness Scale, and Rosenberg
Self-Esteem scales were administered and shown to have acceptable measurement properties. We obtained Hong Kong Certificate
of Education Examination (HKCEE) scores (national achievement tests) from participating schools. Results yielded Trait Curiosity×Perceived
School Quality interactions in predicting HKCEE scores and school grades. Adolescents with greater trait curiosity in more
challenging schools had the greatest academic success; adolescents with greater trait curiosity in less challenging schools
had the least academic success. Findings were not attributable to subjective happiness or self-esteem and alternative models
involving these positive attributes were not supported. Results suggest that the benefits of curiosity are activated by student
beliefs that the school environment supports their values about growth and learning; these benefits can be disabled by perceived
person-environment mismatches.
Over the years, various psychologists haveissued calls for greater attention to a scienceof positive psychology, which focuses onstudying conditions that promote optimal humanand societal development. Recent calls (e.g.,McCullough and Snyder, 2000; Seligman andCsikszentmihalyi, 2000) have furthered interestin studies of the nature and determinants ofthe good life. Such a science, along with thecreation of prevention and interventionprograms informed by the expanded scientificframework, is expected to improve the qualityof life for all individuals, not justindividuals who are at risk or who alreadydemonstrate psychopathological conditions. Tocontrast with the previous emphasis onpsychopathology, the development of a positivepsychology requires constructs and measuresthat reflect the full range of humanfunctioning, incorporating indicators of highlevels of wellness as well aspsychopathological functioning. This articlediscusses one such construct, lifesatisfaction, that has been studied extensivelyin adulthood (see Diener et al., 1999), butwhich has only recently gained attention withchildren and adolescents (see Bender, 1997;Huebner, 1997). This article reviews lifesatisfaction assessment research with childrenand adolescents, specifically with regard toconstruct validity. In doing so, the followingareas are addressed: models of lifesatisfaction; convergent validity; discriminantvalidity; relationships with other well-beingmeasures; relationships with external,environmental circumstances; relationships withdemographic variables; cultural factors; groupdifferences on life satisfaction measures;predictive relationships; and stability of lifesatisfaction reports. Conclusions regardingthe validity of the life satisfaction constructare formulated. Recommendations for futureresearch are also discussed.
This study examined curiosity as a mechanism for achieving and maintaining high levels of well-being and meaning in life.
Of primary interest was whether people high in trait curiosity derive greater well-being on days when they are more curious.
We also tested whether trait and daily curiosity led to greater, sustainable well-being. Predictions were tested using trait
measures and 21 daily diary reports from 97 college students. We found that on days when they are more curious, people high
in trait curiosity reported more frequent growth-oriented behaviors, and greater presence of meaning, search for meaning,
and life satisfaction. Greater trait curiosity and greater curiosity on a given day also predicted greater persistence of
meaning in life from one day into the next. People with greater trait curiosity reported more frequent hedonistic events but
they were associated with less pleasure compared to the experiences of people with less trait curiosity. The benefits of hedonistic
events did not last beyond the day of their occurrence. As evidence of construct specificity, curiosity effects were not attributable
to Big Five personality traits or daily positive or negative mood. Our results provide support for curiosity as an ingredient
in the development of well-being and meaning in life. The pattern of findings casts doubt on some distinctions drawn between
eudaimonia and hedonic well-being traditions.
The present study investigated the associations of well-being with engagement in illicit drug use, sexual risk taking, and impaired driving in a sample of 9,515 students from 30 U.S. colleges and universities. Participants completed measures of subjective well-being, psychological well-being, and eudaimonic well-being, and indicated how many times in the past 30 days that they had engaged in several illicit drug use, sexual risk, and impaired driving behaviors. Findings indicated that well-being was negatively associated
with incidence of illicit drug use and some sexual risk behaviors, but not with incidence of drunk=drugged driving or riding with an impaired driver. Well-being was negatively related to frequency of casual sex, sex while drunk/high, drunk/drugged driving, and riding with an impaired driver. Associations of well-being were strongest for more dangerous types of drug use and sexual behavior and for riding with an impaired driver. Results are discussed in terms of implications for research and intervention development.
Positive and negative aspects of psychological well-being are two related but also independent constructs. However, a question emerges: are all well-being-related variables indifferently associated with both positive and negative well-being? According to our hypothesis, certain factors are common predictors of both aspects, whereas other factors are specific predictors of each aspect. ‘Common predictors’ are defined as the factors directly related to both positive and negative well-being. ‘Specific factors’ are defined as the factors related to only one aspect of well-being. Specific predictors may also be associated with the other aspect, but this is taking place through the interaction of well-being aspects or through other related variables. Neuroticism, optimism, self-efficacy, stress and coping were tested as possible predictors. Two hundred and one individuals participated (mean age = 41.57 years). A latent variable structural equation model was used to test our assumption. In accordance with our hypotheses, optimism and emotion-focused coping were identified as common predictors. Self-efficacy and positive approach were identified as specific predictors of positive well-being, whereas neuroticism and stress as specific predictors of negative well-being.
We investigated relations among strengths of character in 881 students from Croatian universities. We also examined links between strengths and various well-being indices. Our conceptualization was based on the Values in Action classification system with 24 strengths organized within six superordinate virtues (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). A factor analysis led to a four-factor solution; factors were defined as Interpersonal Strengths, Fortitude, Vitality, and Cautiousness. Of these factors, Vitality (with zest, hope, curiosity, and humor as indicators) emerged as the most relevant to well-being. When examining individual strengths, zest, curiosity, gratitude, and optimism/hope emerged with the strongest associations with elevated life satisfaction, subjective vitality, satisfaction of autonomy, relatedness, and competence needs, and a pleasurable, engaging, and meaningful existence. Results have implications for understanding the structure and variability of benefits linked with particular strengths.
This article opens by noting that positive emotions do not fit existing models of emotions. Consequently, a new model is advanced to describe the form and function of a subset of positive emotions, including joy, interest, contentment, and love. This new model posits that these positive emotions serve to broaden an individual's momentary thought-action repertoire, which in turn has the effect of building that individual's physical, intellectual, and social resources. Empirical evidence to support this broaden-and-build model of positive emotions is reviewed, and implications for emotion regulation and health promotion are discussed.
Given curiosity's fundamental role in motivation, learning, and well-being, we sought to refine the measurement of trait curiosity with an improved version of the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory (CEI; Kashdan, Rose, & Fincham, 2004). A preliminary pool of 36 items was administered to 311 undergraduate students, who also completed measures of emotion, emotion regulation, personality, and well-being. Factor analyses indicated a two factor model-motivation to seek out knowledge and new experiences (Stretching; 5 items) and a willingness to embrace the novel, uncertain, and unpredictable nature of everyday life (Embracing; 5 items). In two additional samples (ns = 150 and 119), we cross-validated this factor structure and provided initial evidence for construct validity. This includes positive correlations with personal growth, openness to experience, autonomy, purpose in life, self-acceptance, psychological flexibility, positive affect, and positive social relations, among others. Applying item response theory (IRT) to these samples (n = 578), we showed that the items have good discrimination and a desirable breadth of difficulty. The item information functions and test information function were centered near zero, indicating that the scale assesses the mid-range of the latent curiosity trait most reliably. The findings thus far provide good evidence for the psychometric properties of the 10-item CEI-II.
This study examines the roles of parents (monitoring, involvement and support at school), teachers (support) and peers (excess time spent with friends, peer rejection at school) in predicting risk behaviors (smoking and drinking) and mental well-being among 3499 Israeli-born and 434 immigrant adolescents ages 11, 13 and 15, in the 2006 WHO Health Behavior in School-Aged Children cross-national survey. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) showed that for native Israeli youth, in line with previous developmental literature, all three relationships - parents, teachers and peers - have a significant impact on both mental well-being and risk behaviors. However, for immigrant adolescents, it was the school environment (parental support at school, teacher support and peer relationships) that proved to be the significant predictor of risk behaviors and mental health outcomes. These findings suggest that the school is an important social support in the health and mental well-being of immigrant schoolchildren.
This study explored the factor structure of the short form of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995b) in a young adolescent sample. A group of 484 high school students (Mean age=13.62 years, Min=11.83, Max=15.67 years, 52 % boys) completed the DASS-21. Several models were tested using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. A model consistent with the factor structure of the adult DASS, with correlated error terms, provided good fit to the data. However, correlations among the factors were very high. A 'quadripartite' model involving a common 'Negative Affect' factor as well as the three specific factors of Depression, Anxiety and Tension/Stress was tested to explain these correlations and was supported by the data. This model suggests that the core symptoms of Depression and Anxiety are similar in adults and adolescents, but the conceptualisation and assessment of Tension/Stress in adolescents needs further refinement.