METACOGNITION AND HAPPINESS: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF PERCEIVED STRESS

Abstract

IntroductionThis research aims to investigate mediating role of perceived stress between metacognition and happiness. It is based on innovative idea that metacognitive beliefs or experiences may sometimes lead to persistent and maladaptive forms of coping, and therefore relationship between perceived stress and emotion (in context of present study, happiness was preferred as an emotion) would be mediated by metacognitions. There is a considerable research gap in this area except for a few research studies (e.g., Wells, 1995). Previous studies have examined relationship between individual dimensions of metacognition and psychological disorders such as anxiety (Sheikh et al., 2013), depression (Papageorgiou & Wells, 2003; Wells, 2009; Yilmaz, 2007), hypochondriasis (Bouman & Meijer, 1999; Buwalda, Bouman, & Van Duijn, 2008), obsessive-compulsive symptoms (Mohammadkhani, 2013; Wells & Papageorgiou, 1998; Yilmaz, Gencoz, & Wells, 2008), pathological worry (Cartwright-Hatton & Wells, 1997; Wells & Carter, 2001; Yilmaz, Gencoz, & Wells, 2008), post-traumatic stress disorder (Holeva, Tarrier, & Wells, 2001), psychosis (Morrison, Wells, & Nothard, 2000), problem drinking (Spada & Wells, 2005; Spada, Zandvoort, & Wells, 2007), and test-anxiety (Spada, Nikcevic, Moneta, & Ireson, 2006). However, issue of how perceived stress mediates between metacognition and happiness has not been tested.In this paper, I start by explaining concepts of metacognition, stress and happiness, and continue with presentation of hypotheses of this research in relation to study aim. Next, I present methods of study followed by results. In final section, I discuss study findings in association with related literature.MetacognitionMetacognition has been a very popular term in psychology since 1970s and it was presented by Flavell (1979); he defined metacognition as and about cognitive phenomena (p.906). Metacognition refers to knowledge, processes, and strategies that appraise, monitor, and control (Flavell, 1979; Wells, 2000). Other definitions widely accepted in literature are about and about cognition (Brown 1987; Garner & Alexander, 1989; Jacops & Paris, 1987, Wellman (1985).From a clinical psychology perspective, metacognition is defined as the psychological structures, knowledge, events, and processes that are involved in control, modification, and interpretation of thinking itself (Wells & Cartwright-Hatton, 2004, p. 385). In cognitive psychology, metacognition can be defined as stable knowledge or beliefs about one's own cognitive system, and knowledge about factors that affect functioning of system; regulation and awareness of current state of cognition, and appraisal of significance of thought and memories (Wells, 1995, p. 302). However, meta-cognition does not have only positive structures but also negative ones (Saricam & Akin, 2015). The metacognitive model of psychopathology is based on theoretical account named Self-Regulatory Executive Function (S-REF, Wells & Matthews, 1994). The S-REF model describes mechanisms of problematic information processing that ultimately results in emotional disorders. The S-REF theory conceptualizes multiple metacognitive factors as control mechanisms of information processing that influences development and persistence of psychological disorders. In literature, it was observed that S-REF theory has affected development of current disorder specific models and treatment procedures of GAD, obsessions, depression, PTSD, and social phobia (Papageorgiou & Wells, 2003; Holeva, Tarrier, & Wells, 2001; Wells, 2000).Wells and Cartwright-Hatton (2004) declared metacognition as composed of five correlated but conceptually distinct sub-dimensions: 1) Positive Beliefs about Worry, which assesses extent to which a person believes that ruminative thinking is useful; 2) Negative Beliefs about Worry Concerning Uncontrollability and Danger, which measures extent to which a person thinks that ruminative thinking is dangerous and uncontrollable; 3) Lack of Cognitive Confidence, assessing confidence in attention and memory; 4) Beliefs about Need to Control Thoughts; and 5) Cognitive Self-consciousness, which measures tendency to monitor one's own thoughts and focus attention inwards. …