Towards a Theory of Minimalism and Wellbeing

IntroductionSubjective well-being is an important issue in social development because experience of ones own personal well-being is a prerequisite for the persons successful functioning in society.Two traditions that contributed to the growth of interest in the phenomenon of psychological well-being should be highlighted:* Hedonistic tradition, which focuses on such constructs as pleasure, happiness, positive impact and life satisfaction (N.M. Bradburn, E. Diener, D. Kahneman, E. Diener, N. Schwarz, S. Lyubomirsky, H.S. Lepper);* Eudaemonism, which considers human longing for happiness to be fundamental in his behavior (C.R. Rogers, C.D. Ryff, A.S. Waterman).Following these traditions, there exist two perspectives that analyze the phenomenon of psychological well-being from various angles (Lopez & Snyder, 2009). The first perspective is based on the eudemonistic approach (Ruff & Keyes, 1995), which considers well-being to be the ultimate goal of human existence and functioning. The second stance that originates in the hedonistic approach relates to subjective well-being theory, also known as the theory of emotional well-being suggested by E. Dienerand his colleagues (Diener, 1984; Diener, Suh, Lucas S Parducci,1995).In other words, people are happy if they consider themselves to be happy.Second, well-being comprises emotional states (i.e., psychologically secure people are likely to experience positive emotions such as happiness and joy and are unlikely to have negative emotions such as sadness and anger) (Argyle, 1987; Diener & Larsen, 1993; Larsen & Diener, 1992; Warr, 1987,1990).Third, psychological well-being is reflected in people's attitude towards life (Diener, 1994; Myers, 1992; Veenhoven, 1988).Carol Ryff defined the following aspects of psychological well-being: self-sufficiency, positive relationships with other people, life goals, self-realization, potential, and self-acceptance (Ryff, 1989). Multiple researchers then enriched this list with such aspects as the ability to successfully accomplish tasks (Foresight Mental Capital and Wellbeing Project, 2008), psychological capital, happiness (Pollard & Lee,2003), and life satisfaction (Diener & Suh, 1997; Seligman, 2002a, 2002b).The first attempt to define psychological well-being was made by N. Bradburn in 1969. His survey marked the shift from psychiatric diagnostics to a focus on ordinary peoples reactions. He observed how people tried to cope with hardships and everyday problems. In his works, N. Bradburn emphasized the importance of psychological well-being for overcoming hardships. He believed that a person could be psychologically well only if his positive emotions overpowered negative emotions (Bradburn, 1969).Generally, sensations play a dominant role in theories of subjective well-being. These sensations have been addressed in the works of E. Diener and E. Suh. They argued that subjective well-being consisted of three interconnected components: life satisfaction (cognitive sphere) and positive and negative emotions (affective sphere) (Diener & Suh, 1997). In addition to health benefits, positive emotions are closely associated with psychological wellness (Fredrickson, 2000). For example, strategies for personality psychological security, to a great extent, depend on a person's positive emotional state. Positive re-evaluating and adding meaning to ordinary events can act as stress relief. These strategies help people acquire crisis management (coping) skills that contribute not only to psychological security but also to overall psychological well-being. …

The importance of improving adolescents’ quality of life is widely known, especially with the proliferation of so-called “diseases of civilization” (e.g., stress, anxiety, depression, tension, panic). According to numerous previous studies, personality is a very important influencer of life satisfaction, and altruistic personality is considered an important and positive personality type. Altruism might, therefore, be an effective way to improve adolescents’ life satisfaction. However, under a market economy, it is difficult to form widespread social customs of altruism. Will helping others also benefit you, representing a win–win situation? Against this background, we conduct the first exploration of the relationship between altruistic personality and life satisfaction. A sample of 428 adolescents completed measures of altruism, life satisfaction, and emotion. The main findings were as follows: (1) adolescents with higher levels of altruism have more positive emotions, fewer negative emotions, and higher life satisfaction; (2) emotions mediated the relationship between altruistic personality traits and life satisfaction; (3) empathy predicted life satisfaction not only directly but also indirectly through positive and negative emotions; (4) social responsibility predicted life satisfaction not only directly but also indirectly through positive emotions; (5) interpersonal trust predicted life satisfaction through negative emotions; (6) sociability predicted life satisfaction through positive emotions. In a word, helping others will benefit yourself as well. These findings are of great practical and theoretical significance for improving adolescents’ quality of life, enriching their personality, and enhancing their positive psychological experience. This study’s results can also contribute to instilling the positive social custom of “one for all, all for one”.

Background: Various psychological issues have been reported among burn victims, such as acute stress disorder, body image dissatisfaction, anxiety, life dissatisfaction, and the prevalence of negative emotions, sleep disturbances, and nightmares. Objectives: The present study investigates the impacts of Lyubomirsky happiness training on life satisfaction, positive and negative emotions, and optimism in burn patients. Methods: This is a randomized controlled clinical trial featuring pre-test/post-test phases, including a control group. The population included burn patients in Isfahan city. Forty patients were chosen using convenience sampling and were randomly grouped into two experimental (n = 20) and control groups (n = 20). The inclusion criteria were having burn severity ranging from 10% to 60%, holding at least a high school diploma, and being within the age range of 17 to 58 years, with an average age of the participants being 32.78. The Life Satisfaction Questionnaire, Optimism/Pessimism Questionnaire, and Positive and Negative Emotions Questionnaire were used to collect the data. The experimental group underwent the Lyubomirsky happiness training program for six sessions, while the control group received the routine program. Independent samples t-test, one way ANCOVA, and paired samples t-test were utilized to analyze the data. Results: Findings showed that there was no significant difference between the control and intervention groups in terms of their age level (P = 0.276), sex (P = 0.507), and marital status (P = 0.109). There was a significant difference between the control and intervention groups with regard to their burn percentage grade (P = 0.019). The results revealed that there was a significant difference in the mean scores of life satisfaction (control = 17.40 ± 7.79, intervention = 19.95 ± 6.72, P = 0.003), positive emotions (control = 24.40 ± 4.26, intervention = 31.30 ± 6.87, P = 0.001), negative emotions (control = 27.85 ± 6.75, intervention = 19.40 ± 5.87, P = 0.001), and optimism (control = 12.35 ± 4.42, intervention = 16.85 ± 2.78, P = 0.001) after the intervention between the control and intervention groups. Conclusions: Participating in the Lyubomirsky happiness program can substantially boost life satisfaction, optimism, and positive emotions, as well as reduce negative emotions.

Few studies have explored the implications of parent socialization of positive emotions in children. Further, when considering outcomes of children, the focus has been primarily on links between parental emotion socialization and maladaptive child outcomes such as psychological distress, rather than adaptive outcomes such as life satisfaction. This study investigated whether recollection of supportive and unsupportive maternal and paternal responses to one’s expressions of positive and negative emotions in childhood was linked with life satisfaction and psychological distress in young adulthood, and consideration of whether parent emotion socialization and young adult outcomes were indirectly associated via young adult emotional experience. 262 college students completed instruments evaluating parental emotion socialization practices in childhood, emotional experience, life satisfaction, and psychological distress. Fathers’ supportive responses to positive emotions in childhood was indirectly associated with greater young adult life satisfaction through greater young adult positive emotional experience. Fathers’ supportive responses to negative emotions in childhood was indirectly associated with less young adult distress through less young adult negative emotional experience. Mothers’ supportive responses to negative emotions in childhood was indirectly associated with greater young adult life satisfaction through greater young adult positive emotional experience. Finally, fathers’ unsupportive responses to negative emotions in childhood was indirectly associated with greater young adult distress through greater young adult negative emotional experience. These results, if replicated with prospective longitudinal methodology, suggest that mother and father figures play unique roles in shaping the emotional lives of children, with long-term implications for mental health and well-being.

O-131: Negative emotion predicts poor outcome in poor prognosis IVF patients

ABSTRACT
 BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: The previous studies had found a significant relationship among positive emotions, academic self-efficacy (ASE), self-regulated learning (SRL), and satisfaction with life (SWL). The present study was conducted to predict SWL from positive emotions and SRL in medical students.
 METHODOLOGY: The study involved a cross-sectional survey research design. Three hundred medical students from the three medical colleges in Bahawalpur, Lodhran, and Sahiwal were randomly recruited to participate in the study from October 2019 to January 2020. Research Ethics Committee duly approved the study at The Islamia University of Bahawalpur vide No. REC/B-31/2019-F. All the participants filled the necessary informed consent form. Four Likert type scales (a) Dispositional Positive Emotions Scale, (b) Academic Self Efficacy Scale, (c) Efficacy for Self Regulated Learning Scale, and (d) Satisfaction with Life Scale were appended to a single questionnaire to collect the data. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, version 25, was used for statistical analysis. The correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, and analysis of variance were used to compute results.
 RESULTS: The study found a statistically significant positive correlation among positive emotions, ASE, SRL, and SWL in medical students. The positive emotions and SRL significantly predicted SWL while ASE did not significantly predict SWL in medical students. The 4th and 5th-year students showed more positive emotions, and students of 1st and 4th years showed more SRL than students of other years. 
 CONCLUSION: The study concluded that both positive emotions and SRL significantly predicted SWL in medical students. There were found significant year-wise differences in both positive emotions and SRL.

Happy in The Homeland? Satisfaction with Life and its Correlation with Flourishing and Affect Balance in Foreign-trained physicians who have Repatriated to Pakistan

This study examined how the frequency of positive and negative emotions is related to life satisfaction across nations. Participants were 8,557 people from 46 countries who reported on their life satisfaction and frequency of positive and negative emotions. Multilevel analyses showed that across nations, the experience of positive emotions was more strongly related to life satisfaction than the absence of negative emotions. Yet, the cultural dimensions of individualism and survival/self-expression moderated these relationships. Negative emotional experiences were more negatively related to life satisfaction in individualistic than in collectivistic nations, and positive emotional experiences had a larger positive relationship with life satisfaction in nations that stress self-expression than in nations that value survival. These findings show how emotional aspects of the good life vary with national culture and how this depends on the values that characterize one's society. Although to some degree, positive and negative emotions might be universally viewed as desirable and undesirable, respectively, there appear to be clear cultural differences in how relevant such emotional experiences are to quality of life.

The Effectiveness of Positivism Training on the Life Satisfaction and Character Strengths in the Elderly Men

Studies about well-being (WB) have been used to build an interdisciplinary research area centered on positive psychology and economics of happiness. WB research is characterized by active use of subjective data about one's life, called subjective wellbeing (SWB), as indicators of the quality of an individual's life or their society. SWB has various domains, including ones related to cognitive and emotional well-being, and each has different determinants. For example, life satisfaction, which is the cognitive aspect of SWB, is strongly correlated with income, while emotional well-being has a relatively strong correlation with health and social relationships. There are various theories about SWB's composition, and the OECD has defined three basic domains of SWB: life evaluation (life satisfaction), emotion (affect, mood), and eudaimonia. Conventional research for assessing residential environments has used "housing satisfaction" as a subjective indicator of housing quality, which belongs to the "cognitive evaluation" domain. However, based on the findings of WB research, it can be inferred that there are diverse subjective domains related to housing quality. Therefore, in the current study, we attempted to construct home-related subjective well-being (HOME-SWB) based on the OECD's SWB definition: "home satisfaction," "positive emotions at home," "negative emotions at home," and "eudaimonia derived from home." "Home satisfaction" is the cognitive aspect of HOME-SWB, which is similar to the conventional subjective indicator, housing satisfaction. "Positive emotions at home" includes the frequency of positive emotional experiences at home, such as feeling happy, cheerful, or joyful, while "negative emotions at home" includes the frequency of negative emotional experiences, such as feeling depressed, stressed out, or lonely at home. "Eudaimonia derived from home" indicate to what extent residents obtain experiences of eudaimonic well-being from their homes, such as self-esteem and the sense that life is worth living. The purpose of this study is to investigate the current status of HOME-SWB among 4,000 residents in the Tokyo area and the determinants of each domain of HOME-SWB using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis.

Subjective well-being and cardiometabolic health: An 8–11 year study of midlife adults

Fredrickson and Branigan (2005) define emotions as short lived experiences that produce changes in physiology, thoughts, and behaviours. In the academic literature, the term positive emotions is included within the broad term positive affect which also includes longer lasting positive moods (Diener, 2000). Positive emotions are more than the absence of negative emotions. For example, feeling happy or excited is more than not feeling sad or bored.Evidence suggests that people who experience frequent positive emotions tend to be successful and proficient across many spheres of life. This means that happiness is linked to successful outcomes. This is not merely because success leads to happiness, but because positive affect bring about success. Positive moods and emotions lead people to think, feel, and act in ways that promote both resource building and involvement with approach goals. This is explained by the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (Fredrickson, 1998; 2001). The theory suggests that positive emotions (viz. enjoyment, happiness, joy, pride, interest) broaden one's awareness and encourage new, diverse, and exploratory thoughts and actions. Over time, these novel experiences collectively build up consequential resources and skills that can change people's lives. For example, idle curiosity can become expert knowledge, or affection and shared amusement can become a lifelong supportive relationship.Positive emotions influence a number of positive outcomes in life. People who experience and express positive emotions more often are likely to be satisfied with their lives and have more fulfilling interpersonal relationships. They are more satisfied at their job, are helpful to other people, and are more likely to reach desired goals in life. (Diener, Suh, Lucas, &Smith, 1999).Positive emotions and subjective well-being are closely linked. Positive emotions are believed to be powerful indicators of wellbeing (Fredrickson, 2009). Frequently experiencing positive affect is proposed to be one of the three components of subjective well-being (along with infrequent experience of negative affect and feeling satisfied with life) which is considered an important outcome in psychological research (Diener, 2000).Attachment is basically the strong emotional bonds that are formed between an individual and his/her significant others (Green & Scholes, 2004). These bonds develop from the fundamental bond that a child forms with his/her first and primary caregiver (Broberg, Mothander, Granqvist, & Ivarsson, 2008) and remain relatively stable throughout adulthood (Shaver & Brennan, 1992).Bartholomew and Horowitz (1991) propose four different adult attachment styles based on individual's level of avoidance and anxiety. The first style, includes individuals who have a sense of worthiness as well as a perception of others being responsive and accepting. Secure individuals experience low anxiety and low avoidance. The remaining three styles, learful-avoidant, and dismissive avoidant, are insecure styles of attachment. The first insecure style, includes individuals who show low avoidance and high anxiety and view themselves as being unworthy of love. The fearful-avoidant style include individuals who feel unworthy and have distrust in intimacy. They experience high anxiety and avoidance and feel that by avoiding intimacy with others, they are protected from the rejection they expect in close relationships. Finally, the dismissive-avoidant style includes individuals who protect themselves against disappointment by avoiding close relationships.In short, adults low on both anxiety and avoidance as described as secure, adults high on attachment anxiety but low on avoidance as preoccupied, those high on avoidance but low on anxiety as dismissive, and those high on both anxiety and avoidance as fearful.Life satisfaction is the person's evaluation of his or her life as a whole. …

Positive emotions and life satisfaction in Palestinian children growing up amid political and military violence: a pilot study

Objective This study explored parental experiences of subjective well-being in the context of infant sleep problems. Background Although quantitative research has highlighted the deleterious impact of infant sleep problems for parental well-being broadly, little is known about subjective experiences of well-being specifically. Method This retrospective qualitative study formed part of a larger multiphase project. Ten parents who approached a sleep consultancy for assistance with infant sleep problems participated in the study. Data was collected through in-depth interviews and results were analysed thematically. Results Two key themes were identified: (1) the negative influences of insufficient sleep on parental subjective well-being, and (2) the indirect influence of infant sleep problems on parental subjective well-being. Participants highlighted the direct influence of insufficient sleep on their life satisfaction, affect and mood. Further, through its impact on infant well-being and behaviour, and the loss of free time, infant sleep problems indirectly negatively influenced parental subjective well-being. As a result, life satisfaction and affect was deleteriously influenced. Conclusion Parental subjective well-being may be deleteriously influenced by infant sleep problems, both directly through insufficient sleep and indirectly through the impact of infant sleep problems.

The idea that human well-being (WB) can be supported and even enhanced by using, producing, buying, selling and consuming less 'stuff' is anathema to many living under consumer capitalism. Yet a growing research literature actually finds that frequent engagement in pro-ecological behaviours (PEBs) is positively correlated with personal WB. This paper reviews data relevant to three possible explanations for the apparent compatibility of PEBs and WB: (i) engaging in PEBs leads to psychological need satisfaction, which in turn causes WB; (ii) being in a good mood causes people to engage in more prosocial behaviours, including PEBs; and (iii) personal characteristics and lifestyles such as intrinsic values, mindfulness and voluntary simplicity cause both PEBs and WB. Because each explanation has some empirical support, I close by reflecting on some relevant interventions and policies that could strengthen each of these three pathways and thereby promote living both well and sustainably.This article is part of the themed issue 'Material demand reduction'.