Frequent Positive Affect Research Articles

Subjective Well-Being of Faculty and Students of Psychology and Education Departments of Pamantasan Ng Cabuyao during Covid-19 Pandemic

Before the pandemic, teachers were comfortable with the educational system. The pandemic has lowered teacher’s perceptions of well-being in the face of their work, raising fears about their future careers. During this time of pandemic, sex, length of service, well-being, sense of teaching challenges, and outlook have proven to be predictors of professional well-being. The study’s findings will be used by the researchers to develop an action plan for the university to increases and sustain faculty members’ professional and social well-being, as well as improve emotional management among Selected Psychology and Education students. For this reason, the researchers aimed to learn about the subjective well-being of Pamantasan ng Cabuyao Psychology and Education faculty members and students during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Specifically, attempts to assess the demographic profile of the respondent, the subjective well-being of the faculty members and the students as well as the significant difference between the subjective well- being as perceived by the faculty members and the students of Psychology and Education Departments of Pamantasan ng Cabuyao, and proposed an action plan to provide personal, social well-being and emotional management support for them during Covid-19 Pandemic. The study was anchored with Ed Diener’s research as he devised a three-part model of happiness, which he describes how people experience the quality of their lives and includes both emotional reactions and cognitive judgements. The researchers adapted Ed Dieners questionnaires which posits three distinct but often components of wellbeing: frequent positive affect, infrequent negative affect, and cognitive evaluations such as life satisfaction. The researchers employed the descriptive approach by collecting the data from the faculty members and students of Psychology and the importance of the support system, sustain and improve faculty members enthusiasm to serve the institution, improve the self-worth as part of the institution, recognize them as valuable as other staffs if the university as assets and their existence are valued and recognized. In addition, the university, specifically the departments the students and faculty members should enjoin to provide activities and programs that will instill positivity and overall life satisfaction, such as assistantships, parent-teacher interaction that will also improve the child’s well- being and offer opportunities for measuring relationships with other people, get involved in some physical activities such as sports, meditations, yoga and exercises that can improve their subjective well-being.

The Psychological Predictors of Older Preretirees’ Financial Self-Efficacy

Financial self-efficacy (FSE) is a psychological trait that has significant influence over a wide array of financial behavior—from credit market participation to saving and investing behavior. Research has provided consistent evidence that suggests higher FSE supports prudent and growth-oriented financial behavior across a variety of samples. For older adults, FSE has been shown to be weak and susceptible to decline, which is concerning because older adults need to save significantly for retirement, with little time to do so. While research has provided some insight into the sociodemographic and economic factors related to FSE (e.g., income), little is understood about the psychological factors that contribute to FSE levels. Consequently, the authors investigate how psychological characteristics shape FSE within a sample of 2,068 U.S. preretirees from the Health and Retirement Study. Results revealed that FSE can be supported through frequent positive affect, reduced negative affect, stronger mastery beliefs, and a higher task orientation. With this knowledge, financial professionals can more effectively help support older preretirees’ FSE and ultimately, their ability to prepare financially for retirement.

How does creativity at work influence employee’s positive affect at work?

Although determinants of creativity underlying innovative behaviour at work have been extensively studied, scant research has addressed creativity as a predictor variable. This article proposes that creativity has a positive impact on employees’ positive affect at work. Two studies were conducted. Study 1 used multi-source data (170 employee–supervisor dyads) to analyse the association between creativity at work, rated by the immediate supervisor, and employees’ reported affect at work. Results showed that creativity at work is positively related to positive affect at work over and above employees’ optimism (dispositional trait). Study 2 replicated and extended these findings using two-wave data from 108 high-school teachers. Results evidenced that employees who were more creative at work (T1) were more likely to report having more frequent positive affect at work 3 months later (T2). The level of meaningfulness of work (T1) mediated the effects of creativity on employees’ positive affect at work. These findings provide evidence for framing creativity in the workplace as a meaningfulness-making activity that affects employees’ positive affect at work. The implications of these findings and areas for future research are discussed.

Subjective well being of Elderly in Relation to their Happiness Level: a Comparative Study

Human well being as a concept encompasses a well rounded balanced and comprehensive experience of life. It includes health in social, physical, mental, emotional, career and spiritual domains. It can be thought of both as an outcome for which individuals strive and as a part of a functional process that helps an individual's to achieve their goals (Lucas & Diener, 2008). When things do not go right in all of these areas, one probably does not experience as much joy, serenity; and may be under greater stress, worry and anxiety. There are different theories of well being which include well being, or how much positive and negative affect one's experiences as well as levels of life satisfaction. It relates to happiness in current situation and at place one wants to be.Although researchers have invariably discussed happiness and well being as they reflect a unitary construct, there is no single definition that captures the entirety of well being. Now it is in general, considered to be multidimensional construct (Wig et al., 1983). Well being researchers divide the domain in various classes of constructs that tap into distinct ways in which one's life could be evaluated (Schimmack, 2008). Diener (1984) has mentioned three basic characteristics of well being (I) it is and depends on experience; (II) it includes not only the absence of negative effects but also positive affects; (III) it refers to evaluation of all aspects of an individuals' life. Subjective well being includes two components, i.e., cognitive evaluation of life satisfaction and affective aspect consisting of presence of positive affects and absence of negative affects independent of each other. At cognitive level, well being is defined in terms of level of Ufe satisfaction and evaluation of life as a whole (Pavot et al., 1991). Now as a multidimensional construct, human well being can be defined as optimal psychological functioning that refers to evaluation of happiness, pleasant vs unpleasant experiences and it includes all judgements of good and bad events of life (Ryan & Deci, 2001 ; Brajsa-Zganec et al., 2011 ).General well being may be defined as the feeling of contentment, happiness, satisfaction with life experiences and one's role in the world of work, sense of achievement, utility, belongingness, and no distress, dissatisfaction or worries etc. These things are difficultto evaluate objectively, hence the emphasis on the term subjective wellbeing. It may well be maintained in adverse circumstances and conversely, may be lost in favourable situation. It is related to but not dependent upon physical/psychological conditions. Subjective well being is the psychological term for Happiness. It is composed of several major components such as global life satisfaction, contentment with specific life domains, the presence of frequent positive affect and a relative absence of negative affect. Optimism and feelings of fulfillment are also a part of well being. These components can be further analysed into more specific elements for example, positive affect is commonly divided into joy, elation, contentment, pride, affection, happiness and ecstasy. While negative affect is categorized into such elements as guilt and shame, sadness, anxiety, worry, anger, stress and depression.Happiness is a nebulous term, which to date has different meanings to different people. To some it is synonymous with while others accept the standard dictionary definition that happiness is a state of well being or contentment- a condition dominated by pleasurable satisfaction (Rahman, 2006).Happiness is not something that happens, it is not the result of the good fortune or random chance, it is not something that money can buy or power command; it does not depend on outside events but rather on how we interpret them. According to Swami Vivekananda (2000), life is not enjoyment alone, true joy is when we venture inwards. …

Importance of Happiness at Workplace

Happiness is a holistic ideal. It speaks to person that his/her life is complete in sense that his/her reasonable desires are fulfilled over his/her life time. According Mayer and Diner (1995), happiness may be defined as experience of frequent positive affect, infrequent negative affect and overall senses of satisfaction with life as a whole. Gandhiji mentions that the people became happy when what they think, what they say and what they do is a harmony situation. Workplace happiness is not just a feel good thing- it really matters in hard, financial term. Workplace happiness is a key factor in motivation and productivity. It's hard to get much dynamism, efficiency and enthusiasm from someone who is unhappy. However, workplace happiness is even more important in retaining key people within an organization. . Happy at work is crucial both to employee and to company. People will spend more of their adult life on their job than on anything else. People's work will take up more of their time than their families, friends and hobbies combined. It would be nicer if that time is spent at a job that actually makes them happy. Happy people and happy company can create a lot of good things such as increasing productivity, quality, sales, customer satisfaction, creativity, innovation, adaptation, flexibility, and decreasing loss, absenteeism, stress of workers, accidents and occupational diseases. So, quality organization starts with quality personnel, not quality machine or quality office. Quality personnel are personnel with knowledge, competence, creativity, virtue and happiness.

Subjective Well-Being of Performing Artists and Its Relationship with Self-Efficacy

The idea of subjective well being has intrigued philosophers and thinkers for a very long time. Subjective well-being is an area of study which deals with understanding the complete range of well-being. Most people in surveys around the world report predominantly positive feelings (Diener & Diener, 1996). Since most people are not sad and unhappy most of the time, it is important to study positive forms of well-being rather than just the absence of well-being.Subjective wellbeingSubjective well being refers to how people evaluate their lives, and includes variables like satisfaction with life, lack of depression, stress and anxiety as well as the study of positive moods and emotions. Subjective well-being involves components like global life satisfaction, contentment with specific life domains, presence of frequent positive affect, and a relative absence of negative affect. Positive affect is generally divided into joy, elation, contentment, pride, affection, happiness and ecstasy while negative affect includes guilt, shame, sadness, anxiety, worry, anger, stress, depression, and envy. Life satisfaction includes satisfaction with current life, satisfaction with past, satisfaction with future, significant others' views of one's life etc.A person is said to have high subjective well being if she or he experiences life satisfaction and pleasant emotions, and experiences unpleasant emotions only infrequently. In contrast, a person is said to have low subjective well being if he or she is dissatisfied with life, experiences little joy, and frequently feels negative emotions.Ryan and Deci (2000) proposed that what constitutes a good life is people thinking they're living good lives. In fact, it's people's evaluation of their own lives; whether they perceive many pleasant things, engage in interesting activities and are satisfied with their life in general, that contributes to happiness (Ryan & Deci, 2000).According to Diener (1984), the field of subjective well being has several cardinal characteristics: first, it is concerned with well-being from the perspective of the respondent and hence, importance is given to the respondent's own views of his life. Second, the researcher is mainly interested in long-term levels of satisfaction and affect, though, short-term moods and emotions are also studied.Transient factors such as current mood and even current weather conditions affect judgment of life satisfaction (Schwarz & Strack, 1991). However, despite these temporary perceptions, subjective well being is moderately stable across situations (Diener & Larsen, 1984) and across the life span (Costa & McCrae, 1988; Magnus & Diener, 1991).As shown by many researchers demographic factors are often only weakly correlated with subjective well being. Campbell, Converse, and Rodgers (1976) found that all demographic factors together accounted for less than 20 percent of the variance in subjective well being. Many variables such as education, ethnic status, and age often correlate at very low levels with reports of subjective well being. However, some demographic variables do consistently predict subjective well being. For instance, married people of both sexes report more happiness than those who are never married, divorced, or separated (e.g., Lee, Seccombe, & Shehan, 1991).The personality traits of extroversion and neuroticism have been given the most theoretical and empirical attention, given that extroversion is strongly correlated with subjective well-being and neuroticism is strongly correlated with negative affect (Costa & McCrae, 1980; Watson & Clark, 1984; Diener & Lucas, 1999). According to Watson and Clark (1984), extroverts have a temperamental predisposition to experience positive affect, whereas neurotics are predisposed to experience negative affect. A study of the happiest 10% of college students showed that those found to engage in laige amounts of social activity were the happiest (Diener& Seligman, 2002). …

The role of psychological resilience and positive affect in risky decision‐making

Past studies suggest that positive affect produces a wide range of desirable outcomes because it helps people build lasting resources. It may be assumed that these resources build on positive affect over time, which in turn may explain the beneficial effect of positive affect in stressful encounters. However, this assumption has not been directly tested by empirical studies. This question is important in that it helps clarify the underlying mechanism through which individuals with more positive affect might respond adaptively to adverse situations. Using a stressful task that included 20 rounds of risky investment choices, the current study examined whether psychological resilience, an important personal resource fuelled by positive affect, could account for the beneficial effects of positive affect. Specifically, we examined the relationship between individuals' baseline levels of positive affect, their levels of psychological resilience, their choices in a risky investment decision task, and their levels of positive affect on the final investment task. The results demonstrate that psychological resilience could indeed help explain happier people's enhanced outcomes: They chose higher return although more risky investment options and experienced more positive affect at the end of the task. The current study supports the notion that individuals who experience frequent positive affect thrive through various challenges not simply because they feel good, but because they have resources that they can utilize to deal with these challenges. Findings from the present study support further investigation of the important relationship between specific positive affect, psychological resilience, and performance in risky investment tasks.

Albert Ellis: Unsung hero of positive psychology

The contributions of Albert Ellis to the understanding of human happiness including his suggestions for living a happier life have not been represented in the field of positive psychology. This article presents Ellis’ theoretical constructs associated with his conception of happiness (dual nature of human psyche, self-actualization, purpose and goals of life and short- and long-term happiness). Eleven of Ellis’ rational principles of living (e.g. self-interest, self-direction, self-acceptance, commitment to absorbing activities, hedonism) are presented. When consistently applied in practice, they may help people to experience frequent positive affect, less frequent and intense negative emotions and high life satisfaction. It will show how Ellis’ ABC-DE scientific method can be used with individuals to lessen unhappiness. Suggestions are provided for research into associations between rationality and happiness as well as the impact of different rationality-based interventions on happiness.

Organisational commitment, role tension and affective states in audit firms

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between auditors' organisational commitment, role tension and affective states at work.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a questionnaire survey of 150 Big Four auditors and a two‐step longitudinal design.FindingsThe results show that auditors experience both significant positive (such as pride) and negative (such as irritability) workplace affect. Moreover, organisational commitment is correlated with auditors' experiencing more frequent positive affect at work, while role conflict is correlated with experiencing more frequent negative affect.Research limitations/implicationsAffect was not measured in real time, but through self‐reports. Future research could study how and under what conditions auditors experience positive and negative emotions.Originality/valueThis is one of the few studies that has sought to research the affective dimension of audit work.

A Longitudinal Examination of Alcohol Use and Subjective Well-Being in an Undergraduate Sample

Notwithstanding well-established links between alcohol use and adverse alcohol-related consequences, evidence suggests that alcohol use among university students may also be associated with positive outcomes, including components of subjective well-being, which comprises life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Further, because alcohol use and consequences are separable factors, both need to be examined simultaneously to gauge the unique predictive role of alcohol use. We report findings from a longitudinal study of university students that addresses these important issues. At the end of their first term at university (Time 1), 627 students (15% of all first-year students) completed a paper-and-pencil questionnaire in small group settings. Near the end of their third year (Time 2), 467 of the Time 1 respondents (75% follow-up rate) completed a subsequent survey on-line. The average (SD) longitudinal respondent was 18.83 (0.86) years old at Time 1, and 360 participants were female. In cross-sectional and longitudinal structural equation models, adverse alcohol-related consequences predicted lower subjective well-being (lower life satisfaction, less frequent positive affect, more frequent negative affect). Independent of this effect, greater alcohol use (greater quantity/frequency, more frequent intoxication, heavy episodic drinking) predicted higher subjective well-being, both concurrently and prospectively. Among these university students, alcohol use was uniquely associated with a more positive sense of well-being. A more comprehensive understanding of the significance of alcohol use among university students requires attending to positive and negative outcomes associated with alcohol use and examining alcohol use and consequences as related but separable factors.

A Person-Centered Approach to Subjective Well-Being

Rooted in Diener’s (Psychol Bull 95:542–575, 1984) three-component model of subjective well-being (SWB), the present work employed a person-centered approach to studying SWB based on Shmotkin’s (Rev Gen Psychol 9:291–325, 2005) dynamic systems framework. Within-individual configurations of life satisfaction (LS), positive affect (PA), and negative affect (NA) were explored using cluster analysis. Five distinct SWB configurations replicated within and across two samples (N = 756 first-year undergraduates; N = 550 community adults). A substantial number of participants reported a profile indicative of “high SWB” (high LS, frequent PA, infrequent NA). Consistent with expectations, these individuals were characterized by elevated mental, physical, and interpersonal functioning. In contrast, people with a “low SWB” profile reported the greatest dysfunction. Across the five clusters, however, adaptive functioning was not unique to individuals reporting a high SWB profile, nor was dysfunction unique to people characterized by a low SWB configuration. Results are discussed in terms of compensation and strain processes hypothesized by Shmotkin (2005). Implications for future research on SWB are considered.

Understanding the relationship between obesity and positive and negative affect: The role of psychosocial mechanisms

We examined the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and positive and negative affect, and evaluated whether this relationship is mediated (or suppressed) by physical health, intrusiveness of weight on physical functioning, and distressing interpersonal interactions. Analyses were based on a national sample of more than 3,000 adults ages 25 to 74. Class II (BMI 35–39.9) and Class III (BMI ≥ 40) obesity were associated with more frequent negative affect and less frequent positive affect, even after demographic and socioeconomic status characteristics were controlled. After the purported pathway variables were controlled, however, obese I persons reported significantly more frequent positive affect, while overweight, obese I, and obese II persons reported significantly less frequent negative affect, compared to normal weight persons. These patterns did not differ significantly by race or gender. Our findings suggest that excessive body weight is not necessarily distressing, yet the physical and interpersonal strains associated with obesity may impair one's mood. We discuss the implications for policy and practice.

Early experiences and attachment relationships of Greek infants raised in residential group care.

The attachment relationships of infants reared in residential group care from birth, and links between attachment quality and psychosocial development and caregiver sensitivity were studied, with 86 infants reared in group care and 41 infants reared in their own two-parent families who attended day-care centres. Attachment, cognitive development, temperament, and observed social behaviour of the two groups were studied, as was the quality of care by caregivers and mothers. Sixty-six per cent of infants reared in residential group care showed disorganised attachment to their caregivers, compared with 25% of control infants; 24% of group care infants were securely attached, compared with 41% of control infants. The two groups differed in cognitive development, in temperament and observed social behaviour. Within the residential group care babies, those that were securely attached were observed to express more frequent positive affect and social behaviour, and to initiate more frequent interaction with their caregivers. Residential care affected all aspects of the infants' development and was linked to a high rate of disorganised attachment.

Who Is Happy?

A flood of new studies explores people's subjective well-being (SWB) Frequent positive affect, infrequent negative affect, and a global sense of satisfaction with life define high SWB These studies reveal that happiness and life satisfaction are similarly available to the young and the old, women and men, blacks and whites, the rich and the working-class Better clues to well-being come from knowing about a person's traits, close relationships, work experiences, culture, and religiosity We present the elements of an appraisal-based theory of happiness that recognizes the importance of adaptation, cultural world-view, and personal goals

Affective sharing in the context of joint attention interactions of normal, autistic, and mentally retarded children

Disturbances in the development of joint attention behaviors and the ability to share affect with others are two important components of the social deficits of young autistic children. We examined the association of shared positive affect during two different communicative contexts, joint attention and requesting. The pattern for the normal children was one of frequent positive affect displayed toward the adult during joint attention situations. Compared to the normal children, the autistic children failed to display high levels of positive affect during joint attention whereas the mentally retarded children displayed high levels of positive affect during requesting as well as joint attention situations. These results lend support to the hypothesis that the joint attention deficits in autistic children also are associated with a disturbance in affective sharing.