Happy for you
The Sad Truth About Happiness Scales: Empirical Results
Timothy Bond & Kevin Lang
NBER Working Paper, July 2018
Abstract:
We replicate nine key results from the happiness literature: the Easterlin Paradox, the 'U-shaped' relation between happiness and age, the happiness trade-off between inflation and unemployment, cross-country comparisons of happiness, the impact of the Moving to Opportunity program on happiness, the impact of marriage and children on happiness, the 'paradox' of declining female happiness, and the effect of disability on happiness. We show that none of the findings can be obtained relying only on nonparametric identification. The findings in the literature are highly dependent on one's beliefs about the underlying distribution of happiness in society, or the social welfare function one chooses to adopt. Furthermore, any conclusions reached from these parametric approaches rely on the assumption that all individuals report their happiness in the same way. When the data permit, we test for equal reporting functions, conditional on the existence of a common cardinalization from the normal family. We reject this assumption in all cases in which we test it.
Is accurate, positive, or inflated self-perception most advantageous for psychological adjustment? A competitive test of key hypotheses
Sarah Humberg et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Empirical research on the (mal-)adaptiveness of favorable self-perceptions, self-enhancement, and self-knowledge has typically applied a classical null-hypothesis testing approach and provided mixed and even contradictory findings. Using data from 5 studies (laboratory and field, total N = 2,823), we used an information-theoretic approach combined with Response Surface Analysis to provide the first competitive test of 6 popular hypotheses: that more favorable self-perceptions are adaptive versus maladaptive (Hypotheses 1 and 2: Positivity of self-view hypotheses), that higher levels of self-enhancement (i.e., a higher discrepancy of self-viewed and objectively assessed ability) are adaptive versus maladaptive (Hypotheses 3 and 4: Self-enhancement hypotheses), that accurate self-perceptions are adaptive (Hypothesis 5: Self-knowledge hypothesis), and that a slight degree of self-enhancement is adaptive (Hypothesis 6: Optimal margin hypothesis). We considered self-perceptions and objective ability measures in two content domains (reasoning ability, vocabulary knowledge) and investigated 6 indicators of intra- and interpersonal psychological adjustment. Results showed that most adjustment indicators were best predicted by the positivity of self-perceptions. There were some specific self-enhancement effects, and evidence generally spoke against the self-knowledge and optimal margin hypotheses. Our results highlight the need for comprehensive and simultaneous tests of competing hypotheses. Implications for the understanding of underlying processes are discussed.
When a small self means manageable obstacles: Spontaneous self-distancing predicts divergent effects of awe during a subsequent performance stressor
Phuong Le et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The emotion of awe occurs when one feels small relative to something vaster than the self; it leads to benefits such as care for others. However, because awe elicits the experience of a "small self," it is unclear to what extent awe positively versus negatively affects responses to subsequent stressors. If personal obstacles seem trivial in comparison to awe-inspiring stimuli, stressors should seem either manageable or unimportant, but if one's capabilities seem comparatively insignificant, stressors should seem unmanageable. We hypothesized that awe would have a generally positive effect on responses during a subsequent performance stressor, but that this would further depend on whether people tended to spontaneously take on a self-distanced versus self-immersed perspective. In the face of awe, focusing less on the self (self-distanced perspective) should make obstacles in particular seem trivial, whereas focusing more on the self (self-immersed) should lead one's capabilities to seem insignificant. Using the biopsychosocial model of challenge/threat, we found that spontaneous self-distancing significantly moderated awe's effects on responses during a subsequent performance stressor (speech task): For participants who self-distanced, the awe condition led to cardiovascular responses consistent with greater challenge than the neutral control condition (reflecting evaluating the stressor as more manageable); for participants who self-immersed, awe predicted relative threat (less manageable stressor). There was no support for awe making people care less about the stressor (as reflected in cardiovascular responses consistent with task engagement). This offers insight into how awe can have divergent effects on people's experiences during performance stressors.
The cost of believing emotions are uncontrollable: Youths' beliefs about emotion predict emotion regulation and depressive symptoms
Brett Ford et al.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, August 2018, Pages 1170-1190
Abstract:
As humans, we have a unique capacity to reflect on our experiences, including emotions. Over time, we develop beliefs about the nature of emotions, and these beliefs are consequential, guiding how we respond to emotions and how we feel as a consequence. One fundamental belief concerns the controllability of emotions: Believing emotions are uncontrollable (entity beliefs) should reduce the likelihood of trying to control emotional experiences using effective regulation strategies like reappraisal; this, in turn, could negatively affect core indices of psychological health, including depressive symptoms. This model holds particular relevance during youth, when emotion-related beliefs first develop and stabilize and when maladaptive beliefs could contribute to emerging risk for depression. In the present investigation, a pilot diary study (N = 223, aged 21-60) demonstrated that entity beliefs were associated with using reappraisal less in everyday life, even when controlling for possible confounds (i.e., self-efficacy, pessimism, stress exposure, stress reactivity). Then, two studies examined whether entity beliefs and associated impairments in reappraisal may set youths on a maladaptive trajectory: In a cross-sectional study (N = 136, aged 14-18), youths with stronger entity beliefs experienced greater depressive symptoms, and this link was mediated by lower reappraisal. This pattern was replicated and extended in a longitudinal study (N = 227, aged 10-18), wherein youth- and parent-reported depressive symptoms were assessed 18 months after assessing beliefs. These results suggest that entity beliefs about emotion constitute a risk factor for depression that acts via reappraisal, adding to the growing literature on emotion beliefs and their consequences for self-regulation and health.
Undermining the Restorative Potential of Compensatory Consumption: A Product's Explicit Identity Connection Impedes Self-Repair
Nimish Rustagi & L.J. Shrum
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
When people experience threats to important aspects of their self-concept (e.g., power, intelligence, sociability), they often compensate by consuming products that symbolize success, mastery, or competence on the threatened self-domain (within-domain compensatory consumption). Our research examines whether such compensatory consumption is effective in repairing the self-concept. Across seven experiments, we show that whether compensatory consumption is effective depends on the extent to which the connection between the compensatory products and the threatened domains is made explicit. When the connections are made explicit (e.g., through product names and marketing slogans), self-repair is impeded, but when the connections are only implicit (product is inherently symbolic of self-threat domain), self-repair can be successful. We further show that these differential effects of product connection explicitness are mediated by rumination: explicit connections induce rumination about the self-threat, which undermines self-repair, whereas implicit connections cause no rumination, facilitating self-repair. Our research provides a reconciliation of conflicting findings on self-repair in previous research, and also shows that despite the differences in efficacy, consumers compensate regardless of whether product connections are implicit or explicit, which has implications for consumer well-being.
Effects of oxytocin on working memory and executive control system connectivity in posttraumatic stress disorder
Julianne Flanagan et al.
Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, August 2018, Pages 391-402
Abstract:
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic, debilitating condition for which effective medications are scant and little is known about neural correlates of risk versus resilience. Oxytocin is a hypothalamic neuropeptide that has demonstrated promise in modulating neurobiological and behavioral correlates of PTSD. Cognitive deficits in areas such as working memory and executive control are highly prevalent among individuals with PTSD and oxytocin might modulate these impairments in individuals with PTSD. Using a double-blind, placebo-controlled design, this study employed functional MRI (fMRI) and the n-back working memory task to examine the effects of oxytocin (24 IU) versus placebo on working memory and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) connectivity among individuals with PTSD (n = 16) as compared with a trauma-exposed control group (n = 18). Results indicate that individuals with PTSD on oxytocin performed better in the 2-back condition of the n-back task compared with individuals with PTSD on placebo. Results also indicate that connectivity between DLPFC and anterior cingulate increased in the 2-back condition among individuals with PTSD on oxytocin as compared with placebo. These findings provide preliminary evidence of an effect of oxytocin on working memory among individuals with PTSD and insights into the neurobiological mechanisms underlying this association. Future studies are necessary to understand the mechanisms responsible for working memory deficits in PTSD and to examine the potential of oxytocin for use as a treatment for PTSD.
Waking Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed: The Effects of Stress Anticipation on Working Memory in Daily Life
Jinshil Hyun, Martin Sliwinski & Joshua Smyth
Journals of Gerontology: Series B, forthcoming
Method: A diverse adult community sample (N = 240, age 25-65 years) completed ecological momentary assessment (EMA) reports for 2 weeks on a smartphone; each day they completed a morning survey upon waking, beeped surveys at five times during a day, and an end-of-day survey. Morning and end-of-day surveys included questions to measure stress anticipation, and each beeped survey included measures of stressful events, followed by a spatial working memory (WM) task.
Results: Results from multilevel models indicated that stress anticipation reported upon waking, but not on the previous night, was associated with deficit in WM performance later that day; importantly, this effect was over and above the effect of EMA-reported stress. The detrimental effect of stress anticipation upon waking was invariant across age.