Positivity
Does Happiness Improve Health? Evidence From a Randomized Controlled Trial
Kostadin Kushlev at al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Happier people are healthier, but does becoming happier lead to better health? In the current study, we deployed a comprehensive, 3-month positive psychological intervention as an experimental tool to examine the effects of increasing subjective well-being on physical health in a nonclinical population. In a 6-month randomized controlled trial with 155 community adults, we found effects of treatment on self-reported physical health - the number of days in the previous month that participants felt healthy or sick, as assessed by questions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Questionnaire. In a subsample of 100 participants, we also found evidence that improvements in subjective well-being over the course of the program predicted subsequent decreases in the number of sick days. Combining experimental and longitudinal methodologies, this work provides some evidence for a causal effect of subjective well-being on self-reported physical health.
Happiness From Treating the Weekend Like a Vacation
Colin West, Cassie Mogilner & Sanford DeVoe
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Americans are time-poor. They work long hours and leave paid vacation days unused. An analysis of over 200,000 U.S. workers reveals that not prioritizing vacation is linked to lower happiness. Many people, however, do not feel they can take vacation due to financial and temporal constraints. How might people enjoy the emotional benefits of vacation without taking additional time off or spending additional money? Three preregistered experiments tested the effect of simply treating the weekend "like a vacation" (vs. "like a regular weekend") on subsequent happiness - measured as more positive affect, less negative affect, and greater satisfaction when back at work on Monday. Although unable to definitively rule out the role of demand characteristics, the study results suggest that treating the weekend like a vacation can increase happiness, and exploratory analyses show support for the underlying role of increased attention to the present moment.
The Role of Multilayered Peer Groups in Adolescent Depression: A Distributional Approach
Dohoon Lee & Byungkyu Lee
American Journal of Sociology, May 2020, Pages 1513-1558
Abstract:
Much literature on peer influence has relied on central tendency-based approaches to examine the role of peer groups. This article develops a distributional framework that (1) differentiates between the influence of depressive peers and that of a majority group of nondepressive peers; and (2) considers the multilayered nature of peer environments. The authors investigate which segments of the distribution of peer depressive symptoms drive peer effects on adolescent depression across different layers of peer groups. Results from the Add Health data show that, for institutionally imposed peer groups, exposure to depressive peers significantly increases adolescents' depressive symptoms. For self-selected peer groups, the central tendency of peer depression largely captures its impact on adolescent depression. High parent-child attachment buffers the deleterious consequence of exposure to depressive grademates. The implications of these findings are discussed for research and policy regarding peer effects on adolescent well-being.
Social Media Use Following Exposure to an Acute Stressor Facilitates Recovery from the Stress Response
Quinn Johnshoy et al.
Physiology & Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent evidence indicates that social network use (e.g., Facebook) prior to exposure to an acute stressor can buffer the physiological response to that stressor. However, it is unclear if using social media after exposure to an acute stressor can modulate recovery following the stressor. In the current study, therefore, we examined if social media use might serve as an effective coping mechanism to help deal with exposure to a stressor. Heart rate, blood pressure, and salivary cortisol were compared in healthy college undergraduates (n=23) before and after completion of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Following exposure to the TSST, subjects were selected to use social media, read quietly or given the choice to use social media or read quietly during a 15- minute recovery period. The TSST induced significant increases in heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and salivary cortisol. Additional analyses revealed that subjects that used social media after termination of the acute stressor demonstrated a significantly facilitated hemodynamic and a trend for a more rapid endocrine recovery compared with subjects that read quietly during the recovery period. Although the majority (71%) of subjects given the choice of recovery modality chose to use social media, differences were not observed between groups selected to use social media and those given the choice to do so during the recovery period. These results suggest that sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis recovery following stimulation by an acute stressor might be modulated by social media use in undergraduates.
Happiness is from the soul: The nature and origins of our happiness concept
Fan Yang, Joshua Knobe & Yarrow Dunham
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, forthcoming
Abstract:
What is happiness? Is happiness about feeling good or about being good? Across 5 studies, we explored the nature and origins of our happiness concept developmentally and cross-linguistically. We found that surprisingly, children as young as age 4 viewed morally bad people as less happy than morally good people, even if the characters all have positive subjective states (Study 1). Moral character did not affect attributions of physical traits (Study 2) and was more powerfully weighted than subjective states in attributions of happiness (Study 3). Moreover, moral character but not intelligence influenced children and adults' happiness attributions (Study 4). Finally, Chinese people responded similarly when attributing happiness with 2 words, despite one ("Gao Xing") being substantially more descriptive than the other ("Kuai Le") (Study 5). Therefore, we found that moral judgment plays a relatively unique role in happiness attributions, which is surprisingly early emerging and largely independent of linguistic and cultural influences, and thus likely reflects a fundamental cognitive feature of the mind.