Young and older adults reported their daily perceived control and subjective well-being over nine weeks. Trait conscientiousness (C) was positively associated with mean daily life satisfaction and positive affect, greater fluctuation in perceived control (state-level C), and also modified the daily associations between control and negative affect. The negative covariation between perceived control and negative… Continue reading The Day-to-Day Effects of Conscientiousness on Well-Being
Keyword: Well-being
Sources of well-being in very old age
Examined ideas about the sources and processes of well-being in the context of a model derived from the work of A. Campbell et al (1976). The model allows an integration of medical, sociological, and psychological perspectives. The levels of well-being reported by the Ss in the 1st cross-sectional measurement phase of the Berlin Aging Study… Continue reading Sources of well-being in very old age
Health and well-being in the young old and oldest old
Notes that most individuals experience a decline in health status during old age. Paradoxically, there are proposals that older adults nevertheless maintain a positive sense of well-being, an indicator of successful aging. Data from the Berlin Aging Study (BASE), a locally representative sample of 516 men and women (aged 70-100+ yrs), suggest that cumulative health-related… Continue reading Health and well-being in the young old and oldest old
The role of gender in very old age: Profiles of functioning and everyday life patterns
Older men and women have different life contexts as a function of differential longevity and sociostructural opportunities over the life course. The question is whether gender-related differences also occur in psychological and everyday functioning in older adults. Examined were 258 men and 258 women between the ages of 70 and 103 years (M = 85 years), participants… Continue reading The role of gender in very old age: Profiles of functioning and everyday life patterns
Why are you calling me? How study introductions change response patterns
Purpose: Research on survey methodology has demonstrated that seemingly innocuous aspects of a survey's design, such as the order of questions, can produce biased results. The current investigation extends this work by testing whether standard survey introductions alter the observed associations between variables. Methods: In two experimental studies, we invited Parkinson's disease (PD) patients to… Continue reading Why are you calling me? How study introductions change response patterns
Reports of subjective well-being: Judgmental processes and their methodological implications
Reviews the cognitive and communicative processes underlying individuals’ reports of happiness and satisfaction with their lives as a whole. Not surprisingly, people may draw on a wide variety of information when asked to assess the subjective quality of their lives. The authors first explore the impact of information about one’s own life, such as past… Continue reading Reports of subjective well-being: Judgmental processes and their methodological implications
Thinking about your life: Healthy lessons from social cognition
There is hardly another branch of psychology that has made stronger contributions to the analysis of applied problems than social psychology. This is particularly obvious for the case of psychological aspects of health, which have been predominantly studied from a social-psychological vantage point. While critical live events were acknowledged as important determinants of health, their… Continue reading Thinking about your life: Healthy lessons from social cognition
Mood, misattribution, and judgments of well-being: Informative and directive functions of affective states
Investigated, in 2 experiments, whether judgments of happiness and satisfaction with one's life are influenced by mood at the time of judgment. In Exp I, moods were induced by asking 61 undergraduates for vivid descriptions of a recent happy or sad event in their lives. In Exp II, moods were induced by interviewing 84 participants… Continue reading Mood, misattribution, and judgments of well-being: Informative and directive functions of affective states
Negotiating developmental transitions during adolescence and young adulthood: Health risks and opportunites
examine how various developmental transitions associated with the passage from childhood to adulthood provide risks and opportunities for adolescents’ mental and physical health / provide a showcase for research, theory, and practice that relates normative and nonnormative transitions during adolescence to health-compromising and health-enhancing behaviors / provide a brief and selective overview of the study… Continue reading Negotiating developmental transitions during adolescence and young adulthood: Health risks and opportunites