Objective: Hope is associated with many positive outcomes. However, most research on hope has focused on its cognitive aspect, with few studies examining the affective aspect. To further clarify the nature of hope and its association with well-being, this study examined the relationship between the affective aspect of hope-namely, hopeful feelings-and various aspects of well-being.
Method: A daily diary analysis was conducted with 187 Chinese adults (meanage = 28.17 ± 5.56). Hopeful feelings and affective (positive and negative emotions), eudaimonic (meaning in life), and evaluative (life satisfaction) aspects of well-being were assessed twice per day (morning and night) for 14 consecutive days. A multilevel vector autoregressive model was used to investigate the temporal, contemporaneous, and between-person networks of hopeful feelings with positive emotion and well-being.
Results: Hopeful feelings had the strongest outstrength in the temporal networks and were the most central node in the between-person networks. In addition, hopeful feelings exhibited significant cross-lagged predictive roles on all the well-being nodes except negative emotion.
Conclusions: These findings revealed a close association between hopeful feelings and well-being, with hopeful feelings predicting various aspects of daily well-being. Future interventions to improve well-being should focus on the enrichment of daily hopeful feelings.
Objective: Sexual and gender minority (SGM) people are underrepresented in psychological research. Part of the underrepresentation of SGM people likely stems from potential participants' unwillingness to join a study, but more concerningly, researchers exclude data from SGM participants. Furthermore, much of SGM research focuses on existing health disparities and risk factors rather than wellness-framed and personality research. To fill in this gap, the current study aims to quantify effect sizes of similarities/differences across a broad range of psychosocial measures.
Method: Applying the framework of the Gender Similarities Hypothesis, we compare means, variances, and correlations across 34 psychosocial variables between categories of SGM, gender identity, sexual orientation, relationship status, and monogamy (N = 1743). Data was collected online mainly through paid ads on Instagram.
Results: Consistently, we find largely similarities across gender identity, sexual orientation, and relationship structure categories. These results support a general expectation that similarities are more common than differences in normative psychological domains, although clear differences in means and variances exist for specific experiences and outcomes.
Conclusions: This work informs the inclusion of diverse identities in basic psychological research and further speaks to the generalizability of past findings to populations historically underrepresented in psychological science.
Objective: This study draws on life narrative data and an intersectional framework to explore features of narratives around structural domains, aiming to better understand the possible impacts of these domains on identity.
Method: Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 177 young adults from primarily minoritized groups (73% Asian American or Latine, 59% Women, Median Parent Income = $50,001 to $75,000), we gathered 885 life narratives. Young adults narrated a domain-general, ethnic/racial, gender, social class, and intersectional experience. Features capturing the content (Presence of Structural Domains, Connection to and Between Structural Domains) and process (Meaning Making, Affective Tone) of narratives were explored.
Results: Structural domains manifested uniquely within narratives such that ethnicity/race was discussed most frequently across narratives, whereas gender and social class were mentioned more in narratives about those domains. Additionally, Meaning Making was highest in self-defining narratives and positively correlated with the number of structural domains present within and across narratives. Affective Tone was most positive in self-defining narratives and most negative in social class narratives, which also contained the lowest Connection to Structural Domain.
Conclusion: This study combines an intersectional framework and life narrative data to understand how structural domains manifest within young adults' experiences, revealing how those domains are interconnected and may impact identity.
Objective: The tripartite model of subjective well-being (SWB) posits three components: positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction. The fundamental issue regarding the structure of SWB and the meaning of the general SWB factor remains unresolved.
Methods: Across three studies and six samples (total N = 9304), we evaluated competing models of SWB and tested the criterion-related validity of SWB components operationalized within different models. In addition to a standard confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and bifactor-CFA, we used exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) and bifactor-ESEM approaches. Latent factor models were applied to examine the nomological network of SWB in relation to several external criteria (e.g., positive expectations, depression, and anxiety).
Results: We found evidence supporting the three-factor and bifactor-ESEM models of SWB. The meaning and interpretability of the general and specific factors of SWB were found to depend on the indicators used to assess affective well-being. Several issues concerning the bifactor-CFA model were identified. Both the general and specific factors of SWB exhibited meaningful and interpretable nomological networks.
Conclusions: The structure of SWB, the value of incorporating a general factor, and the nature of general and specific SWB factors depend on the instruments used to measure SWB.
Objective: This meta-analysis provides the first comprehensive synthesis of associations between student and teacher personality traits and the quality of teacher-student relationships.
Method: Fifty-five studies met the eligibility criteria, contributing a total of 238 effect sizes. We used multivariate meta-analysis with robust variance estimation (RVE) to model the dependency of effect sizes.
Results: Student prosocial behavior (ρ = 0.59) and proactive personality (ρ = 0.48) were the strongest predictors of positive teacher-student relationship quality. All Big Five traits of students, except neuroticism, showed significant positive associations, with all correlations exceeding 0.4 when holding constant with all other moderators. Teacher agreeableness (ρ = 0.31) and conscientiousness (ρ = 0.29) yielded modest associations. Students with less emotional stability or aggressive behaviors were more likely to experience negative teacher-student relationships, such as conflict and dependency.
Conclusion: Our findings highlight the critical role of student personality in explaining the quality of teacher-student interactions. Multiple traits appear equally important, as indicated by comparable effect sizes. The literature is relatively limited when it comes to teacher personality. We were unable to examine teacher traits in relation to teacher-student conflict and dependency, but, overall, agreeable and conscientious teacher behaviors appeared to be important for favorable interactions, whereas teacher neuroticism may undermine the quality of such interactions.
Objective: Trauma can have a range of effects on individuals over time, including the potential for positive changes in favorable outcomes commonly referred to as posttraumatic growth. The posttraumatic growth literature has been criticized for various methodological limitations and has largely neglected the exploration of factors that may strengthen or weaken posttraumatic growth trajectories. The present study contributes to this literature by investigating trajectories of five dimensions of posttraumatic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic and the moderating effects of health and financial difficulties on these trajectories.
Method: Longitudinal data were collected monthly between July 2020 and December 2022 from a sample of employed adults in Germany, involving N = 1678 participants over 30 time points (Nobservations = 29,552).
Results: Results suggest that certain dimensions of posttraumatic growth showed significant increases (i.e., relationships) or decreases (i.e., spirituality and possibilities) over time and that trajectories of three dimensions (i.e., relationships, appreciation, and strength) demonstrated distinctive patterns of interaction with health and financial difficulties.
Conclusions: Findings are discussed in the context of the pandemic as well as dynamic theories of personality and identity, with implications for advancing posttraumatic growth theory and research.