Of Passions and Positive Spontaneous Thoughts

Effectiveness of an app-based intervention to improve well-being through cultivating positive thinking and positive emotions in an adult sample: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Introduction

Interventions to promote health and well-being based on the construction of psychological resources can positively impact the daily life of users and foster human flourishing. Nowadays, mobile health represents a safe way to support health research and implement evidence-based psychological interventions. The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a mobile app-based intervention program (OneUS) designed to cultivate positive emotions and positive thinking to improve overall well-being.

Methods

The study is designed as a randomized controlled trial. Two hundred participants will be randomly assigned to either a mobile health intervention condition (OneUS App) or an active control condition. The intervention consists of a program to cultivate positive emotions and positive thoughts. The active control intervention will comprise a set of mental imagery exercises and daily routine recording. The primary outcome comprises optimal well-being assessed using the multidimensional PERMA-Profiler scale. The sample will include adult people from the general population, who will be assessed at 8 time points: baseline (t1), intervention (t2, t3, t4, t5, t6) post-intervention (t7) and 3-month follow-up (t8).

Discussion

Mobile apps seem to be promising tools to promote health and well-being. This study will evaluate the effectiveness of a mobile app (OneUS) aiming to cultivate positive emotions and positive thinking to improve well-being. The main strength of this study is the development of an evidence-based mobile health app, based on intentional mental training, to promote well-being. The limitations of this study relate to potential participant drop-out and the non-generalizability of the results to clinical populations.

Clinical trial registration

https://ensaiosclinicos.gov.br/rg/RBR-43hpwqk, Identifier RBR-43hpwqk.

More Than a Momentary Blip in the Universe? Investigating the Link Between Religiousness and Perceived Meaning in Life

One longitudinal and four cross-sectional studies (total N = 3,141) tested two candidate explanations for the association between religiousness and perceived meaning in life. Religiousness may foster a sense of significance, importance, or mattering-either to others (social mattering) or in the grand scheme of the universe (cosmic mattering)-which, in turn, support perceived meaning. We found that perceived social mattering mediated, but could not fully explain, the link between religiousness and perceived meaning. In contrast, perceived cosmic mattering did fully explain the association. Overall, results suggest that perceived social and cosmic mattering are each part of the explanation. Yet, perceived cosmic mattering appears to be the stronger mechanism. We discuss how religious faith may be especially suited to support such perceptions, making it a partially unique source of felt meaning.

Presleep focusing on positive spontaneous thoughts enhanced the possibility of dreaming of them

Introduction

Dreaming is the subjective experience during sleep. A spontaneous thought is a thought that comes to one's mind involuntarily. This study investigated whether presleep focusing on a positive spontaneous thought enhanced the possibility of dreaming of the thought.

Methods

Ninety-seven participants were quasi-randomly assigned to an expression condition (focus on an spontaneous thought for 5-Min before sleeping; N = 45) and a control condition (think about anything for 5-Min before sleeping; N = 45). Participants completed a dream diary upon waking. Then, both participants themselves (the selfrating method) and external judges (the external-rating method) rated the correlation between the positive spontaneous thought and the dream.

Results

The result of the external-rating method indicated that presleep focusing on positive spontaneous thoughts enhanced the possibility of dreaming of the thoughts. In addition, the external-rating method found that presleep focusing on positive spontaneous thoughts enhanced the possibility of dreaming of thoughts that were related to the positive spontaneous thoughts but not the positive spontaneous thoughts themselves.

Discussion

These results supported the current concern theory which suggests that one's current concerns increase responses to cues related to the concerns implicitly. In addition, these results supported the continuity hypothesis which states that dreaming is in continuous with waking life, and thus the intensity of a daily concern may be related to the possibility of dreaming of the daily concern.

The impacts of mind-wandering on flow: Examining the critical role of physical activity and mindfulness

Background

Individuals with mind-wandering experience their attention decoupling from their main task at hand while others with flow experience fully engage in their task with the optimum experience. There seems to be a negative relationship between mind-wandering and flow. However, it remains unclear to what extent mind-wandering exerts an impact on flow. And it is also elusive whether physical activity and mindfulness, which are as important factors that affected individuals’ attentional control and psychological health, are beneficial in explaining the association between mind-wandering and flow. The current study investigated the relationship between mind-wandering and flow, and the potential mediation effects of physical activity and mindfulness in this association.

Methods

A cross-sectional exploratory study design, including multiple scales such as the Mind-Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ), the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ), Mindfulness Attention and Awareness Scale (MAAS), and the Short Dispositional Flow Scale (S-DFS) was applied. Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlation coefficients were applied in the analysis of these data. A multiple mediation model was used to examine the relationships between mind-wandering, flow, physical activity, and mindfulness.

Results

Mind-wandering was inversely associated with physical activity, mindfulness and flow, respectively; and flow was positively related to physical activity and mindfulness, respectively. Moreover, multiple mediation results demonstrated that physical activity and mindfulness, respectively, mediated the relationship between mind-wandering and flow.

Conclusion

These findings are helpful to understand how our minds attend to the present moment, and the crucial roles of physical activity and mindfulness in the association between mind-wandering and flow. An implication of these is the possibility that the effective strategies aimed at enhancing both the levels of physical activity and mindfulness are needed to reduce the negative impact of mind-wandering on flow.

Motives and Passion of Adults from Pakistan toward Physical Activity

Globally, a large proportion of people do not participate in adequate physical activity to gain health benefits. Physical inactivity is a primary risk factor for global mortality. Research suggests that motives and passion influence participation in physical activity. The main purposes of the present study were to examine the relationship between motives and passion for participation in physical activity among adults, and to examine whether motives and passion predicted physical activity. Prior to data collection, we translated and validated the Physical Activity and Leisure Motivation Scale (PALMS) and the Passion Scale (PS) into Urdu. With the research sample, both translated questionnaires showed acceptable internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and factorial validity. To address the main purposes, we then employed a quantitative, cross-sectional research design, with a sample of 572 adults between 18 and 65 years (31.51 ± 10.25), who regularly participated in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Participants completed the PALMS, the PS, and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Correlation coefficients showed strong relationships between motives and harmonious passion, and weaker, negative relationships between motives and obsessive passion. We used stepwise multiple regression to test whether motives and passion subscales were significant predictors of overall PA measured by the IPAQ. In step 1 of the regression model, mastery and physical condition motives were significant predictors of overall physical activity. Further, in step 2, the mastery motive and harmonious passion were significant predictors of overall physical activity, accounting for 26% of the variance, with F (5, 566) = 38.84, p < 0.01. The present study provides a basis for physical activity interventions examining whether increasing motives and passion leads to higher adherence to and lowered dropout from physical activity.

Perceived social integration predicts future physical activity through positive affect and spontaneous thoughts

The present research evaluated the social, affective, and cognitive processes underlying sustained patterns of health behavior as articulated by the upward spiral theory of lifestyle change. Specifically, we tested whether positive affect experienced during physical activity changes over time in tandem with perceived social integration (PSI), and whether PSI is associated with future activity indirectly through sociality during physical activity, positive affect during physical activity, and positive spontaneous thoughts about physical activity. Adult participants (N = 226) reported daily on their PSI, physical activity behavior, and affect during physical activity for 11 weeks. Once every 2 weeks, they also reported on features of a specific bout of physical activity, including how social it was, positive affect during the activity, and positivity of spontaneous thoughts about physical activity. Multilevel modeling of daily reports over the 11 weeks revealed that as participants' PSI increased, so did their positive affect during physical activity. Further, structural equation modeling of specific reports revealed a significant indirect effect of PSI on future activity through sociality during an intervening instance of physical activity, positive affect experienced during that activity, and positive spontaneous thoughts about physical activity. The findings reported herein provide evidence consistent with the upward spiral theory of lifestyle change and reveal affective and cognitive mechanisms by which social processes may contribute to positive health behavior change and maintenance: namely, positive affect during physical activity and spontaneous thoughts about physical activity. Beyond its utility for evaluating theory, the present study may inform subsequent research aimed at developing sustainable behavior-change interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Reflections on Positive Emotions and Upward Spirals

We reflect on our 2002 article and the impact this research report has had both within and beyond psychological science. This article was both one of the first publications to provide empirical support for hypotheses based on the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions and a product of the genesis of positive psychology. We highlight empirical and theoretical advancements in the scientific understanding of upward spiral dynamics associated with positive emotions, with particular focus on the new upward spiral theory of lifestyle change. We conclude by encouraging deeper and more rigorous tests of the prospective and reciprocal relations associated with positive emotions. Such progress is needed to better inform translations and applications to improve people's health and well-being.

Positive affective processes underlie positive health behaviour change

Positive health behaviours such as physical activity can prevent or reverse many chronic conditions, yet a majority of people fall short of leading a healthy lifestyle. Recent discoveries in affective science point to promising approaches to circumvent barriers to lifestyle change. Here, we present a new theoretical framework that integrates scientific knowledge about positive affect with that on implicit processes. The upward spiral theory of lifestyle change explains how positive affect can facilitate long-term adherence to positive health behaviours. The inner loop of this spiral model identifies nonconscious motives as a central mechanism of behavioural maintenance. Positive affect experienced during health behaviours increases incentive salience for cues associated with those behaviours, which in turn, implicitly guides attention and the everyday decisions to repeat those behaviours. The outer loop represents the evidence-backed claim, based on Fredrickson's broaden-and-build theory, that positive affect builds a suite of endogenous resources, which may in turn amplify the positive affect experienced during positive health behaviours and strengthen the nonconscious motives. We offer published and preliminary evidence in favour of the theory, contrast it to other dominant theories of health behaviour change, and highlight attendant implications for interventions that merit testing.

Opportunities and Challenges for the Emerging Field of Positive Emotion Regulation: A Commentary on the Special Edition on Positive Emotions and Cognitions in Clinical Psychology

The importance of developing a better understanding of positive emotion regulation in both healthy and clinical populations is now recognised. This special edition brings together leading figures in the positive emotion regulation field and has contributions characterizing positive phenomena, differentiating them from negative phenomena, and evaluating underlying psychological mechanisms that drive these phenomena. This commentary reviews these articles to highlight challenges and opportunities for this emerging field, including the need to better characterize positive phenomena, to be more explicit about how the links between negative and positive phenomena are conceptualised, to evaluate more robustly underlying mechanisms, to standardize measurement of positive constructs, and to ensure that these scientific findings lead to meaningful changes in real-world policy and practice.