Life Tasks and Daily Life Experience

Psychometric Properties of the Positive Thinking Skills Scale (PTSS) among Portuguese Adults

BACKGROUND

Positive thinking is a cognitive attitude that focuses on optimism and aims for positive results. Positive thinking leads to positive emotions, more adaptive behaviors, and better problem solving. Positive thoughts can inspire individuals and have been linked to increased psychological health. On the other hand, negative thoughts are related to unsatisfactory mental health.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to analyze the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Positive Thinking Skills Scale (PTSS) and to verify the correlations between positive thinking, resilience, and repetitive negative thinking.

PARTICIPANTS

The sample comprised 220 Portuguese participants between 18 and 62 years of age (M = 24.9, SD = 6.58), and the majority were women (80.5%).

METHOD

Participants responded to an online sociodemographic questionnaire, the PTSS, the Persistent and Intrusive Negative Thoughts Scale (PINTS), and the Resilience Scale-10 (RS-10).

RESULTS

Confirmatory factor analysis results indicated that the original one-factor structure of the PTSS obtained good fits. An excellent value of internal consistency was found. The results also revealed convergent and discriminant validity.

CONCLUSION

The PTSS is a brief and reliable instrument for assessing positive thinking skills, and its use in research is recommended.

Effects of Goal Appraisals and Goal Motivation on Dimensions of Identity Development: A Longitudinal Mixed Methods Analysis of European American Emerging Adults

In the present study, we investigated the ways in which the ideographic goal descriptions and goal appraisals of European American high school seniors reflect potentials for intentional self-development during emerging adulthood (EA), a lifespan phase characterized by increasing levels of freedom and decreasing age-graded, socially sanctioned developmental norms. Additionally, we investigated whether variation in participants’ goal appraisals and the motivational qualities emergent in their goal descriptions would predict variation in dimensions of identity development, both concurrently at age 18 and prospectively at age 23. Results of an exploratory, mixed method analysis of participants’ (N = 129, 56.6% male, M_age = 18.24, SD = 0.37) goal data revealed diversity in education and work goals, strong potentials for intentional self-development reflected across goal appraisals, and more nuanced reflections of intentional self-development across the motivational qualities emergent in goal descriptions. Results partially supported the hypothesis that goal appraisals and motivational qualities that reflect potentials for intentional self-development would predict kindred processes of identity development across the first five years of EA. These findings contribute to a nascent empirical literature focused on the interrelationship of goal and identity constructs during EA and suggest new avenues for future research.

Pleasures and subjective well‐being

In two daily diary studies we examined the moderating role of sensation seeking in the patterns of relations between physical pleasure and life satisfaction. In study 1 (a 52‐day daily diary study), daily physical pleasure was a significantly stronger predictor of daily social satisfaction among high sensation seekers than among low sensation seekers. We extended the finding of study 1 to more general daily satisfaction in study 2 (a 23‐day diary study). The present findings indicate that physical pleasure is associated with daily satisfaction to the degree that one seeks for such an experience. In addition, we tested whether the association between physical pleasure and daily satisfaction would be moderated also by other facets of extraversion and extraversion as a whole. With the exception of the positive emotion facet in study 1, no facet or extraversion as a whole moderated the relation between physical pleasure and daily satisfaction. The present studies show specificity and replicability of the role that sensation seeking plays in understanding the link between daily physical pleasure and daily satisfaction. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Relationship between Children’s Aspiration Profiles and Self-Efficacy, Life Satisfaction, and Academic Achievement

Limited research in the psychology literature has addressed the specifics of children’s future orientations. Using a thematic approach, the present study investigates children’s personal aspirations for their adult lives via a questionnaire that addressed (1) the types of aspiration profiles present in a sample of 456 Italian students aged 8–13 and balanced for gender, and (2) how these profiles differ according to demographics, the number of aspirations, academic and social self-efficacy, life satisfaction, and academic achievement. Using cluster analysis, three aspiration profiles emerged, which include individualistic (focused on the possible future self), independent (concentrated on one’s own future family and independence), and social (focused on future friends and the family of origin). The independent profile demonstrated better overall psychological and academic adjustment than did the other two profiles. The article discusses the results of the study using the framework of self-determination theory in the context of Italian society.

Age-related differences in the goals and concerns that motivate real-life prospective memory tasks

Prospective memory tasks are tasks that one must remember to perform in the future, such as keeping a dentist appointment or locking the door when leaving home. There has been little research to date on the question of what motivates real-life prospective memory tasks, and this is true both generally and within the subfield of aging and prospective memory. In the current study, we investigated whether the prospective memory tasks of younger and older adults were motivated by different personal goals and concerns, a question that has not been addressed in past research. Participants completed a questionnaire on current prospective memory tasks and the higher level goals and concerns that motivated these tasks. In general, younger and older adults reported prospective memory tasks motivated by different goals and concerns that reflected different social age systems or developmental tasks. Specifically, younger adults were more likely to report prospective memory tasks related to goals for education, profession, property, self, and leisure, and related to concerns about education and profession. In contrast, older adults were more likely to report prospective memory tasks related to concerns about world issues and war/terrorism. We also examined prospective memory task motivation more generally as approach motivation (goal-relatedness) and avoidance motivation (concern-relatedness). Both measures showed a gender by age group interaction. That is, older males showed especially low approach motivation and especially high avoidance motivation for their real-life prospective memory tasks. We suggest that a new approach to prospective memory research that incorporates motivational influences would enhance the ecological validity of prospective memory and aging research and may inform more effective memory interventions.

Expatriated dual-career partners: hope and disillusionment

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to employ hope theory to explain the psychological process underlying the dual-career couple (DCC) family unit, during the full cycle of international relocation.

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative study is based on in-depth interviews with 28 international dual-careerists. Hope theory is used to describe the evolution of their goals, pathways and agency thinking before, during, and after expatriation.

Findings

The study reveals that dual-career partners initially build goals, pathways, and agency to support family relocation to facilitate the expatriate’s career goals, but later the absence of self-career realization means hope can diminish and the partner’s career comes to drive the goals set for repatriation. Future assignments would be considered only if both partners can arrange relevant employment for themselves.

Practical implications

Companies should develop DCC support practices such as designing shorter assignments, ensuring that partners have work visas and support job seeking. Ideally, multinational corporations would employ the spouse in the DCC.

Originality/value

The study is one of the first to explore the evolution of the goals of DCCs during the entire expatriation process.

Does Happiness Promote Career Success? Revisiting the Evidence

Empirical research demonstrates a relationship between happiness and career success. For example, happy people receive higher earnings, exhibit better performance, and obtain more favorable supervisor evaluations than their less happy peers. Researchers have posited that success leads to happiness, but Boehm and Lyubomirsky reviewed the relevant research in 2008 and argued that the alternative hypothesis—that happiness causes success—may be equally plausible. A decade later, we return to the literature to supplement studies we previously cited with new research and to determine whether the results of cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental investigations provide additional support for this hypothesis. We conclude that the evidence continues to persuasively suggest that happiness is correlated with and often precedes career success and that experimentally enhancing positive emotions leads to improved outcomes in the workplace.

Integrating Personality Structure, Personality Process, and Personality Development

In this target article, we argue that personality processes, personality structure, and personality development have to be understood and investigated in integrated ways in order to provide comprehensive responses to the key questions of personality psychology. The psychological processes and mechanisms that explain concrete behaviour in concrete situations should provide explanation for patterns of variation across situations and individuals, for development over time as well as for structures observed in intra–individual and inter–individual differences. Personality structures, defined as patterns of covariation in behaviour, including thoughts and feelings, are results of those processes in transaction with situational affordances and regularities. It cannot be presupposed that processes are organized in ways that directly correspond to the observed structure. Rather, it is an empirical question whether shared sets of processes are uniquely involved in shaping correlated behaviours, but not uncorrelated behaviours (what we term ‘correspondence’ throughout this paper), or whether more complex interactions of processes give rise to population–level patterns of covariation (termed ‘emergence’). The paper is organized in three parts, with part I providing the main arguments, part II reviewing some of the past approaches at (partial) integration, and part III outlining conclusions of how future personality psychology should progress towards complete integration. Working definitions for the central terms are provided in the appendix. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology

Goals, Standards, and the Self: Reference Values Serving Different Functions

We examine reference values used in self-regulation research and identify two functions they fulfill: a standard function and a goal function. The standard function occurs when a reference value represents a desired state for the self in the present whereas the goal function occurs when a reference value represents a desired state for the self in the future. We argue that different factors influence the emotional, motivational, and behavioral outcomes of these functions. The magnitude of any discrepancy with a “standard” is important, whereas for a “goal,” the rate of discrepancy reduction, relative to an “expected” rate, is important. A review of the empirical literature supports these propositions. Consequently, we propose that future research should in-corporate our distinction between these two functions.

Personal Goals During Emerging Adulthood

To examine (a) how young adults' personal goals change as they progress from emerging to young adulthood in their university studies and immediately after and (b) the extent to which such changes are associated with the normative transitions and the life events they experience and their age, 297 university students completed the revised Personal Project Analysis and a life-event questionnaire five times over 10 years. The changes in young adults' personal goals reflected changing developmental tasks, role transitions, and life situations: They disengaged from goals related to education, friends, and traveling and engaged in goals related to work, family, and health. The older the participants, the more family- and work-related goals and the fewer friend-related goals they reported. The results showed further that the more family-related goals they had, the earlier they married, started to cohabitate, and had children. The earlier they had graduated and found permanent jobs, the more their education-related goals decelerated.

Life Task Problem Solving: Situational Affordances and Personal Needs

An analysis of life task problem solving provides an illustration of a common language for personality and social psychologies. The personal needs of individuals and the situational affordances of social life interactively define strategic solutions to life task problems. Research on situations that encourage a gentic or communal goals in late adolescents' pursuit of the intimacy life task and on three achievement strategies in which social support takes different forms to serve different individuals' needs exemplifies the coordination of what people need to do and what situations afford to be done in daily-life problem solving.

Avoidance Personal Goals and Subjective Well-Being

The present research comprises two studies designed to investigate both antecedents and consequences of pursuing avoidance (relative to approach) personal goals over the course of a semester-long period. Results revealed that neuroticism was positively related to the adoption of avoidance personal strivings (Study 1), and participants with low perceptions of their life skills were more likely to adopt avoidance personal projects (Study 2). Avoidance regulation proved deleterious to both retrospective and longitudinal subjective well-being (SWB), as participants with a greater proportion of avoidance goals reported lower SWB over the course of the semester and evidenced a decrease in SWB from the beginning to the end of the semester. Ancillary analyses attested to the robustness of these results across a variety of alternative predictor variables. Path analyses validated perceived progress as a mediator of the direct relationships observed.

Hopes Dashed and Dreams Fulfilled: Contingencies of Self-Worth and Graduate School Admissions

James (1890/1950) argued that self-esteem fluctuates around a typical level in response to successes and failures in domains on which self-worth is staked. In a test of James’s hypothesis, 32 students applying to graduate school completed a measure of contingencies of self-worth, and then for 2 months reported global self-esteem twice a week and any day they heard from a graduate program. As predicted, participants who were higher in basing their self-esteem on academic competence showed greater increases in self-esteem on acceptance days and greater decreases in self-esteem on rejection days than participants low in this contingency of self-worth. Daily affect was significantly related to daily self-esteem, but this association was stronger for students who based their self-esteem on academic competence, suggesting that affect and self-esteem are more strongly related when events are relevant to one’s contingencies of self-worth. Implications for research on stability of self-esteem are considered.

Age Differences in Adult Life Goals, Concerns, and Their Temporal Extension: A Life Course Approach to Future-oriented Motivation

The individual life course is shaped by different social age systems, such as developmental tasks and social constraints. To study the extent to which age differences in goals and concerns reflect these age-graded tasks, 371 19to 64year-old subjects were asked to write down their goals and concerns and to anticipate when they would be actualised, indicating temporal extension. The results showed that adults' goals and concerns reflected the developmental tasks of their own age: Young adults frequently mentioned future educationand family-related goals, the middle-aged had goals related to their children's lives and property, and elderly people were interested in their own health, retirement, leisure activities, and the world. Young adults frequently mentioned concerns related to themselves and their friends, middle-aged and elderly people had occupationand health-related fears, respectively. Moreover, the temporal extension of adults' goals related to education, family, and occupation decreased with age, as the developmental tasks they concerned approached in time.

Adolescent Development in an Age-graded Context: The Role of Personal Beliefs, Goals, and Strategies in the Tackling of Developmental Tasks and Standards

There is growing interest in how sociocultural context influences personality development, and in how people influence their own development as agents. This article represents an attempt to integrate recent models of social age systems and cognitive personality research with research on adolescence. The objective is to provide a framework for understanding adolescent development in an age-graded context. It is suggested that adolescents develop during the process of setting personal goals by comparing their individual motives with age-graded developmental tasks and role transitions. In order to realise their goals, they construct plans by considering different institutional opportunities in relevant domains, such as school, work, peer relationships, and society in a broader context. Developmental standards and beliefs concerning age-appropriate behaviour provide an eventual basis for the evalution of success along various developmental trajectories. This process also provides a basis for new self-definitions and identity. Related research is reviewed and, in conclusion, some future directions for research on adolescence are suggested.

The American Dream in Russia: Extrinsic Aspirations and Well-Being in Two Cultures

Recent research in the United States suggests that individuals who strongly value extrinsic goals (e.g., fame, wealth, image) relative to intrinsic goals (e.g., personal growth, relatedness, community) experience less well-being. This study examines such goals in university samples from two cultures—the United States and Russia. Participants (N = 299) rated the importance, expectancies, and current attainment of 15 life goals, including 4 target intrinsic and 4 target extrinsic goals. Results confirmed the relevance of the intrinsic-extrinsic distinction for both samples and that stronger importance and expectancies regarding extrinsic goals were negatively related to well-being, although these effects were weaker for Russian women. Furthermore, for both men and women, perceived attainment of intrinsic goals was associated with greater well-being, whereas this was not the case for perceived attainment of extrinsic goals.

Impaired Mood in Headache Clinic Patients: Associations With the Perceived Hindrance and Attainability of Personal Goals

BACKGROUND

Headache disorders are often accompanied by impaired mood, especially in the headache clinic population. There is a large body of literature demonstrating that an illness or disability may affect the way in which patients perceive their personal goals and that the perception that the attainability of goals is hindered by the illness is a risk factor for impaired mood. However, empirical evidence regarding the extent to which goals are hindered or less attainable as a result of a headache disorder, and how that is related to mood, is currently lacking.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine associations between headache severity, goal hindrance and attainability, and mood in a headache clinic population.

METHODS

The sample consisted of 65 adult patients seeking treatment at a tertiary headache clinic. Prior to their first appointment in the clinic, patients completed self-report measures of headache severity, goals and mood (PANAS).

RESULTS

Higher self-reported headache intensity was associated with higher goal hindrance (r = .38, P = .004), whereas greater headache frequency was associated with lower goal attainability (r = .30, P = .022). Higher perceived goal hindrance was associated with lower positive mood (r = -.27, P = .032) and higher negative mood (r = .28, P = .027). Furthermore, lower perceived goal attainability was associated with higher negative mood (r = -.34, P = .007). Goal perceptions explained an additional 11.4% of the variance in positive mood (F = 3.250, P = .047 <.05) and 10.5% of the variance in negative mood (F = 3.459, P = .039) beyond the effect of age and headache severity.

CONCLUSION

The results of this preliminary study suggest that perceptions of increased goal hindrance and decreased goal attainability may indeed be a risk factor for impaired mood in the headache clinic population and highlight the need for further, longitudinal research. Obtaining more insight into goal processes (eg, what types of goals are specifically disturbed, which goal adjustment strategies are (mal)adaptive) may help to identify ways to improve outcomes in the headache clinic population.

A longitudinal case-control study on goals in adolescents with cancer

OBJECTIVE

This study examined whether: (1) the goals of adolescents with cancer at 3 months post-diagnosis (T1) and healthy peers differed in terms of content, valuation, and abstraction level, (2) the content, valuation and abstraction level of the goals of the adolescents with cancer differed between 3 and 12 months post-diagnosis (T2).

METHODS

Thirty-three adolescents with cancer and 66 matched controls completed the Personal Project Analysis Inventory. After nine months, the adolescents with cancer completed the measure again.

RESULTS

Compared to controls, adolescents with cancer at 3 months post-diagnosis (T1) reported more intrinsic than extrinsic goals, appraised intrinsic goals as more important than extrinsic goals and reported more concrete goals. Within the adolescents with cancer, the content, valuation and abstraction level of the goals did not differ between T1 and T2.

CONCLUSIONS

Adolescents recently diagnosed with cancer set different types of goals than healthy peers and continue to set these types of goals until one year post-diagnosis. Future research can help determine how the personal goals of adolescents with cancer develop in the long term and to what extent personal goal setting during cancer influences the attainment of age-graded developmental tasks and well-being.

Perceiving and Wanting to Be Valued by Others: Implications for Cognition, Motivation, and Behavior in Romantic Relationships

Two studies examined implications of two individual differences--perception of being valued by others and desire to be valued by others--for romantic relationships. Study 1 included 171 participants involved in romantic relationships (59 males, 112 females) and examined attributions and behavioral intentions in hypothetical scenarios. Study 2 involved 160 heterosexual couples who completed daily reports and/or an observed conflict discussion. Perception of being valued by others and desire to be valued by others independently predicted more pro-relationship responses and reduced relationship-destructive responses, including more care, commitment, and regard for partners; more responsive and ingratiating behavior; less negative behavior; and more positive perceptions and behavioral intentions. Perceived and desired interpersonal value were related to attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, and trait self-esteem. However, perceived and desired interpersonal value were superior predictors of relationship outcomes, even in replications of foundational attachment studies. Individual differences in believing that one is valued by others and wanting to be valued by others independently predict relationship maintenance, and these dimensions may be at the core of many effects of attachment dimensions and self-esteem. These individual differences appear to be important aspects of personality that guide cognition, motivation, and behavior in interpersonal relationships.

Chronic fatigue and personality: a twin study of causal pathways and shared liabilities

BACKGROUND

The etiology of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) remains unknown. Personality traits influence well-being and may play a role in CFS and unexplained chronic fatigue.

PURPOSE

This study aimed to examine the association of emotional instability and extraversion with chronic fatigue and CFS in a genetically informative sample.

METHODS

We evaluated 245 twin pairs for two definitions of chronic fatigue. They completed the Neuroticism and Extraversion subscales of the NEO Five Factor Inventory. Using a co-twin control design, we examined the association between personality and chronic fatigue.

RESULTS

Higher emotional instability was associated with both definitions of chronic fatigue and was confounded by shared genetics. Lower extraversion was also associated with both definitions of fatigue, but was not confounded by familial factors.

CONCLUSIONS

Both emotional instability and extraversion are related to chronic fatigue and CFS. Whereas emotional instability and chronic fatigue are linked by shared genetic mechanisms, the relationship with extraversion may be causal and bidirectional.

Life goal appraisal and marijuana use among college students

The current study was designed to examine the motivational context of marijuana use among college students using idiographic and nomothetic goal assessment approaches. One hundred and ninety-eight introductory psychology students completed a questionnaire that included measures of life goals and marijuana use behavior. Forty-three percent of students surveyed reported the use of marijuana in the past 90 days. Students rated a set of five personally salient, self-generated and five normative life goals on a series of dimensions using the personal projects methodology (Little, 1983). Goal meaning and goal efficacy ratings for each type of assessment were studied in relation to the likelihood of marijuana use and the frequency of use among current users. Logistic regression analyses showed that levels of meaning for self-generated life goals and normative academic life goals were independent predictors of whether students used marijuana in the past 90 days. Students who reported high levels of meaning were less likely to have used marijuana in the past 90 days. For students who used marijuana, higher meaning ratings related to involvement in groups/organizations and fitness were correlated with decreased frequency of use. Moreover, ratings of efficacy related to self-generated goals were associated with less frequent use among smokers. These results suggest that meaning related to life goal pursuit may be associated with students' decisions to use marijuana. Potential implications for interventions are discussed.

A Longitudinal Analysis of Positive Psychological Constructs and Emotions on Stress, Anxiety, and Well-Being

Two studies were conducted including one involving a longitudinal research design to understand better the influential role of the positive psychological capacities of hope, efficacy, optimism, resilience, as well as positive emotions on individual stress, anxiety, and well-being. Study 1 ( N = 1,316) was conducted to validate a hypothesized relationship between the positive capacities and well-being. Next, in Study 2 ( N = 172), data were collected from participants at 12 points in time over 4 months and random coefficient modeling was used to test hypotheses between variables in a cognitive mediational theoretical framework. Results suggest positive psychological capacities can be a source of positive emotions. In addition, positive emotions and stress mediate the relationship between positive psychological capacities and well-being. A discussion of implications and future research conclude the article.

Person-Level Relatedness and the Incremental Value of Relating

The concept of a human need for relatedness is among the oldest and most generative topics in psychology. Yet despite the considerable attention relatedness has received, some basic aspects of this important construct remain poorly understood. Specifically, the literature to this point has been inconclusive with regard to how one’s lifetime experiences of relatedness may be related to how much individuals value additional or new experiences of relatedness. The present investigation directly addressed this question using a multimethod approach. Three studies found consistent support for a positive association between person-level relatedness and the incremental value of new relatedness experiences. That is, those who reported having experienced more relatedness in their lives nevertheless reported anticipating and extracting more affective value from additional social encounters. By contrast, those having experienced less relatedness in life reported less incremental value—a pattern consistent with a process of person-level accommodation or desensitization.

"I got your back": friends' understandings regarding college student spring break behavior

Behaviors that pose threats to safety and health, including binge drinking and unprotected sex, increase during a week-long break from university. Understandings with peers regarding these behaviors may be important for predicting behavior and related harms. College students (N = 651; 48% men) reported having understandings with their friends regarding alcohol use (59%) and sexual behavior (45%) during Spring Break. These understandings were to engage in behaviors characterized by risk (e.g., get drunk [23.5%], have sex with someone new [5.2%]) and protection (e.g., drink without getting drunk [17.8%], use condoms [15.8%]). After controlling for previous semester behavior and going on a Spring Break trip, Get Drunk Understandings predicted a greater likelihood of binge drinking and alcohol-related consequences; No/Safe Sex Understandings predicted condom use; and Sex Understandings predicted not using condoms. Understandings with friends regarding Spring Break behavior may be important proximal predictors of risk behaviors and represent potential targets for event-specific prevention.

Rejection sensitivity moderates the impact of rejection on self-concept clarity

Self-concept clarity (SCC) refers to the extent to which self-knowledge is clearly and confidently defined, internally consistent, and temporally stable. Research shows that SCC can be undermined by failures in valued goal domains. Because preventing rejection is an important self-relevant goal for people high in rejection sensitivity (RS), it is hypothesized here that failures to attain this goal would cause them to experience diminished SCC. Study 1, an experimental study, showed that high-RS people's SCC was undermined following rejection but not following an aversive experience unrelated to rejection. Study 2, a daily diary study of couples in relationships, used occurrence of partner conflicts to operationalize rejection. Replicating the findings in Study 1, having a conflict on any given diary day predicted a greater reduction in the SCC of high- compared to low-RS people on the following day. The implications for understanding the conditions under which rejection negatively affects the self-concept are discussed.

Does Happiness Promote Career Success?

Past research has demonstrated a relationship between happiness and workplace success. For example, compared with their less happy peers, happy people earn more money, display superior performance, and perform more helpful acts. Researchers have often assumed that an employee is happy and satisfied because he or she is successful. In this article, the authors review evidence in support of an alternative hypothesis—namely, that happiness is a source of why particular employees are more successful than others. To this end, the authors consider evidence from three types of studies—cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental—that relate happiness to various work outcomes. Taken together, the evidence suggests that happiness is not only correlated with workplace success but that happiness often precedes measures of success and that induction of positive affect leads to improved workplace outcomes.

Dissociation in the binge-purge cycle of bulimia nervosa

OBJECTIVE

This study focused on whether those suffering from bulimia nervosa may experience dissociative symptoms in relation to bulimic behavior rather than as a general pattern.

METHOD

In this study, which used an experience sampling methodology, 12 adult women who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.) criteria for bulimia nervosa completed questionnaires measuring state levels of dissociation during 5 sequential binge-purge cycles and at a random time not associated with bingeing or purging.

RESULTS

Participants did experience dissociative symptoms, which were higher during bingeing and purging. Dissociation varied within the binge-purge cycle, rising throughout the cycle until after the purge, then declining slightly.

CONCLUSION

Women with bulimia nervosa reported experiencing higher levels of dissociative symptoms during binge-purge episodes, and dissociative symptoms returned to normal levels after completion of the purge. These data support the idea that bulimia nervosa is associated with dissociation, but that the dissociative symptoms are expressed most dramatically during binges. They are also supportive of models of bingeing as an escape.

Reasons to have sex, personal goals, and sexual behavior during the transition to college

Emerging adults (M = 18.99 years, SD = .50) completed cross-sectional questionnaires (N = 943) and targeted follow-up telephone surveys (N = 202) across the transition to college. Gender, personal goals (dating, friendship, academic), and past sexual behavior were examined as predictors of reasons to have and not to have sex. Men rated Self-focused reasons to have sex as more important; women rated Partner-focused reasons to have sex and Ethical reasons not to have sex as more important. Importance of Pregnancy/STD reasons not to have sex did not differ by gender. Before college entrance, sexual history and personal goals predicted endorsement of reasons for/against sex. Personal goals predicted first intercourse during freshman year. Limitations of the study include the single university sample and use of closed-ended self-report measures. Personal goals and reasons for/against sex are associated with sexual behavior and should be addressed in programs designed to promote sexual health among emerging adult college students.

The Past and the Pending: The Antecedents and Consequences of Group-Based Anger in Historically and Currently Disadvantaged Groups

Two studies investigated the role of domain relevance in the experience of group-based anger among disadvantaged groups using structural equation models. In the first study, Surinamese people to whom the slavery past was more relevant made stronger attributions of outgroup-blame and experienced more anger. This effect was above and beyond the influence of group identification. In the second study relevance of women’s status position in society predicted outgroup-blame and group-based anger. In both studies domain relevance and anger were predictive of the tendencies to engage in action demanding reparation, as well as of the desire for the outgroup to engage in reparation. The role of domain relevance for intergroup emotions is considered.

Personality and daily experience revisited

In this introduction to the Journal of Personality special issue devoted to "Advances in Personality and Daily Experience" we attempt to trace recent progress in the study of personality and daily life. We begin by comparing and contrasting the methods of daily experience research adopted by investigators who authored empirical articles in the 1991 and current special issues according to the mode, schedule, and sampling frame for data collection. We then compare data analytic strategies across the 14 years between the two special issues and conclude that although the nature of the questions addressed has not changed dramatically, newer analytic methods and associated software have enhanced our ability to answer these questions more precisely. Finally, we provide an overview of the special issue contributions organized around three broad themes: personal vulnerabilities and resources that predict reactions to everyday events, interpersonal manifestations of personality in daily experience, and how personality in daily life affects physical and mental health and relates to disease risk.

The benefits of frequent positive affect: does happiness lead to success?

Numerous studies show that happy individuals are successful across multiple life domains, including marriage, friendship, income, work performance, and health. The authors suggest a conceptual model to account for these findings, arguing that the happiness-success link exists not only because success makes people happy, but also because positive affect engenders success. Three classes of evidence--crosssectional, longitudinal, and experimental--are documented to test their model. Relevant studies are described and their effect sizes combined meta-analytically. The results reveal that happiness is associated with and precedes numerous successful outcomes, as well as behaviors paralleling success. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that positive affect--the hallmark of well-being--may be the cause of many of the desirable characteristics, resources, and successes correlated with happiness. Limitations, empirical issues, and important future research questions are discussed.