On the Motivational Primacy of the Individual Self: ‘I’ Is Stronger than ‘We’

An everlasting love: The relationship of happiness and meaning

Happiness is of great importance to people. Although happiness constitutes a central theme in psychology, the absence of a unifying theory and inconsistent terminology undermine scientific progress. The present article goes beyond attempting to define “types of happiness” or its contributing factors and addresses the role of happiness (i.e., embodied positive emotional patterns) as a function of a dynamic multisystem (i.e., an individual) and its relationship to meaning (i.e., ongoing bidirectional cognitive processes). As a dynamic multisystem, a person strives for stability as they move in physical space, and during their development, across time (i.e., dynamic balance). A primary requirement for dynamic balance is maintaining consistency by connecting the cognitive system to behavior. In psychological terms, such a connection is facilitated by meaning. The model suggests that happiness serves as a marker of a person’s consistency and meaningful interpretations of their lived experience. The model points to a new research direction.

A within-study cross-validation of the values-as-ideals measure: levels of value orientation explain variability in well-being

There is a consensus that values serve as ideal standards that motivate and influence behavior. Previous research concludes that certain universal values promote well-being and others undermine it. In line with the idea that values behave as a dynamic system and do not influence well-being as independent elements, the present findings indicate that all universal values may contribute to well-being. A new measure assessing the degree 10 universal value domains serve as ideals is administered on an online sample (N = 933) from the United Kingdom. Participants completed three well-being measures. Latent Profile Analysis in a within study cross-validation (Sample 1: n = 468, Sample 2: n = 465) replicates three distinct latent value profiles denoting high, moderate and low levels of value orientation. Analysis of Variance shows that the level of value orientation explains differences in average levels of well-being. A high-level of value orientation is associated with higher average levels of well-being compared to a low-level of value orientation. This evidence suggests that the degree values influence well-being depends on the level they represent people's ideals. In conclusion, the type of value pattern and not the type of prioritized values can systematically explain variability in well-being. Implications are discussed.

Psychological Balance Scale: Validation Studies of an Integrative Measure of Well-Being

Studies infer Psychological Balance from the absence of psychopathology. In this article, we investigated this construct as an antecedent of well-being. We present empirical evidence toward the validation of a new theoretical model regarding Psychological Balance, a dynamic state with relatively constant characteristics, comprising Consistency and Flexibility and influenced by a Self/Others Ratio. A battery of 31 items, as indicators of Consistency, Flexibility, and Self/Others Ratio, aided this empirical investigation. In an online study (N = 933), we collected cross-sectional data from the United Kingdom. Results of cross-validation analyses provided evidence toward the validity of the proposed model and the psychometric properties of its instrument. There were statistically significant associations between Consistency (i.e., degree of integration of a universal value structure as self-related characteristics that motivate personal goals and behavior), Flexibility (i.e., degree of ability to re-define meaningful and important goals in response to situational challenge), and five well-being variables (e.g., Meaning in Life). Self/Others Ratio (i.e., ratio of motivation to serve self-interest and the interest of others), operationalized as a binary variable (e.g., close and away from 1), moderated some of these associations. Altogether, this work may contribute toward a nuanced understanding of well-being and form the basis of interventions that aim to decrease emotional discomfort and increase meaning, happiness, and life satisfaction.

Temporal features of individual and collective self-referential processing: an event-related potential study

Background

Individual and collective self are two fundamental self-representations and are important to human experience. The present study aimed to investigate whether individual and collective self have essential difference in neural mechanism.

Methods

Event-related potentials were recorded to explore the electrophysiological correlates of individual and collective self in a self-referential task in which participants were asked to evaluate whether trait adjectives were suitable to describe themselves (individual self-referential processing), a famous person (individual non-self-referential processing), Chinese (collective self-referential processing) or American (collective non-self-referential processing).

Results

At the early stages, results showed that larger P2 and smaller N2 amplitudes were elicited by individual self-referential than by individual non-self-referential processing whereas no significant differences were observed between collective self-referential and collective non-self-referential processing at these stages. In addition, at the late P3 stage (350–600 ms), larger P3 amplitudes were also elicited by individual self-referential than by individual non-self-referential processing during 350–600 ms interval. However, the collective self-reference effect, indicated by the differences between collective self-referential and collective non-self-referential processing, did not appear until 450 ms and extended to 600 ms. Moreover, individual self-reference effect was more pronounced than collective self-reference effect in the 350–500 ms interval, whereas individual and collective self-reference effect had no significant difference in the 500–600 ms interval. These findings indicated that the time courses of neural activities were different in processing individual and collective self.