Character strength traits, states, and emotional well-being: A daily diary study

OBJECTIVE

Does whole trait theory work for character strengths? This study examines the daily within- and between-person variability of the manifestations of positively valued lower-order personality characteristics, namely character strengths, their convergence with trait character strengths, and their relationships to daily measures of affect.

BACKGROUND

Manifestations of personality traits vary both between- and within people. So far, research has focused on between-person differences in character strengths, while within-person differences have been neglected.

METHODS

German-speaking participants (N = 199, 84.3% women; mean age = 26.0 years) participated in a two-week daily diary study. They completed a baseline measure of character strength traits and daily measures of character strength states and positive and negative affect.

RESULTS

Results suggested that character strength traits converged well with aggregated states. Further, we observed high within-person variability in most character strengths. The trait-state convergence and the amount of within-person variability were predicted by whether the character strengths were rather phasic (i.e., more dependent on situational characteristics) or rather tonic (i.e., less dependent on situational characteristics). Higher within-person variability in character strengths was related to trait levels of perspective, honesty, social intelligence, and fairness. Regarding relationships between character strengths and affect, within-person associations were widely parallel to previously reported between-person associations and largely independent of trait levels of character strengths.

CONCLUSION

These findings inform research on whole trait theory and character-strengths-based interventions.

An Integrative Review on the Research Progress of Mindfulness and Its Implications at the Workplace

Mindfulness has rapidly become a significant subject area in many disciplines. Most of the work on mindfulness has focused on the perspective of health and healthcare professionals, but relatively less research is focused on the organizational outcomes at the workplace. This review presents a theoretical and practical trajectory of mindfulness by sequential integration of recent fragmented scholarly work on mindfulness at the workplace. The review showcases that most contemporary practical challenges in organizations, such as anxiety, stress, depression, creativity, motivation, leadership, relationships, teamwork, burnout, engagement, performance, well-being, and physical and psychological health, could be addressed successfully with the budding concept of mindfulness. The causative processes due to higher mindfulness that generate positive cognitive, emotional, physiological, and behavioral outcomes include focused attention, present moment awareness, non-judgmental acceptance, self-regulatory functions, lower mind wandering, lower habit automaticity, and self-determination. Employee mindfulness could be developed through various mindfulness interventions in order to improve different organizational requirements, such as psychological capital, emotional intelligence, prosocial behavior, in-role and extra-role performance, financial and economic performance, green performance, and well-being. Accordingly, this review would be beneficial to inspire academia and practitioners on the transformative potential of mindfulness in organizations for higher performance, well-being, and sustainability. Future research opportunities and directions to be addressed are also discussed.

A Mixed-Method Assessment of a 10-Day Mobile Mindfulness Intervention

Mobile mindfulness interventions represent a promising alternative to traditional in-person interventions that are resource demanding and have limited accessibility, preventing use by many populations. Despite greater accessibility and popularity of mobile mindfulness applications (apps), research is needed testing the effectiveness of brief interventions delivered via these platforms. The present study assessed the efficacy of a brief mobile mindfulness intervention compared to an active control for increasing state and trait mindfulness and improving mood, as well as the acceptability of the app, in a sample of undergraduate students. Participants (N=139; M_age=19.43years, 80.6% female, 83.5% White) were randomly assigned to either a 10-day mobile mindfulness (Headspace) or cognitive training (Peak) condition. Trait mindfulness was measured pre- and post-intervention. During the 10-day intervention, participants completed 10-min daily exercises on the assigned app, responded to daily questionnaires of state mindfulness and mood, and completed a daily written log of their reactions to the app exercises. Attrition was low (90% completion rate) and did not differ by condition. Participants in the mindfulness condition spent an average of 88.15min (SD=24.75) meditating out of the full 100min prescribed by the intervention. State mindfulness significantly increased across the 10-day intervention for participants in the mindfulness, but not the cognitive training, condition beginning around days 5 and 6. Some aspects of trait mindfulness increased and mood improved from pre- to post-intervention, but these changes were observed in both conditions (i.e., no significant differences were observed by condition). Qualitative analysis of open-ended reactions to the mindfulness app indicated that participants reported more likes than dislikes. Common themes for likes were that participants experienced feelings of calm and focus following the daily mindfulness exercises. Dislikes included discomfort and anxiety associated with increased awareness of thoughts and physical sensations. These findings suggest that while a brief mobile mindfulness intervention is acceptable to undergraduate college students and effective at increasing state mindfulness, a longer intervention may be needed in order to elicit corresponding changes in trait-level mindfulness or mood.