The Mediating Role of Positive and Negative Affects in the Relationship Between Self-Esteem and Happiness

Background

Affects, both positive and negative, can act as mediators between self-esteem and happiness. The present study is undertaken among 812 university students in order to examine the relationship between these variables.

Methods

The sample included 812 university students – 361 men (44.46%) and 451 women (55.54%) – who participated voluntarily. The Positive and Negative Affect Scale, Subjective Happiness Scale and Self-Esteem Scale were the instruments used in this study.

Results

The results revealed that men have greater self-esteem and positive affects, while women scored higher in terms of subjective happiness. The analysis revealed a significant correlation between the variables under analysis. Positive affects show a strong positive correlation between self-esteem and happiness, while negative affects show a negative correlation. Mediation analysis suggests that affects, both positive and negative, mediate the relationship between self-esteem and subjective happiness. The results of this study may present us with new perspectives concerning the role that affects play between self-esteem and happiness.

Conclusion

The data present evidence of the mediating role-played by affects, both positive and negative, in the relationship between self-esteem and happiness. More research is needed to examine to what extent these results can be extrapolated, and how to design measures to improve psychological health and well-being.

Using the Five Domains Model to develop welfare assessment guidelines for Thoroughbred horses in New Zealand

This review outlines the processes followed by New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) when developing its Thoroughbred Welfare Assessment Guidelines. It accepted that guidance on welfare management must be based on up-to-date knowledge of how animal welfare is understood scientifically. NZTR established an expert panel to facilitate this process. First, major changes in animal welfare science thinking over the last 40 years were considered. For example, the separate biological function and affective state orientations were later accepted as dynamically interacting elements within the body operating as an integrated whole entity; conceptual problems with the Five Freedoms framework led to the formulation of the Five Provisions and Welfare Aims paradigm and development of the Five Domains Model for assessing nutritional, environmental, health, behavioural and mental facets of animal welfare; and the initial major focus on negative experiences evolved to include both negative and positive experiences. The Five Domains Model was very effective for illustrating up-to-date understanding of animal welfare and its use demonstrated how comprehensive animal welfare assessments may be conducted. The NZTR panel followed a sequential approach that included an update on animal welfare thinking and the Five Provisions and Welfare Aims paradigm; the generic Five Domains Model was refocused specifically on equids; a detailed model assessment of equine welfare practices was conducted; enhanced equine welfare practices were emphasised by comparing them to inadequate welfare practices; guidelines were framed in terms which provide domain-specific advice on provisions that achieve positive welfare; other domain-specific guidelines were focused on welfare-compromising consequences of inadequate provisions; and welfare-appropriate conditions were clarified for all stages of a Thoroughbred's life cycle (in work and rest) to facilitate exercising a life-long duty of care. Finally, the guidelines were expressed in general terms to avoid them becoming overly detailed and unwieldy. They therefore do not address specific welfare issues such as use of whips, bits, spurs and tight nosebands, however the Five Domains Model may also be used for these specific purposes. The guidelines, and the way they were formulated, provide an example of one approach which other organisations may find immediately useful, or which may stimulate them to devise their own approaches when progressing such equine welfare initiatives.

Contributions of Positive Psychology in Self-Regulated Learning: A Study With Brazilian Undergraduate Students

Self-regulated learning (SRL) is an important factor for academic success. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between constructs typical of positive psychology (PP; self-esteem, self-efficacy, affects, life satisfaction, optimism, and hope) and SRL while indicating the explained variance of these constructs in an SRL model. The study comprised 1,046 undergraduate students from 63 public higher education institutions from all demographic regions of Brazil. Significant correlations (p < 0.01) were found between SRL and all PP variables. Moderate correlations were found with self-efficacy and positive affects. The linear regression analysis indicated that one model explains 41.9% of the variance in SRL. The data are discussed based on the potential of PP and SRL interventions to improve academic performance and student adaptation to higher education environments.

The neural mechanisms underlying the aging-related enhancement of positive affects: electrophysiological evidences

Background: Previous studies reported that old adults, relative to young adults, showed improvement of emotional stability and increased experiences of positive affects.

Methods: In order to better understand the neural underpinnings behind the aging-related enhancement of positive affects, it is necessary to investigate whether old and young adults differ in the threshold of eliciting positive or negative emotional reactions. However, no studies have examined emotional reaction differences between old and young adults by manipulating the intensity of emotional stimuli to date. To clarify this issue, the present study examined the impact of aging on the brain’s susceptibility to affective pictures of varying emotional intensities. We recorded event-related potentials (ERP) for highly negative (HN), mildly negative (MN) and neutral pictures in the negative experimental block; and for highly positive (HP), mildly positive (MP) and neutral pictures in the positive experimental block, when young and old adults were required to count the number of pictures, irrespective of the emotionality of the pictures.

Results: Event-related potentials results showed that LPP (late positive potentials) amplitudes were larger for HN and MN stimuli compared to neutral stimuli in young adults, but not in old adults. By contrast, old adults displayed larger LPP amplitudes for HP and MP relative to neutral stimuli, while these effects were absent for young adults. In addition, old adults reported more frequent perception of positive stimuli and less frequent perception of negative stimuli than young adults. The post-experiment stimulus assessment showed more positive ratings of Neutral and MP stimuli, and reduced arousal ratings of HN stimuli in old compared to young adults.

Conclusion: These results suggest that old adults are more resistant to the impact of negative stimuli, while they are equipped with enhanced attentional bias for positive stimuli. The implications of these results to the aging-related enhancement of positive affects were discussed.