Personality science, resilience, and posttraumatic growth

PASTOR represents an innovative development in the study of resilience. This commentary highlights how PASTOR can help both clarify critical questions in and benefit from engaging with new research in personality science on behavioral flexibility across situations in addition to stability over time, and also clarify the relationship between resilience and posttraumatic growth

Randomized controlled trial of SecondStory, an intervention targeting posttraumatic growth, with bereaved adults

Objective: People often report positive psychological changes after adversity, a phenomenon known as posttraumatic growth (PTG). Few PTG-focused interventions have been rigorously tested, and measurement strategies have had significant limitations. This study evaluated the effects of a new group-format psychosocial intervention, SecondStory, aimed at facilitating PTG by helping participants make meaning of the past and plan a purposeful future. Method: In a randomized controlled trial, adults (N = 112, 64% women) bereaved within five years were randomly assigned to SecondStory or an active control, expressive writing. The primary outcome, PTG, was measured using two contrasting methods: the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, which asks participants retrospectively how much they believe they have changed due to struggling with adversity, and the Current-Standing Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, which tracks quantifiable change in participants’ standing in PTG domains over time. Secondary outcomes included depression symptoms, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and life satisfaction. Outcomes were measured at two-week intervals: pre-test, post-test, and three follow-up occasions. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to assess whether SecondStory participants experienced greater gains in primary and/or secondary outcomes over the eight-week trial. Results: Results indicated that SecondStory participants did not show significantly greater improvements than control participants on measures of PTG, posttraumatic stress, or life satisfaction, but did show greater decreases in depression symptoms by the first follow-up. Conclusions: These findings suggest that SecondStory may not facilitate PTG more effectively than existing interventions, but may be promising for addressing depression. Positive interventions may productively be refined to support people experiencing trauma and loss

Finding character strengths through loss: an extension of Peterson and Seligman (2003)

People can experience positive changes even in the midst of adversity and loss. We investigated character strengths following three recent shooting tragedies. Using an Internet database of respondents to the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS), we compared responses from three groups of participants (N = 31,429) within close proximity of each event: those who completed it eight months prior to the event, and one month and two months after. Results suggested that for one of the events, participants who completed the VIA-IS after the event showed slightly different levels of self-reported character strengths compared to participants who completed the VIA-IS before the event, with some mean levels higher and others lower. The observed differences in character strengths were inconsistent across follow-up periods, and effect sizes were small (d values from –0.13 to 0.15). These findings raise questions about whether and how tragedies might catalyze differences in character strengths

When, How, and for Whom Does Creativity Predict Well-Being?

Past research suggests that creative thinking and behavior, defined as the generation of ideas or products that are both original and valuable, may enhance well-being. The present studies aimed to further investigate when, how, and for whom creativity predicts well-being. First, this research assessed whether creativity predicted well-being in a number of contexts and domains, as past scholarship in this area has mainly focused on the arts. Second, this research examined a number of mechanisms that may account for the benefits of creativity. Third, this research investigated whether individual differences in personality and motivation predict the extent to which individuals engage in creative behavior, and the extent to which creative behavior is associated with positive outcomes. Chapter 1 showed that experiences of adversity predicted perceptions of increased creativity in a sample of adults. This relationship was mediated by reports of posttraumatic growth. In addition, the personality trait of openness to experience moderated the extent to which experiences of adversity predicted perceptions of increased creativity. Chapter 2 showed that retrospective reports of extracurricular involvement during high school predicted higher levels of psychological adjustment at the beginning of college in a sample of emerging adults. This relationship was mediated by feelings of mastery and creative self-efficacy associated with extracurricular activities. In addition, feelings of creative self-efficacy predicted higher levels of creative achievement. Chapter 3, Study 1, provided an in-depth qualitative analysis of the motivations and processes driving the work of a sample of professional artists and scientists. Chapter 3, Study 2, found that these could be reduced to three main types of motivations (prosocial, intellectual, and emotional) and one process (the degree to which creators think about others during their work - i.e., their sense of audience). In a sample of aspiring artists and scientists, prosocial and intellectual motivations predicted higher levels of well-being, and this relationship was explained by a greater sense of audience and self-efficacy. Overall, results of the present studies suggested that creative behavior may enhance well-being through both general and creativity-specific mechanisms, and important individual differences may determine the extent to which creative behavior is beneficial

Interactions among natural active ingredients to improve the efficiency of rumen fermentation in vitro

Funding: TECHNA France Nutrition, UAB project number: CF616381.Twelve essential oils (EO): Anise star, cassia, geraniol, lemongrass (LEM), limonene, thyme, tea tree, coriander (COR), capsicum, black pepper, turmeric and ginger (GIN), in Experiment 1 at three doses; and different combinations of LEM, COR and GIN oils in Experiment 2, were evaluated in in vitro batch microbial fermentation using ruminal fluid from four dairy cows fed a 50:50 forage: concentrate diet. In experiment 1, LEM tended to increase the propionate proportion and tended to decrease the acetate to propionate ratio. Anise star, COR, and thyme tended to increase butyrate proportion. Capsicum, COR, and thyme decreased ammonia-N concentration. In experiment 2, a synergy was observed between LEM and COR that resulted in an increase in total volatile fatty acids and propionate proportion, and a decrease in the acetate to propionate ratio. However, the addition of high doses of GIN to the mix had an antagonistic effect on the rumen fermentation profile of the LEM + COR mix. Careful selection and combination of these EO may result in useful mixtures with synergistic interactions to modulate rumen microbial fermentation profile

Resounding meaning: a PERMA wellbeing profile of classical musicians

While music has been linked with enhanced wellbeing across a wide variety of contexts, the professional pursuit of a music career is frequently associated with poor psychological health. Most research has focused on assessing negative functioning, and to date, few studies have attempted to profile musicians’ wellbeing using a positive framework. This study aimed to generate a profile that represents indicators of optimal functioning among classical musicians. The PERMA model, which reconciles hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing, was adopted and its five elements assessed with a sample of professional classical musicians: Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment. 601 participants (298 women, 303 men) engaged in careers as orchestral (n = 236), solo (n = 158), chamber (n = 112), and choral musicians (n = 36), as well as composers (n = 30) and conductors (n = 29), answered the PERMA-Profiler, a self-report questionnaire built to assess the five components of PERMA. Results point to high scores across all dimensions, with Meaning emerging as the highest rated dimension. Musicians scored significantly higher than general population indicators on Positive Emotion, Relationships and Meaning. When wellbeing is assessed as positive functioning and not the absence of illbeing, musicians show promising profiles. The reconciliation between these findings and the previous body of research pointing to the music profession as highly challenging for healthy psychological functioning is discussed. *** For a video summary of this article please see http://researchonline.rcm.ac.uk/id/eprint/1804/ **

The Role of Cognitive Fusion in Pathways to Violent Radicalization and Deradicalization

A better understanding of modifiable psychological processes that could reduce pathways to violent radicalization (VR) would greatly aid researchers, providers, policy makers, and individuals at risk for VR. Cognitive fusion, the tendency for behavior to be overly regulated and influenced by one’s thoughts and feelings, and a common intervention target within Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), may be one such fulcrum. Participants, recruited via gateway snowball sampling, were 233 young adults drawn from five communities in North America as part of Wave 4 of the Somali Youth Longitudinal Study. Utilizing moderation and mediation path analysis in MPlus, the study examined the relations between cognitive fusion, VR, and three important variables associated with VR risk: post traumatic stress symptoms, experiences of daily discrimination, and perceptions of a just government. Findings supported that higher levels of cognitive fusion were directly related to greater openness to VR. Additionally, higher levels of cognitive fusion statistically mediated the link between both daily discrimination and openness to VR as well as between post traumatic stress symptoms and openness to VR. Findings also highlighted that cognitive fusion and perceptions of a just government interacted such that openness to VR was highest in individuals who had low perceptions of a just government and had high levels of cognitive fusion. Results of this study provide preliminary evidence of the potential role of high cognitive fusion in the pathways to VR and further evidence for its potential integration as a target domain within deradicalization efforts

The Take Control Course : conceptual rationale for the development of a transdiagnostic group for common mental health problems

Background: Increasingly, research supports the utility of a transdiagnostic understanding of psychopathology. However, there is no consensus regarding the theoretical approach that best explains this. Transdiagnostic interventions can offer service delivery advantages; this is explored in the current review, focusing on group modalities and primary care settings. Objective: This review seeks to explore whether a Perceptual Control Theory (PCT) explanation of psychopathology across disorders is a valid one. Further, this review illustrates the process of developing a novel transdiagnostic intervention (Take Control Course; TCC) from a PCT theory of functioning. Method: Narrative review. Results and Conclusions: Considerable evidence supports key tenets of PCT. Further, PCT offers a novel perspective regarding the mechanisms by which a number of familiar techniques, such as exposure and awareness, are effective. However, additional research is required to directly test the relative contribution of some PCT mechanisms predicted to underlie psychopathology. Directions for future research are considered

Environmental volunteer well-being: managers’ perception and actual well-being of volunteers

Environmental volunteering is known to be able to increase well-being but environmental volunteer well-being has rarely been compared to participant well-being associated with other types of volunteering or nature-based activities. This paper aims to use a multidimensional approach to well-being to explore the immediately experienced and later remembered well-being of environmental volunteers and to compare this to the increased well-being of participants in other types of nature-based activities and volunteering. Furthermore, it aims to compare volunteer managers’ perception of their volunteers’ well-being with the self-reported well-being of the volunteers. Onsite surveys were conducted of practical conservation and biodiversity monitoring volunteers as well as their control groups, walkers and fieldwork students, respectively, to measure general well-being before their nature-based activity and activity-related well-being immediately after their activity. Online surveys of current, former and potential volunteers and volunteer managers in environmental volunteering and other types of volunteering measured remembered volunteering-related well-being and volunteer managers’ perceptions of their volunteers’ well-being. Data were analysed based on Seligman’s multidimensional PERMA (‘Positive emotion’, ‘Engagement’, ‘positive Relationship’, ‘Meaning’, ‘Achievement’) model of well-being. Factor analysis recovered three of the five PERMA elements, ‘engagement’, ‘relationship’ and ‘meaning’, as well as ‘negative emotion’ and ‘health’ as factors. Environmental volunteering significantly improved positive elements and significantly decreased negative elements of participants’ immediate well-being and it did so more than walking or student fieldwork did. Even remembering their volunteering up to six months later, volunteers rated their volunteering-related well-being higher than volunteers rated their well-being generally in life. However, volunteering was not found to have an effect on overall mean well-being generally in life. Volunteer managers did not perceive the significant increase in well-being that volunteers reported during volunteering. Multidimensional well-being assessments offer the potential for volunteer organisations and managers to more systematically understand, support and enhance volunteer well-being

Mindfulness at Work: Positive Affect, Hope, and Optimism Mediate the Relationship Between Dispositional Mindfulness, Work Engagement, and Well-Being

Mindfulness has been described as a state of awareness characterized by refined attentional skills and a non-evaluative attitude toward internal and external events. Recently it has been suggested that higher levels of mindfulness may be beneficial in the workplace and first programs aiming to increase mindful awareness in occupational settings have been introduced. The current study underpins these developments with empirical evidence regarding the involved psychological processes, by investigating the relationship between dispositional mindfulness, work engagement and well-being in 299 adults in fulltime employment. As hypothesized, the results confirm that self-reported mindfulness predicts work engagement and general well-being. Furthermore, these relationships are mediated by positive job-related affect and psychological capital (hope, optimism, resiliency, and self-efficacy). Investigating mindfulness and psychological capital as multi-faceted concepts by means of structural equation modeling yielded a more precise picture. The ability to step back from automatic, habitual reactions to distress turned out to be the mindfulness facet most central for predicting work engagement and well-being. Furthermore, mindfulness exerts its positive effect on work engagement by increasing positive affect, hope, and optimism, which on their own and in combination enhance work engagement (full mediation). Well-being, on the other hand, is directly influenced by mindfulness, which exerts additional indirect influence via positive affect, hope and optimism (partial mediation). Although exploratory in nature, the results identify non-reactivity and non-judging as important mindfulness skills in the workplace