Positive Psychology and Happiness Measurement
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Questions and Answers

What does operationalization in psychology primarily involve?

  • Studying positive experiences
  • Creating new psychological theories
  • Measuring indicators to infer latent constructs (correct)
  • Directly measuring abstract constructs

    • What is a key reason that happiness and well-being are difficult to measure directly?

  • They have no associated surveys
  • They are too simple to quantify
  • They are latent constructs (correct)
  • They can be directly observed

    • Which type of reliability assesses the correlation of scores from two different time points?

  • Internal consistency
  • Interrater reliability
  • Split-half reliability
  • Test-retest reliability (correct)

    • What does systematic measurement error relate to?

    <p>Responses that skew towards a certain bias</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following is true about internal consistency?

    <p>It assesses how items within a measure correlate with each other</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does validity assess in psychological measurement?

    <p>How much a measure correlates with a gold standard</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What phenomenon causes people to believe they are better than average?

    <p>Positive illusion bias</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does content validity refer to?

    <p>The assessment of how items face value relate to the target construct</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which method can help standardize evaluations of how people perceive themselves?

    <p>Aggregating multiple informants</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which statement best describes random measurement error?

    <p>It arises from unpredictable influences on scores</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a potential negative consequence of positive illusions?

    <p>Risky behavior</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which type of thinking involves believing in one's ability to achieve set goals?

    <p>Agentic thinking</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a characteristic of optimistic individuals regarding negative outcomes?

    <p>They attribute negative outcomes to external factors</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the relationship between hope and well-being?

    <p>Hope is positively correlated with well-being</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the concept of positive comparisons based on?

    <p>Reflecting on oneself using standards set by others or oneself</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does unrealistic optimism often lead to?

    <p>Engagement in risky choices</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What percentage of subjective well-being (SWB) is considered heritable?

    <p>50%</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which factor significantly contributed to the lower concordance rate at time two?

    <p>Environmental influences</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the heritability range for subjective well-being based on multiple meta-analyses?

    <p>32-41%</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which statement regarding cheerfulness and subjective well-being is incorrect?

    <p>Cheerfulness contributes greatly to SWB.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What are shared environmental factors?

    <p>Common experiences among family members.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does an internal perceived locus of control imply?

    <p>You think you are responsible for the good things in your life.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does the stress-diathesis model describe?

    <p>Genetic predispositions interact with environmental stressors.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does heritability assess?

    <p>Relative contributions of genes to traits.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How does setting self-concordant goals affect basic needs?

    <p>It positively influences the satisfaction of the need for autonomy.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a limitation of behavior genetic designs mentioned?

    <p>They cannot capture shared pre-adoption environment.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does self-esteem primarily reflect?

    <p>Evaluations of oneself.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How are high self-esteem individuals expected to respond to the me/positive condition?

    <p>Faster response times.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What correlation exists between explicit self-esteem and well-being?

    <p>Moderately positive correlation.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a possible issue with measuring implicit self-esteem?

    <p>It may be influenced by distractions or mood.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does research suggest about implicit self-esteem and the experience of negative emotions?

    <p>It predicts daily negative emotion experience.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a limitation in the relationship between IAT scores and subjective well-being (SWB)?

    <p>Name/letter liking can skew results.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What correlation was found between life satisfaction and affective balance in the study?

    <p>Positive correlation of 0.32 for positive affect and negative correlation of -0.59 for negative affect</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which aspect of culture plays a greater role in life satisfaction according to the findings?

    <p>Emotions are more influential in individualistic cultures</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How does culture influence goals related to well-being?

    <p>Asian Americans prioritize others' happiness more than American participants</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What was found regarding self-esteem in different cultures?

    <p>Self-esteem and subjective well-being are higher in western cultures</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does tactical self-enhancement refer to?

    <p>Self-enhancement techniques based on cultural values that are considered important</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following statements best describes self-serving attributional bias?

    <p>Attributing positive events to oneself and negative events to external factors</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How is the correlation between hedonic balance and life satisfaction moderated by culture?

    <p>It's stronger for individualistic cultures than for collectivistic cultures</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The findings from Schimmack et al. suggest which personality trait has a negative correlation with hedonic balance?

    <p>Neuroticism</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Study Notes

    Positive Psychology

    • A new branch of psychology focuses on people's strengths and positive functioning
    • Aims to study positive experiences that facilitate well-being and happiness

    Operationalization of Happiness and Well-being

    • Happiness and well-being are latent constructs - abstract and cannot be directly measured or observed
    • We use indicators (e.g., surveys) to infer information about latent constructs
    • Measurement error exists in self-report scores, making them inaccurate reflections of the true score
      • Random measurement error is unpredictable and unrelated to the construct
      • Systematic measurement error is related to the construct, like response bias

    Reliability

    • Assess how much random measurement error is present in a person's score
      • Split-half reliability compares two halves of a survey, ideally with a correlation greater than +0.70
      • Test-retest reliability assesses scores at different time points
        • Short intervals reveal reliability
        • Long intervals reveal stability (whether the measured construct has truly changed)
      • Interrater reliability assesses differences in measurements between raters (Kappa K = 1.0)
      • Internal consistency assesses how much items in a measure correlate with each other (Cronbach's ⍺ > +0.70)

    Validity

    • Assess how much non-random measurement error is present
      • Content validity assesses if items measure the construct at face value (face validity)
      • Construct validity assesses if the operationalization matches the theoretical definition of the construct
      • Criterion validity assesses how much a measure correlates with a gold-standard measure

    Heritability of Subjective Well-Being (SWB)

    • Twin studies found that around 50% of SWB is heritable, with 50% attributed to environmental factors
    • This suggests a strong genetic influence, but not absolute determination
    • Criticisms of this research include:
      • Small sample size
      • Only two time points, questioning the validity of the findings
      • Environmental factors play a role, evidenced by lower concordance rates at later time points

    Cheerfulness vs. SWB

    • Cheerfulness, a tendency towards positive emotions, displays lower heritability than SWB
    • Shared environment influences emotions and moods as much as genes

    Meta-analysis of Heritability

    • Meta-analysis of twin studies suggests a 32-41% heritability for SWB
    • Controlling for measurement error, this estimate rises to 50%
    • This confirms that genetics play a significant role, but environment remains influential

    Environmental Influences

    • Shared environmental factors affect everyone in a family, while non-shared factors are unique to each individual
    • Measurement error also contributes to variations in heritability estimates

    Gene-Environment Interactions

    • Stress-diathesis model highlights the interplay between genes and environmental stressors
    • A genetically predisposed vulnerability can manifest when triggered by environmental stress

    Self-Concordant Goals

    • Goals aligned with personal values, interests, and needs contribute significantly to well-being
    • Associated with an internal perceived locus of control (believing in one's ability to control positive outcomes)
    • Self-concordant goals are linked to:
      • Increased effort towards achieving goals
      • Satisfaction of basic needs, including autonomy

    Self-Esteem

    • Reflects our evaluations of ourselves, can be both trait-based (global or domain-specific) and state-based (context-specific)
    • Both cognitive and affective components, and manifests explicitly and implicitly

    Explicit Self-Esteem

    • Moderately correlated with well-being, both self-reported and observed by others

    Implicit Self-Esteem

    • Shows a weak correlation with well-being
    • Correlation varies depending on the measures used
    • Some studies suggest implicit self-esteem may be a predictor of negative emotions and somatic symptoms

    Challenges in Measuring Self-Esteem

    • Positive illusions bias can contaminate self-reported measures
    • Difficulty in standardizing "average person" for comparisons

    Positive Thinking

    • Positive correlation exists between optimism and measures of life satisfaction, positive affect, and reduced negative affect
    • Optimists expect good things to happen and attribute positive outcomes to internal factors and negative outcomes to external factors
    • Self-enhancement can sometimes lead to unrealistic optimism and self-serving biases, potentially causing risky choices

    Hope

    • Hoping for positive outcomes in the future through personal effort
    • Associated with pathways thinking (identifying multiple paths to achieving goals) and agentic thinking (believing in one's ability to achieve those goals)
    • Positively correlated with well-being

    Positive Comparisons

    • Individuals compare themselves to standards they set, either self-defined or based on others
    • Influence individual well-being and life satisfaction

    Cultural Influences on Well-Being

    • Relationship between affect and life satisfaction varies across cultures
    • Emotion plays a greater role in individualistic nations than collectivistic nations
    • Culture influences which goals are considered important for well-being

    Cultural Influences on Self-Esteem

    • Western cultures generally exhibit higher SWB and self-esteem compared to Eastern cultures
    • Correlation between SWB and self-esteem is stronger in Western contexts
    • This could be due to differences in self-enhancement tendencies and cultural values of individualism vs. collectivism

    Self-Enhancement

    • Universal self-enhancement exists, but the specific dimensions of enhancement vary across cultures (tactical self-enhancement)
    • Mutual enhancement (enhancing others) also differs culturally
    • Self-serving attributional bias (attributing positive events to oneself and negative events to external factors) is weaker in collectivistic cultures

    "Unpackaging" Culture

    • To understand cultural effects on well-being, we need to go beyond broad cultural classifications
    • Examining specific cultural dimensions and their influence on individual and collective well-being
    • Exploring the interplay of cultural values, beliefs, practices, and social structures can unlock insights into the diverse pathways to a fulfilling life

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    PSY324 Lecture 1 PDF

    Description

    Explore the key concepts of positive psychology, focusing on strengths and well-being. This quiz delves into the operationalization of happiness and the methods of measuring reliability in psychological constructs. Test your understanding of these vital topics in psychology.

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