Gay and Straight Possible Selves: Goals, Identity, Subjective Well-Being, and Personality Development

In this theory-building case study, we investigate Blatt’s two-polarity model of personality development according to which psychopathology is a consequence of an unbalance between the two developmental lines of interpersonal relatedness and self-definition. Anaclitic psychopathology, such as schizophrenia, histrionic, dependent, and borderline personality disorders, is associated with an excessive and rigid emphasis on interpersonal relatedness. In this theory-building case study, we examine whether this model can be extended to dissociative identity disorder (DID). The patient is a 23-year old Caucasian man who suffers from periodic episodes of dissociation. Consensual qualitative research for case studies is used to quantitatively and qualitatively describe the interplay between symptomatic and interpersonal evolutions throughout 41 sessions of supportive-expressive psychoanalytic psychotherapy. In line with the two-polarity model of personality development, close associations between symptoms of dissociation and dependent interpersonal dynamics were observed. Psychoanalytic interventions focusing on elaboration of the subjective meanings of (past and anticipated) dissociations, and on working through core interpersonal conflicts, are followed by transformations in the patient’s interpersonal stances and subjective well-being. No new dissociative episodes were reported during the follow-up assessment three and a half years after the completion of treatment. This case study demonstrates that DID is a form of anaclitic psychopathology as it is associated with a predominant tendency to interpersonal relatedness.

Download Full-text

Positive psychological counseling: Theoretical bases and methodological foundations

Izvestiya of Saratov University New Series Series Philosophy Psychology Pedagogy ◽

10.18500/1819-7671-2021-21-4-427-439 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (4) ◽

pp. 427-439

Author(s):

Svetlana V. Frolova ◽

Keyword(s):

Personality Development ◽

Well Being ◽

Regulatory Function ◽

Development Theory ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Psychological Counseling ◽

Positive Interaction ◽

Psychological Transformation ◽

Self Transcendence ◽

Methodological Principles

The paper gives grounds for designing a new creative model of positive psychological counseling that focuses on developmental and preventive objectives rather than on correctional ones. These developmental and preventive objectives include actualization and transformation of personality resources, optimization of productivity and full personality potential, and tackling them helps overcome normative difficulties, achieve important life goals, implement inmost values and increase subjective well-being. Post-modern paradigm beliefs in complementarity of scientific psychological knowledge and constructivism in the process of its production, ideas of positive approach in psychotherapy, findings in the field of positive psychology, provisions of system and subject approaches to the understanding of personality development, theory of psychological relationships of personality, conceptual ideas of meaningful feelings, regulatory function of secondary images, aspiration of a person to seek and accomplish their purpose in life, types of life orientations were used as theoretical bases and methodological foundations for designing the model of positive psychological counseling. The author describes the goals, objectives and methodological principles of positive psychological counseling: psychological positivity (as a subject’s ability to select and create the best of the real opportunities throughout their self-actualization and realization of the meaning of life), psychological transformation and psychosynthesis, eco-sensitivity and self-transcendence, development and creativity, purposefulness and resourcefulness, personal and phenomenological uniqueness, psychotechnical variability and plasticity, positive interaction.

Download Full-text

Lost and Found Possible Selves, Subjective Well-Being, and Ego Development in Divorced Women

Journal of Personality ◽

10.1111/j.0022-3506.2004.00274.x ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 72 (3) ◽

pp. 603-632 ◽

Cited By ~ 82

Author(s):

Laura A. King ◽

Courtney Raspin

Keyword(s):

Ego Development ◽

Possible Selves ◽

Well Being ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Lost And Found

Download Full-text

The role of musical possible selves in supporting subjective well-being in later life

Music Education Research ◽

10.1080/14613808.2013.788143 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. 32-49 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Andrea Creech ◽

Susan Hallam ◽

Maria Varvarigou ◽

Helena Gaunt ◽

Hilary McQueen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Possible Selves ◽

Later Life ◽

Well Being ◽

Subjective Well Being

Download Full-text

Work characteristics and well-being of Swiss apprentices entering the labor market 1This article is based on the research project “Work Experience and Quality of Life in Switzerland: Work, Stress, and Personality Development” funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation within the Swiss Priority Program “Switzerland: Towards the Future” (Grant No. 5004-047898 to N.K. Semmer [principal investigator] and J.-P. Dauwalder [co-principle investigator]).

Swiss Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1024//1421-0185.59.4.272 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 59 (4) ◽

pp. 272-290 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Wolfgang Kälin ◽

Norbert K. Semmer ◽

Achim Elfering ◽

Franziska Tschan ◽

Jean-Pierre Dauwalder ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Work Experience ◽

National Science Foundation ◽

Personality Development ◽

Well Being ◽

Project Work ◽

Work Characteristics ◽

Swiss National Science Foundation ◽

National Science ◽

Principle Investigator

Download Full-text

Conflict Avoidance in Old Age

GeroPsych ◽

10.1024/1662-9647/a000168 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

pp. 61-70 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Lia Oberhauser ◽

Andreas B. Neubauer ◽

Eva-Marie Kessler

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Perceived Social Support ◽

Well Being ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Conflict Avoidance ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Adult Lifespan ◽

Set Up

Abstract. Conflict avoidance increases across the adult lifespan. This cross-sectional study looks at conflict avoidance as part of a mechanism to regulate belongingness needs ( Sheldon, 2011 ). We assumed that older adults perceive more threats to their belongingness when they contemplate their future, and that they preventively react with avoidance coping. We set up a model predicting conflict avoidance that included perceptions of future nonbelonging, termed anticipated loneliness, and other predictors including sociodemographics, indicators of subjective well-being and perceived social support (N = 331, aged 40–87). Anticipated loneliness predicted conflict avoidance above all other predictors and partially mediated the age-association of conflict avoidance. Results suggest that belongingness regulation accounts may deepen our understanding of conflict avoidance in the second half of life.

Download Full-text

Leisure Activities and the Subjective Well-Being of Older Adults in Croatia

GeroPsych ◽

10.1024/1662-9647/a000179 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

pp. 31-39 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ljiljana Kaliterna Lipovčan ◽

Tihana Brkljačić ◽

Zvjezdana Prizmić Larsen ◽

Andreja Brajša-Žganec ◽

Renata Franc

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Leisure Activities ◽

Leisure Activity ◽

Later Life ◽

Perceived Health ◽

Well Being ◽

Hierarchical Regression ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Convenience Sample ◽

Financial Status

Abstract. Research shows that engagement in leisure activities promotes well-being among older adults. The objective of the current study was to examine the relationship between subjective well-being (flourishing) and leisure activities (total number of different activities in the previous year) in a sample of older adults in Croatia, thereby considering the variables of sex, marital status, financial status, and self-perceived health. The differences in the examined variables between the groups of older adults who reported to be engaged in new activities with those who did not were also examined. The sample of N = 169 older adults aged 60 years and above was drawn from a convenience sample of adult internet users in Croatia. Participants reported their self-perceived health and the number of leisure activities they engaged in over the previous year as well as completing the Flourishing Scale. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that older adults who were engaged in more various leisure activities, who perceived better financial status, and who were married reported higher levels of flourishing. A comparison of the two groups of older adults with and without engagement in leisure activities showed that those engaged in at least one leisure activity were more likely to be women, reported higher levels of flourishing, and perceived their own financial status as better. This study indicated that engaging in leisure activities in later life might provide beneficial effects for the well-being of older adults.

Download Full-text

Intraindividual Variability and Stability of Affect and Well-Being

GeroPsych ◽

10.1024/1662-9647/a000094 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 185-199 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

Christina Röcke ◽

Annette Brose

Keyword(s):

Age Differences ◽

Well Being ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Emotional Experiences ◽

Short Term ◽

Regulatory Processes ◽

Functional Implications ◽

Methodological Approaches ◽

Underlying Processes

Whereas subjective well-being remains relatively stable across adulthood, emotional experiences show remarkable short-term variability, with younger and older adults differing in both amount and correlates. Repeatedly assessed affect data captures both the dynamics and stability as well as stabilization that may indicate emotion-regulatory processes. The article reviews (1) research approaches to intraindividual affect variability, (2) functional implications of affect variability, and (3) age differences in affect variability. Based on this review, we discuss how the broader literature on emotional aging can be better integrated with theories and concepts of intraindividual affect variability by using appropriate methodological approaches. Finally, we show how a better understanding of affect variability and its underlying processes could contribute to the long-term stabilization of well-being in old age.

Download Full-text