Depression and political predispositions: Almost blue?

2020 ◽  
pp. 135406882093039
Author(s):  
Luca Bernardi
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Common Mental Health Problems ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

This article explores the relationship between depression—one of the most common mental health problems in our societies—and political predispositions. Drawing on cross-disciplinary research from psychology, psychiatry, and political science, the article uses data from Understanding Society and the European Social Survey to test this relationship with party identification, vote intentions and left–right orientation, and two different measures of self-rated clinical depression and depressive symptoms. Empirical analyses find a modest but significant, common tendency: individuals vulnerable to depression are less likely to identify with mainstream conservative parties, to vote for them, and to place themselves on the right side of the political spectrum (a “bias against the right”). No clear evidence is found that they also identify less with political parties. These findings contribute to our understanding of differences in political predispositions and raise important implications for political engagement.

scholarly journals Conservation motivation, social equality and left-right ideological preferences in Western and Eastern Europe

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 336-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Márton Hadarics
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Great Part ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Social Equality ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

We investigated how attitudes towards social equality can influence the relationship between conservation motivation (or openness) and personal ideological preferences on the left-right dimension, and how this relationship pattern differs between Western and Central & Eastern European (CEE) respondents. Using data from the European Social Survey (2012) we found that individual-level of conservation motivation reduces cultural egalitarianism in both the Western European and the CEE regions, but its connection with economic egalitarianism is only relevant in the CEE region where it fosters economic egalitarianism. Since both forms of egalitarianism were related to leftist ideological preferences in Western Europe, but in the CEE region only economic egalitarianism was ideologically relevant, we concluded that the classic “rigidity of the right” phenomenon is strongly related to cultural (anti)egalitarianism in Western Europe. At the same time, conservation motivation serves as a basis for the “rigidity of the left” in the post-socialist CEE region, in a great part due to the conventional egalitarian economic views.

In sickness and in health

2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Söderlund ◽  
Lauri Rapeli
Keyword(s):  
Political Engagement ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Poor Health ◽  
Personal Health ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
Health Gap ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Politically Active

In search of a better understanding of inequalities in citizen political engagement, scholars have begun addressing the relationship between personal health and patterns of political behavior. This study focuses on the impact of personal health on various forms of political participation. The analysis contributes to existing knowledge by examining a number of different participation forms beyond just voting. Using European Social Survey data from 2012/2013 for Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden ($N=8\text{,}060$), self-reported turnout and six alternative modes of political engagement were modeled as dependent variables. Contrary to expectations, poor health did not depress participation across all forms. As assumed by the increased activism hypothesis, all else equal, people with poor health were more active than their healthy counterparts in direct contacts with power holders and demonstrations. The results reveal a “reversed health gap” by showing that people with health problems are in fact more politically active than what previous research, which has focused on voting, has suggested. Although the magnitude of the gap should not be overdramatized, our results stress the importance of distinguishing between different forms of participation when analyzing the impact of health on political engagement. Nevertheless, the findings show that poor health can stimulate people into political engagement rather than depressing activity. This finding holds when the effects of several sociodemographic and motivational factors are controlled for.

Power Values and Power Distance Moderate the Relationship Between Workplace Supervisory Power and Job Satisfaction

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 135-141
Author(s):  
Kenneth D. Locke
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Multilevel Modeling ◽  
Power Distance ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Workplace Power ◽  
Over Time

Abstract. Person–job (or needs–supplies) discrepancy/fit theories posit that job satisfaction depends on work supplying what employees want and thus expect associations between having supervisory power and job satisfaction to be more positive in individuals who value power and in societies that endorse power values and power distance (e.g., respecting/obeying superiors). Using multilevel modeling on 30,683 European Social Survey respondents from 31 countries revealed that overseeing supervisees was positively associated with job satisfaction, and as hypothesized, this association was stronger among individuals with stronger power values and in nations with greater levels of power values or power distance. The results suggest that workplace power can have a meaningful impact on job satisfaction, especially over time in individuals or societies that esteem power.

scholarly journals Are adult learners in Europe happier than non-learners? Statistical evidence from the European Social Survey

2021 ◽  
pp. 147490412110146
Author(s):  
Ellen Boeren
Keyword(s):  
Adult Education ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Adult Learning ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Participation Rates ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Relationship

This paper borrows insights from the literature on European welfare regimes to analyse the relationship between happiness and participation in adult education. The academic literature and policy discourses on adult education tend to claim that participation in learning is correlated with happiness despite the lack of strong European comparative empirical evidence on this topic. This paper uses data from the latest Wave of the European Social Survey to analyse the happiness perceptions of nearly 20,000 adults between the ages of 25 and 64 who live in 16 European countries (15 European Union countries and the United Kingdom). Results indicate that while adult learners on average tend to be happier than non-learners, this correlation weakens when controlling for determinants of participation and happiness and for the countries in which these adults live. Confirming the importance of welfare regimes, this study found that adults in Finland tend to be happier than those in other countries, regardless of their participation in adult education. Happiness scores were lowest in Bulgaria and Hungary, countries with low participation rates in adult education and with the biggest differences in happiness scores between learners and non-learners. It is argued that the presence of well-structured adult learning provision might be an important characteristic of welfare regimes but that happiness is determined by much more than being an adult learner.

Self-Report Depression Scales in the Elderly: The Relationship between the CES-D and ZUNG

1989 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 325-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce R. Deforge ◽  
Jeffery Sobal
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Sex Differences ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Psychological Symptoms ◽  
Somatic Symptoms ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Common Mental Health Problems ◽  
Depression Scales ◽  
The Relationship

Depression is one of the most common mental health problems in the elderly, but there is little consensus about the best way to assess depression in the aged. The relationship between the CES-D and the ZUNG self-report depression scales was investigated in seventy-eight elderly people with osteoarthritis (mean age 71). The correlation between the scales was r = .69, with the CES-D classifying 15 percent of the participants as depressed, as compared to 6 percent by the ZUNG. Psychological symptoms had the strongest relationship with overall depression scores on both scales. No sex differences were found on psychological items on either scale, but females reported more somatic symptoms on the ZUNG. People over age seventy-four reported more psychological symptoms than their younger counterparts.

scholarly journals The Relationship Between Age and Happiness Varies by Income

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimiter Toshkov
Keyword(s):  
Income Distribution ◽  
Old Age ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThe link between age and happiness has been the subject of numerous studies. It is still a matter of controversy whether the relationship is U-shaped, with happiness declining after youth before bouncing back in old age, or not. While the effect of age has been examined conditional on income and other socio-demographic variables, so far, the interactions between age and income have remained insufficiently explored. Using data from the European Social Survey, this article shows that the nature of the relationship between age and happiness varies strongly with different levels of relative income. People in the lowest decile of the income distribution experience a ‘hockey stick’: a deep decline in self-reported happiness until around age 50–55 and a small bounce back in old age. The classic U-curve is found mostly in the middle-income ranks. For people at the top of the income distribution, average happiness does not vary much with age. These results demonstrate the important role of income in moderating the relationship between age and happiness.

scholarly journals Health and political efficacy in context: What is the role of the welfare state?

2019 ◽  
Vol 60 (6) ◽  
pp. 435-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Shore ◽  
Carolin Rapp ◽  
Daniel Stockemer
Keyword(s):  
Multilevel Models ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Health Differences ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

Health affects nearly all facets of our lives, including the likelihood of getting involved in politics. Focusing on political efficacy, we zoom in on one potential mechanism as to why people in poor health might, for example, stay at home on Election Day. We first look at the ways in which health is related to both people’s perceptions of their abilities to take part in politics (internal political efficacy) as well as the extent to which they believe policymakers are responsive to citizen needs (external political efficacy). Second, we examine how the social policy context intervenes in the relationship between health and political efficacy. Multilevel models using 2014 and 2016 European Social Survey data on roughly 57,000 respondents nested in 21 European countries reveal complex results: while good health, rather unsurprisingly, fosters internal and external political efficacy, more generous welfare states, though associated with higher levels of political efficacy, are not a panacea for remedying political inequalities stemming from individual health differences.

Congress Radicals and Hindu Militancy: Sampurnanand and Purushottam Das Tandon in the Politics of the United Provinces, 1930–1947

2002 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 619-655 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Gould
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
North India ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Hindu Nationalism ◽  
Indian Nationalism ◽  
Indian State ◽  
National Congress ◽  
The Right ◽  
Sangh Parivar ◽  
The Relationship

A recent trend in the historiography of north India has involved analyses of ‘Hindu nationalist’ motifs and ideologies within both mainstream nationalist discourses and subaltern politics. A dense corpus of work has attempted to provide historical explanations for the rise of Hindutva in the subcontinent, and a great deal of debate has surrounded the implications of this development for the fate of secularism in India. Some of this research has examined the wider implications of Hindutva for the Indian state, democracy and civil society and in the process has highlighted, to some degree, the relationship between Hindu nationalism and ‘mainstream’ Indian nationalism. Necessarily, this has involved discussion of the ways in which the Congress, as the predominant vehicle of ‘secular nationalism’ in India, has attempted to contest or accommodate the forces of Hindu nationalist revival and Hindutva. By far the most interesting and illuminating aspect of this research has been the suggestion that Hindu nationalism, operating as an ideology, has manifested itself not only in the institutions of the right-wing Sangh Parivar but has been accommodated, often paradoxically, within political parties and civil institutions hitherto associated with the forces of secularism. An investigation of this phenomenon opens up new possibilities for research into the nature of Hindu nationalism itself, and presents new questions about the ambivalent place of religious politics in institutions such as the Indian National Congress.

scholarly journals Exploring inclusiveness towards immigrants as related to basic values: A network approach

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0260624
Author(s):  
Hadi Sam Nariman ◽  
Lan Anh Nguyen Luu ◽  
Márton Hadarics
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Community Detection ◽  
Latent Class ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Detection Analysis ◽  
Network Properties ◽  
Global Connectivity ◽  
The Relationship

Using the 9th round of European Social Survey (ESS), we explored the relationship between Europeans’ basic values and their attitudes towards immigrants. Employing a latent class analysis (LCA), we classified the respondents based on three items capturing the extent to which participants would support allowing three groups of immigrants to enter and live in their countries: immigrants of same ethnic groups, immigrants of different ethnic groups, and immigrants from poorer countries outside Europe. Four classes of Europeans with mutually exclusive response patterns with respect to their inclusive attitudes towards immigrants were found. The classes were named Inclusive (highly inclusive), Some (selective), Few (highly selective), and Exclusive (highly exclusive). Next, using a network technique, a partial correlation network of 10 basic human values was estimated for each class of participants. The four networks were compared to each other based on three network properties namely: global connectivity, community detection, and assortativity coefficient. The global connectivity (the overall level of interconnections) between the 10 basic values was found to be mostly invariant across the four networks. However, results of the community detection analysis revealed a more complex value structure among the most inclusive class of Europeans. Further, according to the assortativity analysis, as expected, for the most inclusive Europeans, values with similar motivational backgrounds were found to be interconnected most strongly to one another. We further discussed the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

scholarly journals Ouverture de ‘Global Networks and Sustainable Development - 2'

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Jacques Lambin
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Competitive Environment ◽  
Global Networks ◽  
Technological Breakthrough ◽  
The Real ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
The Right ◽  
Constitutive Principles

Several socio-economic mutations and technological breakthrough innovations are currently modifying the competitive environment and the functioning of today’s economies. Referring to the right versus left political spectrum prevailing in democratic countries, most political parties would probably agree on these constitutive principles, even if their implementation in the real political life can be very different.

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