scholarly journals Inconsistent curiosity: Augmentation and blunting of curiosity in daily life and implications for well-being

Author(s):  
David M. Lydon-Staley ◽  
Perry Zurn ◽  
Danielle S Bassett

Curiosity promotes focused engagement in novel and challenging situations and the accruement of resources that promote well-being. A critical open question is the extent to which curiosity lability, the degree to which curiosity fluctuates over short timescales, impacts well-being. We use data from a 21-day daily diary protocol as well as trait measures collected prior to the daily diary in 167 participants (mean age = 25.37 years, SD = 7.34) to test (i) the importance of curiosity lability for depression, flourishing, and life satisfaction, (ii) day-to-day associations among curiosity and happiness, depressed mood, anxiety, and physical activity, and (iii) the extent to which day’s mood acts as a mediator between day’s physical activity and day’s curiosity. Regression analyses indicate positive associations among curiosity lability and depression, as well as negative associations among curiosity lability and life satisfaction, above and beyond trait curiosity. No evidence for an association between curiosity lability and flourishing emerge when controlling for trait curiosity. Multilevel model results indicate that curiosity is higher on days of greater happiness and physical activity, and that curiosity is lower on days of greater depressed mood. We observe no association between curiosity and anxiety. Multilevel mediation models indicate evidence consistent with day’s depressed mood and happiness as mediators between physical activity and curiosity. In sum, we find that greater consistency in curiosity is associated with well-being, identify several sources of augmentation and blunting of curiosity in daily life, and provide support for purported mechanisms linking physical activity to curiosity via mood.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily C Willroth ◽  
Arasteh Gatchpazian ◽  
Sabrina Thai ◽  
Bethany Lassetter ◽  
Matthew Feinberg ◽  
...  

Transient affect can be tightly linked with people’s global life satisfaction (i.e., affect globalizing). This volatile judgment style leaves life satisfaction vulnerable to the inevitable highs and lows of everyday life, and has been associated with lower psychological health. The present study examines a potentially fundamental but untested regulatory role of sleep: insulating people’s global life satisfaction from the affective highs and lows of daily life. We tested this hypothesis in two daily diary samples (N1=3,011 daily diary observations of 274 participants and N2=12,740 daily diary observations of 811 participants). Consistent with preregistered hypotheses, following nights of reported high-quality sleep, the link between current affect and global life satisfaction was attenuated (i.e., lower affect globalizing). Sleep-based interventions are broadly useful for improv-ing psychological health and the current findings suggest another avenue by which such interventions may improve well-being: by providing a crucial protection against the risks associated with affect globalizing.


Religions ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron E. Sedlar ◽  
Nick Stauner ◽  
Kenneth I. Pargament ◽  
Julie J. Exline ◽  
Joshua B. Grubbs ◽  
...  

Religious and spiritual struggles (R/S struggles)—tension or conflicts regarding religious or spiritual matters—have been robustly linked to greater psychological distress and lower well-being. Most research in this area has relied on samples consisting predominantly of participants who believe in god(s). Limited research has examined R/S struggles among atheists, generally conflating them with agnostics and other nontheists. This study investigated the prevalence of R/S struggles among atheists and compared atheists to theists in two samples (3978 undergraduates, 1048 Internet workers). Results of a multilevel model showed that atheists experience less demonic, doubt, divine, moral, and overall R/S struggles than theists, but similar levels of interpersonal and ultimate meaning struggles. Correlation and regression analyses among atheists demonstrated links between moral, ultimate meaning, and overall R/S struggles and greater distress (depression and anxiety symptoms) as well as lower well-being (life satisfaction and meaning in life). Even after controlling neuroticism, ultimate meaning struggles continued to predict lower well-being and higher distress across samples; moral struggles also predicted distress independently. This study demonstrates the relevance of R/S struggles to atheists and reinforces the applicability of previous results to atheist samples, but also highlights substantial differences between atheists and theists in certain R/S struggles.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-384
Author(s):  
Ade Hermawansyah ◽  
Sumaryanto ◽  
Elsa Ariestika ◽  
I Putu Agus Dharma Hita

Living a better and happy life (well-being) is a key point for people’s daily life. Well-being integrates both of physical and psychological health namely feelings, emotions, and life satisfaction. This means that good life is when people are physically fit and they are satisfied with their life. There have been few studies investigating the relationship between physical activity and life satisfaction in Indonesia. Therefore, this quantitative study is aimed to examine the association between sport and well-being, especially the frequency of physical activity and life satisfaction. The data used are from the fifth wave of the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) 2014, with 31,669 participants from 15,160 households and 297 districts in Indonesia. Linear regression is used for data analysis, adjusting for control variables. The results show that the more frequent people exercise, the more they are satisfied with their lives, even after controlling for a set of confounding variables. Different measures need to be taken to increase physical activity as parts of people’s daily life in order to protect their health and enjoy a better life.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 44-44
Author(s):  
Sun Ah Lee ◽  
Lizbeth Benson ◽  
Erica O'Brien ◽  
David Conroy ◽  
David Almeida

Abstract Previous studies reveal that positive affective well-being is positively associated with physical activity. The present study extends this work by examining the relationship between positive events and physical activity in daily life. Participants (N=1,016, ages 43-90, 56% women) from the third wave of the National Study of Daily Experiences reported their experiences of positive events and physical activity in eight daily diary interviews. Results from multilevel model analyses showed that on days when participants experienced more positive events than usual, they were more likely to engage in physical activity and reported engaging in greater physical activity than usual. Further, participants who experienced more positive events on average across the study period also reported engaging in greater daily physical activity. These results were invariant across age. Our findings highlight the importance of naturally-occurring positive experiences in daily life across middle- and later adulthood.


Work ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 665-669
Author(s):  
Timur Uman ◽  
Pernilla Broberg ◽  
Torbjörn Tagesson

BACKGROUND: Business professionals are an important occupational group that carries responsibility for the economic welfare of organizations and of society at large. These professionals have recently been reported to be experiencing increased mental strain, which may have a significant effect on the role they play in organizations and in society. Understanding the causes of this strain is thus an important endeavour. OBJECTIVE: This study explores the antecedents of the mental health of business professionals. METHODS: Multiple linear regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between business professionals’ mental health and its demographic, work-related, and other triggers. T-tests and descriptive statistics were used to explore the gender of the respondents in relation to these triggers and mental health. RESULTS: Compared with their male counterparts, female business professionals report poorer mental health; however, no gender differences were found in job satisfaction or life satisfaction. According to this study, age, overtime pay, higher salary and position as a manager have a positive relation with mental health, whereas working overtime has a negative relation with mental health. Job satisfaction and life satisfaction are important determinants of the mental health of business professionals. CONCLUSIONS: Business professionals are important to the economic welfare of their organization and of society as a whole. Our study suggests that demographic characteristics, work-related aspects and subjective dimensions of well-being have a profound effect on the mental health of business professionals.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 477-484
Author(s):  
Paulina Barczak ◽  
Hanna Bednarek

The studies demonstrate the relationship between higher level of life satisfaction and exercise. The purpose of this article was to determine what type of physical activity, CrossFit training or Latin Dance, positively impacts the level of life satisfaction and self-perceived physical attractiveness in young adults. After CrossFit and Latin Dance training participants declared greater overall satisfaction with life, greater life optimism, increased self-efficacy and greater self-esteem. The results of the authors’ study may be an important contribution to the discussion about factors influencing human well-being. Furthermore, the research could be a scientific argument to promote physical activity among young adults.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 875-884 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Doré ◽  
Niall Bolger

How do stressful life events impact well-being, and how does their impact differ from person to person? In contrast to work focusing on discrete classes of responding, the current study examines the adequacy of a model where responses to stressors are characterized by a population average and continuous variability around that average. Using decades of yearly data from a large German longitudinal study examining effects of divorce, spousal loss, and unemployment, we found that (1) in the overall population, life satisfaction was diminished for years preceding stressors and only incompletely recovered with the passage of time, and (2) there were large between-person differences around the average response, following normal and heavier-tailed continuous distributions rather than discrete classes. These findings provide a multilevel model of responses to stressors and suggest that individual differences can be understood in terms of continuous variation around what is typical for a given event and population.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitriy Bondarev ◽  
Sarianna Sipilä ◽  
Taija Finni ◽  
Urho M. Kujala ◽  
Pauliina Aukee ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose To investigate the associations of physical performance with positive and negative dimensions of mental well-being in middle-aged women and to explore the role of physical activity (PA) in these associations. Methods Women aged 47–55 (n = 909) participated in measurements of physical performance (handgrip force, knee extension force, vertical jumping height, maximal walking speed, and six-minute walking distance). Both mental well-being (the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, the International Positive and Negative Affect Schedule Short Form and the Satisfaction with Life Scale) and PA were self-reported. Associations between variables were analysed using multivariate linear regression modelling adjusted for body height, fat mass, menopausal status and symptoms, marital status, parity, employment status, self-reported mental disorders, and use of psycholeptics and psychoanaleptics. PA was then entered into a separate model to explore its role in the associations. Results In the adjusted models, significant positive associations of six-minute walking distance with positive affectivity (B = 0.12, p = 0.002) and life satisfaction (B = 0.15, p = 0.033) were observed. No significant associations were observed between physical performance and depressive symptoms or negative affectivity. PA was positively associated with positive affectivity and life satisfaction and negatively with depressive symptoms across all the physical performance predictors. Conclusion Of the physical performance measures, six-minute walking distance was associated with positive mental well-being independently of PA level. In addition to PA, aerobic component of physical performance is especially beneficial for positive mental well-being in middle-aged women.


Author(s):  
Micael Dahlen ◽  
Helge Thorbjørnsen ◽  
Hallgeir Sjåstad ◽  
Petra von Heideken Wågert ◽  
Charlotta Hellström ◽  
...  

Societal crises and personal challenges are often followed by substantial changes in physical activity. Is there a link between such changes and psychological well-being? Seeking to answer this question, we conducted a correlational study on a representative sample in Sweden during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (N = 1035). About 49% of the sample had decreased their physical activity compared to their self-reported activity level prior to the pandemic, whereas 32% had increased it. The results showed a positive and robust association between changes in daily activity level and corresponding changes in psychological well-being. Specifically, individuals who had reduced their physical activity over the last year reported lower life satisfaction than before, and individuals who had increased their physical activity reported higher life satisfaction than before. The amount of complete physical inactivity (sitting) showed a similar pattern as the exercise data, meaning that individuals who reported increasing inactivity per day also reported a greater decline in life satisfaction. Additional analyses showed that the association between daily activity level and life satisfaction was somewhat stronger for men than for women, but there was no difference when comparing individual versus organized activities. The current study was based on a cross-sectional design, measuring self-reported change over time. Recent work from other research teams have used longitudinal data and experience-sampling in different settings, finding similar results. We conclude that there is good reason to recommend physical exercise as a coping strategy in difficult times.


2021 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 53-70
Author(s):  
Javier Reyes-Martinez

Cultural participation has been evidenced to bring several benefits to the well-being of individuals. However, the analysis of this relationship has been addressed mostly in the context of Westernized countries, without considering the diversity of populations in Latin America. Therefore, the aim of this manuscript is to explore the association between cultural participation and subjective well-being (measured by life satisfaction) in Latin America, considering ethnic-racial ascription. With data from the 2013 Latinobarómetro survey (n=20204), several ordered logit regression analyses were performed. Results suggest that read books, read news, attend movies, attend theater, visit heritage places, and participation in community celebrations are associated with life satisfaction. However, these relationships show differentiated patterns depending on the ethnic-racial ascription, which implies that the positive impacts of cultural participation cannot be attributed to all populations, highlighting a process of social exclusion where some individuals get benefits of cultural participation, while others do not.


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