Effectiveness of a Humor-Based Training for Reducing Employees’ Distress

An increasing number of studies have demonstrated that humor can impact interpersonal relationships in organizations and employee well-being. However, there is little evidence coming from intervention studies in organizational settings. In response, we developed a training following the principles of positive psychology that aims at improving employees’ adaptive use of humor as a successful mechanism to deal with stress. In this study, we assess the effectiveness of such training and its impact on employee well-being. Results from this one-group intervention study in an emergency ambulance service (N = 58) revealed that the participants reported higher levels of cheerfulness (Z = −3.93; p < 0.001) and lower levels of seriousness (Z = −3.32; p < 0.001) after being exposed to the training. Indeed, the participants reported lower scores on psychological distress after the training (Z = −3.35; p < 0.001). The effect size of the training was medium (r = 0.31 to 0.36), suggesting that interventions to improve adaptive humor at work can be a useful resource to deal with workplace stress and foster employee well-being. These results may have interesting implications for designing and implementing positive interventions as well as for developing healthy organizations.

The effectiveness of a counseling program It is based on positive interventions in reducing emotional divorce among the workless spouses in the light of the prevalence of corona virus: فعالية برنامج إرشادي قائم على التدخلات الإيجابية في خفض الطلاق العاطفي لدى المتزوجين العاطلين عن العمل في ظل انتشار فيروس كورونا

The current study aimed to reveal the effectiveness of a counseling program based on positive psychology in reducing emotional divorce among a sample of the unemployed during the Corona virus, and to achieve the objectives of the study, a random sample was chosen available from unemployed parents with a medium or high level of emotional divorce. Where the study sample consisted of (18) fathers and they were divided into two groups: an experimental group, in which the number of fathers was (9) fathers who underwent the current study, and a control group in which the number of fathers was (9) fathers who did not undergo any therapeutic intervention, and a measure of emotional divorce was developed. And the preparation of a counseling program based on positive psychology, and after applying the counseling program to the members of the experimental group for a month, the results of the study concluded that the experimental group had a lower level of emotional divorce compared with the control group, and it was also found that the members of the experimental group retained the effect of the program after a month From the end of the program, the study came out with some recommendations, including: Attempting to implement the extension program on other categories of the unemployed through the Family Protection Centers and the counselors.

Pollutants corrupt resilience pathways of aging in the nematode C. elegans

Delaying aging while prolonging health and lifespan is a major goal in aging research. While many resources have been allocated to find positive interventions with promising results, negative interventions such as pollution and their accelerating effect on age-related degeneration and disease have been mostly neglected. Here, we used the short-lived model organism C. elegans to analyze whether two candidate pollutants interfere with positive interventions by corrupting general aging pathways. We took advantage of the immense data sets describing the age-related remodeling of the proteome including increased protein insolubilities to complement our analysis. We show that the emergent pollutant silica nanoparticles (NP) and the classic xenobiotic inorganic mercury reduce lifespan and cause a premature protein aggregation phenotype. Silica NPs rescaled the longevity effect of genetic interventions targeting the IGF-1/insulin-like signaling pathway. Comparative mass spectrometry revealed that increased insolubility of proteins with important functions in proteostasis is a shared phenotype of intrinsic- and pollution-induced aging supporting the hypothesis that proteostasis is a central resilience pathway controlling lifespan and aging. The presented data demonstrate that pollutants corrupt intrinsic aging pathways, which results in premature aging phenotypes. Reducing pollution is therefore an important step to increase healthy aging and prolong life expectancies on a population level in humans and animals.

Addictive Behavioural Manifestations of Adolescents in Romania

The study examines, through a concrete research, the analysis of perceptual, ideational, attitudinal, social, family and personological factors, with cumulative-progressive effects in the genesis of the main primarily addictive behavioural forms, in groups of adolescent pupils. The approach of the topic is an interdisciplinary one, the dominant being the psychological, sociological and pedagogical dimensions, in a context seen as a reality lived and expressed verbally by the teenagers constituted investigatively in a randomly structured sample from different urban localities, either as opinions or as behavioural social and emotional-affective states specific to adolescence. The qualitative arguments and the statistical results are the materialization of the application of a valid research methodology, relevant in its associative and explanatory interactional complementarity. The conclusions of the study are relevant due to their functionality, which can possibly materialize in minimal positive interventions prior to the actual addiction in adolescent pupils in today’s Romania.

Restoration of soft-sediment habitats

The final chapter addresses positive interventions that can help reverse the decline in soft-sediment ecosystems. Restoration draws on our understanding of ecosystem processes and the natural history of soft-sediment organisms. The chapter describes how active restoration can be designed to overcome bottlenecks that slow natural recovery processes and to form a critical part of integrative management strategies, such as ecosystem-based management. The chapter describes the what, why, where and how of active restoration, with a focus on the restoration of shellfish reefs, one of the most impacted soft-sediment habitats. Links between restoration and remediation are made to emphasise the importance of ecosystem function in generating positive changes in soft-sediment habitats. As restoration is likely to involve different elements of society in trying to fix problems, it is important that we develop effective ways of measuring success. The chapter ends by touching on the potential to generate new restoration economies, recognising that restoring nature can be at least as economically beneficial as developing more grey infrastructure.

A Happier Balance

This chapter describes how intentional well-being interventions integrate the development of character strengths and activation of positive emotional resources while reducing risks and alleviating symptoms of depression and poor health. The emergence of these interventions reaches back nearly half a century and each layer of development has led to a more robust platform for implementing these approaches. Now, based on the evidence-based principles of positive psychology, these positive interventions help to cultivate hope through a more balanced approach to well-being than traditional deficit-oriented methods of psychotherapy. This chapter looks at the history of development of these interventions and their likely next phase of development.