Associations of Living Environment Attributes with Attitudes Towards Aging Among Older Adults in Shanghai China

This study examined the relationships between several attributes of living environment and attitudes towards aging among persons of age 75 years and older in Shanghai, China. The data were collected using self-administered surveys in a study of successful aging in 2018. Respondents included 139 persons of age 75 years and older living in 12 neighborhoods in Shanghai. Attitudes towards aging were measured by indices of happiness, time use and worry about the future. Using BaiduMap and GIS ArcPro, we quantified accessibility to neighborhood living resources as numbers of recreational facilities, medical facilities, parks, and grocery stores located within 500 meters of each respondent’s home. The analysis found that more positive attitudes towards aging were correlated with less depressive symptom as measured by CES-D and greater numbers of neighborhood resources near home, especially greater number of grocery stores near home. In conclusion, accessibility to neighborhood resources may influence attitudes towards aging.

MEASURING SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING BASED ON SOCIAL MEDIA TEXTS. OVERVIEW OF MODERN PRACTICES

Along with numerous studies of subjective well-being through sociological methods (first of all, surveys), attempts are being made to use Big Data, “digital footprints” (social media texts, social network profile information, search query statistics, personal electronic device data) as an additional source of information. Based on a review of foreign literature, the author reveals major practices of the social media texts analysis to measure subjective well-being. Including the experience of constructing the Gross National Happiness index for Facebook and the Hedonometer for Twitter based on the analysis of emotive vocabulary and the tone of publications of network users. Possibilities of searching for “digital traces” of life satisfaction in the social media texts are revealed. Methodological difficulties and limitations in that area of research, which have not yet been overcome, are highlighted: the issue of the obtained conclusions generalization and the validity of the constructed indices of “happiness” in their correlation with the “real” subjective well-being measured through surveys. Difficulties in measuring subjective well-being are associated with the effects of self-presentation in social media, varying degrees and strategies of users’ publication activity, imperfection of the analysis algorithms that are still inferior to “manual coding”.

Happy Index and Social Well-Being of Russian Students

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of happiness of Russian students, an understudied topic, in contrast to social well-being and its components, including satisfaction with the quality of education and the conditions for receiving it. The results of mass surveys conducted among students of Kazan in 2013-2018 are discussed. The level of happiness, along with the state of health and well-being, is a criterion for the comfort of a given society for life. By analogy with the indices of happiness, which are calculated for residents of countries and cities, the index of happiness of students is calculated. The article shows the relationship between the level of happiness and the ways of daily life of students. Comparison of the obtained data with the index of happiness of Russians shows opposite trends: the index of happiness of Russians from 2013 to the present has been growing steadily, while the index of happiness of students - decreasing. This is probably due to the constant reform of the higher education system and its ambiguous consequences. There are alternative forms of education in addition to the traditional. It can be concluded that the level of students 'happiness is a complex, multi-level phenomenon, which is mainly subjective in nature and depends on many factors, the main of which, in addition to health, are the realistic prospects for professional self-realization, as well as the conditions of students' daily life.

Assistive Technology for Supporting Communication, Occupation, and Leisure by Children With Severe to Profound Developmental Disabilities

This chapter provides a literature overview (i.e., range period 2000-2015) concerning the use assistive technology (AT) for children with severe to profound developmental disabilities. Specifically, the chapter presents a general picture concerning the use of electronic tools such as microswitches enabling individuals with multiple disabilities to access independently to preferred stimuli. The chapter focused on the opportunities of choice, literacy process, communication of their own needs, promoting adaptive responses and reducing challenge behaviors, fostering ambulation and/or locomotion fluency, cognitive-behavioral interventions for people estimated within the normal range of intellectual functioning who present pervasive motor impairments. Moreover, the effects of such programs on indices of happiness as outcome measure of participants involved are outlined as well as social validation assessments. Results and implications of the findings are discussed.

Biased, Therefore Unhappy: Disentangling the Collectivism-Happiness Relationship Globally

A relationship between individualism and happiness has been observed in many studies, with collectivist cultures having lower indices of happiness. It is often argued that this effect arises because people in individualist countries have greater independence and more freedom to pursue personal goals. It appears, however, that the association is much more complex than this as many collectivist countries suffer from more basic problems, such as social conflicts, discrimination, and prejudice. We hypothesized that global differences in happiness could be the result of ingroup bias and its consequences, rather than of collectivism itself. To test our hypotheses, we applied a country-level design, where a country is considered a unit of analysis. We found that individualism predicted various aspects of a country’s aggregated level of happiness, but was only a marginal predictor of happiness when ingroup favoritism and group-focused enmity were controlled for. We discuss the implications of these findings from evolutionary and social psychological perspectives.

Eye- and Mouth-Opening Movements Replacing Head and Hand Responses in a Microswitch Program for an Adolescent with Deteriorating Motor Condition

This study assessed the possibility of replacing head and hand responses (no longer feasible) with minimal movements within the microswitch-based program of an adolescent with deteriorating motor condition and multiple disabilities. The new movements, i.e., eye- and mouth-opening, were introduced individually and then combined through the simultaneous availability of the related microswitches. Data showed the participant acquired the new movements (responses) successfully and retained them at a 2-mo. postintervention check. Mood improvements, i.e., increases in indices of happiness, also occurred through the program. The conclusion was that a person with deteriorating motor conditions may be able to revitalize a microswitch-based occupational program and retain a constructive engagement if new, feasible responses are identified.