Happiness as a Motivator

What motivates individuals to invest time and effort and overcome obstacles (i.e., strive for primary control) when pursuing important goals? We propose that positive affect predicts primary control striving for career and educational goals, and we explore the mediating role of control beliefs. In Study 1, positive affect predicted primary control striving for career goals in a two-wave longitudinal study of a U.S. sample. In Study 2, positive affect predicted primary control striving for career and educational goals and objective career outcomes in a six-wave longitudinal study of a German sample. Control beliefs partially mediated the longitudinal associations with primary control striving. Thus, when individuals experience positive affect, they become more motivated to invest time and effort, and overcome obstacles when pursuing their goals, in part because they believe they have more control over attaining their goals.

Control Judgements across the Lifespan

Given the inconsistent findings in the literature, we examined age-cohort differences in various personal control judgements over the lifespan ( N = 1623; ages 14-85). For three distinct life domains (personal, social, and societal), participants rated their amount of personal control, the goal importance, the degree of control striving, and, in comparison with same-aged peers, their relative control in each domain. Within this broad lifespan range, the developmental trends showed, as expected, different trajectories depending upon the type of control dimension and the nature of the life domain. The differential nature of these age-cohort trends have important implications for understanding the inconsistent findings reported in the literature, namely, that depending on the nature of the life domain, the type of control dimension, and the age range tested, the trajectories can either increase, decrease, or remain stable. These trends are discussed with reference to various metatheoretical perspectives on lifespan development and control-related judgements.

The Zhuang Minority Peoples of the Sino-Vietnamese Frontier in the Song Period

The Zhuang of south China are the most numerous of the Chinese minority peoples. In Vietnam the Zhuang were identified historically as the Nung, and more recently as the combined Tay-Nung minority, the largest of Vietnam's 36 minority peoples. One of the most critical points in Zhuang history occurred in the Song era [960–1126 A.D.], when the expanding Han Chinese and the Vietnamese began to make a sustained impact in the Zhuang heartlands. Many Zhuang resisted foreign control, striving for continued independence. Their subsequent defeat meant that the Zhuang were never again to have an opportunity for autonomous development.