Linking Homeostatically Protected Mood, Mindfulness, and Depression: A Conceptual Synthesis and Model of Moodfulness

Mindfulness is an ancient practice, derived from Buddhism and recently adapted for the treatment of depression and other psychological conditions. The mechanism of action is thought to involve the extinction of habitual or conditioned responses to internal cognitive and emotional content. In turn, this relies on mechanisms of attentional control and emotion regulation. The resulting state of consciousness is sometimes described as equanimity. This conceptual review paper explores the process of achieving equanimity within a homeostatic framework. The result is a model of moodfulness, which combines mindfulness with Homeostatically Protected Mood to provide a new theoretical view of recovery from symptoms of depression. This model presents a case for mindfulness restoration of mood homeostasis following homeostatic defeat.

Subjective Well-being in Children: Measurement Tools and Age Dynamics

This review article deals with the methods for measurement of subjective well-being in children and adolescents. The first part of the review presents an outlook of several psychometric instruments that demonstrate various approaches to measuring subjective well-being: multidimensional and one-dimensional multiple-item scales as well as single item scales. The examples of techniques for establishing validity of developing instruments are provided. The experience of adaptation of psychometric instruments for measuring well-being to use them in younger samples is discussed. The article also highlights the discrepancies between parents’ and children’s own evaluations of children’s well-being that are documented with the use of several instruments. The second part of the review deals with the issues of subjective well-being dynamics that should be captured by psychometric instruments. The hypotheses of stability of subjective well-being levels (the notions of “homeostatically protected mood” and “well-being set point”) are discussed and contrasted to the results of empirical research of changes in normative levels of subjective well-being from preschool age to adolescence.