A presente tese teve por objetivo avaliar diferentes aspectos do construto sentido de vida (SV) e suas relações com variáveis biossociodemográficas e outros construtos psicológicos positivos (otimismo, esperança, satisfação com a vida, felicidade subjetiva, autoestima e autoeficácia) em uma ampla amostra nacional. Para atingir os objetivos propostos, foram desenvolvidos um artigo teórico e seis artigos empíricos. O primeiro artigo apresentou o construto SV, e discutiu as potencialidades e limitações dos principais instrumentos existentes na literatura para avaliação do construto sentido de vida. Posteriormente, foram elaborados três estudos empíricos de adaptação e validação de instrumentos psicológicos para o contexto brasileiro. Os três instrumentos validados foram: 1) Questionário de Sentido de Vida (QSV); 2) Questionário de Fontes de Sentido e de Sentido de Vida (QFSSV); e 3) Escala de Felicidade Subjetiva (EFS). O quinto artigo da tese avaliou como diferentes categorias de sentido interagem com variáveis biossociodemográficas, fontes de sentido e com características psicológicas positivas. O sexto artigo investigou como o construto “busca por sentido” se relaciona com as diferentes categorias de sentido. Além disso, buscou-se compreender se a busca por sentido poderia moderar a relação entre as diferentes categorias de sentido com os índices de bem-estar subjetivo, mensurado pelos construtos satisfação com a vida e felicidade subjetiva. Por fim, o último artigo empírico investigou como diferentes características biossociodemográficas e psicológicas influenciam a intenção das pessoas em participar de futuras etapas desta pesquisa. A amostra total empregada foi de 3,034 sujeitos (63,9% mulheres), com idades variando entre 18 e 91 anos (M = 33,9, DP = 15,01), oriundos de 22 diferentes estados do Brasil. Do total da amostra, 91,4% responderam aos instrumentos em uma plataforma virtual, enquanto 8,6% o fizeram no método papel e caneta. Os três instrumentos adaptados para o contexto brasileiro apresentaram adequadas propriedades psicométricas, sugerindo sua possibilidade de uso em estudos futuros. Os resultados também demonstraram a existência de diferentes categorias de sentido de vida (realização existencial, indiferença existencial, crise existencial, conflito existencial), e que sujeitos inseridos nestas categorias apresentam importantes diferenças no que se refere a suas características biossociodemográficas e psicológicas. Foi descoberto, também, que a busca por sentido é maior entre os que apresentam conflito existencial, embora esteja positivamente relacionada com os níveis de crise existencial. Os resultados desta tese apontam para a necessidade da continuidade dos estudos acerca da temática. Esta tese pretende contribuir para a área da Psicologia Positiva ao fornecer três novos instrumentos psicométricos para uso no contextobrasileiro, e ao apresentar resultados anteriormente não discutidos na literatura da área do sentido de vida. / This dissertation aimed to evaluate different aspects of the construct “meaning in life” (MIL) and its relations with sociodemographic and other positive psychological constructs (optimism, hope, life satisfaction, subjective happiness, self-esteem and self-efficacy) in a large Brazilian sample. To attain the proposed goals, one theoretical and six empirical articles were developed. The first theoretical article presented the MIL construct and discussed the benefits and limitations of the main existing scales designed to evaluate the MIL construct. Further, three validation articles of psychological measures were developed. The three questionnaires were: 1) Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ); 2) Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire (SoMe); and 3) Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS). The fifth article of the dissertation aimed to show how different categories of meaning interacted with sociodemographic variables, sources of meaning and positive psychological characteristics. The sixth article sought to evaluate to what extent the construct “search for meaning” relates to the different categories of meaning. Furthermore, we aimed to assess if search for meaning moderates the relation among the different categories of meaning with subjective well-being. Finally, the last empirical paper evaluated how different sociodemographic and psychological variables influence the intention in participating in the future waves of the present study. Participants were 3.034 subjects (63.9% women) with ages varying from 18 e 91 years old (M = 33.9; DP = 15.01), originated from 22 different Brazilian states. From the total, 91.4% answered the questionnaires in a web-based platform, whereas 8.6% answered in the paper-and-pencil method. The three adapted instruments presented adequate psychometric properties, and suggests its possible use in future studies. The results also showed the existence of different categories of meaning (meaningfulness, existential indifference, existential crisis, existential conflict), and that people inserted in these categories present important differences in their bio-psychossocial and psychological variables. It was also shown that search for meaning is higher among those in the existential conflict group, although search for meaning is positively related to crisis of meaning. The results of this study point to the need for further studies on the subject. This dissertation seeks to contribute to the Positive Psychology field by offering three different psychometric scales to use in the Brazilian context, and to present empirical results not previously achieved, contributing to the knowledge on the MIL literature.

O bem-estar subjetivo, ou felicidade, consiste na maneira como as pessoas avaliam suas próprias vidas, tanto de forma afetiva como cognitiva. Este juízo terá grande importância nas diversas esferas da vida, influenciando o desempenho social e profissional da pessoa. De forma agregada, níveis maiores, ou menores, de bem-estar subjetivo possuem impactos tanto no sistema político quanto na economia. Este estudo aplicou três diferentes questionários de mensuração de bem-estar subjetivo: o Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, com 29 itens; a Escala Geral de Felicidade, com 4 itens e uma escala única em uma amostra de 498 pessoas que trabalham no comércio de Ribeirão Preto e duas cidades vizinhas, e conduziu as análises destes instrumentos. Além destas análises, foram estudadas as diferenças entre os diversos indivíduos que compõem a amostra, no intuito de investigar se idade, sexo, etnia, estado civil, escolaridade, número de filhos, atividade profissional (comerciantes / comerciários), emprego efetivo / temporário, renda, religião, atividade sócio política e saúde poderiam influenciar o nível de bem-estar subjetivo. Algumas destas características mostraram-se significativas. / The subjective well-being, or happiness, consists on the way people see their own lives, in affective or cognitive way. This judgment is very important in the different ambits of life, influencing the social and professional aspects of people. In different levels, the subjective well-being has impact on political and economical systems. This study used three different questionaries to measure the subjective well-being: Oxford Happiness Questionnaire with 29 items; Subjective Happiness Scale, with 4 items, and a single scale with 498 subjects who work in Ribeirão Preto commerce including two other cities. Structural analyses of Oxford Happiness Questionnaire and Subjective Happiness Scale were done. Besides these analyses, we assessed the difference among several subjects from the study group, aiming to investigate if age, gender, ethics, civil status, educational level, number of children, professional activity (salespeople), temporary job or regular job, income, religion, political participation, and health, could influence their level of subjective well-being. Some of these characteristics are significant.

O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar os efeitos do programa intitulado Mindful Creative Thinking (MCT) sobre o nível da criatividade verbal de estudantes universitários de uma escola de negócios. Evidências científicas apontam efeitos positivos das práticas de mindfulness e das forças de caráter cognitivas no desenvolvimento da criatividade verbal. O programa MCT, desenvolvido no presente estudo e de autoria do próprio pesquisador, combina práticas de mindfulness e práticas das forças de caráter, integradas com práticas de treinamento do pensamento criativo. As variáveis estudadas foram fluência (número de ideias), flexibilidade (número de categorias) e originalidade (novidade estatística das respostas). O estudo exploratório utilizou métodos quanti-qualitativos e abordagem analítica de ensaio controlado antes-e-depois (before and after study) com amostra randomizada. O programa MCT foi realizado com 51 graduandos da Faculdade de Administração, Economia e Contabilidade (FEA-RP/USP) de Ribeirão Preto. Os estudantes foram divididos em dois grupos: Experimental (26 participantes) e Controle (25 participantes). Os dados foram coletados por meio da aplicação do Teste de Torrance, Questionário das Cinco Facetas de Mindfulness e de questionário com questões abertas (Questionário MCT), elaborado pelo pesquisador. O resultado da pesquisa demonstrou que o programa Mindful Creative Thinking contribuiu para o desenvolvimento das habilidades criativas e influenciou positivamente no nível de atenção plena dos graduandos. / The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of the Mindful Creative Thinking (MCT) program on the level of verbal creativity of university students in a business school. Scientific evidence points to the positive effects of mindfulness practices and cognitive character forces in the development of verbal creativity. The MCT program, developed in the present study and authored by the researcher himself, combines practices of mindfulness and practices of character forces, integrated with practices of training of creative thinking. The variables studied were fluency (number of ideas), flexibility (number of categories) and originality (statistical novelty of the answers). The exploratory study used quantitative-qualitative methods and analytical approach of a randomized sample before and after study. The MCT program was carried out with 51 graduates from the Faculty of Administration, Economics and Accounting (FEA-RP / USP) of Ribeirão Preto. The students were divided into two groups: Experimental (26 participants) and Control (25 participants). The data were collected through the application of the Torrance Test, Questionnaire of Five Facets of Mindfulness and a questionnaire with open questions (Questionnaire MCT), prepared by the researcher. The result of the research demonstrated that the Mindful Creative Thinking program contributed to the development of creative skills and had a positive influence on the level of attention of undergraduates.

The current study aimed to replicate and extend recent research by Ng, Huebner, and Hills (2015) by investigating the longitudinal, bidirectional relationship between life satisfaction and academic achievement among adolescents. Specifically, students’ baseline (Time 1) life satisfaction was examined as a predictor of academic achievement (as measured by GPA, FCAT-reading DSS scores, attitudes toward school, and goal valuation) one year later (Time 2). The same four academic achievement variables at Time 1 were also examined as a predictor of life satisfaction one year later at Time 2. Positive affect and negative affect were examined as moderators of those relationships. An archival data set that included data from 425 high school students was analyzed. In contrast to findings from prior research, results of four regression analyses indicated that life satisfaction was not a significant predictor of later academic skills (i.e., GPA, FCAT-reading DSS) or academic engagement (i.e., goal valuation, attitude towards school), although there was bivariate support for a link between Time 1 life satisfaction and later academic engagement. When academic variables were considered as predictors of later life satisfaction, there was bivariate support for the relationship between Time 1 GPA and Time 2 life satisfaction. In contrast to hypotheses, regression analyses failed to support a significant relationship between initial academic skills and later life satisfaction. However, moderated regression analyses indicated that academic skills (i.e., GPA, FCAT-reading DSS) predict later life satisfaction for students with greater initial emotional well-being (i.e., low negative affect, high positive affect). In regard to academic engagement, there was bivariate support for a small relationship between initial academic engagement and later life satisfaction, but regression analyses and moderated regression analyses failed to support that relationship. Analyses indicate that initial positive affect was a significant predictor of later life satisfaction and later goal valuation, which supports Frederickson’s (2009) broaden and build theory of positive emotions. Findings of the current study highlight the importance of promoting positive emotions among students, in part as a means to improve life satisfaction and cognitive engagement in school. The current study also provides support for offering mental health services to students with relatively high GPAs and standardized test scores who also experience symptoms of internalizing disorders (i.e., low positive affect, high negative affect). Finally, findings from the current study taken in conjunction with findings reported by Ng et al. (2015) suggest that middle school may be the optimal time for interventions aimed at improving students’ subjective well-being.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / This research study employs a strengths perspective. This means that, instead of the traditional deficits or pathology-based approach of focusing on weaknesses, the focus is on positive outcomes. Fortitude, more specifically, is the strength gained from appraising oneself, one’s family, and one’s social support,in a positive manner. This strength equips people to cope successfully in stressful situations. Fortitude as a construct in the strengths perspective promises to give insight into student success because it takes more than one level of analysis into account. The current research study investigates whether there is a link between fortitude and academic achievement in first year students at the University of the Western Cape / South Africa

Magister Commercii - MCom / The costs of occupational health and well-being are increasingly being considered as sound ‘investments’ as healthy and engaged employees yield direct economic benefits to the company.The concept of Work engagement plays a vital role in this endeavour because engagement entails positive definitions of employee health and promotes the optimal functioning of employees within an organisational setting. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between work engagement, self-efficacy and optimism amongst call centre employees in a retail organisation in the Western Cape. Over the last several years, most call centre research has predominately been focused on the aspects and causes of stress, burnout, and the deterrents of employee’s well-being. In response to the prevailing preoccupation with negative aspects, the research focused on more positive aspects of human functioning and experiences. The sample comprised of ninety three call centre employees who are employed in the customer service department in a major retail organisation in the Western Cape. Convenience sampling was utilised. The measuring instruments included the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, The Life Orientation Test-Revised and The General Self-Efficacy Scale. Statistically significant relationships were found between work engagement, self-efficacy and optimism. It was found that call centre agents displayed average levels of work engagement and optimism however they displayed high levels of self-efficacy. It was furthermore found that a moderate percentage of the variance in work engagement can be explained by self-efficacy and optimism. The implication of the results is that interventions that focus on the personal resources (viz. efficacy beliefs,optimism, hope and resiliency) and job resources (viz. physical, social or organizational aspects of the job) will contribute to increasing levels of work engagement.

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / Work and family are the central and salient domains in an individual's life. Juggling work and family life have always been a challenge for many employees and families (Hammer et al., 2005). However, with the increased interest in the construct of workfamily enrichment, more attention was given to the positive influences across the life domains. Grzywacz and Butler (2005) found that work-family enrichment improved mental and physical well-being. The objective of this study was twofold; (i) to explore and add to existing research done on work-family enrichment and (ii) investigate the relationships between workfamily enrichment, psychological health and subjective wellbeing of employees within a financial services organisation in South Africa. Three hundred and forty seven questionnaires were administered and one hundred and sixty eight completed questionnaires were returned. Purposive sampling was used to select employees to participate in the study. Data was collected by a self-developed biographical questionnaire, Calson, Kacmar, Wayne, and Grzywacz's (2006) Enrichment Scale, General Health Questionnaire developed by Kalliath, O'Driscoll and Brough (2004) and the Personal Wellbeing Index developed by the International Wellbeing Group (2006). The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data and to interpret the descriptive and inferential statistics. Specifically the Pearson Moment Correlation analysis and the T-Test was used. The results indicated that a relationship between work-to-family enrichment and psychological health exist. There was a significant relationship for family-to-work enrichment and psychological health. Furthermore, results indicated a significant relationship between work-to-family enrichment and subjective wellbeing. A significant relationship between family-to-work enrichment and subjective wellbeing was also found. However, no significant differences were found for gender for both work-to-family and family-to-work enrichment. Future considerations, theoretical implications and recommendations for organisations are discussed.

Physician well-being has become an important area of interest given that reduced well-being can have a negative effect on patient outcomes. However, research has predominantly focused on impairment thus studies addressing physicians' positive functioning are limited. The purpose of this two-phase, mixed methods study was to investigate the well-being and self-regulation capacity of physicians using a positive psychology lens. In Phase 1, 132 physicians (n = 40 physicians; n = 92 resident physicians) completed online questionnaires to assess their levels of psychological and affective well-being and self-regulation capacity. Selected based on Phase 1 data, 12 physicians then took part in an in-depth individual interview in Phase 2 to discuss their experiences of psychological well-being and self-regulation. Results of Phase 1 showed that physicians and resident physicians had moderate and high levels of self-regulation capacity, respectively. While both groups reported high levels of psychological well-being, they had average levels of positive and negative affect. MANOVAs confirmed the hypothesis that high self-regulating physicians and resident physicians would have higher levels of psychological well-being and positive affect compared to those with lower levels. However, those with higher self-regulation capacity did not have lower negative affect, nor did physicians have significantly higher levels of psychological and affective well-being than resident physicians. Regression analyses confirmed the hypothesis that a significant amount of variance in levels of psychological well-being would be explained by self-regulation capacity. There was a particularly strong relationship between self-regulation capacity and the dimensions of purpose in life and environmental mastery, which suggests that physicians who effectively self-manage may be better able to preserve a sense of purpose and an adequate work-life balance in their daily life. A qualitative content analysis of the Phase 2 qualitative data revealed that physicians had both high and low functioning experiences of psychological well-being across the dimensions of self-acceptance, positive relations with others, environmental mastery, and autonomy. They, however, reported high functioning for the dimensions of personal growth and purpose in life. Their experiences also varied based on their professional and personal life contexts, with work-life balance emerging as a prevalent theme. Physicians' self-regulation experiences involved individualized preparation, performance, and evaluation processes that were perceived to influence their well-being. Results of a composite analysis suggest that the development of effective self-regulation skills could be one way to help physicians achieve satisfactory levels of well-being.

A dual-factor model of mental health includes indicators of wellness (i.e., subjective well-being) and psychopathology (i.e., internalizing and externalizing behavior problems) in defining psychological wellness. The present empirical investigation examined the utility of SWB and psychopathology examined separately and together (as in a dual-factor model of mental health) in predicting students' subsequent academic achievement and in-school behavior. Specifically, it determined if SWB, psychopathology, and membership in a specific mental health group yielded by the dual-factor model (i.e., complete mental health, vulnerable, symptomatic but content, or troubled) at Time 1 was related to achievement (i.e., GPA, FCAT-math, FCAT-reading, absences, office disciplinary referrals [ODRs]) the following school year (i.e., Time 2). A previously analyzed data set (Time 1) and a different archival data set yielded from student records unique to the current study (Time 2) comprised of data from 300 adolescents were analyzed. Results of regression analyses to explore the predictive initial relationship of mental health to later student achievement indicated that initial SWB predicted student grades one year later, initial internalizing psychopathology predicted absences one year later, and initial externalizing psychopathology predicted grades, absences, and ODRs one year later. Results of mixed model ANCOVAs indicated that students' grades and attendance across time varied as a function of mental health group. Specifically, students belonging to the troubled mental health group declined at a significantly faster rate than youth without psychopathology across time on GPA. In contrast, the slope of students in the symptomatic but content group was not significantly different from the slope of peers with low psychopathology. Additionally, at Time 2, the best school attendance and school grades were found by students who had both average/high SWB and low psychopathology one year earlier, supporting the long-term utility of complete mental health.

The purpose of this study is to describe and explore the happiness, sense of coherence and resilience of rural teachers from a positive psychology framework where positive and healthy adaptation is emphasized. This study forms part of the dissemination phase of a longitudinal study known as STAR (Supportive Teachers Assets and Resilience). Completed questionnaires by twelve rural teachers in STAR schools (2 primary and 1 secondary) in rural Mpumalanga were purposively sampled as data sources for secondary analysis. The measures included the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ), Resilience Scale (RS-14) and the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (SOC-13). Results are presented as descriptive and non-parametric statistics. Results indicated that teachers possess High Moderate to High levels of happiness, Moderate to High Moderate sense of coherence, and High Moderate to high levels of resilience. There was no significant relationship between happiness, sense of coherence and resilience. No significant differences were observed between levels of happiness, sense of coherence and resilience of teachers in (Pre- STAR intervention and post- STAR intervention); nor with regards to gender. Theorizing the findings of this study within the theoretical framework of positive psychology indicates that despite significant risk and adversity, teachers are able to demonstrate positive psychological constructs in the form of happiness (extraversion, kindness, humor, sense of purpose, aesthetic appreciation, locus of control, positive affect, self-efficacy, physical health and self-esteem ), sense of coherence (comprehensibility, manageability and meaning) and resilience (self-reliance, having a purposeful and meaningful life, equanimity, perseverance and existential aloneness). / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Educational Psychology / unrestricted