The theory of embodied cognition focuses on mechanisms of meaning beyond the traditional in western metaphysics dichotomy of body and mind. These mechanisms are considered to be the emerging aspects of meaning related to early infant experience of interaction with the environment. Image schema as the earliest form of representation in the mind corresponds to the notion of archetype from analytical psychology. Theory and research suggest that being in touch with the archetypal level of cognition is related to integration of parts of the personality and promotes well-being. Art and creativity are considered to facilitate this process and in this sense to promote healing. Active imagination is a method devised by C. G. Jung to relate to different aspects of the personality through creativity which results in a creative product. Active imagination bears similarity to art, however it focuses not only on the aesthetic outcome of the creative endeavor but also on the transformation of the personality in this process. Analytical psychology studies a number of creative expressions of the products of active imagination such as sand play, drawing, clay modeling, writing, dancing and psychodrama. However, there are no available empirical studies of the healing aspects of creative work with cut flowers. We hypothesized that being involved in creative work with cut flowers would promote well -being expressed in increase of hope, existential/spiritual meaning and humility and decrease of depression, anxiety and physiological symptoms. The participants in our study were undergraduate students from Texas A&M University either involved in a semester long course in Floral Design or in an Introductory Psychology Course. Participants were assessed at two time points on all variables of interest. They were also asked to draw mandalas and to write essays (floral condition). Although quantitative analysis did not find any significant differences between the groups over time as a result of the creative work with cut flowers, the qualitative analysis of the mandala-drawings and the essays showed statistically significant tendency to balance, centeredness and calmness over time in the floral group.

This study examined the role of personality variables in the relationship between subjective well-being and loss of relationships through death or parental divorce. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of extraversion, neuroticism, and locus of control as moderating variables between loss of relationship and subjective well-being in college students. Given the prevalence of loss through either death or parental divorce in college students and potential long-term effects on subjective well-being, the current study attempted to further knowledge in this area. Thus, this study aimed to better understand how life events are moderated by personality in influencing an individual’s subjective well-being. This study predicted that individuals who had experienced a loss of relationship would have a lower subjective well-being than individuals who had not experienced a loss of relationship. This hypothesis was not supported by the data which found that individuals who experienced a loss of relationship did not report lower levels of subjective well-being than individuals who had not experienced a loss of relationship. Additionally, it was expected that individuals who reported higher levels of neuroticism and who had an internal locus of control would have a lower subjective well-being. Again, these hypotheses were not supported, and the results indicated that individuals with higher levels of neuroticism also reported higher levels of positive affect and neuroticism was positively correlated with life satisfaction. Furthermore, individuals who reported higher levels of extraversion did not report lower levels of negative affect or life satisfaction. Finally, this study hypothesized that a loss of relationship through death would result in lower levels of subjective well-being. However, the results of this study indicated that individuals with a loss of relationship through death did not report lower levels of subjective well-being when compared to individuals without a loss of relationship through death. The results of this study further the literature on loss of relationship through death and parental divorce and on subjective well-being. This study provides support for the subjective well-being research and provides contrasting findings in regards to personality variables. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are also addressed.

The purpose of the study is to investigate how older adults adjust to getting older and the losses that come with aging. This study examines how E.T. Higgins's theory of self-discrepancy mediates the relationship between role loss and subjective well-being. Subjective well-being (SWB) is defined as overall life satisfaction, the presence of positive affect and the absence of negative affect. This hypothesis, grounded in both self-discrepancy and life span developmental theory, is that the level of discrepancy between the actual and ideal self mediates the relationship between role losses and mental health. This study examined three models with each investigating how self-discrepancy mediates the relationship between role loss and a different outcome variable for each model: positive affect, negative affect, and satisfaction with life. The sample consisted of adults over the age of 60 living in both community and institutional settings. Several path analyses models were run to examine the tenability of the hypotheses within the three models. This study did not support any of its hypotheses of the indirect and direct effects mediation models with the outcome variables of positive affect, negative affect and satisfaction with life scale. However, it did show support for the self-discrepancy theory. Consistent with the theory, this study showed that those reporting more self-discrepancy reported less satisfaction with life, less positive affect, and more negative affect. This study also showed levels of SWB in non-clinical samples of older adults. This study supported the idea that more self-discrepancy is related to lower levels of SWB. This is important in a clinical setting to know for treatment of older adults suggesting that clinicians help their clients work towards less self-discrepancy and in turn, greater SWB.

How information technology (IT) influence peoples' everyday lives is becoming one of the most important research issues in IS field. In this study a theoretical model based on the self-disclosure theory and the social capital theory has been constructed to research how the bloggers' self-disclosure behaviors in the blogosphere may influence their subjective well-being (SWB). The results suggest that the trust in audiences, self-efficacy for self-disclosure, and stress were the key factors influencing the bloggers' self-disclosure behaviors. In addition, writing blogs provides a channel for users to release their inhibition, enhance their experiences of positive affect, increase their social support and social integration, and extend their social network, all of which in turn enhance the bloggers' perception of subjective well-being. These results provide significant theoretical and practical implications to researchers, enterprises, blog platform designers, and IT policy makers in understanding the roles of blogs in peoples' everyday lives.

<p>Background: Employees are the human capital which contributes to the success and de-velopment of a company to a great extent. Thus, these days, companies do not see them only as factors of production from the classical perspective, but have started to value them as stakeholders and partners with whom long-term goals are achieved together.</p><p>Problem Discussion & Purpose: Researchers realized the need of companies to deal with employees, and for that reason, there has been great time and effort spent on studies con-cerning the relation between job satisfaction and job performance. However, the authors of the thesis came to conclusion that the link between job satisfaction and job performance was still a vague one. Therefore, the thesis is focused on the concept of well-being. The study concentrates on blue-collar workers, and the purpose is to explore and understand the relation between job-related well-being and employees’ job performance in the context of stress caused by following environmental factors: working tools, workload, heat, noise, and safety.</p><p>Theoretical Framework: The theories used for this study are concerning job perform-ance, well-being, and stress. An emphasis is given on the work environmental stressors, which are working tools, workload, safety, heat, and noise.</p><p>Methodology: To make this study, the researchers applied qualitative approach and used 8 semi-structured interviews to collect the data. The authors have conducted personal “face-to-face” interviews. All of them were tape-recorded to provide the maximum accuracy of received data. Information was gathered within one company.</p><p>Conclusion: After conducting research, acquiring empirical findings, and making analysis of data, the thesis authors suggest that there is a link between job performance and job-related well-being via the work environment stressors. The authors of the thesis assume that probably the relationship between well-being and performance can look as a “circle-” or “spiral”-like model, where well-being and performance influence each other mutually, however, in different ways at different stages of the model. The influence of well-being on job performance via researched work environment stressors can be either direct or indirect.</p><p>The study is of a great importance because it gives good insight of seeing well-being as a link to performance which previously was not done by any other research. Being aware of the influence of the environmental factors, managers can better realize how these factors contribute to the performance and well-being of their employees, and find ways how to improve working environment in order to increase workers’ job performance and job-related well-being.</p>

<p>The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in adolescents with respect to interpretation and memory for stimuli outside and inside autobiographical memory and affective personalities. A total of 70 male and 65 female high-school students with an age mean of 17.00 years (S.D. = .88) participated in the experiment. Well-being was measured as Subjective Well-Being (SWB) and Psychological Well-Being (PWB). Interpretation and memory was measured with recognition of words in a short story and recall of life events. Affective personalities were developed through PANAS. The results show self-acceptance and environmental mastery as the eudaimonic predictors of SWB. Adolescents with high levels of well-being remembered more positive life events and used mixed strategies to discriminate memory for words. Adolescents with high levels of well-being showed a positive priming effect and those with low levels a negative priming effect. Finally, Self-actualizing and self-destructive individuals emerged as the happy and unhappy personalities for both perspectives.</p>

Thesis (Psy. D.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-73).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2008. / Title from document title page. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-160).

Människor har i alla tider funderat kring vad livskvalitet innebär och begreppets innebörd har varierat över tid. Levnadsstandard har länge varit ett mått på livskvalitet, men denna syn har kritiserats allt mer för att inte ta hänsyn till mänskliga värden. I och med en förbättrad levnadsstandard har samhället blivit mer individualistiskt som innebär stora valmöjligheter för individen att bestämma hur den vill leva sitt liv. Detta väckte vårt intresse att studera vad människor i vår tid värderar i sina liv och varför? Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur människor i dagens samhälle uppfattar fenomenet livskvalitet. Vi har använt oss av ostrukturerade intervjuer som datainsamlingsmetod. Urvalet består av fem informanter mellan 22 till 83 år som befinner sig i olika livssituationer. Resultatet visar att informanternas uppfattning av fenomenet livskvalitet karaktäriseras av mänskliga värden som att känna gemenskap, uppleva frihet och att utvecklas som människa. Informanterna uppfattar även att livskvalitet är något som skapas i vardagen och påverkas av deras olika förhållningssätt till livet. Dessa delar samverkar och bidrar till en upplevelse av välbefinnande och tillfredställelse med livet som helhet.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a commonly diagnosed mental health condition among children and adolescents, with studies suggesting that OCD has the potential for significant disruption of academic and social performance. Subjective well-being (SWB) represents a non-traditional conceptualization of mental health within the dual factor model, wherein SWB and measures of psychopathology (e.g., problematic levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviors) provide a more comprehensive picture of mental wellness. The current study examined the nature of the relationship between clinical characteristics of pediatric OCD and SWB within school-age youth (N=65) seeking treatment from an outpatient pediatric neuropsychiatric clinic. Additionally, the potential for moderation of this relationship by various symptom-related and demographic variables was examined, as was the potential for SWB to moderate the relationship between clinical characteristics of pediatric OCD and associated impairments in academic and general functioning. Results indicated that a majority of the sample (n=58; 89.2%) met or exceeded the clinically significant threshold for OCD symptoms, while roughly half of the sample (n=33; 50.8%) endorsed significant levels of academic impairment associated with symptom onset. Subjective well being varied among participants, with levels of SWB showing a statistically significant negative relationship with obsessive thoughts, but little to no relationship with compulsive behaviors. Finally, results of multiple regression analyses failed to identify variables that effectively moderated the relationship between clinical characteristics of pediatric OCD and SWB. Similarly, SWB was not indicated as a moderator of the relationship between clinical characteristics of pediatric OCD and academic functioning. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.