Given increased evidence related to the importance of fostering life satisfaction in the overall population (Diener & Diener, 1996), as well as recent suggestions regarding the importance of increasing positive academic and social outcomes for youth with ADHD (DuPaul, 2007), it is important to gain a clearer understanding of how life satisfaction may be related to ADHD symptoms. Although research has examined the relationship between life satisfaction and externalizing behavior (Suldo & Huebner, 2004a), research on the relationship between life satisfaction and ADHD is currently limited. This study examined if levels of ADHD symptoms predicted reports of life satisfaction in a middle school population (n = 172). Hyperactive/impulsive and inattentive symptoms explained 2.5% of the variance in the dependent variable, life satisfaction, which is not a statistically significant amount, F(2, 169) = 2.2, p = .12. Results of this study also demonstrated that perceived interparental conflict did not moderate the relationship between ADHD symptoms and life satisfaction. Additionally, results of this study demonstrated that life satisfaction did not moderate the relationship between inattentive symptoms and academic achievement in reading, academic achievement in mathematics, and depressive symptoms. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationships among personality factors and life satisfaction in high school students. High school students ( N = 625) completed self-report measures of personality characteristics (namely, extraversion, neuroticism, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness) and global life satisfaction. Results include the specific contribution of each of these personality dimensions as they relate to life satisfaction, gender differences, and the role of perceived classmate support in relationships between personality factors and life satisfaction. Specifically, findings revealed that about 45% of the variance in adolescents‟ life satisfaction scores was accounted for by their self-reported measures of personality factors. Neuroticism emerged as the strongest predictor of life satisfaction. Further, results demonstrated that openness, conscientiousness, and extraversion were significant and unique predictors of life satisfaction. Gender differences were found in the link between agreeableness and life satisfaction such that a higher level of agreeableness was related to higher life satisfaction for girls, but not for boys. Finally, results of the structural equation model that analyzed the role of perceived classmate support in the link between personality factors and life satisfaction revealed significant paths between four personality factors (excluding openness) and perceived classmate support. Further, the path from extraversion to perceived classmate support showed the strongest standardized path coefficient (.42); suggesting that a higher score on extraversion was associated with a higher level of perceived classmate support which, in turn, predicted higher levels of life satisfaction. Neuroticism demonstrated the strongest, albeit inverse, direct path to life satisfaction, further supporting the finding that higher levels of neuroticism were related to lower levels of life satisfaction. Findings provide school psychologists with a better understanding of the demographic (i.e., gender), stable (i.e., personality) and interpersonal characteristics (i.e., perceptions of classmate support) that place students at-risk for negative outcomes via low life satisfaction or, conversely, facilitate optimal wellness via high life satisfaction.

A dual-factor model of mental health includes indicators of wellness (i.e., subjective well-being; SWB) and psychopathology (i.e., internalizing and externalizing behavior problems) in defining youth mental health. In this model, four categories of psychological functioning with distinct levels of SWB and psychopathology emerge, including two that are overlooked (i.e., Vulnerable and Symptomatic but Content) in traditional assessments that assume SWB and psychopathology are opposite ends of the same continuum. The present study investigated the 1-year stability of adolescent mental health as classified by a dual-factor model, and identified predictors of stability and change, in a sample of 425 high school students. Results included that 60% of the high school students remained in the same mental health group over both time points. The Complete Mental Health Group (i.e., high SWB and low psychopathology) showed the most stability over time as nearly 80% of students initially in this group retained that mental health profile one year later. The initially Symptomatic but Content group (i.e., high SWB and high psychopathology) showed the least stability, with only 17% of students remaining in this mental health group the following year. Higher socioeconomic status and lower neuroticism reliably and uniquely predicted which students who initially experienced Complete Mental Health remained that way. Low neuroticism also predicted which students with partial mental health initially (i.e., Vulnerable or Symptomatic but Content) improved to Complete Mental Health. Once the shared variance amongst factors had been accounted for, no factors reliably and uniquely predicted which students initially Troubled stayed that way, nor which students moved from partial mental health (i.e., Vulnerable, Symptomatic but Content) to Troubled. This study contributes to the literature by providing the first examination of the stability of high school students' mental health as defined by a dual-factor model. Additionally, this study provides insight into the factors which predict students' stability and movement across mental health groups over time. Both sets of findings can be useful for school-based mental health professionals' prevention and intervention work with regard to how to operationalize student mental health, and intrapersonal risk factors important to detect.

This study investigated the relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Satisfaction with Life (SWL) among community college students. Some researchers suggest a relationship exists between EI and important outcome variables (e.g., occupational success & satisfaction with life). However, other researchers suggest measures of EI may simply assess personality variables known to predict these variables. I used the Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) to investigate how much additional variance in SWL, EI predicts after three personality variables (self-esteem,depression, and locus of control). A convenience sample of 200 Central Florida Community College Students completed the following instruments: 1) MSCEIT(Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, 2002) to assess EI. 2) RSES (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, 1965) to assess self-esteem. 3) BDI-II (Beck Depression Inventory ll) Beck, Steer, and Brown (1997) to assess depression . 4) I-E Scale (Internal-External Locus of Control Scale) Rotter (1966) to assess locus of control. 5) SWLS (Satisfaction with Life Scale) Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin (1985) to assess overall (global) satisfaction with life. Bivariate correlations between the known predictor variables (self-esteem, depression, and locus of control) and the dependant measure (SWL) are in agreement (size and direction) with prior research. However, correlational analysis suggested no correlation between EI as well as all four components of EI with SWL or the known predictor variables. These findings agree with prior research reporting correlations between EI or components of EI with SWL. A series of five hierarchical regression analyses was conducted to investigate whether EI or any of the four components of EI contributes in the prediction of SWL after accounting for known predictors (self-esteem, depression, and locus of control). The results of all five hierarchical regression analysis suggest s EI as well as the components of EI do not account for additional variance in SWL among community college students.Therefore, results of the study suggest EI is not an important predictor of SWLamong community college students. Limitations of the study as well as suggestions for future research are discussed. In the final sections conclusions as well as some implications for practice in higher education are presented.

This study investigated the mental and physical health of early adolescents (n = 339) using a dual-factor model of mental health. When employing a dual-factor model, mental well-being is not simply assumed from the absence of negative indicators of mental health (psychopathology). Rather, assessments of positive indicators of mental health (subjective well-being) are used to determine one's level of mental wellness. The current study tested the existence of a dual-factor model of mental health by examining the separability of participants' reports of subjective well-being and psychopathology. Specifically, the researcher hypothesized that the assessment of both of these constructs would result in multiple mental health classifications, beyond that of the continuum found with only the assessment of psychopathology (i.e., low to high psychopathology). Findings from this study support the classifications of four mental health groups using measures of subjective well-being and psychopathology. In addition, significant differences in physical health outcomes were found among participants in the different mental health groups. These findings support the existence of a dual-factor model of mental health, and suggest the need for assessment of both negative and positive indicators of functioning in order to accurately estimate adolescents' physical health.

Broad swaths of humanity have become richer, healthier, and better educated. More of the world’s poorest have access to affordable credit, enabling them to invest in a better future. But what are the consequences? Does greater wealth or greater access to credit make people happier or more fulfilled? This dissertation presents essays on the relationship between wealth and well-being, the welfare effects of both debt and debt relief, and the kinds of normative analysis that help to inform good public policy. The first essay, The Methodology of Normative Policy Analysis (joint with Richard Zeckhauser), concerns disagreements in policy analysis and discourse. It provides a simple taxonomy of disagreement, identifying distinct categories within both the positive and values domains of normative policy analysis. Using disagreements in climate policy to illustrate, it demonstrates how illuminating the structure of disagreement helps to clarify the way forward. It concludes by suggesting a structure for policy analysis that can facilitate assessment, comparison, and debate by laying bare the most likely sources of disagreement. The second essay, Wealth and Well-being, tests a fundamental prediction of economic theory: that greater wealth causes greater well-being. It uses a natural experiment to estimate the causal effect of income on subjective well-being. Among a population of indebted farmers in rural India, the marginal effect of income on life satisfaction is found to be positive. However, the source of income appears to exert an important and independent effect. In this study the source is agricultural debt relief, which features a positive marginal effect but also a countervailing negative effect (perhaps due to stigma). The third essay, Moral Hindrance, argues that the total cost of default borne by low-income borrowers, including social, psychological, and other sanctions, is likely to be excessive, giving rise to sub-optimal borrower risk-taking and excessive borrower effort. I call this the moral hindrance problem, to distinguish it from the moral hazard problem often presumed by economists. The essay argues that policy should promote competition among lenders, encourage broader use of collateral, and allow interest rates to rise as necessary to meet borrower demand for varying loan conditions.

This dissertation consists of two studies: the first focuses on reliability of chimpanzee personality and subjective well-being (SWB) scores, the second on validating those scores by comparing them to subjective assessments of behavior in dyads. The first measured reliability of scores of personality and subjective well-being (SWB) across ten years. Dominance rank, and the Dominance and Extraversion Factors significantly correlated between time points. In the second study, I investigated the impact of personality, SWB, and demographic characteristics on individual variation in dyadic-level individual behavior. Age predicted likeability in females, and age and rank predicted likeability in males. Neither personality factors nor SWB were correlated to likeability. An Affable domain scale and an Agonistic domain scale were constructed from the personality items. The Affable domain scale correlated with chimpanzees who were scored high neutral in social interactions, and the agonistic scale correlated with low neutral score in social interactions.

There were several attempts to conceptualize the social value creation process. Previous literature does not commonly consider a non-material approach, using mainly quantitative practices which are not in line with the characteristics of social value. This thesis contributes to the current social value creation studies in two ways. The first centers the subjectivity of social value as a phenomenon embedded in space and time which calls for distinctive ways of understanding its creation. Here the research approaches the hedonic perspective of well-being as a processual phenomenon which makes possible to explore the way social value is created from beneficiaries’ perspective. The second contribution is an empirical study within a voluntary program in order to explore how the beneficiaries’ subjective well-being unfolds over time. In this setting, where impoverished people deal with satisfying their basic needs, a process approach reveals the emotionally loaded context and the complexity of the social value creation. Thereby, the main emphasis of this thesis is to put on a deeper theoretical discussion of the concept of social value creation. The result of this research is an understanding of social value creation as a subjective construct centered on how the process uncovers unique moments experienced by people.

Although online social connectedness is increasing, many assumptions about online social network use still remain. For example, that offline social connectedness is superior to online social connectedness. This cross-sectional study addresses these assumptions by studying online and offline social connectedness in relation to happiness, in a sample of 293 young adults from Sweden, between the ages 18-48. Results show that both online and offline social connectedness was associated to happiness. Moreover, three groups varying on happiness did not differ on various forms of social connectedness; however, very happy individuals reported having more genuine online friends than all other groups. The implications of the study and future directions are discussed.

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。