From rosy past to happy and flourishing present: Nostalgia as a resource for hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing.

We review recent evidence of nostalgia's ability to enhance and buffer different types of wellbeing. Nostalgia has been associated with increased hedonic wellbeing (e.g., life satisfaction, happiness) in various contexts. Nostalgia is triggered by and can mitigate against threats to hedonic wellbeing. Nostalgia also increases eudaimonic wellbeing (e.g., perceptions of vitality, environmental mastery, positive relationships) and mitigates threats to eudaimonic wellbeing through varying mechanisms. Two applications of these wellbeing benefits are being explored in recent research: nostalgia can help understand how people buffer negative psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic; and is being harnessed for wellbeing interventions. More experimental and longitudinal research is needed to establish and maximize the potential of nostalgia for bolstering resilience.

Funny and meaningful: Media messages that are humorous and moving provide optimal consolation in corona times

During the first months of the corona crisis, people worldwide produced and shared thousands of uplifting (e.g., humorous, moving) media messages. The six studies reported here empirically tested the consolatory effects of viewing such positive media messages in the US, The Netherlands, and the UK. I compared the impact of humorous and moving (i.e., touching, heartwarming) messages, as they provide different kinds of well-being: hedonic versus eudaimonic. Studies 1-3 had correlational designs. Largely in line with the hedonic versus eudaimonic well-being framework, the results suggested that humorous messages lift people's spirits by providing pleasure, while moving messages lift people's spirits by providing realism, optimism, and by illustrating core human values. Studies 4-6 used a pre- and post-measure of negative and positive emotions. The results showed that viewing non-moving humorous messages significantly reduced negative emotions but did not increase positive emotions. Viewing non-humorous moving messages reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions in the US and UK, but not in The Netherlands. Finally, viewing messages that are both humorous and moving reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions in all samples, implying they are particularly valuable as mood-enhancers during crises. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Influence of tourists' well-being in the post-COVID-19 era: Moderating effect of physical distancing.

To prevent COVID-19, tourists are required to maintain distance from other people. However, interpersonal contact is a crucial element in tourists' well-being. It is necessary to ask how eliciting both eudaimonic and hedonic well-being will change as a result. The answer is unclear. To address this issue, we used partial least squares equation modeling to examine a city that has efficiently responded to COVID-19. This study expands the influencing model of tourists' well-being by revealing how physical distance moderates the influence of such factors as contact intention, leisure involvement, and flow experience. The study throws light on tourists' psychological recovery and destination management in the post-COVID-19 era.

Examining the Relationship between Death Anxiety and Well-Being of Frontline Medical Staff during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

To examine the well-being of medical staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted a survey of 705 medical staff who were involved in anti-epidemic work in China from 20 February to 16 March 2020. The findings of the present study showed a "psychological typhoon eye" effect in which the medical staff in areas with a high contagion rate showed a significantly lower level of death anxiety than those in low-contagion regions. We also found a significant negative relationship between death anxiety and hedonic well-being, but there was no relationship between death anxiety and eudaimonic well-being. Moreover, the results revealed that a narcissistic personality moderates the relationships between death anxiety and the two types of well-being. For those who had higher narcissistic personality scores, death anxiety had no negative effect on their well-being. The findings of the present study can help us to better understand the life profiles of medical staff and can also provide some practical implications for understanding the life conditions of medical staff when facing a great health crisis.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Trajectories of Well-Being of Middle-Aged and older Adults: A Multidimensional and Multidirectional Perspective.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in profound changes of individuals' everyday lives. Restrictions in social contacts and in leisure activities and the threatening situation of a spreading virus might have resulted in compromised well-being. At the same time, the pandemic could have promoted specific aspects of psychosocial well-being, e.g., due to intensified relationships with close persons during lockdown periods. We investigated this potentially multidimensional and multi-directional pattern of pandemic-specific change in well-being by analyzing changes over up to 8 years (2012-2020) in two broad well-being domains, hedonic well-being (life satisfaction) and eudaimonic well-being (one overarching eudaimonic well-being indicator as well as environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, and self-acceptance), among 423 adults who were aged 40-98 years in 2012. By modelling longitudinal multilevel regression models and allowing for a measurement-specific intra-individual deviation component from the general slope in 2020, i.e. after the pandemic outbreak, we analyzed potential normative history-graded changes due to the pandemic. All mean-level history-graded changes were nonsignificant, but most revealed substantial interindividual variability, indicating that individuals' pandemic-related well-being changes were remarkably heterogeneous. Only for personal growth and self-acceptance, adding a pandemic-related change component (and interindividual variability thereof) did not result in a better model fit. Individuals with poorer self-rated health at baseline in 2012 revealed a pandemic-related change toward lower life satisfaction. Our findings suggest that not all well-being domains - and not all individuals - are equally prone to "COVID-19 effects", and even pandemic-associated gains were observed for some individuals in certain well-being domains.

Effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on personal well-being: A longitudinal study in Spanish population

The main objective of this longitudinal study, with two measurements, one before the lockdown (M1: March 2-8), and the other during the lockdown (M2: April 20-26), using the same participants, is to determine the evolution of the hedonic and eudaimonic aspects of well-being and the effect of compulsory confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. The study was conducted online, participants completed the domains of the PERMA-Profiler well-being measure at both measurement times (M1 and M2) and the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-sR) measure of dispositional optimism at the first measurement (M1). The results show significant relationships between all the well-being domains and the Overall Well-being (PERMA) score, similar at both measurements (M1 and M2). The comparison of the well-being domains score between the two measurements shows significant differences in Positive Emotion, Engagement, Meaning, and the Overall Well-being score;the score is higher at the first measurement (M1) than at the second measurement (M2). For the Negative Emotion domain, the score is higher during the lockdown (M2). Dispositional optimism has a moderation effect during the lockdown on the Accomplishment domain: the more optimistic the person is, the more their Accomplishment score increases. Gender also has a moderation effect during the lockdown on the Happiness domain: in men, the Happiness score increases during the lockdown and, in women, it decreases, when comparing both genders with their previous non-confinement levels. © 2022: Editum. Universidad de Murcia (Spain).

Predicting place attachment through selfie tourism, memorable tourism experience and hedonic well-being

Purpose>Selfie tourism is a fast-growing phenomenon. Given the convenience of photo-snapping and photo-sharing on social media, selfie tourism is seen as an emerging trend among travelers. This phenomenon gave consequence toward travelers’ behavior, especially on how it can affect their memorable tourism experience and place attachment. This paper aims to examine the relationship between selfie tourism, memorable tourism experience, hedonic well-being and travelers’ place attachment.Design/methodology/approach>A self-administered survey method is used. This research was carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic, consequently, the data were collected via Google Form (online). The respondents are tourists who have visited various tourism destinations in West Sumatera, Indonesia. To test the hypotheses of this study, questionnaires are distributed to 450 respondents. The proposed model was tested using structural equation modeling.Findings>The results of this study shows that selfie tourism has a positive and significant relationship toward both memorable tourism experience and hedonic well-being. In addition, memorable tourism experience and hedonic well-being also have a significant relationship with place attachment.Research limitations/implications>The limitation of this study lies in the limited reference to the relationship between selfie tourism and memorable tourism experience and hedonic well-being, because this is the first study to examine the relationship of these variables. This study also has not tested the direct relationship between selfie tourism and place attachment and has not considered eudaemonic well-being as an antecedent of place attachment. Further research will discuss the direct effect of selfie tourism and eudaemonic experience on place attachment, as well as the moderating effect of memorable tourism and hedonic well-being.Practical implications>This study shows the benefits obtained by tourism managers in preparing selfie facilities, as well as the ability to create meaningful experiences. It provides tourism practitioners with an understanding that tourist place attachment can be improved by both memorable tourism experience and hedonic well-being. Furthermore, both memorable tourism experience and hedonic well-being can be affected by selfie tourism. This understanding can enhance the tourism providers’ strategy to improve services that fit the characteristics of today’s tourists. Therefore, selfie tourism, memorable tourism experience and hedonic well-being can support tourism sustainability, especially in creating place attachments.Originality/value>To the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies that investigated the relationship between selfie tourism, memorable tourism experience and place attachment. From a market-specific context, this is also the first study that investigated the antecedents of place attachment on West Sumatera’s tourism.

The Relationships between Character Strengths and Subjective Wellbeing: Evidence from Greece under Lockdown during COVID-19 Pandemic.

COVID-19 was first identified in December 2019. As long as this type of coronavirus was new, the main way for governments to avoid the spread of the infection was enforced quarantine. Besides public health protection, quarantine can have a psychological impact on the residents, with main symptoms being angst, anxiety, depressive, and PTSD symptoms. As it has been found that character strengths can promote subjective wellbeing, the purpose of the study was to examine this relationship under the new situation of quarantine in the Greek population in adults who were in quarantine for at least two weeks. The total sample consisted of 354 participants who were aged 18-72-years-old. A total of 263 participants were women (74.3%), 91 were men (25.7%), and 94.6% of them were highly educated. The sample was a convenience sample. The tools used were PANAS, PERMA and finally VIA-114GR. The data analysis was completed using SPSS software version 26.0 (IBM Corp. Released 2019. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 26.0. Armonk, NY, USA: IBM Corp) and EQS 6.1 (Multivariate Software Inc.: Encino, CA, USA, 2006). The results showed that love, curiosity, persistence, hope, and zest are strongly associated with subjective wellbeing, even in conditions such as quarantine, and can support specific aspects of it.

Positive Psychological Impacts of Cooking During the COVID-19 Lockdown Period: A Qualitative Study.

This study aims to explore the positive psychological effects of culinary experiences during the COVID-19 lockdown days. Qualitative research methods adopted to provide a deeper understanding. Data was collected through a structured online survey from 30 participants in Turkey. This occurred between April 10th and June 3rd, 2020 when the strict confinement measures were applied. Content analysis was deductively applied according to the Stebbins's Theory of Casual vs. Serious Leisure which classifies the well-being according to characteristics of leisure experiences. The results revealed that at the first stage people went into the kitchen with the motivation of pure happiness and relaxation indicating hedonic well-being. However, people who intended to spend time with culinary activities with the expectations of pure happiness left the kitchen with eudaimonic outcomes by gaining special skills and knowledge, self-actualization and self-enrichment. When these outcomes are evaluated based on the Stebbins's theoretical framework, culinary activities have both casual and serious leisure experience characteristics in terms of psychological well-being. It is understood that culinary activities have versatile leisure characteristics. Thanks to the culinary activities, people do not only obtain pure happiness and relaxation but can draw wider inferences about their life by realizing their own potential during the psychologically challenging COVID-19 lockdown days.