Laughter in everyday life: an event-based experience sampling method study using wrist-worn wearables.

Laughter is a universal, nonverbal vocal expression of broad significance for humans. Interestingly, rather little is known about how often we laugh and how laughter is associated with our personality. In a large, event-based, experience sampling method study (N = 52; k = 9,261 assessments) using wrist-worn wearables and a physical analogue scale, we analyzed belly laughs and fit of laughter events in participants' everyday life for 4 weeks. Additionally, we assessed associations with laughter frequency such as personality, happiness, life satisfaction, gelotophobia (i.e., fear of being laughed at), and cheerfulness. Validating our new measurement approach (i.e., wearables, physical analogue scale), laughter events elicited higher happiness ratings compared to reference assessments, as expected. On average, participants reported 2.5 belly laughs per day and on every fourth day a fit of laughter. As expected, participants who were happier and more satisfied with their life laughed more frequently than unhappier, unsatisfied participants. Women and younger participants laughed significantly more than men and older participants. Regarding personality, laughter frequency was positively associated with openness and conscientiousness. No significant association was found for gelotophobia, and results for cheerfulness and related concepts were mixed. By using state-of-the-art statistical methods (i.e., recurrent event regression) for the event-based, multi-level data on laughter, we could replicate past results on laughing.

Development of an open-source solution to facilitate the use of one-button wearables in experience sampling designs.

The experience sampling method (ESM) allows for a high degree of ecological validity compared to laboratory research, at the cost of greater effort for participants. It would therefore benefit from implementations that reduce participant effort. In the present paper, we introduce a screenless wrist-worn one-button wearable as an unobtrusive measurement method that can be employed in ESM designs. We developed an open-source Android application to make this commercially available wearable easily configurable and usable. Over the course of six pilot studies, we explored the technical viability (e.g., battery life, reliability of inputs) of this wearable. We compared data quality between wearables and smartphones in a within-subjects design, exploring both the input options of using the number of button presses as a Likert scale, as well as using the angle of the device as a Physical Analogue Scale. Assessments of Extraversion made with either of these methods were highly correlated to comparable assessments made with comparable methods on a smartphone (i.e., Likert scale or a Visual Analogue Scale, respectively). Furthermore, in a preregistered ESM field experiment (N = 134, 4 weeks), we compared compliance to real-life event triggers between wearable devices and smartphones. We found higher numbers of logged events in the wearable group, indicating better adherence to the event-contingent scheduling. Overall, despite the device's minimal capabilities and resulting limitations, one-button wearables can be beneficial for use in ESM designs.

Corrigendum: Heterogeneities in the latent functions of employment: new findings from a large-scale German survey.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.909558.].

Employment status, psychological needs, and mental health: Meta-analytic findings concerning the latent deprivation model.

Marie Jahoda's latent deprivation model proposes that unemployed people have a worse mental health compared to employed people. This is because they suffer not only from a lack of the manifest function of employment (earning money), but also from a lack of five so-called latent functions of employment: Time structure, social contact, collective purpose (i.e., the sense of being useful to other people), status, and activity. In order to test the basic assumptions of this theory, a study based on meta-analytic methods was conducted. Results showed that employed people reported higher levels on all five latent functions, as well as on the manifest function, compared to unemployed people. They also report more latent functions than people who are out of the labor force (OLF). Moreover, OLF-people reported more manifest and latent functions than unemployed people. Specific analyses for three OLF-subgroups found retired people to be almost as deprived of the latent functions (but not the manifest function) as unemployed people, while students were more similar to employed people but still experienced some manifest and latent deprivation. For homemakers, the effect sizes pointed in the expected direction, but they were not significant. Thus, the proposition that employment is the best provider of the latent functions was generally endorsed, although homemakers need further scrutiny in future studies. All latent functions, as well as the manifest function, emerged as significant independent predictors of mental health, when the influence of the other manifest and latent functions was controlled. Together, the dimensions in the model explained 19% of variation in mental health.

Work values across generations: Development of the New Work Values Scale (NWVS) and examination of generational differences.

The "battle for talent" requires organizations to more strongly focus on employer branding strategies, and, thus, on work values or work orientations of potential candidates. We therefore developed and validated the New Work Values Scale (Study 1; n = 316), a brief, 28-item, rating scale that covers a broad set of both, instrumental and symbolic, values, relevant for the appraisal of an employers' attractiveness. We also applied the scale to a sample representative to the German online population, to explore the controversially discussed generational differences in work values (Study 2; n = 956). Results revealed that work values associated with sustainable organizational development or basic needs were highly similar across generations. Younger and older generations only differed significantly with regard to how much they valued clarity, money, career, development, stimulation, and relating, all of which are highly plausible from a lifecycle perspective.

Heterogeneities in the latent functions of employment: New findings from a large-scale German survey.

Building on social psychologist Marie Jahoda's pioneering work, the psychological literature has shown that work fulfills both manifest functions (e.g., monetary returns) and latent functions (e.g., social contact). This article uses data from the German panel study "Labor market and social security" (PASS), which contains information on latent and manifest factors (from a shortened latent and manifest benefits, or LaMB, scale), as well as a large array of other variables for over 9,000 respondents. This probability-sampled data allowed for detailed analyses that have not been previously possible. We investigate differences in these factors by labor market status, among those employed, and among those unemployed. We identify considerable variation between status groups, suggesting that employment, overall, is important and that longer periods of unemployment lead to a gradual decay of the latent and manifest factors. Furthermore, regression analyses show that the LaMB measures account for approximately 70% of the partial correlations between unemployment and various well-being measures.

Self-Reports in the Field Using Smartwatches: An Open-Source Firmware Solution.

In situ self-reports are a useful tool in the social sciences to supplement laboratory experiments. Smartwatches are a promising form factor to realize these methods. However, to date, no user-friendly, general-purpose solution has been available. This article therefore presents a newly developed, free and open-source firmware that facilitates the Experience Sampling Method and other self-report methods on a commercially-available, programmable smartwatch based on the ESP32 microcontroller. In a small-scale pilot study comparing this smartwatch and firmware to an equivalent design on smartphones, participants using the smartwatch showed increased compliance. The presented project demonstrates a useful tool for complementary tools like smartphones for self-reports.

Job Characteristics, Well-Being and Physical Activity: A Field Study Using a Consumer Fitness Tracker.

The relation between job characteristics and health is one of the most important fields of research within work and organizational psychology. Another prominent variable influencing health is physical activity. The physical activity mediated Demand-Control (pamDC) model (Häusser & Mojzisch, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2017.1303759) combines these health indicators in a new theoretical framework. Based on the pamDC model the current study aims to clarify the role of leisure time physical activity (LTPA) in the interplay of job demands, job control and well-being. We expect physical activity to partially mediate the impact of job characteristics on health. To avoid self-report bias considering physical activity we used a consumer fitness tracker to collect additional data. In total, 104 white-collar workers participated in the study. The results show that job control and job demands could predict well-being in cross-sectional analyses. In longitudinal analyses, this was only the case for job demands. Regarding the proposed mediating effect of LTPA between job characteristics and health, we could not detect a significant mediation in our sample. This was true for both self-reported and objective data on physical activity. This study provides a first step in validating the pamDC model and has implications for future research.

Implicit Motives as Determinants of Networking Behaviors.

In today's world of work, networking behaviors are an important and viable strategy to enhance success in work and career domains. Concerning personality as an antecedent of networking behaviors, prior studies have exclusively relied on trait perspectives that focus on how people feel, think, and act. Adopting a motivational perspective on personality, we enlarge this focus and argue that beyond traits predominantly tapping social content, motives shed further light on instrumental aspects of networking - or why people network. We use McClelland's implicit motives framework of need for power (nPow), need for achievement (nAch), and need for affiliation (nAff) to examine instrumental determinants of networking. Using a facet theoretical approach to networking behaviors, we predict differential relations of these three motives with facets of (1) internal vs. external networking and (2) building, maintaining, and using contacts. We conducted an online study, in which we temporally separate measures (N = 539 employed individuals) to examine our hypotheses. Using multivariate latent regression, we show that nAch is related to networking in general. In line with theoretical differences between networking facets, we find that nAff is positively related to building contacts, whereas nPow is positively related to using internal contacts. In sum, this study shows that networking is not only driven by social factors (i.e., nAff), but instead the achievement motive is the most important driver of networking behaviors.

Examining Individual Differences in Interpersonal Influence: On the Psychometric Properties of the Generalized Opinion Leadership Scale (GOLS).

Opinion leadership describes an individual's tendency to informally influence others' attitudes and overt behaviors. In contrast to contemporary views of opinion leadership as a highly domain-specific trait, this paper introduces a multi-faceted personality trait, generalized opinion leadership (GOL) that characterizes exceptionally influential individuals independent of a specific subject area. Two studies report on the psychometric properties of a scale to assess GOL. Study 1 is based on three independent samples (N = 1,575, N = 1,275, and N = 231) and demonstrates the factorial structure of the instrument and its measurement invariance across sex, age, and educational levels. Study 2 (N = 310) analyzes multitrait-multiinformant data to highlight the scale's discriminant validity with regard to innovativeness and trendsetting.

The upward spiral of adolescents' positive school experiences and happiness: investigating reciprocal effects over time.

In line with self-determination theory and Fredrickson's (2001) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, this study adopts a positive perspective on students' school experiences and their general psychological functioning. The reciprocal effects of positive school experiences and happiness, a dimension of affective well-being, are examined over the course of an academic year. Data were collected from 215 secondary school students at 5 measurement occasions. The results of longitudinal cross-lagged structural equation modeling support the notion of an upward spiral of positive school experiences and happiness over time. Positive school experiences had a stable lagged effect on happiness, and, in turn, happiness had a lagged effect on future positive school experiences.

Parents as a resource: communication quality affects the relationship between adolescents' internet use and loneliness.

The authors examined the influence of parent-adolescent communication quality, as perceived by the adolescents, on the link between adolescents' Internet use and loneliness, controlling for perceived family support in general terms. Adolescents (N = 216, M(age) = 15.80 years) provided data on Internet use, loneliness, Internet-related parent-adolescent communication, and perceived family support. Moderated regression analyses showed that Internet-related communication quality determined whether more extensive Internet use was associated with more loneliness. This moderation effect remained significant when perceived family support in general terms was controlled for. Gender and age of the participants did not influence the findings. Implications for successful Internet-related parenting strategies are discussed.

On the link between job insecurity and turnover intentions: moderated mediation by work involvement and well-being.

This study investigates whether work involvement moderates the negative effect of job insecurity on general well-being, and whether reduced general well-being partially explains why job insecurity is associated with increased turnover intentions. The participants were 178 members (52% female) of an online panel who provided information about job insecurity, work involvement, two measures of general well-being (affective and cognitive), and turnover intentions on 2 occasions at an interval of 6 months. In line with expectations, work involvement buffered the negative effect of job insecurity on well-being; however, the buffering effect was significant only for the cross-sectional effect of job insecurity on cognitive well-being. Furthermore, multiple mediation analysis demonstrated that well-being partially mediated the effect of job insecurity on turnover intentions; interestingly, the cross-sectional effect of job insecurity on turnover intentions was partially mediated by cognitive well-being, whereas the longitudinal effect was partially mediated by affective well-being only. The results suggest that the stress process associated with job insecurity differs, depending on which aspect of general well-being and which time frame is investigated.

Beyond debt. A moderator analysis of the relationship between perceived financial strain and mental health.

Heavy debt not only has economic consequences, but has also been related to severe psychological and physical distress. The present study investigates the relationship between perceived financial strain and mental health, and individual-level variables that moderate this relationship. Specifically it was expected that employment, access to the latent benefits of work, and self-efficacy would buffer the relationship between perceived financial strain and mental health. In a 2009 study conducted in Austria, among 106 people on the verge of bankruptcy, perceived financial strain appeared as the strongest predictor of distress. This effect was moderated by two out of five latent benefits of work and self-efficacy, but employment status failed to have a significant effect. The findings show the importance of subjective economic stress for the prediction of mental health among people in serious financial strain and indicate significant moderators of this relationship.