Momentary PERMA: An Adapted Measurement Tool for Studying Well-Being in Daily Life.

PERMA is a multidimensional framework that explains well-being through five hedonic and eudaimonic psychological elements-Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment. Soon after the PERMA framework was proposed, PERMA-Profiler was introduced as a validated assessment tool for measuring these five elements of well-being from a global perspective. The current study aimed to shed further light onto the measurement of PERMA elements, extending it beyond global evaluations, to daily life assessments and the examination of individual differences in their dynamic characteristics. We introduce mPERMA (momentary PERMA), as an EMA-adapted version of the PERMA-Profiler measure, to assess well-being in daily life. Using data collected in an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) study (N = 160), we first demonstrate the factor structure of mPERMA through a multilevel factor analysis and next examine within-person means and the dynamics of change (e.g., intra-individual variability) in the PERMA elements. Findings revealed that mPERMA displays convergent validity with two global measures of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, namely Flourishing and Subjective Well-Being. Moreover, dynamical characteristics of the five elements of well-being measured over time, map onto their corresponding hedonic or eudaimonic global measures of well-being. Results of this paper present how dynamical features of well-being in daily life provide novel insights into predicting global well-being. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10902-023-00684-w.

Engaging in the good with technology: a framework for examining positive technology use.

The focus on the negative side of technology has become a prominent factor in the understanding of the interactions between humans and technology. However, there is a positive side to technology use that has been less investigated in scientific research. Well-being researchers have determined that it is not just the absence of negative emotions or experiences, but rather the presence and frequency of positive ones that matter most. Therefore, despite the scarcity of research on the positive side of technology, the present conceptual paper focuses on how technology may be used for the good to produce psychological benefits (e.g., greater happiness, lower loneliness, higher peer endorsement). Based on existing literature, we posit at least three directions for good interactions with technology: (1) "seeing good" by focusing on positive visual cues through technology use; (2) "feeling good" by focusing on good feelings that arise from technology use; and (3) "doing good" by focusing on positive actions that can be enacted via technology use. Based on the synthesis of these three components, we propose a framework for technology laden engagement in the good, dubbed as, the Engagement in the Good with Technology (EGT) Framework. Through this framework, we explain how these three distinct aspects of seeing, feeling, and doing good can co-occur and be interrelated, and in turn potentially lead to upward spirals of positive outcomes.

Formalizing psychological interventions through network control theory.

Despite the growing deployment of network representation to comprehend psychological phenomena, the question of whether and how networks can effectively describe the effects of psychological interventions remains elusive. Network control theory, the engineering study of networked interventions, has recently emerged as a viable methodology to characterize and guide interventions. However, there is a scarcity of empirical studies testing the extent to which it can be useful within a psychological context. In this paper, we investigate a representative psychological intervention experiment, use network control theory to model the intervention and predict its effect. Using this data, we showed that: (1) the observed psychological effect, in terms of sensitivity and specificity, relates to the regional network control theoretic metrics (average and modal controllability), (2) the size of change following intervention negatively correlates with a whole-network topology that quantifies the "ease" of change as described by control theory (control energy), and (3) responses after intervention can be predicted based on formal results from control theory. These insights assert that network control theory has significant potential as a tool for investigating psychological interventions. Drawing on this specific example and the overarching framework of network control theory, we further elaborate on the conceptualization of psychological interventions, methodological considerations, and future directions in this burgeoning field.

Negative emodiversity is associated with emotional eating in adolescents: An examination of emotion dynamics in daily life.

INTRODUCTION: Emotional eating is a mental health concern, common in adolescents, that develops as a result of their tendency to use high-energy food to regulate their fluctuating emotions. Due to their highly fluctuating emotional life, adolescents tend to have unique within-person profiles of emotional experiences that change across moments and days, often lost in global assessments of emotions. Hence, it is imperative to examine individual differences in dynamics of emotions, as experienced in daily life, in relation to emotional eating in adolescents. METHODS: In an Ecological Momentary Assessment study, we examined individual differences in three within-person dynamic characteristics (baseline levels, intraindividual variability, and emodiversity) of emotions in 158 dominantly Hispanic adolescents in the United States, aged 14-17 years old, predicting trait-level emotional eating. RESULTS: Results indicated that higher negative emodiversity, baselines, and variability in stress were predictive of emotional eating in adolescents. When all considered together, negative emodiversity (i.e., variety of the types of negative emotions experienced in one's daily life) remained the only significant predictor of emotional eating. CONCLUSIONS: This study affirms the importance of diversity in emotional experiences in relation to emotional eating, particularly in daily contexts of adolescents' lives. Additionally, the study emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between diversity (i.e., variety in types) in positive versus negative emotional experiences with regard to emotional eating. By taking into account the ecological validity of adolescents' daily lives and individual differences in dynamical changes in emotions, we are taking a step forward by shedding light on how the dynamics of negative emotions-in terms of within-person baselines, variability, and diversity-might be related to general levels of emotional eating in adolescents.

Efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety-Related Disorders: A Meta-Analysis of Recent Literature.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Effective treatment of anxiety-related disorders is crucial, considering the prevalence of such disorders and their association with poor psychosocial functioning. To evaluate the most recent evidence on the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety-related disorders in adults, we conducted a meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials published since 2017. RECENT FINDINGS: Ten studies with a total of 1250 participants met the inclusion criteria. Seven of these studies examined PTSD. The findings demonstrated small placebo-controlled effects of CBT on target disorder symptoms (Hedges' g = 0.24, p < 0.05) and depression (Hedges' g = 0.15, p = n.s). When examining only PTSD studies, effects were reduced (Hedges' g = 0.14, p < 0.05). Heterogeneity in most analyses was very low, and no publication bias was found. Effect sizes from placebo-controlled trials from the past 5 years appear to be smaller than those in prior meta-analyses. The findings are largely driven by research on PTSD, with few placebo-controlled trials of other anxiety-related disorders published since 2017.

Survey examination of resilience, psychological, and relational well-being during COVID-19: A developmental and cross-cultural dataset.

The datasets include relevant psychological and demographic variables relating to people's relationships, perceptions, and reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic. Participants were recruited from the United States (N = 396), China (N = 156), and Iran (N = 248). Participants were directed to an online survey that assessed their psychological well-being, affective states, factors related to life satisfaction, and their experiences with the Covid-19 pandemic. For the United States, participants were separated by developmental stage (e.g., young adults between 18 and 35 years old and older adults who were 55 years old or older). Participants from China and Iran were 18 years old or older. Participants from the United States also provided qualitative data in the form of a text-box response where they described their reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic. These data may be relevant for researchers who want to investigate cross-cultural or developmental differences in people's psychological states, perceptions, and reactions in the beginning phases of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Family relationships and adolescent loneliness: An application of social network analysis in family studies.

In family contexts, individuals are embedded in networks of relationships. Social network analysis provides a unique framework to investigate family relationships as interrelated networks above and beyond dyadic familial relationships. In the current paper, we used the notion of triadic closure to investigate how various configurations of family networks, classified by their relationship ties, differ in predicting adolescents' experiences of loneliness. We classified different types of network structures based on whether all 3 family members (i.e., child, mother, father) shared high-quality relationships with one another (closed) or whether 1 or more low quality ties existed in the family triad (open). Results indicated that, compared with adolescents in families containing 1 or more poor-quality ties, adolescents in families containing all high-quality relational ties experienced lower levels of loneliness, above and beyond the impact of gender, parents' education and mental health, and family income. Simply put, adolescents' experiences of loneliness is not tied to the number of high-quality relationships they experience within the family but rather is dependent on the presence of high-quality relationships among all family ties. With the introduction of 1 low-quality relationship within a family triad, additional low-quality relationships appear to make little difference. In line with family systems theory, our examination of the family as a whole, rather than as a summative combination of smaller relationships, indicates that a closed family structure is important for protecting adolescents against experiences of loneliness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The contemptuous separation: Facial expressions of emotion and breakups in young adulthood.

The importance of studying specific and expressed emotions after a stressful life event is well known, yet few studies have moved beyond assessing self-reported emotional responses to a romantic breakup. This study examined associations between computer-recognized facial expressions and self-reported breakup-related distress among recently separated college-aged young adults (N = 135; 37 men) on four visits across 9 weeks. Participants' facial expressions were coded using the Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox while participants spoke about their breakups. Of the seven expressed emotions studied, only Contempt showed a unique association with breakup-related distress over time. At baseline, greater Contempt was associated with less breakup-related distress; however, over time, greater Contempt was associated with greater breakup-related distress.