PSYC 575 Unit III Exam (NO LCC OR RCC)

New Ideas: 3 Dimensions of a Good Life

1. A Psychologically Rich Life:

-->Key Features: variety, interest, and perspective change.

-->Facilitators: curiosity, time, energy, and spontaneity.

-->Outcomes: wisdom.

-->Measurement: psychologically rich life and psychologically rich experience.

2. A Happy Life:

-->Key Features: comfort, joy, and security.

-->Facilitators: money, time, relationships, and a positive mindset.

-->Outcomes: personal satisfaction.

-->Measurement: life satisfaction and positive affect.

3. A Meaningful Life:

-->Key Features: significance, purpose, and coherence.

-->Facilitators: moral principles, consistency, relationships, and religiosity.

-->Outcomes: societal contribution.

-->Measurement: meaning in life and subjective meaning.

New Ideas: Lifespan Patterns of Good Life Dimensions

-Ups & Downs.

-Monotonic Increase.

-->Life stories accumulate.

-->Psychological richness can always go up (meaning or happiness can crumble).

New Ideas: Regenerative Positive Psychology

-Dr. Michael F. Steger → Increasing individual well-being is insufficient! Let's also foster the systems that support well-being.

1. Expand scientific definitions of well-being to encompass broader systems that include individual humans.

2. Build a science of well-being systems that sustain a good life:

-->Environmental systems.

-->Social systems.

-->Political systems.

3. Generate knowledge of positive human caretaking to position individuals as stewards and benefactors of mutual and collective well-being and the systems that support it.

New Ideas: Balance & Harmony Across 4 Key Systems

-Balance: Skillfully finding the right amount.

-Harmony: Elements cohere and complement one another.

-->Akin to Steger's RPP: A focus on well-being systems.

1. WHO+ dimensions: physical, mental, social, and spiritual dimensions of the person.

2. Self-and-other: not only the person, but also other people, and the collective self.

3. People-and-environment: not only people but the wider natural world.

4. Time: not only in the moment, but extended over time.

**Flourishing requires that both humans and their contexts are functioning well.

New Ideas: 5 Principles to Guide Action & Policy Towards Sustainable Well-Being

1. Refraining from morally wrong actions.

2. Preserving basic goods (e.g., human life, friendship).

3. Prioritizing the well-being of the worst off.

4. Prioritizing reinforcement and spillover across systems (e.g., positive emotions).

5. Investing for future growth in well-being.

New Ideas: Intellectual Humility

-Recognizing the limits of your own knowledge and fallibility (metacognitive component/core).

-Valuing other people's beliefs (social/behavioral component).

-Expressing intellectual humility through behavior (social/behavioral component).

New Ideas: Multi-Level Threats to Intellectual Humility

1. Personal:

-->Appraisal of situation with metacognitive limitations and intolerance of uncertainty → Perception of uncertainty as an aversive state and perception of threat.

2. Interpersonal:

-->Ties among a need to attain and protect one's social status, ideological conformity towards an ingroup, valuing relationships over epistemic accuracy, and dogmatism towards an outgroup.

3. Cultural:

-->A cycle of independence in social coordination, underweighting contextual information, and insensitivity to social cues.

New Ideas: Correlates of Intellectual Humility

**Cognitive Qualities:

-->Need for cognition.

-->Love of learning.

-->Intellectual openness.

-->Perspective-taking.

VS.

-->Cognitive rigidity.

-->"Myside" bias (a.k.a., confirmation bias).

-->Affective polarization.

-->Dogmatism.

**Social Qualities:

-->Tolerance of opposing views.

-->Cooperation with outgroups.

-->Forgiveness.

-->Prosociality (e.g., empathy, altruism).

VS.

-->Outgroup hostility.

New Ideas: Increasing Intellectual Humility: Self-Distancing vs. Self-Immersion

-Immersed:

-->How will this impact you personally? Imagine it unfolding before your own eyes

-Distanced:

-->Think of the big picture. Imagine it as if you were a distant observer.

**The distanced condition revealed higher intellectual humility and dialectical reasoning.

**Dialectical Reasoning: Recognizing that the world is in flux and the future is likely to change.

Social Connection: Epidemic of Loneliness

-Lacking social connection is as dangerous as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.

-College students in 2023 nationwide: 53% classified as lonely and lacking social connection.

-Exceeds the risk of obesity and physical inactivity.

Social Connection: Positivity Resonance

-Interpersonally situated experiences are marked by 3 momentary features:

1. Co-experienced positive affect.

2. Cross-person synchrony in caring nonverbal cues.

3. Cross-person synchrony in biological responses

-Which, over time, builds the following as outcomes:

-->Felt rapport or chemistry.

-->Social bonds.

-->Commitment, loyalty, and trust.

-->Individual and collective well-being!

**Positive emotions are the nutrients, while positive resonance can be described as a "superfood".

Social Connection: Examples of Positivity Resonance

1. Laughing with a friend.

2. Celebrating a success at work with a coworker.

3. Expressing compassion where one's suffering is recognized.

-->The key ingredient is kindness.

4. Smiling at a baby.

-->Need for an attentive caretaker.

Social Connection: Positivity Resonance Theory: Elemental Building Block of Love

-Positivity Resonance: love, the emotion.

-Broadens Awareness: felt unity.

-Builds Bonds: love, the relationship.

-Seeds Well-Being: individual and collective.

-Supports future positivity resonance.

Social Connection: Objective, Dyad-Level Measures of Positivity Resonance

-150 long-term married couples:

-->15+ years married (n=79) or 35+ years married (n=71).

1-5-minute conflict conversation (900 seconds).

-Video-recorded for later self-reports and behavioral coding.

-Continuous physiological assessment of heart rate and sweat gland activity.

-Perceived Positivity Resonance Scale:

-->Did you experience a mutual sense of warmth and concern toward one another?

-->Did you feel a mutual sense of being energized and uplifted in each other's company?

-->Did you feel "in sync" with the others?

Social Connection: Element of Positivity Resonance: Co-Experienced Positive Affect

-Watched a video of their conflict conversation and moved the dial to rate their feelings while watching.

-Criteria for co-experienced positive affect:

1. Both wife and husband report positive affect (rating dial above neutral).

2. Both ratings are above their own average.

Social Connection: Element of Positive Resonance: Co-Expressed Positive Affect

-Specific Affect Coding System (SPAFF).

-For each spouse, each of 900 seconds of behavior was coded as:

-->Positive affect.

-->Negative affect.

-->Neutral.

Social Connection: Element of Positive Resonance: Synchrony in Caring Nonverbal Cues

-Based on established nonverbal cues of love and affiliation.

-Cross-person synchrony in:

-->Smiles.

-->Laughter.

-->Head nods.

-->Forward leans.

Social Connection: Element of Positivity Resonance: Synchrony in Heart Rate

-30-second rolling window across 900 seconds.

-Look at how heart rates are changing in the same direction.

Social Connection: A Holistic Measure: Behavioral Indicators of Positivity Resonance (BIPR)

-"Did positivity resonate between the two partners? Did they show actions, words, or voice intonation that conveyed mutual warmth, mutual care, mutual affection, or a shared tempo?

-Each 30-second video bin is coded as 0, 1, or 2.

Social Connection: Computed Multimodal Characteristics Assessed Objectively at the Level of the Couple

-Positivity Resonance:

-->Co-experienced positive affect.

-->Co-expressed positive affect.

-->Synchrony in caring nonverbals.

-->Synchrony in heart rate.

-->BIPR.

Social Connection: Individual-Level Correlates of Perceived Positive Resonance

-Flourishing mental health (+).

-Resilience (+).

-Meaning in life (+).

-Depressive symptoms (-).

-Loneliness (-).

-Stress (-).

-Anxiety (-).

-->In 2020, with COVID.

-->Independent of solo positive affect and interaction quantity.

Social Connection: Not Just With Close Others

-Strong ties, weak ties, and no ties.

-->The distinction between weak ties and no ties.

-Positivity resonance with weak ties and no ties independently predicts:

-->Flourish mental health.

-->Meaning in life.

-->Belonging.

-->Reduced depression, anxiety, stress, and loneliness.

**Having a wide range of tie types matters most.

Social Connection: Individual-Level Correlates of Objectively Assessed Positive Resonance

-Above-average positivity resonance during conversation led to better health outcomes.

**BOTTOM LINE: Predicts trajectories of chronic illness over 13 years.

-78% decrease in expected mortality per 1 SD increase in positivity resonance (quality of marital interaction matters).

-->Independent of demographics, health symptoms, health behaviors, solo positive affect, and marital satisfaction.

**BOTTOM LINE: Predicts longevity over 30 years.

Social Connection: Relational-Level Correlates of Objectively Assessed Positive Resonance

-Marital satisfaction is independent of:

-->Solo positive affect.

-->Shared positive affect.

-->Overall affective tone.

Social Connection: Communal-Level Correlates of Perceived Positive Resonance

-Prosocial Tendencies:

-->Spirituality.

-->Altruism.

-->Humility.

-Positivity Resonance during COVID → Prosocial Tendencies → Hygienic Behavior and Favor for COVID Vaccination.

**Conclusion: Positivity resonance is a health behavior for the common good.

Social Connection: Multi-Level Conducive Conditions

1. Episode-Level:

**Real-time sensory connection (E).

-Link between face-to-face and positivity resonance emerges:

-->Between-persons: Those with more face-to-face interactions = positivity resonance.

-->Within-persons: Face-to-face episodes include more positivity resonance relative to remote episodes (justifies the effort required to meet up face-to-face).

**Perceived safety (T).

-During interactions with weak ties and strangers:

-->Take a moment to picture the place where you interacted with this stranger.

-->Throughout my stay in this location, I felt that someone would stop to help me if I needed it.

(Hypothesis: Episode-level perceived safety will correlate with perceived positivity resonance with strangers.)

2. Individual-Level:

**Generalized trust (E).

-Generalized trust is associated with positivity resonance with strangers.

-Generalized trust --> positivity resonance with strangers.

**High-quality listening (E).

-Follow-up questions and verbal validation.

3. Collective-Level:

**Lesser anticipated discrimination (E).

-Experiences related to who you are (how you describe yourself and how others describe you).

-->E.g., skin color, nationality, religion, gender, etc.

-"Because of who I am, strangers may treat me with less respect than others".

-Anticipated Discrimination → Generalized Trust → Positivity Resonance with strangers (same for weak ties).

**Civic engagement (E).

-Self-reported civic engagement = positivity resonance with strangers (same for weak ties).

4. Structural-Level:

**Lesser economic inequality (E).

-Perceived economic inequality is tied to positivity resonance with weak ties.

-Mediated by psychological safety.

**Built environment (E).

-Example: Sidewalks on most of the streets in my neighborhood.

-Neighborhood walking environment → Positivity resonance with strangers (same for weak ties).

Social Connection: Quality of Weak-Tie Interactions Matters (Zoe Hansen)

-More likely to maintain enjoyable behavior.

-Positivity resonance may emerge:

-->Decreased loneliness.

-->Increased resilience.

-->Increased meaning.

-->Increased mental health.

Social Connection: Behavior Intervention (Zoe Hansen)

-Ellie, a virtual human avatar.

-->Personalized if-then plans.

-2 x 2 experimental design.

-->Discussion Topic: Weak-tie + stranger connectedness OR diaphragmatic breathing.

-->Nonverbal Cues: Positive or neutral.

-1 day later: Reported emotions and behaviors.

-2 days later: Conversed with a stranger in the lab.

**Weak-tie positivity resonance and strong-tie positivity resonance independently predicted positive mental health and a sense of belonging.

Social Connection: Post-Intervention Results (Zoe Hansen)

-Predicted the frequency of weak-tie and stranger interactions.

-Predicted positivity resonance in weak-tie and stranger interactions.

-Predicted connection quality (i.e., response time) with strangers.

Social Connection: Why Do People Avoid Talking To Strangers? (Zoe Hansen)

-Fear of conversation enjoyment.

-Fear of interpersonal liking.

-Fear of conversational ability.

-Participants are worried more about:

-->The partner's conversational enjoyment than their own.

-->The partner's liking of them than their liking of the partner.

**Are these fears accurate? --> After a conversation with a stranger, participants scored lower than the scale midpoint (i.e., had lower fears) for each type of fear.

Social Connection: How Do Fears Relate to Behavior? (Zoe Hansen)

-Higher frequency of conversations with strangers in the past week relates to:

-->A lower fear of personal conversation enjoyment.

-->A lower fear of personal conversation ability.

-->A lower fear of partners' liking of oneself.

-Those who chose to engage in stranger interactions had:

-->A higher expectation of liking the partner.

-->A higher expectation of partners' conversational ability.

-->A higher expectation of the partner liking them.

Social Connection: Importance of Social Contact With Strangers (Zoe Hansen)

-Interdependence Theory:

-->Conflicts of interest (corresponding vs. conflicting).

-->Mutual dependence (independence vs. dependence).

-->Relative power (high vs. low).

**In general, results show more correspondence, mutual dependence, and equal power.

-Proposition 1: Most interaction situations with strangers are benign.

-->Corresponding interest and mutual dependence → increased social behavior.

-Proposition 2: Most strangers are benign.

-->The presence of a stranger increases social mindfulness (i.e., low-cost cooperation/choosing the blue pen).

-Proposition 3: Most interactions with strangers enhance well-being.

-->Number of times greeting another person → increased feelings of belonging and subjective well-being.

-->Instructed to initiate a brief encounter → increased happiness.

Social Connection: Relationship Formation (Zoe Hansen)

-UNC Freshmen:

-->Complete the "social interaction survey" after a notable interaction.

-->1-week follow-up and end-of-semester report.

-Three key interpersonal signals are theorized to promote relationships:

1. Affectionate Touch.

2. Share Laughter.

3. Expressed Gratitude.

-->Each independently increased an interest in affiliating.

**Which, in turn, predicted reconnection within one week, future relationship status, future behavioral affiliation, and future relationship quality.

Social Connection: Optimal Foraging Theory (Zoe Hansen)

**Exploiting known resources vs. Exploring novel opportunities (first researched in animals).

-Exploiting:

-->The reward is more guaranteed.

-->Uses fewer resources.

-->Less risk.

-->However, you might miss out on new opportunities.

-Exploring:

-->Potential higher reward.

-->More information is gained.

-->However requires more resources, introduces new risk, and there are fewer resources devoted to close friends.

**The ideal strategy for searching for resources depends on:

-->Features of the searching organisms.

-->Environment.

-->Desired resources.

-->Interactions between them.

1. Personal-level factors:

-->Cognitive capacity to explore.

-->Motivation to seek novelty.

-->Motivation to avoid risk.

-->Trait affect (i.e., trait level positive affect, neuroticism, depression).

-->Social desirability.

2. State-level factors:

-->Familiarity with the environment.

-->Sense of security.

-->Energy level.

-->Affective state.

3. Situational factors:

-->Resource availability.

-->Resource stability.

-->Environmental threats.

-->Physical space.

-->Cultural diversity.

-->Social norms.

Kindness: Do Unto Others or Treat Yourself?

-Positive emotions improved when participants engaged in prosocial behavior.

-Flourishing = Feel good + Do good.

**BOTTOM LINE: Increases in positive emotions account for (mediate) improvements in flourishing mental health.

Kindness: Does the Target of Your Kindness Matter?

-Ps randomized to one of 5 conditions over 7 days (N=691).

-->Kindness to strong ties.

-->Kindness to weak ties.

-->Kindness to self.

-->Observe your own kindness.

-->No activity control.

-Outcome measured: Happiness.

**The criteria did not matter; Each act was equally effective.

Kindness: Performing vs. Recalling Acts of Kindness

-Ps randomized to one of 4 conditions (N=532).

-->Perform acts of kindness.

-->Recall acts of kindness.

-->Perform and recall acts of kindness.

-->No activity control.

-Well-being outcomes assessed: Positive affect, negative affect, life satisfaction.

**All 3 prosocial groups showed the same well-being benefits.

**BOTTOM LINE: Behavioral or cognitive kindess PPI's raised well-being, with no additive or synergistic effects from their combination.

-Why doesn't actual kind-hearted behavior matter more?

-->Might kindness to others matter at levels other than subjective well-being?

Kindness: Genomic Effects of Kindness to Others

-Ps randomized to one of 4 acts of kindness conditions (N=159).

-->The "other" condition results in the gene expression going in the opposite direction of adversity (kindness signals your immune system).

**REPRISE: The same effects as for eudaimonic well-being.

Kindness: Origins of Altruism in Offspring Care

-Altruism is a behavior that benefits another at a current cost to the self.

-->Ex. A dog sacrificing his life to save his owner (cross-species altruism).

-Situational "releasers" of care that do not require extensive cognition:

-->Perceived target → Attention to the target state → Form a response plan → Altruistic response.

**BOTTOM LINE: Homology across altruistic responding and offspring retrieval (i.e., active offspring care) suggests human altruism is directly evolved from the neural and behavioral systems for caring for and retrieving offspring.

Kindness: What Predicts Altruism? Hypothesized Cost-Benefit Analysis

-M(D(1 + Bself) + K*Brecipient + Cinaction) > Cacation.

**The benefits have to outweigh the costs of action.

-->M= Social momentum toward prosociality.

-->B= The perceived benefit (to self or the recipient).

-->D= The defaults related to the self.

-->K= Biases/perceptions of the specific recipient.

-->C= Costs (of action or inaction).

-Prosociality constructs at 4 levels:

1. Intrapsychic:

-->Intuitive bias (D).

-->Individual differences (D).

-->Giving feels good (Bself).

-->Guilt (Cinaction).

2. Dyadic:

-->Reciprocity (Bself).

-->Prosocial detection (K).

-->Self-other similarity (K).

3. Group:

-->Prosocial contagion (D).

-->Reputation (Bself).

-->Gossip (Cinaction).

-->Altruistic punishment (Cinaction).

4. Cultural:

-->Norms and values (M).

-->Religion (M).

Kindness: Kindness + Awareness of Good/Bad Fortune

-Our own positive emotions.

-Another's good fortune (envy or joy?).

-Our own negative emotions.

-Another's bad fortune (compassion or celebration?).

Kindness: Compassion Elevates Cardiac Vagal Activity

**REPRISE: Cardiac Vagal activity is linked to social attunement and emotion regulation.

-Watching a compassion film showed higher heart-rate variability compared to the pride and inspiration conditions.

-->Medium effect size is also supported by meta-analysis.

Kindness: Volunteers Live Longer: Meta-Analytic Results

-For effect sizes less than 1.00, smaller values indicate larger, beneficial effects of volunteering on mortality risk.

-Volunteering reduced the mortality risk by 47%.

-Effects on longevity remain when controlling for:

-->Demographics.

-->Social class.

-->Work status.

-->Marital status.

-->Religiosity.

-->Social connection.

-->Health symptoms and behaviors.

Kindness: Two Biological Modes of Being

1. Self-Survival Mode.

2. Species-Survival Mode that rests on compassion.

-->The situation matters!

-->Evolutionary Roots of Compassion (a.k.a., Sympathy).

Kindness: Types of Responses to Sharing Good News

1. Constructive & Active (sympathetic joy):

-->Authentically engaged.

-->Showcase the good.

-->Build joy.

2. Destructive & Passive:

-->Changes the channel.

-->One-ups the news.

-->Ignores the news.

3. Active & Destructive:

-->Elaborates concerns.

-->Quashes the news.

-->Kills the joy.

4. Passive & Constructive:

-->Quiet, understated support.

-->Happy for the person.

-->Seems disengaged.

Kindness: Interpersonal Model of Capitalization

-Person A's capitalization attempt - - > Person B's response to the attempt → Person A's perceptions of B's response → A's intrapersonal outcomes & Interpersonal outcomes from both perspectives - - > Future interactions.

**Solid lines are strongly supported by research.

-->Safely testing the safety net/support systems.

Kindness: What is Unique About Kind Acts?

-Randomized to enact one of 4 positive behaviors over 2 weeks with the goal to compare acts of kindness to related positive behaviors with potential active ingredients removed.

-->Kindness to Others.

-->Kindness to Self (social element is removed).

-->Extraverted Behavior (kindness element is removed).

-->Open-minded Behavior (social and kindness elements removed).

**Acts of kindness to others showed the highest level of eudaimonia (meaningfulness & competence).

Kindness: 3 Elements of Self-Compassion

-Definition: A caring attitude toward oneself when facing a threat.

1. Self-kindness vs. Self-judgment.

2. A Sense of Common Humanity vs. Isolation.

3. Mindfulness vs. Over-identification.

Kindness: Self-Compassion & Coping With Stress: A Meta-Analysis of 130 Studies

-Forms of Coping → Adaptive Coping (problem-focused or emotional) + Maladaptive coping (emotional-avoidance).

-Self-Compassion is linked to:

-->More Adaptive coping (r=.306).

-->More problem-focused coping (r=.205).

-->More emotional approach coping.(r=.340).

-Less Maladaptive coping.

**Moderated by Age: Older participants showed stronger links between self-compassion and adaptive coping.

Kindness: Self-Compassion (SC) vs. Self-Esteem (SE)

-Reactions to unpleasant interpersonal feedback (Great vs. so-so personality):

-->The biggest negative affect exists with low self-esteem and low self-compassion.

-->SC buffers the emotional pain for low SE.

-->Higher self-compassion showed no change following feedback regarding their views on their own personality.

-->Higher self-esteem showed a defensive pattern when receiving a neutral response.

**BOTTOM LINE: A pattern of defensive attribution emerges for participants with LOW SC and participants with HIGH SE.

Kindness: Parent-Child Relationship Quality Predicts Offspring Dispositional Compassion 3 Decades Later

-Emotional Warmth (parent-reported):

-->My child is emotionally important to me.

-->I enjoy spending time with my child.

-->I am emotionally important to my child.

-->My child enables me to fulfill myself.

**High emotional warmth showed higher compassion decades later.

Kindness: Does Past Adversity Heighten Compassion?

-MTurk workers completed surveys of 1. Adverse life experiences 2. Empathy 3. Dispositional compassion and 4. Offered the chance to donate up to $1 to the American Red Cross.

-->Adversity is positively associated with perspective taking and empathic concern (higher), which predicts dispositional compassion, leading to charitable donation.

**BOTTOM LINE: Greater past adversity predicts greater empathic concern, compassion, and altruistic behavior.

-51 college students completed surveys of 1. Adverse life experiences 2. Empathy 3. Dispositional compassion. In lab session the next day, they had the chance to help another student who felt ill by taking on work to relieve the person's burden.

**BOTTOM LINE: Greater past adversity predicts greater empathy, compassion, and more minutes spent helping.

Kindness: Value Placed on Distant Others' Welfare

-Extraordinary Altruists: Normatively rare altruistic actions.

-->Heroic rescuers.

-->Kidney donors, non-directed.

-->Kidney donors, directed.

-->Liver donors.

-->Marrow or stem cell donors.

-->Humanitarian aid workers.

-Imagine a list of 100 people you know (from best to least).

-How much would you give to a certain person or to yourself?

**All groups placed value on those more distant on the list (less selfish than the average human).

Kindness: Other Evidence of Unselfishness Among Extraordinary Altruists

-Higher on fairness, modesty, and lack of greed.

-Lower personal distress during emergencies and in response to others' distress.

**BOTTOM LINE: Extreme altruists are not all-around "better" people or "saints", only less selfish.

Kindness: People in More Racially Diverse Neighborhoods Engage in More Acts of Kindness

-Study 1: Across 61 million tweets, those originating from more racially diverse metro areas included more prosocial themes (e.g., charity, helpful, selfless).

-Study 2: Opened their homes to those stranded by the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

-Studies 3 & 4: Helped a stranger in the last 30 days.

-Study 5: Experiment to test causality → Participants randomized to pictures of hypothetical neighbors; outcome assessed was that offers help those stranded by bomb blast in the neighborhood.

**Diversity → Identification with all of humanity (mediator) → Helping.

Kindness: Social Class Predicts Compassion

-Higher social class predicts lower compassion due to the active ingredient of distress perceptions.

-Poorer individuals:

-->Live in more prosocial communities (boosts M).

-->Rely on others more, so reputation matters (boosts Bself).

-->Experience greater compassion, (i.e., attuned to the perceived need of the recipient) (boosts K).

Kindness: Benefits of Acts of Kindness May Be Limited to Independent Cultural Contexts

-The U.S. shows greater well-being benefits from post-kindness/gratitude acts than South Korea.

-Highlighting the benefits to self increases the effects of life satisfaction in the U.S.

Kindness: Global Variation in Subjective Well-Being Predicts 7 Forms of Altruism

...especially in individualistic cultures.

1. Volunteering.

2. Blood Donation.

3. Marrow Registration.

4. Charitable Donations.

5. Everyday Helping.

6. Kidney Donation.

7. Animal Welfare.

-Higher levels of altruism are correlated with overall well-being in the U.S.

**BOTTOM LINE: When resources and cultural values provide the objective and subjective means for pursuing individual goals, altruism is among the goals people become more inclined to pursue.

Gratitude: Appraisal Patterns for Circumstances that Elicit Gratitude

-Gratitude is the dancing partner of kindness.

-Appraisal Pattern:

-->High pleasantness.

-->High relevance.

-->Agency: Other > Self.

-->Control: Other > Self

-Core Relational Theme:

-->The appreciation of a beneficial or altruistic gift.

-->Necessary Cognitive Abilities: Counterfactual Thinking and Theory of Mind (without these, joy or entitlement are more probable).

Gratitude: Near Enemies of Gratitude

-Mere politeness.

-Indebtedness ("Now I have to return the favor...") → Unpleasant feeling.

-Gratitude with Mixed Emotions.

-->Gratitude + Guilt (with benefactor inconvenience).

-->Gratitude + Anger (with expected reciprocity).

->Gratitude + Disappointment (with unhelpful help).

Gratitude: Appraisal Tendencies Effects: The Lenses Through Which You Take in New Information

-Appraisal Tendency: An emotion-specific appraisal tendency defines how specific emotions color subsequent social judgements by prioritizing specific sociomoral concerns that are semantically related to the initial emotion's appraisals.

-Sociomoral concern for gratitude → Reciprocity of kindness.

-What lenses do you tend to wear? → Entitlement goggles or gift goggles?

Gratitude: Find, Remind, & Bind Theory: Gratitude Functions to Strengthen Relationships With Responsive Interaction Partners

-Find: Identify a new high-quality relationship partner.

-Remind: Awaken to a current high-quality relationship partner.

-Bind: Strengthen the tie between relationship partners.

-->Gratitude signals communal norms vs. reciprocal tit-for-tat exchange.

-->Gratitude triggers upward spirals toward mutually responsive behaviors (i.e., seeing what matters most to them).

**Gratitude is at the heart of our most important relationships!

Gratitude: Putting the "You" in "Thank You": Other-Praising as the Active Ingredient

-154 members of 77 romantic couples had 3 videotaped conversations:

-->Share personal good news.

-->Share personal bad news.

-->Express appreciation.

-->The partner rated the expressor's responsiveness in each.

**RESULTS: Perceived responsiveness in gratitude expressions ("I feel seen") uniquely predicts improved relationships satisfaction over 6 months.

-370 videos of expressed appreciation coded for:

1. Other-Praise:

-->"You know I'm a big flowers person".

-->"You go out of your way".

-->"I feel like you're really good at that".

**Only Other-Praise predicts partner-rated responsiveness and felt love and other positive emotions!

2. Self-Benefit:

-->"It allowed me to relax".

-->"It makes me happy".

Gratitude: Biological Underpinnings of Expressed Appreciation

-How much oxytocin was present within the perceived partner of the relationship?

-->High target oxytocin in the perceiver had higher percpetions in both the low and high quality of the expressers' praising behavior.

**Oxytocin was like rose-colored glasses.

Gratitude: Experiments 1-3: Edit a Movie Review With Typos

-Participants bolded the most useful sentences and underlined the least useful sentences.

-Participants viewed an example of the task. Gratitude condition participants saw gratitude expressed in comment bubbles.

-Participants completed bolding and underlining, in which 6 typos were embedded.

-->Gratitude expression resulted in a higher number of typos corrected.

-->38.8% went above and beyond to help the author when the author expressed gratitude to someone else.

Gratitude: Experiments 4 & 5

-Participants watch a video (gratitude or neutral).

-Opportunity for self-disclosure.

-->More open to a video of someone expressing thanks to another person.

Gratitude: Experiment 7: Perceived Responsiveness Again Emerges as an Active Ingredient

-Other-praising gratitude expression → Perceived responsiveness → Desire to affiliate with the grateful person and willingness to help the grateful person.

-Willingness to help:

-->"If someone whom they thought was a good friend insulted them and told them that they didn't want to see them again".

-->"If they were in a crisis, even though you would have to go out of your way to do so".

-->"If a good friend of theirs had been in a car accidernt and was hospitalized in serious condition".

Gratitude: The Gratitude Visit

-One of the original PPIs → Participants were given one week to write and then deliver a letter of gratitude in person to someone who had been especially kind to them but had never been properly thanked.

**Benefits:

-->Reported greater happiness, even the next month.

-->Reported less depression for a month.

-->Effective, but short-lived.

Gratitude: Gratitude Letters

-Randomized to write 3 gratitude letters over the month or complete weekly surveys.

**Results:

-->Increase happiness and life satisfaction.

-->Decreased depression.

Gratitude: Counting Blessings

-"There are many things in our lives, both large and small, that we might be grateful for. Think back over the past week and write down up to 5 things in your life you are grateful for".

-65 people with chronic health conditions were randomized to count blessings for 21 days.

**Results:

-->Self-Reported: Higher subjective well-being, life satisfaction, social connectedness, and sleep duration and quality.

-->Spouse-Reported: Increase positive affect and life satisfaction.

Gratitude: Do Some Ways of Expressing Gratitude Have More Well-Being Benefits Than Others

-Randomized to one of 5 gratitude activities performed each day for a week or to an active control.

1. Social, List Format → Gratitude To: Lists:

-->Write gratitude lists of people you're grateful for.

2. Social, Long Writing Format → Gratitude For: Letters:

-->Write gratitude letters to benefactors, BUT there's also indebtedness.

**Showed well-being benefits.

3. Nonsocial, List Format → Gratitude For: Lists:

-->Write gratitude lists of things you're grateful for.

4. Nonsocial, Long Writing Format → Gratitude For: Essays:

-->Write essays about things you're grateful for.

**Showed well-being benefits.

5. Unconstrained List:

-->Write gratitude lists about people and things.

**Showed the GREATEST well-being benefits.

6. Active Control:

-->Write about daily activities.

Gratitude: Six-Week Gratitude Intervention Via Gratitude App

-Method: 849 people randomized to a 6-week gratitude intervention vs. waitlist control during COVID.

**Results:

-->Increased well-being.

-->Decreased anxiety, depression, and stress.

-Intervention effects were mediated by:

-->Increased gratitude, positive reframing, and reduced rumination.

**Well-being benefits rise with the number of weekly modules completed.

RCC New Ideas 1: According to Steger (2024)'s paper on regenerative positive psychology, which pillar of traditional ("as usual") positive psychology, introduced at the field's onset, has received the least empirical attention?

A. positive traits

B. positive environments

C. positive experiences

D. positive institutions

D

LCC New Ideas 1: The daily life of Hirayama, the main character in the Wim Wender film Perfect Days, is very routinized. One of his lunchtime habits is to take analog photos of trees. Which concept from PSYC 575 does this habit best represent and why?

A. The character strength of zest, because this habit channels his high energy and excitement.

B. The undo effect, because taking the photos helps him to recover from his job stress.

C. Obsessive passion, because taking the photos controls his life.

D. Harmonious passion, because the photos bring him steady enjoyment.

D

RCC New Ideas 2: Steger (2024)'s paper on reorienting wellbeing science to meet pressing world realities presents three pillars to serve as goalposts for a new regenerative positive psychology. Which of the following is NOT one of these pillars?

A. Expand definitions of well-being.

B. Design sustainable wellbeing interventions.

C. Generate knowledge of positive human caretaking.

D. Build a science of wellbeing systems.

B

LCC New Ideas 2: At the end of the Wim Wender film Perfect Days, the main character, Hirayama, plays shadow tag with a man he just met who discloses that he is dying of cancer. Which concept from PSYC 575 does Hirayama's behavioral choice best represent and why?

A. Decentering, because playfulness is incompatible with fixation.

B. Meaning in life, because the man Hirayama just met is dying.

C. The undo effect, because playfulness helps both men overcome negative emotions.

D. Harmonious passion, because Hirayama devotes considerable time to shadow tag.

C

RCC New Ideas 3: According to the reading by Oishi & Westgate (2022), which of the following personality traits is most associated with living a psychologically rich life?

A. Conscientiousness

B. Neuroticism

C. Openness

D. Agreeableness

C

LCC New Ideas 3: According to the definition of intellectual humility presented in lecture, which of the following is the CORE COMPONENT of that definition?

A. Willingness to cooperate with people who hold opposing views.

B. Valuing other people's opinions.

C. Willingness to listen to people who hold opposing views.

D. Recognizing the limits of one's own knowledge.

D

RCC Connections 1: Fredrickson (2016) defines love-the-emotion as a micro-moment of positivity resonance, during which three elements emerge between individuals at the same time. Which is NOT one of these elements?

A. shared positive emotion

B. mutual care

C. relationship commitment

D. biobehavioral synchrony

C

LCC Connections 1: A longitudinal study of married couples was used to develop an objective, dyad-level measure of positivity resonance. According to evidence presented in lecture, which of the following was NOT predicted by objectively assessed positivity resonance?

A. longevity over 30 years

B. healthier trajectories of chronic illness symptoms over 13 years

C. lower divorce rates

D. higher marital satisfaction

C

RCC Connections 2: According to the 2024 article by West and her coauthors on improving social connection with weak ties and strangers, which two variables below are independently associated with young adults' better mental health and social well-being?

A. frequency of weak-tie interactions & frequency of strong-tie interactions

B. positivity resonance with weak ties & positivity resonance with strong ties

C. frequency of strong-tie interactions & positivity resonance with strong ties

D. frequency of weak-tie interactions & positivity resonance with weak ties

B

LCC Connections 2: Demitri generally enjoys meeting new people but lately has been relying on his friends and has refrained from seeking new connections. He recently lost his job and is experiencing a lot of stress, making it difficult to find and invest in new people. According to TA Zoe Hansen's lecture on weak ties, which concept below offers an explanation of Demitri's situation?

A. fear of conversational enjoyment

B. conflict of interest

C. optimal foraging theory

D. interdependence theory

C

RCC Kindness 1: According to Nelson et al. (2016), doing nice things for others (versus for yourself) increases positive emotions relative to the control condition. Which of the following is proposed as an explanation for this pattern of findings?

A. Self-focused behavior promotes the importance of the self in a broader context, whereas prosocial behavior does not.

B. Prosocial behavior often involves opportunities to improve one's relationships with others, whereas self-focused behavior is often solitary.

C. Self-focused behavior increases negative emotions, whereas prosocial behavior does not.

D. Prosocial behavior occurs less frequently than self-focused behavior.

B

LCC Kindness 1: Although altruistic responding comes at a cost to the self, it is theorized to have evolved over millennia through natural selection from the neural and behavioral systems for:

A. retrieving offspring in distress.

B. compassion.

C. passive offspring care.

D. cost-benefit analyses.

A

RCC Kindness 2: The reading by Curry et al. (2018) entitled "Happy to Help?" mentioned several theories about the causes of human kindness. Which of the following is NOT one of the mentioned theories?

A. Kin altruism: People will be kind to their families.

B. Mutualism: People will be kind to members of their community.

C. Conditional altruism: People will be kind to others when time and resources permit.

D. Competitive altruism: People will be kind to others when it enhances their own status.

C

LCC Kindness 2: According to evidence presented in lecture, which of the following individual characteristics distinguishes extraordinary altruists (e.g., kidney donors) from other people?

A. higher subjective well-being

B. greater spiritual transcendence

C. greater value placed on distant others' welfare

D. past experiences with extreme adversity

C

RCC Gratitude 1: How is Algoe's (2012) Find-Remind-and-Bind Theory of gratitude distinct from prior theorizing on gratitude?

A. It identifies gratitude as a response to kind and altruistic acts.

B. It describes how gratitude serves relational goals.

C. It accounts for cultural variation in gratitude expressions.

D. It focuses on repayment in exchange-based relationships.

B

LCC Gratitude 1: A randomized experiment presented in lecture compared five different gratitude activities to an active control condition (Regan, Walsh & Lyubomirsky, 2023). Among activities that used the format of a gratitude list, which type of list produced greater well-being benefits relative to the control condition?

A. a list of things you're grateful for

B. a list of synonyms for the word "gratitude"

C. an unconstrained list of people and things

D. a list of people you're grateful to

C

RCC Gratitude 2: According to the reading entitled Three Good Tools (Adair, Kennedy & Sexton, 2020), the 3 interventions tested led to improvements across a range of metrics. On which metric did participants show the greatest improvement?

A. emotional recovery

B. negative measures of well-being (e.g., depression)

C. positive measures of well-being (e.g., subjective happiness)

D. optimism

B

LCC Gratitude 2: According to studies presented in lecture, how does gratitude expressed in an East Asian Confucius Culture differ from gratitude expressed in the United States?

A. More emphasis on self-improvement and less on bodily contact, relative to the U.S.

B. Less emphasis on relationship closeness and more on control, relative to the U.S.

C. More emphasis on relationship closeness and less on control, relative to the U.S.

D. Less emphasis on self-improvement and more on bodily contact, relative to the U.S.

A

Gratitude: Subprocesses in Sincerity Detection: Simulation of Smiles Model

-How can you tell if gratitude is sincere?

1. Duchenne: Genuine smiles.

-->Activity around the eyes.

2. Non-Duchenne: Unfelt smiles.

**"Ekman (2011) identified 18 types of smiles and proposed that there might be as many as 50 in all".

Gratitude: Determinants of Perceived Authenticity: Simulation of Smiles Model (SIMS)

-Viewer makes eye contact with an affiliative smile, which forces a returning smile and signals friendliness.

-->People are better at decoding smiles when making eye contact.

**BOTTOM LINE: Eye contact triggers facial mimicry, facial mimicry triggers an embodied simulation, and the embodied simulation provides a "gut feeling" of others' intent.

Gratitude: Eye Contact is a Gateway to Mimicry

-Two avatars are showing a positive smile, no emotion, or an irritated emotion from two different gazes.

-->Only 4 faces (direct gaze, positive and negative) showed facial mimicry.

**Proof for eye contact!

Gratitude: Blocking Facial Mimicry Selectively Interferes With Recognizing Positive Emotion Expressions

-Method: 12 people in a within-subject experimental design viewed 4 blocks of 280 morphed faces from 10 actors expressing 4 emotions at 7 levels.

-2 of 4 counterbalanced blocks included manipulations that blocked facial mimicry (bite, gum), 2 others (lip, rest) served as an active and passive control.

-In a forced-choice task, participants indicated whether each face conveyed happiness, disgust, fear, or sad.

-->No effect on sadness or fear detection; Highest effects were in happiness detection and the gum condition.

**SIMS BOTTOM LINE: Sincerity detection for positive emotions is best done in-person while making direct eye contact, which triggers facial mimicry followed by an automatic embodied simulation.

Gratitude: Does Trait Gratitude Have Organizational Impact?

-Gratitude Measured as a Distinct Personality Trait.

-Hypothesized Model:

-->Leaders' trait gratitude (team leaders at T1) → Leaders' humble behavior (team members at T2) → Team voice (team members at T3) → Team innovation (team directors at T4).

1. 71 team leaders in China.

2. 284 workers from 71 teams rated their team leaders' humble behavior.

3. Workers rate their own degree of team voice.

4. Upper-level directors evaluated team innovation.

**Yes! Leaders' enacted trait of gratitude inspires teams' innovation.

Gratitude: Attachment Insecurities Dampen the Prosocial Benefits of Gratitude

-Study 1: 80 people assessed for attachment styles and later randomized to a gratitude induction vs. control. Outcome variable: Time spent helping.

-->Gratitude induction showed more time helping.

-->Reduced if people showed attachment anxiety or avoidance.

-Study 2: 120 people were first randomized to be primed with 1 of 3 attachment styles vs. control and later randomized to gratitude vs. chance windfall in a resource distribution task. Outcome variable: Money given to task partner.

-->Gratitude is higher than the control condition in terms of money given.

-->Highest effects seen with secure attachment, rather than in the attachment insecurity conditions.

Gratitude: Gratitude Expressions Buffer Against the Harmful Effects of Attachment Insecurity

-78 romantic couples and their perceptions of gratitude.

-->Attachment Avoidance: Higher avoidance, the less satisfied partner's were day-to-day, especially if their partners didn't display gratitude.

-Commitment 3 months later: Results are the same with less perceived gratitude → Lower commitment.

**BOTTOM LINE: Saying "thank you" improves relationships.

Gratitude: Sleep Duration Impacts Gratitude

-90 people randomized to one of three conditions from Monday-Friday:

1. Normal Sleep.

2. Sleep Restriction.

3. Sleep Extension.

-->The sleep restriction condition decreased state gratitude, while the sleep extension condition made people feel more grateful.

-->Sleep extension also led to a longer gratitude list.

-->How grateful should the person feel? → The sleep extension condition felt more of a reason to be grateful.

**BOTTOM LINE: Get a good night's sleep. Your community needs its!

Gratitude: Cultural Variation in "Thanksgiving" Between the U.S. & Taiwan

**What best conveys gratitude?

1. Individualistic Cultures:

-->Bodily Contact.

2. Confucius Cultures:

-->Self-improvement.

3. Across Cultures: Reciprocating kindness, verbal acknowledgement, and paying it forward were all seen as expressions of gratitude.

Gratitude: Japanese Amae... Pleasant Indebtedness?

-Amae Defined: To depend and presume upon another's love or bask in another's indulgence.

-->Amae encompasses BOTH an inappropriate request AND the expectation that it will be accommodated because of the closeness of the relationship.

-There are no direct English translations. Some ill-fitting attempts are "whining", "sulking", "coaxing", "pouting", and "babying".

**Do Americans experience something similar?

-->Yes, participants in the U.S. and Japan respond alike in regards to positive/negative emotions and its relation to social closeness/potential friends.