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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

A dog and a "happy person" visit nursing home residents.

Recent recognition of the importance of the human-animal bond has led to the proliferation of programs designed to improve the lives of nursing home residents through the use of animals. Because human-human interaction in the nursing home setting is often of an obligatory nature, we wondered if a visit from a nonjudgmental, outgoing, enthusiastic young adult ("a happy person") could elicit the same positive influence as a visit from a nonjudgmental dog. The purpose of this study was to determine if elderly residents of a midwestern nursing home had a preference for the type of visitor (dog vs. person) when both visits were nonobligatory and nonjudgmental. Behaviors were evaluated to determine if one visitor was more likely to influence prosocial behaviors (moving closer, patting, smiling). Six residents were visited by both the dog and the happy person: 5 of 6 completed the final interview. Residents were equally likely to smile at and move closer to both visitors. Residents were more likely to pat the dog. Three residents liked both visits equally: 1 preferred the dog, and 1 preferred the happy person. These data suggest that nonobligatory visits to nursing home residents from a happy person may be as beneficial to the resident as visits from a dog.

Aged↗
PubMed1998

The happy personality: a meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being.

This meta-analysis used 9 literature search strategies to examine 137 distinct personality constructs as correlates of subjective well-being (SWB). Personality was found to be equally predictive of life satisfaction, happiness, and positive affect, but significantly less predictive of negative affect. The traits most closely associated with SWB were repressive-defensiveness, trust, emotional stability, locus of control-chance, desire for control, hardiness, positive affectivity, private collective self-esteem, and tension. When personality traits were grouped according to the Big Five factors, Neuroticism was the strongest predictor of life satisfaction, happiness, and negative affect. Positive affect was predicted equally well by Extraversion and Agreeableness. The relative importance of personality for predicting SWB, how personality might influence SWB, and limitations of the present review are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Are you born a happy person or do you have to make it happen?

An increasing amount of research on happiness reveals that there are many explanations for individuals being happy. Causes for happiness considered in this article include wealth, desire, intelligence, genetics, friendship, marriage, faith, charity, and age. In addition, this article considers how managers can effect their own happiness in the workplace by taking responsibility for happiness in the workplace, providing rewards employees perceive as meaningful, not avoiding employees when times are tough, keeping humor in the workplace, practice joy building, and keeping the environment fun and comfortable.

Happiness↗
PubMed2003

Women's perceived body image: relations with personal happiness.

The present study examined the relationships between body image and happiness in adult women. One hundred and forty-four women, with an average age of 40 years, were surveyed. Within the sample, three age groups were established: college-aged women, middle-aged women, and older women. Each participant completed the Body Esteem Scale (Franzoi & Shields, 1984), the Eating Attitudes Test (Garner & Garfinkel, 1979), and the Life Satisfaction Index A (Neugaten, Havighurst, & Tobin, 1961). Results indicated that happiness significantly and positively correlated with the three components of body esteem: sexual attractiveness, weight concern, and physical condition. There were no significant differences among the types of body satisfaction expressed by women of different ages. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of recognizing body image as a major contributor to overall life happiness in women.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Personal projects, happiness, and meaning: on doing well and being yourself.

Personal Projects Analysis (B. R. Little, 1983) was adapted to examine relations between participants' appraisals of their goal characteristics and orthogonal happiness and meaning factors that emerged from factor analyses of diverse well-being measures. In two studies with 146 and 179 university students, goal efficacy was associated with happiness and goal integrity was associated with meaning. A new technique for classifying participants according to emergent identity themes is introduced. In both studies, identity-compensatory predictors of happiness were apparent. Agentic participants were happiest if their goals were supported by others, communal participants were happiest if their goals were fun, and hedonistic participants were happiest if their goals were being accomplished. The distinction between happiness and meaning is emphasized, and the tension between efficacy and integrity is discussed. Developmental implications are discussed with reference to results from archival data from a sample of senior managers.

Achievement↗
PubMed1998

Changing marital and family patterns: a test of the post-modern perspective.

"Four central constructs of the post-modern perspective are extended and tested using secondary analysis of [U.S.] Census data and the NORC General Social Survey: 1972-94 data sets. The modified postmodern themes of: (1) the decline of a single universal family organizational standard, and (2) growing cultural diversity...were supported by examining changes in American family structure, attitudes toward such structural changes, and changing attitudes toward marital and family patterns over the last quarter century. However, little support was found for the greater use of, and reliance on, (3) the mass media. Mixed results were found on the fourth construct, greater variance in, and/or loss of, personal happiness or personal or family life satisfaction."

Americas↗
PubMed2007

Self-enhancing bias in personality, subjective happiness, and perception of life-events: a replication in a Korean aged sample.

Interrelations among self-enhancing bias in personality, subjective happiness, and perception of life-events have been examined. Elderly people with higher subjective happiness, compared to those with lower happiness, were predicted to have higher self-enhancing bias in personality, and perceive negative life-events less negatively. One hundred and forty elderly Korean citizens were assessed as to their tendency to self-enhance and to perceive positive and negative life-events. A correlation of 0.26 was found between subjective happiness and self-enhancing bias. Contrary to our prediction, those with higher subjective happiness perceived positive life-events more positively than those with lower subjective happiness, whereas there was no difference between the two groups in the perception of negative life-events.

Aged↗
PubMed2002

Personality and happiness: a national-level analysis.

The possibility that national personality traits could explain national subjective well-being (SWB) is controversial, with many researchers arguing that traits are irrelevant to any national-level analysis. The weaknesses of this standpoint are reviewed, followed by a series of empirical investigations. Using Eysenck's 3-factor model (H. J. Eysenck & S. B. G. Eysenck, 1975) and P. T. Costa and R. M. McCrae's (1992b) 5-factor model, the authors found that Neuroticism and Extraversion correlated significantly with national SWB. Lie scale scores were also related strongly to national SWB. Neuroticism and Extraversion incrementally predicted SWB above gross national product per capita. The strength of these results indicates that personality can have stronger relationships at national levels of analysis than at the individual level. National personality traits appear to be unwisely neglected, having considerable but largely unconsidered explanatory power.

Culture↗
PubMed1993

Clinical ethics and happiness.

Most contemporary accounts of clinical ethics do not explain why clinicians should be ethical. Those few that do attempt an explanation usually claim that clinicians should be ethical because ethical behavior provides an important good for the patient--better care. Both these approaches ignore the customary traditional reason for being ethical, namely, the good of the moral agent. This good was commonly called 'happiness'. The following article shows how the personal happiness of the moral agent provided a major reason for being ethical in the ancient philosophical and biblical traditions and how it continues to play a role in the more modern rights-based, Kantian and utilitarian theories. This history suggests that the personal happiness of the clinician, rightly understood, is a legitimate and important goal of clinical ethics.

Ethical Analysis↗
PubMed2000

Learning about happiness from persons with Down syndrome: feeling the sense of joy and contentment.

One well-known stereotype about persons with Down syndrome is that they are relentlessly "happy." Although some individuals with Down syndrome seem to possess an unusual personality aspect that calls out the best in others, this aspect should be viewed as distinct from the traditional stereotype. Many people with Down syndrome have shattered popular expectations of what they might accomplish, society still has lowered expectations for them. In this paper I seek to identify those characteristics that offer genuine and thoughtful joyfulness among these individuals. Happiness is closely aligned with a sense of peace, well-being, and/or contentment. A more appropriate contention is the idea that a rare and potent trait holds within it true enrichment and peace among individuals with Down syndrome.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Quality of life and cost factors in panic disorder.

Quality of life encompasses domains of personal happiness, role fulfillment, and health status. Increasing attention has been paid to the relationship between quality of life and panic disorder, with accumulating evidence now available to suggest impairment in several domains among subjects with panic disorder. This review summarizes the results of community-based and treatment-seeking populations of subjects with panic disorder. Impaired personal happiness, restricted role functioning, and increased use of health services are all described. Evidence suggests that accurate diagnosis and effective treatment can significantly lessen health service utilization, resulting in substantial cost offset and also leading to increased work productivity and personal effectiveness.

Humans↗
PubMed2003

The female smoker: from addiction to recovery.

Millions of American girls and women have been drawn to smoking by an industry that has been clearly and systematically targeting women of all ages and life circumstances. Big tobacco's well-timed marketing strategies skillfully link cigarette use to typical female values: independence, self-reliance, weight control, stress management, social progress and popularity, personal attractiveness, autonomy, self-fulfillment, youth, happiness, personal success, health, and active, vigorous, and strenuous lifestyles. Biologically speaking, women are especially vulnerable to the legion of health problems of tobacco use. Smoking is a critical hazard for women in their reproductive years, particularly when they are pregnant. The US Public Health Service 2000 Clinical Practice Guideline provides helpful guidance and sound general recommendations for the treatment of women of all ages for tobacco use and dependence. Women and girls who smoke represent diverse subgroups of the population with unique issues and needs. The 2001 Surgeon General's Report on Women and Smoking stresses the importance of multistrategy programs for treating female smokers. This approach includes antitobacco media campaigns, increases in tobacco prices, promotion of nonsmoking in public places, curbs on tobacco advertising and promotion, enforcement of legislation to reduce youth access to tobacco products, and effective tobacco use treatment programs.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2025

SPTAN1-Results of a Caregiver Survey.

Background: SPTAN1 variants are thought to affect the scaffolding that protects the axonal segment of neurons as well as neuronal synapses. The SPTAN1 gene is located in the 9q34.11 genomic region and encodes the cytoskeletal protein alpha II spectrin. Epilepsy, encephalopathy, and motor neuropathy are most commonly associated with SPTAN1 variants. Methods: An informed consent and questionnaire were developed in order to gather information from caregivers regarding their family members' SPTAN1 variant. Survey results are summarized descriptively, in order of frequency. Results: The results of a questionnaire filled out by the caregivers of loved ones who have a SPTAN1 mutation are summarized for 25 individuals, 14 males and 11 females, who have the SPTAN1 mutation. Conclusions: The results of this survey mirror those reported by other authors and include epilepsy, intellectual and motor delays, encephalopathy, and motor neuropathy. Additional effects of the SPTAN1 mutation reported here include absent or difficult speech, happy personality, decline in cognitive and motor skills with age, vision and hearing abnormalities, organ and skeletal effects, autoimmune diseases, and weakened immune systems.

Humans↗
PubMed2003

The psychosocial impact of cancer: exploring relationships between conditional goal setting and depression.

This study explores depression in cancer patients with reference to conditional goal setting (CGS) theory. CGS theory proposes that depressed individuals believe that personal happiness is conditional upon attainment of specific goals (personal CGS). Other individuals may set important goals believing that goal achievement is a necessary prerequisite of social acceptance and approval (social CGS). CGS has been found to contribute to depression in normal populations. 15.2% of the 67 newly diagnosed cancer patients in this study showed clinical levels of depression. A significant relationship was identified between personal CGS, rumination and depression, as predicted in CGS theory. Two months later, 46.7% of patients demonstrated clinical levels of depression. This later experience of depression was significantly related to social CGS. The results suggest CGS involving a misdirected pursuit of happiness is initially associated with depression whereas subsequent experiences of depression are related to a misdirected pursuit of social acceptance. Implications are discussed in terms of understanding the cancer patients' motivations controlling goal setting. It is suggested that successful psychotherapy for depression in cancer patients needs to examine the motivations controlling goal setting in addition to the process of goal pursuit.

Adult↗