| 1. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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A Collective Picture of What Makes People Happy: Words Representing Social Relationships, not Money, are Recurrent with the Word ‘Happiness’ in Online Newspapers
- 2016
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Ingår i: G. Riva, B. K. Wiederhold, & P. Cipresso (Eds.), The Psychology of Social Networking. Identity and Relationships in Online Communities Vol. 2. - : DeGruyter Open. - 9783110473780 ; , s. 4-16, s. 4-16
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Internet allows people to freely navigate through news and use that information to reinforce or support their own beliefs in, for example, different social networks. In this chapter we suggest that the representation of current predominant views in the news can be seen as collective expressions within a society. Seeing that the notion of what makes individuals happy has been of increasing interest in recent decades, we analyze the word happiness in online news. We first present research on the co-occurrence of the word happiness with other words in online newspapers. Among other findings, words representing people (e.g., “mom”, “grandmother”, “you”/”me”, “us”/”them”) often appear with the word happiness. Words like “iPhone”, “millions” and “Google” on the other hand, almost never appear with the word for happiness. Secondly, using words with predefined sets of psycholinguistic characteristics (i.e., word-norms measuring social relationships, money, and material things) we further examine differences between sets of articles including the word happiness (“happy” dataset) and a random set (“neutral” dataset) of articles not including this word. The results revealed that the “happy” dataset was significantly related to social relationships word-norm, while the “neutral” dataset was related to the money word-norm. However, the “happy” dataset was also related to the material things word-norm. In sum, there is a relatively coherent understanding among members of a society concerning what makes us happy: relationship, not money; meanwhile there is a more complex relationship when it comes to material things. The semantic method used here, which is particularly suitable for analyzing big data, seems to be able to quantify collective ideas in online news that might be expressed through different social networks.
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| 2. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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A Quantification of Agentic and Communal Values in Adolescents’ Life Narratives
- 2014
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Ingår i: 167th American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, New York, New York, USA..
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background Life stories emphasize the narrative and self-organizing aspects of human behaviors and complement personality traits in explaining human identity. In contrast to most research on narratives in which the analysis is restricted to the researcher’s subjective evaluations and interpretations, we used computational methods to quantitatively investigate the relationship between personality and narratives events. Meta-cognitive strategies and principles that guide agentic (self-directedness; e.g., being autonomous, responsible and having self-control), communal (cooperativeness; e.g., showing empathy, helping behavior, and social tolerance), and transcendental (self-transcendence; e.g., the sense of being part of the whole universe) behavior were of special interest. We also investigated which pronouns were most common in relation to personality constructs that were significantly related to the narratives. Method Personality was assessed among 79 adolescents at one point in time using the NEO Personality Inventory – Revised (NEO-PI-R) and the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Six months later, adolescents were asked to write down the most positive or the most negative event that had happened to them in the last three months. Adolescents were explicitly instructed to answer the following questions within their narratives: What happened? Who were involved? Why do you think it happened? How did you feel when it happened? How do you think the involved persons felt? The descriptions were quantified using semantic spaces, a computational method in which the Latent Semantic Analysis algorithm generates a semantic representation of the narratives. This representation was used to study whether it predicted the personality measures. Results Only Self-directedness and Cooperativeness were predicted by the semantic representation of the narratives. High levels of Self-directedness and Cooperativeness were associated with plural pronouns (e.g., us), whereas low levels were associated with singular pronouns (e.g., one-self, mine). Conclusions Agentic and communal values are involved when adolescents describe positive and negative life experiences.
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| 3. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Agentic, communal, and spiritual traits are related to the semantic representation of written narratives of positive and negative life events
- 2015
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Ingår i: Psychology of Well-Being. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2211-1522. ; 5:8, s. 1-20
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: We used a computational method to quantitatively investigate the relationship between personality and written narratives of life events. Agentic (i.e., self- directedness), communal (i.e., cooperativeness), and spiritual (self-transcendence) traits were of special interest because they represent individual differences in intentional val- ues and goals, in contrast to temperament traits, which describe individual differences in automatic responses to emotional stimuli. We also investigated which pronouns were most common in relation to personality constructs that were significantly related to the narratives. Methods: Personality was assessed among 79 adolescents at one point in time using the NEO Personality Inventory—Revised (NEO-PI-R) and the temperament and char- acter inventory (TCI). Six months later, adolescents were asked to write down the most positive or the most negative event that had happened to them in the last 3 months. Adolescents were explicitly instructed to answer the following questions within their narratives: What happened? Who were involved? Why do you think it happened? How did you feel when it happened? How do you think the involved persons felt? The descriptions were quantified using a computational method in which the latent semantic analysis algorithm generates a semantic representation of the narratives. Results: Only self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence were related to the semantic representation of the narratives. Moreover, cooperativeness and self- transcendence were associated with less frequent usage of singular pronouns (e.g., me respectively mine). Conclusions: Agentic, communal, and spiritual traits are involved when adolescents describe positive and negative life experiences. Moreover, high levels of communal and spiritual traits are related to less self-focused narratives.
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| 4. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Expressions of Malevolent Character are Triggered when Posting on Facebook
- 2020
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Ingår i: 32nd Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention. Chicago, Illinois, USA..
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- We used modern computational methods in order to show that written descriptions of daily life differ in malevolent content when people are asked to use it as a status update on Facebook (i.e., Facebook condition) compared to when they are asked to keep it for themselves (i.e., Confidential condition).
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| 5. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Happiness in Natural language: Words We Relate to Happiness and Descriptions of What Make us Happy
- 2016
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Ingår i: International Journal of Psychology (Special Issue: 31st International Congress of Psychology). - : Wiley. - 0020-7594.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Happiness is often assessed using numeric self-rating measures. We, however, were interested in individuals' explicit happiness as expressed in natural language. Participants (N = 1000) wrote down ten words they related to happiness and a brief description of what makes them happy. The freely-generated words and descriptions were quantified using the Latent Semantic Analysis algorithm. Participants responded to common self-rating measures of happiness constructs. The words people associate to happiness (r between .13-.35, p < .001) and the descriptions about what makes them happy (r between .07-.17, p < .01) were related to their self-rated happiness. This suggests that it is possible to quantify people's happiness using natural language. The proposed method works more efficiently using the ten words than a descriptive narrative. Probably due the different nature of the questions, but also suggesting that descriptions add unique information about the (un)happy self that is not activated when individuals respond to self-rating measures.
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| 6. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Happy but Dark: Using Quantitative Semantics to Investigate Facebook Status Updates
- 2014
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Ingår i: 26th Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention. San Francisco, California, USA.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- ABSTRACT In two studies, the semantic content of Facebook status updates was found to contain information about individuals’ satisfying moments in their lives and “dark traits”. This is suggested to prime social comparison in other users; and that competing for peer-attention in Facebook activates traits such as Psychopathy and Narcissism. SUPPORTING SUMMARY Background In recent years an increasing number of articles have highlighted the negative side of using the social network Facebook. Researchers suggest that social comparison makes people unhappier, feel lonelier, and even more depressed⎯seeing the happy and rich lives of others leads to awareness of one’s own life. Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge no study has directly linked peoples’ status updates (i.e., broadcast of current states or statements with own written words) to their subjective happiness; perhaps because of the lack of methods to quantify text and use standard statistical methods to compare quantifications of text data with psychometric measures. Moreover, the nature of social networking might prime individuals to express their “darker sides” when competing for social resources in Facebook. Here we used an innovative computational method (i.e., semantic spaces) to investigate if happiness (i.e., life satisfaction) and dark traits (i.e., Machiavellianism, Psychopathy, and Narcissism) are present in Facebook users’ status updates. Method In Study 1, 304 participants were recruited from Mechanical Turk and asked to provide their 15 most recent status updates. Participants in Study 1 also self-reported life satisfaction along demographic variables. In Study 2, 56 participants self-reported “Dark Triad” personality: Machiavellianism, Psychopathy, and Narcissism. Afterwards, participants in Study 2 were randomly assigned to either write a daily activity of their own and to post it in their Facebook wall or to write a daily activity that would be handled highly confidential. The status updates from both studies were quantified using the Latent Semantic Algorithm (Landauer & Dumais, 1997). Results In Study 1 the semantic representation of status updates was related to self-reported life satisfaction. Moreover, using semantic spaces to quantify semantic representations of the “Dark Triad” traits, we found that Psychopathy and Narcissism were significantly higher in written daily activities of individuals randomly assigned to post it as a status update compared to those individuals randomly assigned to the confidential condition. Conclusion The results confirm that semantic content of status updates contains information about satisfying moments in their lives, which might prime social comparison in other users; and that competing for peer-attention and social resources in Facebook activates “dark traits” such as Psychopathy and Narcissism.
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| 7. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Happy but Dark: Using Quantitative Semantics to Investigate Facebook Status Updates
- 2014
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Ingår i: 26th Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention. San Francisco, California, USA..
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In two studies, the semantic content of Facebook status updates was found to contain information about individuals’ satisfying moments in their lives and “dark traits”. This is suggested to prime social comparison in other users; and that competing for peer-attention in Facebook activates traits such as Psychopathy and Narcissism.
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| 8. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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The affective profiles, psychological well-being, and harmony: environmental mastery and self-acceptance predict the sense of a harmonious life
- 2014
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Ingår i: Peer J. - : PeerJ. - 2167-8359. ; 2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background. An important outcome from the debate on whether wellness equals happiness, is the need of research focusing on how psychological well-being might influence humans’ ability to adapt to the changing environment and live in harmony. To get a detailed picture of the influence of positive and negative affect, the current study employed the affective profiles model in which individuals are categorised into groups based on either high positive and low negative affect (self-fulfilling); high positive and high negative affect (high affective); low positive and low negative affect (low affective); and high negative and low positive affect (self-destructive). The aims were to (1) investigate differences between affective profiles in psychological well-being and harmony and (2) how psychological well-being and its dimensions relate to harmony within the four affective profiles. Method. 500 participants (mean age = 34.14 years, SD. = ±12.75 years; 187 males and 313 females) were recruited online and required to answer three self-report measures: The Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule; The Scales of Psychological Well-Being (short version) and The Harmony in Life Scale. We conducted a Multivariate Analysis of Variance where the affective profiles and gender were the independent factors and psychological well-being composite score, its six dimensions as well as the harmony in life score were the dependent factors. In addition, we conducted four multi-group (i.e., the four affective profiles) moderation analyses with the psychological well-being dimensions as predictors and harmony in life as the dependent variables. Results. Individuals categorised as self-fulfilling, as compared to the other profiles, tended to score higher on the psychological well-being dimensions: positive relations, environmental mastery, self-acceptance, autonomy, personal growth, and purpose in life. In addition, 47% to 66% of the variance of the harmony in life was explained by the dimensions of psychological well-being within the four affective profiles. Specifically, harmony in life was significantly predicted by environmental mastery and self-acceptance across all affective profiles. However, for the low affective group high purpose in life predicted low levels of harmony in life. Conclusions. The results demonstrated that affective profiles systematically relate to psychological well-being and harmony in life. Notably, individuals categorised as self-fulfilling tended to report higher levels of both psychological well-being and harmony in life when compared with the other profiles. Meanwhile individuals in the self-destructive group reported the lowest levels of psychological well-being and harmony when compared with the three other profiles. It is proposed that self-acceptance and environmental acceptance might enable individuals to go from self-destructive to a self-fulfilling state that also involves harmony in life.
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| 9. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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The Dark Triad, Happiness and Words Related to Happiness
- 2013
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Ingår i: Third World Congress on Positive Psychology. June 27-30, 2013, Westin Bonaventure, Los Angeles.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background The Dark Triad comprises three “malevolent” personality traits: (1) Narcissism, which involves grandiose sense of the self and obsession with success and admiration, (2) Psychopathy, which involves high impulsivity and thrill-seeking along with low empathy and anxiety, and (3) Machiavellianism, which is the cold manipulative personality. We investigated the relationship between the Dark Triad to self-reported happiness and words individuals associate to the notion of happiness. Method Participants (N=304) were asked to write down 10 words they related to happiness. Personality was assessed using the Mach-IV, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised, and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory; happiness using the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the Emotional Well-Being Scale. We quantified the happiness words using Latent Semantic Analysis and investigated associations between the semantic representations of the words and self-reported personality and happiness. Results Neuroticism (β=-.50, p<.001), Psychopathy (β=-.19,p< .001) and Machiavellianism (β=-.15,p=.001) predicted low positive emotions (R2=.35,p= .001). Neuroticism (β=-.35,p<.001) and Machiavellianism (β=-.28,p<.001) also predicted low Life Satisfaction (R2=.25,p=.001). Life Satisfaction (r=.15,p<.01), Psychopathy (r=.16,p<.01) and Machiavellianism (r=.14,p<.01) were related to the semantic representation of the happiness words. Conclusions The Dark Triad is related to the semantic expression of happiness but negatively related to the experience of a happy life.
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| 10. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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The Happy Update: Self-reported Happiness linked to Semantic Representations of Status Updates in Facebook
- 2013
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Ingår i: Third World Congress on Positive Psychology. June 27-30, 2013, Westin Bonaventure, Los Angeles.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background The recent years have seen a major revolution in how people interact with each other through the Internet. The Social network Facebook is not only part of this revolution but also presents a unique opportunity for psychological research. Status updates, for instance, are generally used to broadcast current states or make statements with own written words. The aim of the present study was to investigate if the semantic representation of status updates predicted self-reported happiness. Method The participants (N = 304) self-reported happiness (The Satisfaction With Life Scale and The Emotional Well-Being Scale) and provided their last 15 own written status updates in his/her Facebook profile. The status updates were quantified through Latent Semantic Analysis. Results The semantic content of Facebook updates predicted life satisfaction. However, the updates did not predict positive or negative emotions. Conclusion The results suggest that users presentation through status updates is related to the cognitive part of happiness (i.e., life satisfaction) rather than being related to the emotional part (i.e., positive and negative emotions). Perhaps due to the nature of Facebook allowing individuals to have major control in how they consciously present themselves.
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