| 1. |
- Archer, Trevor, 1949, et al.
(författare)
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The Enigmatic Influence of Video-Internet Gaming: Liabilities and Assets over the Lifespan
- 2016
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Ingår i: Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Journal. ; 1:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Against an ever-increasing background of sedentary lifestyles and the over-indulgence of unsuitable food/drink intake, the advent of video/internet games may be viewed as commodity defined by opposing assets and liabilities. The latter emanate from the aggressiveness, violence, desensitization, criminality and loss of impulse control associated with violent action video games and may eventually culminate in the internet gaming disorder condition whereas the former are linked to educational opportunities and interventions to promote physical activity in the sedentary, improved visuomotor and cognitive skills in both healthy volunteers, young and aged, and those individuals diagnosed with neurologic disorders. Several brain regions have been found to be affected by video game-play in apparently beneficial and non-beneficial directions, sometimes hemisphere-specific, including regions of the frontal and parietal lobes, hippocampus, thalamus and hypothalamic-pituitary- adrenal axis, with accompanying alterations in functional connectivity. Nevertheless, despite the plethora of available for and against the utility of video/internet games across the lifespan, the net worth of the commodity seems yet to be assessed, and more essentially, properly understood.
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| 2. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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A will (Persistence) and a proper way (Self-Directedness) might lead to happiness
- 2012
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Ingår i: 6th European Conference on Positive Psychology.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Persistence is a temperament dimension that explains maintenance of behavior. Adolescents high in Persistence are expected to be hard-working, and stable despite frustration and fatigue. They are also expected to increase their efforts in response to anticipated reward. In other words, frustration and fatigue may be perceived as a personal challenge; they do not give up easily and are probably willing to make major sacrifices to be a success (e.g., good grades). Persistent pursuit of need-satisfying goals is suggested to lead to increased Subjective Well-Being (SWB; Sheldon et al., 2010). Nevertheless, adolescents who have difficulties disengaging from unattainable goals, display high levels of proteins that predict long-term risk for diabetes, heart disease, and other medical conditions. Perseveration might naturally lead to high levels of positive experience when goals are achieved. Nevertheless, high persistence may be an adaptive behaviour only when rewards are intermittent but the contingencies remain stable. It is important to point out that daily problems adolescents encounter seem to be an equally stressful experience as major life events. Hence, at least among adolescents, perseveration may become maladaptive and probably leads to low SWB. In this context, another important personality dimension in adolescence might be Self-Directedness. Adolescents that are self-directed develop good habits and automatically behave in accord with their long-term values and goals, probably as a consequence of self-discipline. For instance, Duckworth and Seligman (2005) showed that, among adolescents, self-discipline outdoes IQ when predicting academic performance. Aims: The present study aims to investigate the relationship between Persistence, Self-Directedness, and SWB. Method: In two studies 468 high school pupils reported Persistence, Self-Directedness, Positive and Negative Affect. Life Satisfaction was also measured in Study 2. The personality dimensions were measured by the Temperament and Character Inventory. The SWB constructs were measured using the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. We used mediation analysis procedures recommended by Baron and Kenny (1986) to investigate if Self-Directedness accounts for a significant amount of the shared variance between Persistence and SWB measures. Results: Self-Directedness emerged as being related to all measures of SWB used in the present set of studies. In both studies, mediation analysis show that Self-Directedness accounts for a significant amount of the shared variance between Persistence and Positive Affect. Specifically, the indirect and total effects of Self-Directedness in our model suggest a partial mediation of 24% in Study 1 and a partial mediation of 42% in Study 2. However, Self-Directedness did not mediate the relationship between Persistence and Negative Affect or Persistence and Life Satisfaction. Conclusions: Paraphrasing the most asserted conclusion from Sheldon and colleagues (2010) at least among adolescents Persistence (will) and Self-Directedness (proper way) might lead to happiness. We suggest that, although the meditational effect of Self-Directedness was only true for the relationship between Persistence and positive emotions, this specific finding is important. If the goal is to teach adolescents to direct attention and effort toward a challenging goal, this might be facilitated through the promotion of Self-Directedness.
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| 3. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Adolescents’ Temperament and Character: A Longitudinal Study on Happiness
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of Happiness Studies. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1573-7780 .- 1389-4978. ; 13:5, s. 931-946
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Personality is considered a major determinant of adults and adolescents Subjective Well-Being (SWB); mainly due to its relation to emotional reactivity, emotional intensity, and to the duration of emotional reactions. However, personality as presented above involves almost only differences in automatic emotional reactions and habits (i.e., temperament). Nevertheless, temperament together with learning experiences from different life events is responsible for what people make of themselves intentionally (i.e., character). The present study examines the relation between temperament and character to SWB at two points in time over a year in an adolescent sample (N = 109). Adolescents reported personality (The Temperament and Character Inventory; TCI) and SWB at the beginning of the school year (T1). Subjective Well-Being was then again measured at the end of the school year (T2). Temperament (Harm Avoidance and Novelty Seeking) and character (Self-Directedness) predicted SWB at T1. However, only Self-Directedness predicted SWB at T2 and also small but significant changes in SWB at the end of the school year. The inclusion of character in SWB research is discussed.
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| 4. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Character (Cooperativeness and Self-transcendence) and Engagement Predict Moral Identity
- 2016
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Ingår i: 28th Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention. Chicago, Illinois, USA.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Moral identity as an aspect of the good life was associated to engagement or the experience of flow, but was mainly related to values of identification and acceptance of others (i.e., Cooperativeness) and the sense of being part of something bigger than the self (i.e., Self-transcendence).
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| 5. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Exercise Frequency, High Activation Positive Affect, and Psychological Well-Being: Beyond Age, Gender, and Occupation
- 2012
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Ingår i: Psychology. - : Scientific Research Publishing, Inc.. - 2152-7180 .- 2152-7199. ; 3:4, s. 328-336
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Regular physical exercise contributes to marked reductions in psychosocial stress, the enhancing of posi- tive affect and well-being. However, affect can be measured as high (e.g., engaged) or low (e.g., content) activation affect. To ascertain further these interactions, we examined the relationship between exercise frequency (i.e., how often an individual engages in physical activities) and affect and Psychological Well-Being (PWB). We investigate this relationship in the context of individuals’ gender, age, psycho- somatic symptoms (i.e., headaches, pain in shoulders, neck or other parts of the body), sleeping problems, smoking habits, and Body Mass Index (BMI). Moreover, we also investigate if the relationship between exercise frequency and affect differs depending on the dimension of affect (low or high activation). In Study 1 (N = 635), 2 (N = 311), and 3 (N = 135) high activation positive affect (PA) predicted frequently exercising, while high activation negative affect (NA) predicted being less physically active. Moreover, high activation PA was negatively related to smoking habits and to how often the participant had sleeping problems. Finally, the relationship between frequently exercising and high activation affect was still pre- sent when controlling for age, occupation and gender. Moreover, in Study 2, high activation PA remained strongly related to exercise frequency even when we controlled for BMI. In Study 3, frequent physical ac- tivity was also related to PWB. In Study 4, participants (N = 150) self-reported low activation affect. All findings in regard to exercise frequency were replicated, with the exception of the relationship to affect. Psychological resources (i.e., PWB), the frequent experience of PA, together with the infrequent experi- ence of NA may provide for the facilitation of an exercise regime and healthy behavior. Thus, regular physical exercise remains as a health-ensuring necessity over age, gender, and occupation. Nevertheless, high activation positive affect should be in focus.
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| 6. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Exercise Frequency Predicts Performance among White-Collar Workers
- 2012
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Ingår i: 24rd Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Most call centers define performance as the percentage of the scheduled “time on the phone”, this specific type of work design might imply unfavourable working conditions for employees that might affect learning how to cope with the rapid external and internal changes in working life. For example, minimizing opportunities for employees to organize their own work and the opportunities given for making decisions and initiating action (i.e., Autonomy). Moreover, physical activity has been found related to performance on cognitive complex tasks, perhaps because frequent exercise reduces stress symptoms and improves mental states, and in the long term, enable arousal levels to be more appropriate adjusted for cognitive work and by increased stress resistance. These suggestions are investigated in the present study among white-collar workers at a call center. The aim was to investigate if exercise frequency and the perceived work climate predicted workers’ performance on the telephone. At the beginning of the Study, workers (N = 110) self-reported how often they engaged in physical activity and their perception of seven work climate variables: management, time to do the job, autonomy and responsibility, team style, opportunities to develop, guidelines to do the work, contentedness with the workplace (Learning Climate Questionnaire by Bartram el al., 1993). Each worker’s performance (average percent of time on the phone) was then assessed by the same system handling the calls each day over a five month period. To understand which factors contributed to performance over the five months period, we conducted structural equation-modeling analysis. The results showed that low contentedness and low autonomy predicted high performance at work. In other words, when workers perceived low control over how they organize their work and general low feelings of satisfaction with the workplace climate (i.e., complaints, moans, and negative attitudes from colleagues) they spent more time answering calls from customers. However, frequent exercise predicted high performance among workers. In conclusion, call centers might need to emphasize the connection between performance and important measures of work climate by encouraging workers to take responsibility for learning and being given the freedom to experiment and take risks (i.e., autonomy). It is plausible to suggest that such work climate might lead to lower performance, at least in a call center environment. Nonetheless, low Contentedness for example, might arise when colleagues do not get on well, when they tend to blame each other for the work they do and people are resistant to trying new ways of doing things. Such workplace climate might lead to low performance in the long run. More important, encouraging and creating opportunities to frequent physical activity might compensate the negative effects of high autonomy, for example, by boosting up workers’ performance.
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| 7. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Temporal Distance and Life Satisfaction in Different Cultures: El Salvador, Spain, Iran, and Sweden
- 2012
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Ingår i: 1st International Conference on Time Perspective.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- According to Construal Level Theory (CLT), one of the most prominent theories in social psychology, temporal distance influences events in the near-future to be construed as concrete, complex and contextualized, while distant-future events are construed as abstract, simple, and de-contextualized. Distant-future events receive a higher value compared to near-future events. However, LS is a compelling judgment based on previous life events and personality. We investigated the effect of temporal distance in the context of judgements of Life Satisfaction (LS) across four cultures: El Salvador, Spain, Iran, and Sweden. Participants (N = 533) were randomly assigned to three conditions: present, one week, and ten years. Present-LS was self-reported using the original Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). For the other two conditions, the SWLS was slightly manipulated by changing the temporal perspective. A temporal distance (present vs. near vs. distant) x gender x country (El Salvador vs. Spain vs. Iran vs. Sweden) between-subjects ANOVA showed that LS was evaluated higher in the present than in the near- and distant-future. In contrast to hypothetical questions that may or may not involve episodic memory, judgments that are based on memory of past events seem to not be influenced by the level of construal.
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| 8. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Temporal Distance in Iran: Judging Moral Transgressions and Virtues
- 2016
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Ingår i: 3rd International Conference on Time Perspective, Copenhagen, Denmark..
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: One of the most prominent theories addressing how temporal distance is related to human cognition, Construal Level Theory, was developed through observations in various fields of psychology, such as memory and moral reasoning (Trope & Liberman, 2003). This theory posits that near-future events are construed as being more concrete, complex, and contextualized (i.e., low-level construals), whilst distant-future events are construed as being more abstract, simple and decontextualized (i.e., high-level construals). As a result of different levels of construal, people tend to see immoral actions set in the distant-future (e.g., ten years from the present) as more of a moral transgression if it was to happen in the near-future (e.g., one week from the present). Here we investigate if these findings can be replicated in Iran rather than, as most conducted research, western cultures. Method: 109 Iranians were randomly assigned to three different conditions: present, one-week, and ten-years. In each condition participants were asked to judge (7-point Likert scale; 1 = totally morally wrong, 7 = totally morally right) how they though people in five moral situations had acted (e.g., friends lying to each other, giving money to charity, adopting a disable child). Results: A Multiple Analysis of Variance showed that there was no difference between conditions in how any of the five moral actions were judged by the participants (F(10, 204) = 1.22, p = .28, Wilks’ Lambda = .89). Conclusion: The earlier findings on the effect of temporal distance on moral judgments were not replicated. One reason might be the different cultural contexts. After all, cultures differ to the extent people use moral ethics of agency (self), communion (others), and spirituality (God or Divine Intervention) to judge the actions or fate of others (Shweder, Much, Mahapatra & Park, 1997). A strong awareness of one’s values in the ethic principle of spirituality, for instance, might explain that the power of time does not grabs hold of one’s perception of right or wrong.
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| 9. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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The Affective Temperaments and Well-Being: A Study among Adolescents in Sweden, Iran, and El Salvador
- 2011
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Ingår i: Second World Congress on Positive Psychology. Philadelphia, USA..
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of the affective temperament model in differences in well-being among adolescents from Sweden (n = 135), Iran (n = 122), and El Salvador (n = 130). The Affective Temperaments (AFTs) model categorizes participants in four different temperaments using the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS): self-fulfilling (high PA and low NA), high affective (high PA and high NA), low affective (low PA and low NA), and self-destructive (low PA and high NA). Participants self-reported life satisfaction (Satisfaction with Life Scale) and psychological well-being (Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scales). The results show that self-fulfilling adolescents reported higher life satisfaction and psychological well-being than self-destructives across cultures. Nevertheless, despite reporting high negative emotions, high affective adolescents also reported higher levels of well-being. Consequentially, the low affective adolescents also reported higher levels of well-being despite reporting experiencing low positive emotions. Moreover, psychological well-being was positively related to life satisfaction across cultures and temperaments. Specifically, the sub-scale of self-acceptance was a strong predictor of life satisfaction. The role of positive emotions and self-acceptance among youth is discussed. The AFTs model is suggested to offer something unique by taking into account the interaction of PA and NA.
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| 10. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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The Affective Temperaments and Well- Being: Swedish and Iranian Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction and Psychological Well- Being
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Happiness Studies. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1389-4978 .- 1573-7780. ; 14:2, s. 689-707
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim was to investigate the role of the affective temperament model (AFTs) in distinguishing variations in well-being among adolescents from Sweden (n = 222) and Iran (n = 120). Participants self-reported positive (PA) and negative affect (NA), life satisfaction (LS) and psychological well-being (PWB). The model categorizes participants in four different temperaments using the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS): self-actualizing (high PA and low NA), high affective (high PA and high NA), low affective (low PA and low NA), and self-destructive (low PA and high NA). Across cultures, self-actualizing adolescents reported higher LS and PWB. The PWB sub-scale of self-acceptance was positively related to LS regardless of temperament profile or cultural background. Nevertheless, Iranian adolescents with self-destructive profiles reported higher LS than high affective Iranians. The AFTs model is suggested to offer something unique by taking into account the interaction of PA and NA.
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