Examining the impact of major life events on the frequency and experience of daily social events.

OBJECTIVE: Life events can impact people's dispositional functioning by changing their state-level patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behavior. One pathway through which this change may be facilitated is changes in the experience of daily social events. METHOD: We examined the dynamic relationship between major life events and the subsequent experience of positive and negative daily social events in a year-long longitudinal study (initial N = 1247). RESULTS: Experiencing positive and negative major life events moderated the effects of positive and negative social events on event-contingent state well-being and ill-being in ways that were mostly (but not always) consistent with both endowment and contrast effects on judgments of well-being. Furthermore, negative life events predicted an increase in the subsequent trajectory of negative social events, while the experience of daily ill-being predicted the subsequent experience of negative social events. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the possible impact of major life events by explaining how they shape the subsequent experience of daily social events.

Trauma exposure and short-term volitional personality trait change.

OBJECTIVE: Research into post-traumatic growth (PTG) finds individuals report positive changes in their identity, relationships, and worldviews after trauma. In a pre-registered 16-week longitudinal study, we examined trait change after recent trauma exposure to test an operationalization of PTG as positive personality change. We examined the influence of intrapersonal and social factors including motivation to change traits, perceived social support, and event centrality. METHOD: Participants (n = 1004) reported on trauma exposure in past 1-month, centrality of each traumatic event, and social support. Participants with trauma exposure (n = 146) and a matched control group reported on their traits in 8 waves at 2-week intervals, and motivation to change traits in 3 waves. RESULTS: Although some trait change was observed, it was not consistent with PTG. We found agreeableness declined in the trauma relative to the control group among participants who did not want to change in this trait. Conscientiousness declined for individuals with highly central traumas. Social support predicted increases in emotional stability, conscientiousness, and openness but only for individuals in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: We discuss the value of defining PTG as positive trait change and suggest future directions including assessment of facet-level changes and ideographic methods.

Do We Know Whether We're Happier? Corroborating Perceived Retrospective Assessments of Improvements in Well-Being.

To what extent do our beliefs about how our well-being has improved over time correspond to observed changes? Participants (N = 1,247 from Qualtrics Panels) completed questionnaires measuring dispositional well-being and ill-being (depressive symptoms) at three time points over the course of one year, as well as 44 weekly assessments of state well-being and ill-being over 52 weeks. They additionally completed measures of perceived improvements in well-being and ill-being at Weeks 45 and 52 as well as a measure of broad personality traits. We estimated latent change scores and latent growth curves, which allowed us to obtain more accurate estimates of the convergence between retrospective improvements and veridical change compared to past methods utilized. Stability in both global and state well-being and ill-being were observed. People who agreed more strongly that their well-being had improved (or their ill-being had increased) tended to show greater increases in actual well-being (or ill-being) across the past year. Additionally, we observed meaningful relationships between personality traits and perceived improvements. On average, people have some insight in assessing whether they became happier (or unhappier) over one year.

Post-traumatic growth as positive personality change: Challenges, opportunities, and recommendations.

OBJECTIVE: Post-traumatic growth typically refers to enduring positive psychological change experienced as a result of adversity, trauma, or highly challenging life circumstances. Critics have challenged insights from much of the prior research on this topic, pinpointing its significant methodological limitations. In response to these critiques, we propose that post-traumatic growth can be more accurately captured in terms of personality change-an approach that affords a more rigorous examination of the phenomenon. METHOD: We outline a set of conceptual and methodological questions and considerations for future work on the topic of post-traumatic growth. RESULTS: We provide a series of recommendations for researchers from across the disciplines of clinical/counseling, developmental, health, personality, and social psychology and beyond, who are interested in improving the quality of research examining resilience and growth in the context of adversity. CONCLUSION: We are hopeful that these recommendations will pave the way for a more accurate understanding of the ubiquity, durability, and causal processes underlying post-traumatic growth.

Validation of the Parental Facilitation of Mastery Scale-II.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a more reliable and comprehensive version of the Parental Facilitation of Mastery Scale (PFMS) METHOD: In Study 1, 387 undergraduates completed an expanded PFMS (PFMS-II) and measures of parenting, perceived control, responses to early life challenges, and psychopathology. In Study 2, 182 trauma-exposed community participants completed the PFMS-II and measures of perceived control, psychopathology, and well-being RESULTS: In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis of the PFMS-II revealed two factors. These factors replicated in Study 2; one item was removed to achieve measurement invariance across race. The final PFMS-II comprised a 10-item overprotection scale and a 7-item challenge scale. In both samples, this measure demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity and was more reliable than the original PFMS. Parental challenge was a unique predictor of perceived control in both samples CONCLUSION: The PFMS-II is a valid measure of important parenting behaviors not fully captured in other measures.

Wisdom Gained? Assessing Relationships Between Adversity, Personality and Well-Being Among a Late Adolescent Sample.

How do late adolescents make sense of stressful life events they have experienced in their lives? In a sample of 1320 college students, 676 (58% White, 63% female) reported the stressful events they had experienced in their lifetime up until the present survey and indicated whether they considered each stressful event to be a turning point and/or an opportunity for wisdom. Students also completed measures of personality and well-being. We hypothesized that the tendency to interpret stressful events as turning points or opportunities for wisdom would explain the associations between three personality characteristics (Openness to Experience, Extraversion, and Emotionality) and well-being. We used a multi-step ESEM approach in which we first assessed the measurement structure of our items before testing partial and complete structural models. We tested partial and structural models according to extant guidelines associated with the evaluation of indirect effects models. We did not find support for the indirect effects model, but Openness was associated with the tendency to view stressful events as turning points, and Openness and Extraversion were associated with the tendency to view stressful events as leading to wisdom, as well as with increased well-being.

Personality science, resilience, and posttraumatic growth.

PASTOR represents an innovative development in the study of resilience. This commentary highlights how PASTOR can help both clarify critical questions in and benefit from engaging with new research in personality science on behavioral flexibility across situations in addition to stability over time, and also clarify the relationship between resilience and posttraumatic growth.

The story of 'us' is the story of 'me': A cross-sectional test of the influence of insecure attachment on narratives of romantic transgressions and high points.

Narratives play an important role in the development of the self-identity. Romantic relationships offer a powerful context in which to develop these narratives about the self through the good and the bad experiences people have with their partners. However, the stories we tell can also be colored by how we already see ourselves. In a secondary analysis, using a prospective longitudinal study of people in established romantic relationships (N = 402), we tested pre-registered hypotheses regarding how attachment anxiety and avoidance lead people to develop narratives about their relationship high-points and transgressions, and whether these narratives influence their relationship satisfaction over time. Relatively higher avoidance, but not anxiety, was related to narrative construction. Those relatively higher in avoidance made more negative event connections about themselves in their transgression narratives, and more positive event connections about themselves in their relationship high-point narratives. Narrative content, however, did not mediate the association between attachment anxiety and avoidance and relationship satisfaction. Despite the lack of support for some of our pre-registered hypotheses, these findings provide valuable insights into how insecure attachment influences the stories people tell about their relationships, and how they link these events back to the self.

Daily emotional dynamics and changes in posttraumatic growth and posttraumatic depreciation among people living with HIV.

OBJECTIVE: Posttraumatic growth (PTG), and its negative reflection, posttraumatic depreciation (PTD), are two aspects of response to trauma. This study explores whether daily emotional dynamics (inertia and innovation) can translate into positive versus negative changes among people living with HIV (PLWH) in the form of long-term changes in PTG or PTD. METHODS: The study combined a classical longitudinal approach with two assessments of PTG and PTD within one year and a measurement burst diary design with three weekly electronic diaries. In total, 249 PLWH participated in this study, filling out an expanded version of the Posttraumatic Growth and Depreciation Inventory (PTGDI-X) and a survey of sociodemographic and clinical data. In addition, they assessed their positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) at the end of each day in online diaries using a shortened version of the PANAS-X. RESULTS: Although we observed stable significant inertia and innovation of PA and NA across all bursts, these parameters of daily emotional dynamics were unrelated to the longitudinal changes in PTG and PTD. The same null results were also noted for the average levels of NA and PA. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated the relative stability of emotion regulation in PLWH over the course of one year and contributed to understanding its dynamic mechanisms in terms of trait-like characteristics. The null result of the relationship between the PTG and PTD change might suggest a weak role of emotion regulation in shaping these trajectories as well as a lack of validity of the PTG/PTD measures.

A Theoretical Qualitative Investigation Exploring Illness Perceptions and Decision-Making About COVID-19 in an Ethnically Diverse UK-Based Sample.

Purpose: The primary aim of the present investigation was to explore perceptions, experiences, and decision-making relating to the COVID-19 illness as the UK entered into a phase of "living safely with COVID-19". A secondary aim was to explore how perceptions around the COVID-19 vaccine might vary by ethnicity. Participants and Methods: We adopted a qualitative approach with a diverse sample of UK-based participants. One-hundred-and-ninety-three individuals completed an online survey measuring perceptions towards COVID-19 with questions conceptualized through the Common-Sense Model of Self-Regulation. Results: Through deductive thematic analysis we identified one overarching theme in our data, "The transition back to normal routines", with four themes illustrating individuals' perceptions and experiences with COVID-19: 1) "Living with the uncertainty", 2) "Concern for others", 3) "The multiple consequences of COVID-19", and 4) "Sense of control", with the sub-theme of "Should I vaccinate, should I not vaccinate?". Conclusion: Findings from the present investigation provide key insights for understanding how people's perceptions of COVID-19 during this transition period might impact their decisions and behavior moving forward. Specifically, findings suggest some prevailing concerns around catching the virus, while no strong qualitative evidence for concerns over long COVID were identified in this sample, the responsibility felt by individuals towards taking their own precautionary measures in light of the easing of all national restrictions, and some potential differences in perceptions towards the vaccine between individuals from different ethnic backgrounds.

Examining the protective influence of posttraumatic growth on interpersonal suicide risk factors in a 6-week longitudinal study.

Research has found an inverse relationship between posttraumatic growth (PTG) and suicidal ideation in military and community samples that holds when controlling for other suicide risk factors. However, further research is needed into the underlying mechanisms to clarify how PTG protects against the formation of suicidal ideation. The current two-wave longitudinal study examined whether perceiving PTG from recent adverse circumstances while in a national lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic attenuated the positive relationship of two interpersonal suicide risk factors - perceived burdensomeness (PB) and thwarted belonginess (TB)-over 6 weeks. Participants (n = 170) were recruited online from Prolific from income-deprived areas in the United Kingdom (mean age = 37.65; SD = 12.50; 53.5% female). Post-hoc power analyses indicated we had insufficient power to examine the hypothesised mediation for TB. We examined whether PTG mediated the relationship between PB at wave 1 and wave 2 while controlling for depression and anxiety in a sample of individuals at-risk for suicidal ideation. PTG did significantly and partially mediate the positive relationship between PB at wave 1 and 2. We discuss the theoretical and clinical implications that could result if future research successfully replicates these initial exploratory findings.

Examining the protective function of perceptions of post-traumatic growth against entrapment and suicidal ideation.

BACKGROUND: Recent evidence has found that reporting post-traumatic growth (PTG) from a past stressful life event is associated with lower reports of suicidal ideation. Perceptions of PTG measure the extent to which an individual reports positive changes in their identity, relationships, and worldviews after a stressful event. However, little is known about how perceptions of PTG interact with feelings of defeat and entrapment to influence suicidal ideation. The current study examined this question through the Integrated Motivational-Volitional (IMV) Model of Suicidal Behavior. METHODS: 521 adult participants (315 females with age range of 18-82, M = 30.4 years, SD = 13.6) completed an online cross-sectional questionnaire with defeat, entrapment, suicidal ideation, PTG, depression and anxiety measures. Hypotheses and data analysis plans were pre-registered prior to data collection. RESULTS: PTG negatively correlated with defeat, entrapment and suicidal ideation. PTG predicted lower suicidal ideation when controlling for entrapment, depression and anxiety. PTG did not moderate the relationship between defeat on entrapment or the relationship between entrapment on suicidal ideation. LIMITATIONS: The findings were based on cross-sectional data where participants recalled experiences of defeat, entrapment and suicidal ideation from the past year. The sample was a large community (non-clinical) sample, and most of the participants identified as white (85%). CONCLUSION: Although PTG did not function as a moderator within the IMV model of suicidality, it predicted lower suicidal ideation while controlling for other known predictors of suicidal ideation. Future research could explore the function of PTG in appraisal-based models of suicidality.

Investigating corroboration of self-perceived posttraumatic growth among Sri Lankan Tamil survivors of ethnopolitical warfare through trait, domain, and profile agreement approaches.

Though research on assessing posttraumatic growth has been severely critiqued, some evidence suggests close others can observe and report changes in individuals following traumatic life events and are sensitive to idiosyncratic ways in which changes manifest. We extended these findings by investigating corroboration of self-perceived posttraumatic growth (PTG) and depreciation (PTD) as measured by the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory-42 (PTGI-42) among Sri Lankan Tamil war survivors (n = 200). Informants slightly corroborated overall levels of PTG and PTD, while a more nuanced profile analysis procedure revealed overall-but not distinctive-profile agreement. This suggests self-other agreement is modest and may partly reflect shared narratives and collective cultural understandings about how people change after trauma. Results demonstrate further that informants were not sensitive to idiosyncratic ways in which target individuals had changed. Together, the lack of validity evidence suggests that the PTGI-42 may be inadequate in some cross-cultural contexts as a measure of nuanced posttraumatic change (i.e., as a measure of specific changes in the five theorized domains of growth and depreciation). Future work should emphasize culture- and context-sensitive measurement of posttraumatic change, particularly focusing on methods other than retrospective self-reports, such as prospective longitudinal designs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Situation-Based Contingencies Underlying Wisdom-Content Manifestations: Examining Intellectual Humility in Daily Life.

Objectives: Existing assessments of intellectual humility (IH)-a key component of wisdom-do not examine its manifestation in daily life while sufficiently focusing on the core idea of the construct: owning up to one's intellectual shortcomings. The present research sought to examine situational contingencies underlying daily manifestations of IH-relevant characteristics. Research Design and Methods: We developed a trait version of the State-Trait IH Scale in two studies and subsequently examined daily manifestations of IH-relevant characteristics utilizing a contextualized state version of the State-Trait IH Scale in a 21-day experience sampling study. Here, we tested how specific situational contingencies (associated with the context and the personality of the individual with whom participants engaged) influenced the manifestation of IH-relevant qualities. Results: We found strong evidence for the validity of both versions of the scale. Specifically, the state measure exhibited high within-person variability, and aggregated state assessments were strongly correlated with the trait measure. Additionally, morality positively predicted manifestation of IH, whereas disagreeableness negatively predicted manifestation of IH. Discussion and Implications: These results offer new directions for research on the expression of wisdom-related characteristics in daily life.

Specific and Individuated Death Reflection Fosters Identity Integration.

Identity integration is the process wherein a person assimilates multiple or conflicting identities (e.g., beliefs, values, needs) into a coherent, unified self-concept. Three experiments examined whether contemplating mortality in a specific and individuated manner (i.e., via the death reflection manipulation) facilitated outcomes indicative of identity integration. Participants in the death reflection condition (vs. control conditions) considered positive and negative life experiences as equally important in shaping their current identity (Experiment 1), regarded self-serving values and other-serving values as equally important life principles (Experiment 2), and were equally motivated to pursue growth-oriented and security-oriented needs (Experiment 3). Death reflection motivates individuals to integrate conflicting aspects of their identity into a coherent self-concept. Given that identity integration is associated with higher well-being, the findings have implications for understanding the psychological benefits of existential contemplation.

The protective function of personal growth initiative among a genocide-affected population in Rwanda.

The aim of the current study was to investigate the extent to which individual differences in personal growth initiative (PGI) were associated with lower reports of functional impairment of daily activities among a genocide-affected population in Rwanda. PGI measures an individual's motivation to develop as a person and the extent to which he or she is active in setting goals that work toward achieving self-improvement. We found that PGI was negatively associated with functional impairment when controlling for depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and other demographic factors. Our results suggest that PGI may constitute an important mindset for facilitating adaptive functioning in the aftermath of adversity and in the midst of psychological distress, and as such they might have practical applications for the development of intervention programs.

Self-related consequences of death fear and death denial.

This study explores self-related outcomes (e.g., esteem, self-concept clarity, existential well-being) as a function of the interaction between self-reported levels of death fear and death denial. Consistent with the idea that positive existential growth can come from individuals facing, rather than denying, their mortality (Cozzolino, 2006 ), the authors observed that not fearing and denying death can bolster important positive components of the self. That is, individuals low in death denial and death fear evidenced an enhanced self that is valued, clearly conceived, efficacious, and that has meaning and purpose.

Agreement on the perception of moral character.

This study tested for inter-judge agreement on moral character. A sample of students and community members rated their own moral character using a measure that tapped six moral character traits. Friends, family members, and/or acquaintances rated these targets on the same traits. Self/other and inter-informant agreement was found at the trait level for both a general character factor and for residual variance explained by individual moral character traits, as well as at the individual level (judges agreed on targets' "moral character profiles"). Observed inter-judge agreement constitutes evidence for the existence of moral character, and raises questions about the nature of moral character traits.