The Grounded Model of Communication Savoring: Theory Development and Age Cohort Study

Savoring contributes to human flourishing by enabling individuals to optimize, enhance, and prolong pleasurable moments. One unique dimension of savoring, communication savoring, refers to the practice of mindfully attending to and elevating pleasurable or meaningful moments that are experienced in language and social interaction. The grounded model of communication savoring identified the types and phenomenological experiences of communication savoring. The purpose of this study is to continue grounded theoretical development of the communication savoring model by adding new cases to build and refine the model and by applying the model to a novel setting. Using a priori and emergent coding, we analyzed 268 communication savoring narratives from 107 emerging adults and 161 mature/older adults. Our findings demonstrate high fidelity across groups and suggest a refinement to one communication savoring type (i.e., extraordinary communication). Our novel application of the model also revealed generational similarities within the contexts for communication savoring (e.g., people and events) and generational differences regarding the valence (i.e., savoring the bittersweet) and target of communication savoring (i.e., giving vs. receiving). Our paper advances qualitative theory-building in positive social science and offers new insight into age differences in communication savoring

Identifying Protective Factors to Early Suicide Markers: The Buffering Effects of Savoring and Resilience

Suicide continues to be one of the leading causes of death in the United States, which highlights the need for researchers to identify protective models through longitudinal designs (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2019). Importantly, suicide prevention strategies are more efficacious when they target early indicators of suicide and consider risk and protective factors. Desire for death, the combination of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness proposed by the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior (Van Orden et al., 2008), is one such early marker of suicidal behavior. A protect factor is methodologically defined as one that demonstrates an inverse relationship and temporal precedence in predicting an outcome variable, as well as reduces the effect of stress on an outcome (Vagi et al., 2013; Steca et al., 2014). Two potential positive psychological resources may serve as protective factors for desire for death are savoring the moment and resilience. The purpose of the current study is to evaluate whether savoring the moment and resilience serve as protective factors for desire for death in a sample of community adults. The study employed a three-wave longitudinal design, where participants completed an online survey once every 2 months. Data were collected from an initial sample of 812 community adults, with a final sample of 248 participants who completed all phases of data collection. Stress exhibited fluctuating effects on desire for death cross-sectionally, but demonstrated a significant positive relationship with desire for death in longitudinal models. Savoring the moment was inversely related to desire for death scores cross-sectionally and over time, but did not buffer the relationship between stress and desire for death cross-sectionally or over time. Resilience was negatively associated with desire for death at Time 1 and Time 2, but not Time 3. Additionally, there were no significant interaction effects between stress and resilience on desire for death at any time point or across time. These findings highlight the importance of savoring the moment and resilience in reducing risk to early markers of suicide; however, other factors may better explain the conditional effects of stress on desire for death

Regulating Positive Emotions: Implications for Promoting Well-Being in Individuals with Depression

Experiencing positive emotions is paramount to derive vitality from daily lived experiences. Positive emotions are associated with a range of beneficial outcomes, including longevity, reduced incidents of stroke, improved sleep quality, larger social networks, increased prosocial behavior, lower cortisol levels, and increased endogenous opioids and oxytocin. Despite these benefits, only limited research has focused on understanding positive emotion regulation within the context of depression. Rather, mechanisms related to the regulation of negative emotion have been the focus of research and evidence-based treatments. This interdisciplinary review article aims to advance knowledge regarding the role of positive emotion regulation in individuals with depression to inform the development of transdiagnostic evidenced-based approaches to treatment that bolster the experience of positive life events. We drew on research findings across the fields of clinical psychology, affective science, and social psychology to identify future directions for novel interdisciplinary translational research regarding mechanisms associated with positive emotion regulation

Positive Psychology and Older Adult Well-Being

Positive Psychology is a new area of scientific study within the realm of psychology that focuses on the positives in life and the promotion of well-being. Well-being can be promoted though aspects such as flourishing, hedonic and eudaimonic perspectives, positive affect and emotions, happiness, and reappraisal. Older adults make up an ever growing percentage of our population. Despite this, there are still biases and negative viewpoints against aging and older adults. The decline in health and social connectedness in aging is not inevitable and resilience can be imperative to successful aging. It is important to ensure healthy aging so that as future generations transition into older adulthood we can defend against negative health outcomes. Positive psychology can be used to improve the well-being of older adults. In moving forward, we must create more accessible interventions in order to help the well-being of our growing older populations. There is a call to action to shift the psychological paradigm to one that focuses on strength and growth

The Impact of Stress on Resilience: Examining the Moderated Effects of a Savoring Intervention

Resilience is characterized by the ability to bounce back from stress (Bonanno, 2004; Ong et al., 2006; Smith et al., 2008). Research suggests resilience is a personal resource that helps individuals effectively cope with stress and provides protection from negative outcomes (Loh, Schutte, & Thorsteinsson, 2013). Exposure to stress is a prerequisite to building resilience across many different contexts (Graber et al., 2015; Hennessey & Levine, 1979; Rutter, 2006). Interestingly, a high accumulation of stress detracts from an individual’s abilities to build resilience (Ong et al., 2006; Tuguade & Frederickson, 2007). However, it is unknown what types of interventions explicitly lead to increases in resilience, especially in the face of stress. Positive emotions are associated with resilience, however the mechanisms by which positive emotions boost resilience remain unclear (Folkman, 2008; Tuguade & Frederickson, 2007). One possibility is that savoring, an individual’s ability to generate, sustain, and extend positive emotions, may play an important role in building resilience, especially after experiencing a stressor (Bryant & Veroff, 2007). Thus, the current study’s primary purpose was to experimentally examine whether a savoring intervention could buffer the effects of stress on resilience. One hundred and eighteen undergraduate students participated in the study, and valid data were collected from 84 individuals. Participants were randomly assigned to an induction task (stress induction vs. neutral induction) and an intervention task (savoring vs. control). A 2 (induction task) x 2 (intervention task) x 2 (time) mixed ANOVA was used to analyze the data. Results revealed a non-significant main effect for induction task and intervention task on resilience scores. Results also highlighted a non-significant interaction effect for resilience scores. These findings are inconsistent with my hypotheses. Additionally, these results call into the question the efficacy of different positive psychological theories in buffering the effects of stress on resilience

Savoring and Bereavement; Exploring Whether Savoring Can Be Used as an Interventional Tool for Grieving Older Adults

Relational savoring is the idea that savoring can be achieved through focusing on a critical relationship with another person and then extracting the positivity from that relationship (Borelli, et al., 2020). Relational savoring differs from regular savoring because in the former, it is the savoring of memories within a relationship that has attachment, and where the memories themselves have attachment-based content (i.e., protection, support, love) (Borelli, et al., 2020). This proposed study would seek to answer the question of whether relational savoring can act as a protective barrier against psychological distresses a bereaved person may experience by priming and enhancing positive emotions of attachment security to the lost loved one

The Role of Savoring Positive Experiences When Faced with Challenge and Hindrance Demands: A Longitudinal Study

The goal of the present study was to examine the moderating effects of savoring and both challenge and hindrance job demands on the longitudinal relationship between job resources and engagement and burnout, mediated by personal resources, represented by psychological capital (PsyCap). Building upon previous research (Xanthopoulou et al., 2007; Xanthopoulou et al., 2009), Time 1 job resources were positively related to Time 2 engagement and negatively related to Time 2 burnout through Time 1 personal resources. In addition, Time 1 savoring was found to significantly interact with Time 1 job resources to predict Time 2 burnout, whereby savoring magnified the negative relationship between Time 1 job resources and Time 2 burnout. However, the moderating effects of challenge and hindrance demands were not found in the smaller matched sample. In the larger Time 1 sample, challenge demands enhanced the positive relationship between job resources and engagement, as well as enhanced the negative relationship between personal resources and burnout. Hindrance demands also significantly interacted with personal resources and job resources to predict engagement. Finally, in the larger Time 1 sample, savoring again amplified the negative relationship between job resources and burnout. These findings first demonstrate that the presence of challenge and hindrance job demands may significantly affect employees’ work engagement and symptoms of burnout given the availability of job resources. Furthermore, savoring positive experiences may be beneficial to employees’ mental health by diminishing symptoms of burnout when more job resources are available

Summer Camp Professionals’ Positive Psychology Certification Program

This Capstone provides the rationale and preliminary curriculum for a Summer Camp Professionals’ Positive Psychology Certification Program. One hundred and fifty years before the advent of positive psychology, summer camps were designed to teach children the art of flourishing (Paris, 2008). During that time, camps have organically developed techniques to foster positive emotion, engagement, positive relationships, meaning and accomplishment –fundamental building blocks of Martin Seligman’s (2011) PERMA model of wellbeing. As effective as camps are at promoting flourishing, however, they can become even more so by incorporating new insights and techniques from the field of positive psychology. The Camp Certification Program includes five core positive psychology concepts. Each contains a concept overview, discussion of benefits, implementation strategies, and measurement recommendations. The certification course has two goals. First, to enhance the experience for children who attend summer programs by teaching skills and habits that foster flourishing and achievement. Second, to provide a new way to view and value camp’s experiential education to help reposition it as an integral part of children’s development. By integrating positive psychology into modern camping, I hope to build demand for the camp experience and make it available to more children