Emotsionaalne kogemus: Seosed isiksuse, subjektiivse heaolu, meenutamise ja välisteguritega

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.Emotsionaalne kogemus on keeruline nähtus, sest aju töötleb selle loomiseks pidevalt erinevatest allikatest tulenevat teavet, nagu näiteks kehalisi aistinguid, eelnevaid teadmisi objektide ja situatsioonide kohta ning ka ümbritsevast maailmast pärinevat sensoorset informatsiooni. Käesolev väitekiri põhineb eeldusel, et emotsioonitekkes on üks peamisi tegureid see, kuidas inimesed enda jaoks olulisi sündmusi tõlgendavad. Töös kasutatakse ühe uurimisviisina kogemuse väljavõtte meetodit, mis võimaldab emotsioone hinnata nende loomulikus keskkonnas. Kuna mõõtmised toimuvad reaalajas, aitab see vältida ka mälust tingitud moonutusi. Nimelt on mitmed senised uurimused rõhutanud inimeste ebatäpsust minevikusündmuste ja emotsioonide meenutamisel. Ka väitekirjas esitatud tulemused näitavad, et inimese üldine emotsionaalsus mõjutab oluliselt seda, kui eredalt ja intensiivselt oma elusündmusi meenutatakse. Veel uuritakse käesolevas doktoritöös paari populaarset tõekspidamist, mis varasemates töödes on osutunud vastuolulisteks – näiteks seda, kas ilmastikutingimused mõjutavad emotsioonide kogemist. Tulemustest järeldub, et ilmal küll on afektiivsetele seisunditele teatud mõju, kuid see ei ole kindlasti nii suur, nagu võiks eeldada üldlevinud veendumuse põhjal. Samuti otsitakse vastust küsimusele, kas inimesed on suutelised olema ühtaegu nii rõõmsad kui kurvad. Selgub, et neid näiliselt vastandlikke emotsioone on tõepoolest võimalik samal ajahetkel kogeda, kuigi mitte väga intensiivsel kujul. Töös ilmneb ka isiksuseseadumuste mõju, mis viitab sellele, et teatud inimesed tunnevad segaemotsioone suurema tõenäosusega. Nii positiivsete kui negatiivsete tunnete uurimine on oluline muuhulgas ka seepärast, et nii eraldiseisvana kui omavahelises koostoimes mõjutavad mõlemad seda, kui rahul inimesed oma eluga üldiselt on. Viimast tuleb siiski vaadelda laiemas kontekstis, sest emotsioonide suhteline kaal rahuloluhinnangutes on riigiti mõnevõrra erinev, sõltudes kultuurilistest teguritest. Lõpetuseks, emotsionaalset kogemust kultuuriti uurides on vajalik analüüsida emotsiooniskaalade ning isegi konkreetsete sõnade tähendusruumide võrreldavust, sest alati ei ole need ühest kultuuri- või keelekontekstist teise otseselt ülekantavad.Emotional experience is a complex phenomenon, because the brain is constantly processing sensory information from the world, somatic sensations, and prior knowledge about objects and situations to produce an affective state. The current dissertation is based on the assumption that a major factor in emotion generation is the way, how individuals evaluate and interpret situations, that they consider relevant. One of the strategies employed here is the experience sampling methodology, which enables us to measure emotions in their natural context. While the assessments take place in real time, the possibility of memory distortions is minimal. Many previous studies have emphasized, that people are rather inaccurate in remembering past episodes and emotional experiences. Likewise, the present results show that the overall emotionality of individuals significantly influences the vividness and intensity of their memory recollections. This dissertation also explores some intriguing questions, which in previous research have turned out to be controversial. For instance, it is examined if weather influences mood. Results indicate that weather does have an impact on affective states, but the effect sizes are nearly not as impressive as the popular belief would suggest. It is also investigated, whether people can feel happy and sad at the same time. The analyses show that under specific conditions it is indeed possible to experience these apparently opposite emotions simultaneously, though not in a very intensive form. Hereby, also the influence of personality dispositions is demonstrated, meaning that certain people tend to feel mixed emotions more than others. It is important to study both pleasant and unpleasant feelings, because they have an independent as well as a combined impact on how satisfied people are with their lives. However, this needs to be analyzed in a wider context, because the relative weight of emotions in life satisfaction judgments varies across countries and is influenced by some cultural factors. Finally, while comparing emotions cross-culturally, it is essential to explore the equivalence of measurement scales and even specific emotion words, because transferring these from one culture or language to the other is not always straightforward

The relationship between social capital and individualism–collectivism in Europe

The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between social capital and individualism–collectivism in a sample of 50,417 individuals from 29 European countries using data from the European Social Survey Round 6 (2012). Social capital was measured in terms of generalized social trust and informal social networks; individualism–collectivism was operationalized via Schwartz’s Openness to Change–Conservation value dimension. Results from a hierarchical linear modeling analysis showed that less than 10% of variance in social capital indicators was found between countries, meaning that the level of social capital varies more substantively between individuals than between the countries. Openness to Change had a weak but statistically significant and positive relationship both with the indices of Generalized Social Trust and Informal Social Networks, which remained significant even when individual age, gender, education level, and domicile were controlled for. In sum, our findings show that the positive relationship between social capital and individualism that has been found at the cultural level also holds at the individual level: people who emphasize independent thought, action, and readiness to change are also more willing to believe that most people can be trusted and are more engaged in informal social networks. The relationship is, nevertheless, very weak and the strength of the association varies significantly across different European countries. This variation, however, cannot be explained by country differences in level of democracy or human development and the country’s wealth moderates only the individual level relationship between Openness to Change and Informal Social Networks. Our findings suggest that sources of social capital at the individual level can be found in people’s immediate social surroundings, as well as their everyday social interactions

The role of co-occurring emotions and personality traits in anger expression

The main aim of the current study was to examine the role of co-occurring emotions and their interactive effects with the Big Five personality traits in anger expression. Everyday anger expression ("anger-in" and "anger-out" behavior) was studied with the experience-sampling method in a group of 110 participants for 14 consecutive days on 7 random occasions per day. Our results showed that the simultaneously co-occurring emotions that buffer against anger expression are sadness, surprise, disgust, disappointment, and irritation for anger-in behavior, and fear, sadness and disappointment for anger-out reactions. While previous studies have shown that differentiating one's current affect into discrete emotion categories buffers against anger expression (Pond et al., 2012), our study further demonstrated the existence of specific interactive effects between the experience of momentary emotions and personality traits that lead to higher levels of either suppression or expression of anger behavior (or both). For example, the interaction between the trait Openness and co-occurring surprise, in predicting anger-in behavior, indicates that less open people hold their anger back more, and more open people use less anger-in behavior. Co-occurring disgust increases anger-out reactions in people low in Conscientiousness, but decreases anger-out reactions in people high in Conscientiousness. People high in Neuroticism are less likely to engage in anger-in behavior when experiencing disgust, surprise, or irritation alongside anger, but show more anger out in the case of co-occurring contempt. The results of the current study help to further clarify the interactions between the basic personality traits and the experience of momentary co-occurring emotions in determining anger behavior

Episodic memory reliving and personality : do good “time travelers” have distinctive personality profiles?

There are considerable individual differences in remembering past episodes. The aim of the current study was to examine the link between episodic memory reliving and the Five-Factor Model personality traits. Altogether 422 participants (67% women) described an autobiographical episode and rated the vividness and clarity of that recollection. Next, they assessed their general tendencies of autobiographical recollections, which resulted in two autobiographical episodic memory scores (AEMS) for each participant – episodic and general. Participants also filled in the Estonian version of the International Personality Item Pool NEO questionnaire. Findings from partial correlation analysis (controlling for age and gender) revealed distinguishable patterns of associations for the episodic and general-level reports of memory reliving: the episodic AEMS was positively associated with E4: Activity Level and E1: Friendliness, whereas the general AEMS was negatively correlated with N4: Self-Consciousness, and positively with E1: Friendliness, E6: Cheerfulness, O1: Imagination, O5: Intellect, C2: Orderliness, and C3: Dutifulness (all significant at p < .005). The associations between the general (but not the episodic) AEMS and personality facets were significantly correlated with the average social desirability ratings of the respective facets. We conclude that greater social adaptation together with the motivation of positive self-perception are plausible explanations of the links between personality traits and reporting the quality of reliving personal memories

The role of the five-factor personality traits in general self-rated health

Self-ratings of health (SRH) are widely used in large surveys and have been shown to predict mortality over and above more objective health measures. However, the debate still continues about what SRH actually represents and what the processes underlying people's assessments of their health are. The main aim of this study is to examine the role of the Five-Factor Model personality traits in general SRH assessment while controlling for the effects of objective health indicators, health-related quality of life and subjective well-being in a large population-based dataset of Estonian adults. A hierarchical linear regression analysis showed that only self-rated, but not informant-rated, neuroticism explained additional variance in SRH when the other aforementioned variables were taken into account. Our findings indicate that people's general SRH is a relatively good reflection of their objectively measured health status, but also that the way in which people experience and evaluate the quality of their lives—both in terms of subjective well-being and more specific aspects of health—plays a significant role in general SRH assessments

Kognitiivse seisundi hindamine neuropsühholoogias

Kognitiivse seisundi hindamine pakub olulist lisainfot paljude neuroloogiliste ja psühhiaatriliste häiretega patsientide seisundi käsitlemisel. Hindamisel kasutatakse erinevaid teste ja katseid, analüüsides nii kvantitatiivseid tulemusi kui ka kvalitatiivset sooritust testide lahendamisel. See aitab täpsustada patsiendi vaimsete võimete taset, kognitiivsete kaebuste olemust ja neid tingivaid põhjusi ning seeläbi hõlbustab ravi planeerimist. Neuropsühholoogilised uuringud on olulised patsiendi funktsionaalse toimetuleku kindlaksmääramisel.Eesti Arst 2014; 93(5):276–28

Age differences in the variance of personality characteristics

In contrast to mean–level comparisons, age group differences in personality trait variance have received only passing research interest. This may seem surprising because individual differences in personality characteristics are exactly what most of personality psychology is about. Because different proposed mechanisms of personality development may entail either increases or decreases in variance over time, the current study is exploratory in nature. Age differences in variance were tested by comparing the standard deviations of the five–factor model domain and facet scales across two age groups (20 to 30 years old versus 50 to 60 years old). Samples from three cultures (Estonia, the Czech Republic and Russia) were employed, and two methods (self–reports and informant–reports) were used. The results showed modest convergence across samples and methods. Age group differences were significant for 11 of 150 facet–level comparisons but never consistently for the same facets. No significant age group differences were observed for the five–factor model domain variance. Therefore, there is little evidence for individual differences in personality characteristics being systematically smaller or larger in older as opposed to younger people. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding personality development. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology </jats:p

Social mindfulness predicts concern for nature and immigrants across 36 nations

Australian Research Council (ARC) [DP200101446]; Philip Leverhulme Prize; Fund for Research on Health - Quebec (FRQS) [268393]; Center for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies [ANID/FONDAP 15130009]; Fondecyt Program (ANID/Fondecyt) [1201788]; Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [PID2021-124617OB-I00]; ERC [101018172]; China Postdoctoral Science Foundation fellowship [2021M690681]; JSPS KAKENHI [19KK0063]; Latvian Council of Science [lzp-2018/1-0402]; Polish National Science Center Grant Sonata Bis [UMO-2017/26/E/HS6/00129]; Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research [ANID/FONDAP 15110006]; Australian Research Council [DP200101446] Funding Source: Australian Research Council; European Research Council (ERC) [101018172] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)Brock Bastian was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) (grant number DP200101446), Steve Loughnan was supported by the Philip Leverhulme Prize, Catherine Amiot was supported by a Senior Fellowship from the Fund for Research on Health - Quebec (FRQS: no. 268393), Roberto Gonzalez was supported by the Center for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (ANID/FONDAP 15130009), the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research (ANID/FONDAP 15110006) and the Fondecyt Program (ANID/Fondecyt 1201788), angel Gomez was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2021-124617OB-I00) and by the ERC Grant agreement no: 101018172, Zhechen Wang was supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation fellowship (2021M690681), Nobuhiko Goto was supported by the JSPS KAKENHI (grant number 19KK0063), Girts Dimdins was supported by the Latvian Council of Science (grant number lzp-2018/1-0402), and Michal Bilewicz was supported by the Polish National Science Center Grant Sonata Bis (grant number UMO-2017/26/E/HS6/00129).People cooperate every day in ways that range from largescale contributions that mitigate climate change to simple actions such as leaving another individual with choice - known as social mindfulness. It is not yet clear whether and how these complex and more simple forms of cooperation relate. Prior work has found that countries with individuals who made more socially mindful choices were linked to a higher country environmental performance - a proxy for complex cooperation. Here we replicated this initial finding in 41 samples around the world, demonstrating the robustness of the association between social mindfulness and environmental performance, and substantially built on it to show this relationship extended to a wide range of complex cooperative indices, tied closely to many current societal issues. We found that greater social mindfulness expressed by an individual was related to living in countries with more social capital, more community participation and reduced prejudice towards immigrants. Our findings speak to the symbiotic relationship between simple and more complex forms of cooperation in societies.WOS:0009340726000222-s2.0-8514510068336543793Science Citation Index ExpandedarticleUluslararası işbirliği ile yapılan - EVETMart2022YÖK - 2022-2

Taking risks to feel excitement : detailed personality profile and genetic associations

This study mapped the personality and genetics of risky excitement-seekers focusing on skydiving behavior. We compared 298 skydivers to 298 demographically matched controls across the NEO Personality Inventory-3 domains, facets, and 240 items. The most significant item-level effects were aggregated into a poly-item score of skydiving-associated personality markers (Study 1), where higher scores describe individuals who enjoy risky situations but have no self-control issues. The skydiving-associated personality marker score was associated with greater physical activity, higher rate of traumatic injuries, and better mental health in a sample of 3558 adults (Study 2). From genetic perspective, we associated skydiving behavior with 19 candidate variants that have previously been linked to excitement-seeking (Study 1). Polymorphisms in the SERT gene were the strongest predictors of skydiving, but the false discovery rate-adjusted (FDR-adjusted) p-values were non-significant. In Study 2, we predicted the skydiving-associated personality marker score and E5: Excitement-seeking from multiple risk-taking polygenic scores, using publicly available summary data from genome-wide association studies. While E5: Excitement-seeking was most strongly predicted by general risk tolerance and risky behaviors’ polygenic scores, the skydiving-associated personality marker score was most strongly associated with the adventurousness polygenic scores. Phenotypic and polygenic scores associations suggest that skydiving is a specific—perhaps more functional—form of excitement-seeking, which may nevertheless lead to physical injuries

Self- and informant-reported personality traits and vaccination against COVID-19

As COVID-19 vaccines’ accessibility has grown, so has the role of personal choice in vaccination, and not everybody is willing to vaccinate. Exploring personality traits’ associations with vaccination could highlight some person-level drivers of, and barriers to, vaccination. We used self- and informant-ratings of the Five-Factor Model domains and their subtraits (a) measured approximately at the time of vaccination with the 100 Nuances of Personality (100NP) item pool (N = 56,575) and (b) measured on average ten years before the pandemic with the NEO Personality Inventory-3 (NEO-PI-3; N = 3,168). We tested individual domains’ and either items’ (in the 100NP sample) or facets’ (in the NEO-PI-3 sample) associations with vaccination, as well as their collective ability to predict vaccination using elastic net models trained and tested in independent sample partitions. Although the NEO-PI-3 domains and facets did not predict vaccination ten years later, the domains correlated with vaccination in the 100NP sample, with vaccinated people scoring slightly higher on neuroticism and agreeableness and lower on openness, controlling for age, sex, and education. Collectively, the five domains predicted vaccination with an accuracy of r = .08. Associations were stronger at the item level. Vaccinated people were, on average, more science-minded, politically liberal, respectful of rules and authority, and anxious but less spiritual, religious, and self-assured. The 100NP items collectively predicted vaccination with r = .31 accuracy. We conclude that unvaccinated people may be a psychologically heterogeneous group and highlight some potential areas for action in vaccination campaigns