Introduction to a Culturally Sensitive Measure of Well-Being: Combining Life Satisfaction and Interdependent Happiness Across 49 Different Cultures

How can one conclude that well-being is higher in country A than country B, when well-being is being measured according to the way people in country A think about well-being? We address this issue by proposing a new culturally sensitive method to comparing societal levels of well-being. We support our reasoning with data on life satisfaction and interdependent happiness focusing on individual and family, collected mostly from students, across forty-nine countries. We demonstrate that the relative idealization of the two types of well-being varies across cultural contexts and are associated with culturally different models of selfhood. Furthermore, we show that rankings of societal well-being based on life satisfaction tend to underestimate the contribution from interdependent happiness. We introduce a new culturally sensitive method for calculating societal well-being, and examine its construct validity by testing for associations with the experience of emotions and with individualism-collectivism. This new culturally sensitive approach represents a slight, yet important improvement in measuring well-being

Factorial validation and reliability analysis of the brain fag syndrome scale

Background: Brain fag is an indigenous psychopathology or culture-bound syndrome formally documented in Nigeria in the 1960’s by Raymond Prince. Objective: The need for a factorial examination of the scale to ensure factorial validity and also to examine the reliability of this screening scale. Methods: Two hundred thirty four (234) participants with ages between 11 – 20 years with a mean age of 14.20 and a Standard Deviation of 2.14 of which 114 were from a private secondary school and 120 from a public secondary school were randomly selected and administered the Brain Fag Syndrome Scale [BFSS]. The data was subjected to factor analysis using Principal Component Analysis with Oblim Rotation. Results: Two valid factors emerged with items 1-3 and items 4, 5 & 7 loading on them respectively, making the BFSS a twodimensional(multidimensional) scale which measures 2 aspects of brain fag [labeled burning sensation and crawling sensation respectively]. The reliability analysis yielded a Cronbach Alpha coefficient of 0.521, and a standardized item alpha of 0.528 estimated its internal consistency. Also, the BFSS was correlated with other tests to establish its concurrent validity[convergent and divergent]. Conclusion: BFSS is a valid and reliable two-dimensional instrument to assess brain fag syndrome

Cenozoic evolution of mobile shales and fluid escape features, offshore western Niger Delta.

International audienceNumerous studies of the offshore Niger Delta have documented substrate-related collapse systems based on widely spaced 2D seismic data that generally lack detailed age calibration, but shale evolution through time remains poorly understood. This is investigated in this study through a detailed interpretation of an industry 3D seismic survey and calibration with biostratigraphic data. Our results show an overall thinning of stratigraphy towards mobile shale in the northeast of the study area at least since the Burdigalian. This suggests the onset of shale deformation in the Burdigalian, contrary to suggestions that it initiated in the Tortonian or later. Increase in sedimentation rates over the late Eocene-Serravallian is interpreted to have contributed to early generation of overpressure and progradation of the offshore western Niger Delta siliciclastic wedge. This is inferred to have contributed to shale deformation and release of overpressured fluids and solid particles through mud volcanoes and sea floor pockmarks. While mud volcanoes and giant pockmarks provide clue on deeper fluid migration, smaller pockmarks above normal faults, buried submarine channels and MTDs, suggest shallower fluid migration. The presence of buckle folds support previous observations that the active compressional zone of the Niger Delta was in the present-day continental slope during the late Eocene before migrating to the outer fold-thrust-belt in the Pliocene. This study provides new insight into the long-term control (18 million years) of mobile shales on the stratigraphic evolution of the offshore western Niger Delta

Cenozoic evolution of mobile shales and fluid escape features, offshore western Niger Delta.

International audienceNumerous studies of the offshore Niger Delta have documented substrate-related collapse systems based on widely spaced 2D seismic data that generally lack detailed age calibration, but shale evolution through time remains poorly understood. This is investigated in this study through a detailed interpretation of an industry 3D seismic survey and calibration with biostratigraphic data. Our results show an overall thinning of stratigraphy towards mobile shale in the northeast of the study area at least since the Burdigalian. This suggests the onset of shale deformation in the Burdigalian, contrary to suggestions that it initiated in the Tortonian or later. Increase in sedimentation rates over the late Eocene-Serravallian is interpreted to have contributed to early generation of overpressure and progradation of the offshore western Niger Delta siliciclastic wedge. This is inferred to have contributed to shale deformation and release of overpressured fluids and solid particles through mud volcanoes and sea floor pockmarks. While mud volcanoes and giant pockmarks provide clue on deeper fluid migration, smaller pockmarks above normal faults, buried submarine channels and MTDs, suggest shallower fluid migration. The presence of buckle folds support previous observations that the active compressional zone of the Niger Delta was in the present-day continental slope during the late Eocene before migrating to the outer fold-thrust-belt in the Pliocene. This study provides new insight into the long-term control (18 million years) of mobile shales on the stratigraphic evolution of the offshore western Niger Delta

Cenozoic evolution of mobile shales and fluid escape features, offshore western Niger Delta.

International audienceNumerous studies of the offshore Niger Delta have documented substrate-related collapse systems based on widely spaced 2D seismic data that generally lack detailed age calibration, but shale evolution through time remains poorly understood. This is investigated in this study through a detailed interpretation of an industry 3D seismic survey and calibration with biostratigraphic data. Our results show an overall thinning of stratigraphy towards mobile shale in the northeast of the study area at least since the Burdigalian. This suggests the onset of shale deformation in the Burdigalian, contrary to suggestions that it initiated in the Tortonian or later. Increase in sedimentation rates over the late Eocene-Serravallian is interpreted to have contributed to early generation of overpressure and progradation of the offshore western Niger Delta siliciclastic wedge. This is inferred to have contributed to shale deformation and release of overpressured fluids and solid particles through mud volcanoes and sea floor pockmarks. While mud volcanoes and giant pockmarks provide clue on deeper fluid migration, smaller pockmarks above normal faults, buried submarine channels and MTDs, suggest shallower fluid migration. The presence of buckle folds support previous observations that the active compressional zone of the Niger Delta was in the present-day continental slope during the late Eocene before migrating to the outer fold-thrust-belt in the Pliocene. This study provides new insight into the long-term control (18 million years) of mobile shales on the stratigraphic evolution of the offshore western Niger Delta

Cenozoic evolution of mobile shales and fluid migration to seafloor: 3D seismic evidence from the offshore western Niger Delta

International audienceThe offshore Niger Delta provides a spectacular example of gravity collapse tectonics, but the timing of shale mobilisation remains poorly understood. Here we present new information from the western Niger Delta, based on a detailed interpretation of a 3D seismic volume, calibrated with biostratigraphic data from exploration wells. The study area is underlain by mobile shales containing thrust-fold anticlines, overlain by >5 km thick Late Eocene to present succession of folded and faulted sediments with fluid migration features. Sedimentation rates estimated at one deep well increased during two phases, more than doubling during the Late Eocene to Serravallian (39.5–12.5 Ma), and by up to ten times during the Tortonian (9.5 Ma) to present. Thinning and onlapping geometries within the lowermost, Late Eocene-Burdigalian (39.5–18.5 Ma) interval are interpreted to record syn-depositional deformation. This indicates that shale tectonics in the offshore western Niger Delta initiated early in the evolution of the region, supporting previous interpretations that the active compressional zone of the Niger Delta was in the present continental slope before prograding to the outer-fold-thrust belt in the Pliocene. Stratal thinning above the crests of thrust-fold anticlines in the northeast and southwest of the study area suggests that shale tectonics persisted throughout the Neogene and Quaternary. A chaotic column that rises to seafloor from the crest of thrust-fold anticline, interfingering with the stratified succession is interpreted as a mud volcano edifice that has been active since at least the Burdigalian. This supports early shale mobilisation in response to generation of overpressure and also the fact that mud volcano system once formed, may act as conduits for pressure release throughout the history of a gravity-driven collapse system. The spatial association of seafloor mud volcanoes and pockmarks with deeper thrust-fold anticlines and normal faults suggests fluid migration from depth. In contrast, pockmarks overlying mass-transport deposits and submarine channels suggest fluid-flow from dewatering of more recent sediments. Our findings provide new insights into the Cenozoic tectono-stratigraphic evolution of the offshore western Niger Delta and the relation of shale mobility to fluid migration and escape during continental margin collapse

Family First: Evidence of Consistency and Variation in the Value of Family Versus Personal Happiness Across 49 Different Cultures

People care about their own well-being and about the well-being of their families. It is currently, however, unknown how much people tend to value their own versus their family's well-being. A recent study documented that people value family happiness over personal happiness across four cultures. In this study, we sought to replicate this finding across a larger sample size (N = 12,819) and a greater number of countries (N = 49). We found that the strength of the idealization of family over personal happiness preference was small (average Cohen's ds = .20, range -.02 to.48), but present in 98% of the studied countries, with statistical significance in 73% to 75%, and variance across countries <2%. We also found that the size of this effect did vary somewhat across cultural contexts. In Latin American cultures highest on relational mobility, the idealization of family over personal happiness was very small (average Cohen's ds for Latin America = .15 and .18), while in Confucian Asia cultures lowest on relational mobility, this effect was closer to medium (ds > .40 and .30). Importantly, we did not find strong support for traditional theories in cross-cultural psychology that associate collectivism with greater prioritization of the family versus the individual; country-level individualism-collectivism was not associated with variation in the idealization of family versus individual happiness. Our findings indicate that no matter how much various populists abuse the argument of "protecting family life" to disrupt emancipation, family happiness seems to be a pan-culturally phenomenon. Family well-being is a key ingredient of social fabric across the world, and should be acknowledged by psychology and well-being researchers and by progressive movements too

Self-construals predict personal life satisfaction with different strengths across societal contexts differing in national wealth and religious heritage

We explore to what extent previously observed pan-cultural association between dimensions of self-construal and personal life satisfaction (PLS) may be moderated by three national-contextual variables: national wealth, economic inequality, and religious heritage. The results showed that MSelf-reliance (vs. dependence on others) predicted PLSpositively in poorer countries but negatively in richer countries. Connectedness to others (vs. self-containment) predicted PLS more strongly in Protestant-heritage countries. Self-expression (vs. harmony) predicted PLS more weakly (and non-significantly) in Muslim-heritage countries. In contrast, previously reported associations of self-direction (vs. reception-to-influence), consistency (vs. variability), and decontextualized (vs. contextualized) self-understanding with personal life satisfaction were not significantly moderated by these aspects of societal context. These results show the importance of considering the impact of national religious and economic context