Emodiversity and the Emotional Ecosystem

Bridging psychological research exploring emotional complexity and research in the natural sciences on the measurement of biodiversity, we introduce—and demonstrate the benefits of—emodiversity: the variety and relative abundance of the emotions that humans experience. Two cross-sectional studies across more than 37,000 respondents demonstrate that emodiversity is an independent predictor of mental and physical health—such as decreased depression and doctor's visits—over and above mean levels of positive and negative emotion. These results remained robust after controlling for gender, age, and the five main dimensions of personality. Emodiversity is a practically important and previously unidentified metric for assessing the health of the human emotional ecosystem

Gratitude moderates the relation between daily hassles and satisfaction with life in university students

Satisfaction with life as a judgmental cognitive process can be negatively influenced by appraisals of daily events such as hassles. Trait-gratitude — a tendency to appraise, recognize and respond to life events through a grateful— is a determinant of mental health and well-being, and has been shown to be related to positive appraisal of life. The aim of the current study was to investigate the moderating role of trait-gratitude in the relationship between daily hassles and satisfaction with life. In the process of carrying out this study, the French version of the Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ-6) was validated. A total of 328 French undergraduates completed questionnaires measuring gratitude, satisfaction with life, and daily hassles to test the main hypothesis. They also completed optimism, coping strategies, depression, and anxiety questionnaires in order to assess the convergent validity of the French version of the GQ-6. First, the results showed satisfactory psychometric properties of the Gratitude Questionnaire. Second, the results indicated the moderating role of trait-gratitude in the relationship between daily hassles disturbance and satisfaction with life. This study further documents the role of gratitude as a determinant of well-being and provides French-speaking clinicians and researchers with a useful tool to measure grateful disposition

Impact de l’auto-hypnose, la méditation et la transe cognitive auto-induite chez des patients en oncologie : protocole d’étude.

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Hypnose, méditation et transe cognitive auto-induite pour améliorer la qualité de vie des patients oncologiques après le traitement

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Hypnosis, meditation and self-induced cognitive trance to improve post-treatment oncological patients’ quality of life: study protocol.

INTRODUCTION: A symptom cluster is very common among oncological patients: cancer-related fatigue (CRF), emotional distress, sleep difficulties, pain, and cognitive difficulties. Clinical applications of interventions based on non-ordinary states of consciousness, mostly hypnosis and meditation, are starting to be investigated in oncology settings. They revealed encouraging results in terms of improvements of these symptoms. However, these studies often focused on breast cancer patients, with methodological limitations (e.g., small sample size, no control group, and no follow-up). Another non-ordinary state of consciousness may also have therapeutic applications in oncology: self-induced cognitive trance (SICT). It seems to differ from hypnosis and meditation, as it involves the body more directly. Thus, investigating its clinical applications, along with hypnosis and meditation interventions, could improve available therapeutic options in oncology. This article details the study protocol of a preference-based longitudinal controlled superiority trial aiming to assess the effectiveness of 3 group interventions (hypnosis, meditation, and SICT) to improve oncological patients’ quality of life, and more specifically CRF, emotional distress, sleep, pain, and cognitive difficulties (primary outcomes). METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A power analysis required a total sample of 160 patients. Main inclusion criteria are: cancer diagnosis, active treatments completed for less than a year, no practice of hypnosis, meditation, or SICT, and presence of at least one of these four symptoms: fatigue, sleep difficulties, depression, or anxiety. Each participant will choose the intervention in which they want to participate (hypnosis, mindful self-compassion meditation, SICT, or no intervention—control group). To test the effectiveness of the interventions, data will be collected by questionnaires and neurobiological measures and directly from the medical record at four time points: before inclusion in the study (baseline); immediately after the intervention; and at 3- and 12-month follow-up. The longitudinal data in each group will then be measured. DISCUSSION: In addition to standard cancer therapies, there is a growing interest from patients in complementary approaches, such as hypnosis, meditation, and SICT. The results of this study will be useful to increase knowledge about short- and long-term effectiveness of 3 group interventions for CRF, emotional distress, sleep, pain, and cognitive difficulties in patients with different cancers. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov/ (NCT04873661). Retrospectively registered on the 29th of April 2021. url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT0487366

Eloge de la lucidité: Se libérer des illusions qui empêchent d'être heureux

La poursuite aveugle et effrénée du bonheur explique sans doute notre difficulté à être heureux.Un livre de développement personnel alternatif, à contre-pied des livres et méthodes magiques et « positives » dont le « marché du bonheur » nous submerge.Le bonheur semble le nouveau Graal de notre époque :plus nous le cherchons, plus il semble se refuser à nous. À force de croire, comme notre société de consommation nous le fait miroiter, qu une vie heureuse est une suite de plaisirs continus, de réussites et de performances personnelles, nous vivons des déceptions constantes, et nous nous sentons responsables de nos échecs.Il est urgent d ouvrir les yeux. Ilios Kotsou se propose de déconstruire quatre grandes illusions sur la nature du bonheur :chercher à éviter toute forme d inconfort ou toute souffrance (la voie vers plus de souffrance encore) ;la nécessité d avoir toujours des pensées positives (qui appelle le refoulement et une forme de contrôle sur soi impossible) ;la course éperdue à l estime de soi et à la perfection (qui crée de nombreux dégâts narcissiques) ;celle enfin de l épanouissement personnel (qui nous rend tristement nombrilistes).Ces illusions nous piègent, ont des effets pervers sur nos vies, sur l image que nous nous forgeons de nous-mêmes et des autres. Car ce qui peut réellement nous rendre heureux, nous donner une vraie liberté, appelle une douceur envers soi et envers ceux qui nous entourent, une tolérance de nos limites humaines universelles, de notre fragilité inhérente, un détachement de soi et une compréhension plus profonde de la nature de nos émotions.Un livre qui ne propose ni « recettes » ni « solutions », mais une sorte d « atlas », de géographie émotionnelle, pour entreprendre le voyage de notre vie avec joie et lucidité sans nous perdre en chemin. Pour accepter notre vulnérabilité comme un trésor et découvrir le sens, l essence et la valeur réels de notre existence.info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Emotional plasticity: the impact of the development of emotional competence on well-being. Conditions, effects and change processes

This thesis focuses on the acquisition of emotional competence (EC) skills in adults and its impact on well being. The first part of the thesis is dedicated to the definition of EC, including a review of EC in order to better understand and operationalize its main dimensions and correlates. We also present a systematic review of EC intervention studies on adult populations in order to assess their outcomes and make recommendations for the development and implementation of future interventions. We then provide a theoretical and practical framework for emotional competence (EC) based interventions. We describe the main components of an EC intervention, underline the important characteristics of the intervention pedagogy and discuss theoretical and practical implications of this framework.In a second part we investigate whether a sustainable improvement in emotional competencies is possible in adults, and what are the conditions and effects of this improvement on well-being (e.g. on mental and physical health and quality of interpersonal relationships). Results of three empirical studies confirm that EC can be significantly increased following an intervention (and compared to a control group) and that this intervention impacts favourably personal and interpersonal well-being as measured by psychological health, quality of relationship and employability.A last part of the thesis explores the mechanisms underlying this improvement of competencies and well-being. We focus on emotional acceptance, self-compassion, self kindness and behavioural flexibility. Because there was no scale measuring self-compassion or self kindness in French, we validate two scales and assess the relationships between these constructs and well-being.We then examined the possible benefits of emotional acceptance and behavioural flexibility in a randomized controlled study, showing how increasing emotional competence can enhance these change processes and how these processes can, in turn, enhance well-being.This research helps to further elucidate the role of active change processes in EC increase related to the promotion of well-being.Doctorat en Sciences psychologiques et de l'éducationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe