Happiness around the world: A combined etic-emic approach across 63 countries.

What does it mean to be happy? The vast majority of cross-cultural studies on happiness have employed a Western-origin, or "WEIRD" measure of happiness that conceptualizes it as a self-centered (or "independent"), high-arousal emotion. However, research from Eastern cultures, particularly Japan, conceptualizes happiness as including an interpersonal aspect emphasizing harmony and connectedness to others. Following a combined emic-etic approach (Cheung, van de Vijver & Leong, 2011), we assessed the cross-cultural applicability of a measure of independent happiness developed in the US (Subjective Happiness Scale; Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999) and a measure of interdependent happiness developed in Japan (Interdependent Happiness Scale; Hitokoto & Uchida, 2015), with data from 63 countries representing 7 sociocultural regions. Results indicate that the schema of independent happiness was more coherent in more WEIRD countries. In contrast, the coherence of interdependent happiness was unrelated to a country's "WEIRD-ness." Reliabilities of both happiness measures were lowest in African and Middle Eastern countries, suggesting these two conceptualizations of happiness may not be globally comprehensive. Overall, while the two measures had many similar correlates and properties, the self-focused concept of independent happiness is "WEIRD-er" than interdependent happiness, suggesting cross-cultural researchers should attend to both conceptualizations

The economic well-being of nations is associated with positive daily situational experiences

People in economically advantaged nations tend to evaluate their life as more positive overall and report greater well-being than people in less advantaged nations. But how does positivity manifest in the daily life experiences of individuals around the world? The present study asked 15,244 college students from 62 nations, in 42 languages, to describe a situation they experienced the previous day using the Riverside Situational Q-sort (RSQ). Using expert ratings, the overall positivity of each situation was calculated for both nations and individuals. The positivity of the average situation in each nation was strongly related to the economic development of the nation as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI). For individuals’ daily experiences, the economic status of their nation also predicted the positivity of their experience, even more than their family socioeconomic status. Further analyses revealed the specific characteristics of the average situations for higher HDI nations that make their experiences more positive. Higher HDI was associated with situational experiences involving humor, socializing with others, and the potential to express emotions and fantasies. Lower HDI was associated with an increase in the presence of threats, blame, and hostility, as well as situational experiences consisting of family, religion, and money. Despite the increase in a few negative situational characteristics in lower HDI countries, the overall average experience still ranged from neutral to slightly positive, rather than negative, suggesting that greater HDI may not necessarily increase positive experiences but rather decrease negative experiences. The results illustrate how national economic status influences the lives of individuals even within a single instance of daily life, with large and powerful consequences when accumulated across individuals within each nation

Internet Gaming Disorder among Polish adolescents (2018): IGD Polish adolescents

The dataset includes information about gaming activity, potential gaming, Internet and SNS addiction, collected among a large sample of Polish adolescents. The study was a part of the project named: "Internet Gaming Disorder - the characteristics and prevalence of the phenomenon and its psychological correlates among primary and lower secondary school students in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Warmian-Masurian voivodships" - a public task co-financed by the Gambling Problem Solving Fund at the disposal of the Minister of Health (Poland), grant number 165/HBK/2018. Data were collected in 2018 in two voivodships: kujawsko-pomorskie (Kuyavian-Pomeranian) and warmińsko-mazurskie (Warmian-Masurian). The selection of educational institutions (primary and lower secondary schools) was random. The study was conducted in 10 locations (urban and rural). The sample consists of 1500 students aged 10-18 years. Headmaster of the particular school gave the consent for the study. The students during school time (usually at educational lesson) were informed about the purpose of the study, that it is anonymous and participation is voluntary, and that they may refuse or resign from it at any time. Dataset contains sociodemographic variables. The following measures were used: (i) Gaming activity questions (playing or not playing; types of games played - online, offline; with who the participant play games; devices used for gaming, frequency, emotions related to gaming, parents control and interest in children gaming, parents gaming activity); (ii) The Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form (IGD9-SF; Pontes & Griffiths, 2015); (iii) Ten-Item Internet Gaming Disorder Test (IGDT-10; Király, Sleczka, et al., 2017); (iv) Internet Addiction Test (IAT; Young 1998),(v) The Scale of Excessive Use of Social Networking Sites (Kotyśko, Michalak, in press). Measures of Internet Gaming Disorder (IGDS9-SF and IGDT-10) were randomly distributed to participants (one half of the measure sets included IGDS9-SF and other half the IGDT-10 - however all of the sets were mixed to improve the randomisation). The rest of the measures were used among all participants

The economic well-being of nations is associated with positive daily situational experiences

People in economically advantaged nations tend to evaluate their life as more positive overall and report greater well-being than people in less advantaged nations. But how does positivity manifest in the daily life experiences of individuals around the world? The present study asked 15,244 college students from 62 nations, in 42 languages, to describe a situation they experienced the previous day using the Riverside Situational Q-sort (RSQ). Using expert ratings, the overall positivity of each situation was calculated for both nations and individuals. The positivity of the average situation in each nation was strongly related to the economic development of the nation as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI). For individuals’ daily experiences, the economic status of their nation also predicted the positivity of their experience, even more than their family socioeconomic status. Further analyses revealed the specific characteristics of the average situations for higher HDI nations that make their experiences more positive. Higher HDI was associated with situational experiences involving humor, socializing with others, and the potential to express emotions and fantasies. Lower HDI was associated with an increase in the presence of threats, blame, and hostility, as well as situational experiences consisting of family, religion, and money. Despite the increase in a few negative situational characteristics in lower HDI countries, the overall average experience still ranged from neutral to slightly positive, rather than negative, suggesting that greater HDI may not necessarily increase positive experiences but rather decrease negative experiences. The results illustrate how national economic status influences the lives of individuals even within a single instance of daily life, with large and powerful consequences when accumulated across individuals within each nation