Resident well‐being, community connections, and neighbourhood perceptions, pride, and opportunities among disadvantage metropolitan and regional communities : evidence from the neighbourhood renewal project.

The current study aims investigate the relationship between participants’ neighbourhood perceptions and social capital and resident well-being using data from the Neighbourhood Renewal Project (NRP; n = 7855). Resident well-being was positively associated with the quality of the physical environment and safety of the neighbourhood, but negatively associated with government trustworthiness and community connections. Life satisfaction had a positive relationship with community connections, resident well-being, as well as quality of community services and safety. We conclude that free or low-cost opportunities to engage and connect with neighbours through participation in activities such as sporting groups, volunteer organizations, and leisure/hobby groups may increase life satisfaction of individuals in a neighbourhood, particularly for those living in low socioeconomic or stigmatized areas.

The determinants of happiness

Measures of mood happiness are increasingly used to assess the development and progress of nations. The limitations of this approach are, however, considerable. Within developed nations population happiness is quite resistant to change, despite major improvements in the objective standard of living. The reason, we propose, is that levels of subjective wellbeing are psychologically managed for each person, to be held around their genetically determined 'set-point'. This homeostatic management system acts to keep people feeling normally positive about them self, and so resists change. Thus, the search for 'happiness determinants' in the form of objective circumstances is often unrewarding in normally functioning samples. Due to homeostatic resistance, changes in objective variables will have weak effects on mood happiness. If large changes in mood happiness are found, they can be attributed to homeostatic failure and represent pathology.

The hedonic and eudaimonic validity of the orientations to happiness scale

The orientations to happiness scale (OTH) was designed to measure three routes to happiness: pleasure (hedonia), meaning (eudaimonia) and engagement (flow). Past research utilising the scale suggests that all orientations predict life satisfaction, with meaning and engagement the stronger predictors relative to pleasure. However, these findings are inconsistent with other research; one plausible explanation being that the OTH scale lacks validity. This was tested by having participants (N = 107) complete the OTH scale and the Satisfaction with Life scale, prior to completing an online diary reporting actual instances of hedonic and eudaimonic behaviour. Although meaning predicted eudaimonic behaviour, the pleasure orientation was unrelated to hedonic behaviour. Further, hedonic behaviour was more strongly related to life satisfaction than eudaimonic behaviour; inconsistent with OTH scale results. These findings challenge the validity of the OTH scale, and subsequently bring into question those conclusions drawn from past research utilising the OTH scale.

Gratitude : a basis for positive psychology interventions with a clinical population

This thesis includes a literature review that summarises the types of psychological research that have been conducted into gratitude, including the research conceptualising and developing assessments around it and exploring its associations with wellbeing, personality, social interaction, and health. The review focuses specifically on the research examining the relationship of gratitude to anxiety, depression and sleep, providing an outline of current theories about the relationship of positive affect to wellbeing, and a summary of the evidence to date. It is noted that there is comparatively little research on the impact of gratitude on anxiety and sleep but promising findings about the role of gratitude in the treatment of depression. Taken together, it is argued, the current research supported the need for trials of gratitude interventions specifically with clinical populations. Finally, the review looks at the literature of experimental interventions using gratitude. Particular emphasis is given to what has been learnt through these trials that might guide the focus and design of future research.

There follows the report of a randomized wait-list controlled pre-post trial of a gratitude diary intended to extend the research into the efficacy of gratitude diaries in the treatment of clinical populations with depression, anxiety and sleep difficulties. It was hypothesised that after completing a brief gratitude diary for three weeks, participants would have lower scores on measures of depression, anxiety, and perceived sleep difficulties, and higher scores on a measure of life satisfaction. These results were also expected to be evident at three-week follow-up. In a randomised waitlist-controlled trial with repeated measures pre-, post- and follow-up design, participants (N=109, from Australia) aged 18-64 years with a current self-reported diagnosis of an anxiety disorder and/or depression, took part in a self-help study via the internet. After completing the diary participants had lower scores on measures of depression, anxiety and perceived sleep difficulties and higher scores on a measure of subjective wellbeing than immediately pre-intervention. In addition, they had improved scores on a measure of stress. At three-week follow-up scores on depression and perceived sleep difficulties were no longer significantly different from pre-intervention, however improvements for subjective wellbeing and stress at post-intervention were maintained. At follow-up scores for anxiety had not only been maintained but had improved significantly beyond post-intervention results. This trial provides support for the use of gratitude diaries as a short-term intervention with a clinical population. Different patterns of anxiety and depression scores raise the possibility that gratitude interventions work differently to address depression and anxiety symptoms and provide support for the idea that gratitude interventions may have sustainable effects on anxiety symptoms.

A demonstration of set-points for subjective wellbeing

This paper presents evidence for the existence of ‘set-points’ for subjective wellbeing. Our results derive from a 10-year longitudinal study in which subjective wellbeing has been measured using a single question of general life satisfaction. The process of data analysis is driven by logic based on the theory of subjective wellbeing homeostasis. This analysis involves the iterative elimination of raw data, from 7,356 individual respondents, based on confidence limits. All results are projected onto a 0–100 point scale. We demonstrate evidence for the existence of set-points lying between 71 and 90 points, with an average set-point-range of 18–20 points for each person. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.

Subjective well-being of Beijing taxi drivers

This study investigates subjective well-being among a sample of Beijing taxi drivers in the lead up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games using the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI). The specific aims of this study are (a) investigate the psychometric properties of the PWI in this unique population; (b) ascertain whether Beijing taxi drivers are satisfied with their lives; and (c) examine whether the responses to the PWI from participants falls within the narrow range predicted by the 'Theory of Subjective Wellbeing Homeostasis'. The PWI demonstrated good psychometric properties and was consistent with previous studies for Western and non-Western samples. The data revealed a moderate level of subjective well-being (PWI score = 61.1). While Beijing taxi drivers work long hours for low wages, the PWI was nonetheless within the normative range predicted for Chinese societies by the 'Theory of Subjective Wellbeing Homeostasis'. The results suggest that the homeostatic mechanism is fairly resilient, even when the individual leads relatively a hard life based on objective indicators. Specifically, for Beijing taxi drivers, it appears that external, buffers such as personal relationships and feeling part of the community, act to assist the homeostatic system. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Investigating the affective core of SWB: the circular way

 This thesis builds on premises from the subjective wellbeing homeostasis theoretical framework, and applies constructs from circumplex theories of affect. The findings inform basic affective science by using circumplex modeling and curve-fitting to identify the set-point core affective state associated with normal self-perceptions, and overall life satisfaction.

Characteristics of doctors transitioning to a non-clinical role in the MABEL study

Objective: To investigate the characteristics and satisfaction of medical doctors transitioning from a clinical into an entirely non-clinical role.

Design and setting: Wave 1 to Wave 5 data from 2008- 2012 in the Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employment and Life (MABEL) longitudinal, populationbased survey were analysed.

Participants: Medical doctors including general practitioners (GPs), specialists, specialists in training (SIT) and hospital non-specialists (HNS). Hospital nonspecialists represent doctors working in a hospital who were not enrolled in a specialty training program. The total number of participants surveyed across the 5 waves was 15,195 doctors.

Main outcome measures: The number of medical doctors making the transition from a clinical role to a nonclinical role from one wave of data to the subsequent wave of data. Individuals who responded 'Yes' to the question 'Are you currently doing any clinical medical work in Australia?' were defined as working in a clinical role. Individuals who stated that they were 'Doing medical work in Australia that is non-clinical' were defined as working in a completely non-clinical role. Each doctor's characteristics while partaking in clinical work prior to making the change to a non-clinical role were noted.

Results: Over 5 years, there were a total of 498 individuals who made the transition from a clinical role to a completely non-clinical role out of a possible 15,195 doctors. Increasing age was the strongest predictor for transition to a non-clinical role. With regards to doctor type, specialists, hospital non-specialists and specialists-in- training were more likely to make the transition to a totally non-clinical role compared to GPs. There was minimal evidence of a relationship between lower job satisfaction and making a transition, and also between higher life satisfaction and making a transition.

Conclusions: Understanding the characteristics of, and reasons for non-clinical career transition are important for workforce training, planning and development.

Australian doctors’ non-clinical activities: results from the MABEL survey of doctors

Objective. The aim of the present study was to investigate non-clinical work conducted by Australian doctors.
Methods. This study was an exploratory descriptive study using data from Wave 5 of the Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employment and Life (MABEL) longitudinal survey, collected in 2012 from Australian medical practitioners (2200 general practitioners (GPs), 3455 specialists, 1270 specialists in training and 1656 hospital non-specialists). The main outcome measure was the number of hours worked per week in non-clinical work. Regression analysis was used to determine associations between non-clinical activities (i.e. education-related, management and administration and other) and personal and professional characteristics, including age, gender, job and life satisfaction, total clinical working hours, sector of practice
(public or private) and doctor type.
Results. Australian doctors spend an average of just under 7 h per week, or 16% of their working time, on non-clinical activities. Doctors who worked more hours on non-clinical activities overall, and in education-related and management and
administration specifically, were male, younger, had lower life satisfaction and generally spent fewer hours on clinical work. Lower job satisfaction was associated with longer management and administration hours, but not with time spent in
education-related activities. Specialists were more likely to work long non-clinical hours, whereas GPs were more likely to report none. Hospital non-specialists reported relatively high management and administration hours.
Conclusions. Further work is required to better understand the full range of non-clinical activities doctors are involved in and how this may impact future workforce projections.

If you’re happy and you know it: Music engagement and subjective wellbeing

Experiencing and engaging with music have been fundamental to all societies across the ages. This study explores the connection between habitual music engagement and subjective wellbeing. Subjective wellbeing (SWB) comprises individual evaluations of life satisfaction, and is internationally regarded at policy and government levels. The present study uses data gathered in 2014 as part of the 31st survey of the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index to provide insight into the relationship between music engagement and SWB. A stratified random sample of 1,000 participants was interviewed via telephone. The findings revealed that engaging with music by dancing or attending musical events was associated with higher SWB than for those who did not engage with music in these forms. The findings also emphasised the important role of engaging with music in the company of others with regard to SWB, highlighting an interpersonal feature of music. The study provides an overview of the general relationship between music and SWB at a population level, by contrast to most research in the area that has focused on evaluating clinical interventions involving music. The insight gained from these findings can be used to inform future interventions and to better understand how music is involved in emotional regulation.