Ricerc@Sapienza

This research aims to investigate the impact of sexual orientation and perception of deafness as disability on deaf people's well-being. 47 deaf adults (28 women and 19 men), of whom 21 self-identified as lesbian women or gay man, participated in the study. Translation videos in sign language were produced for the entire survey (instructions, items and answers), while also maintaining written Italian for deaf people who do not use sign language. In line with literature, perceiving deafness as a characteristic, rather than a pathology, is associated with greater levels of life satisfaction.

Attention on, and interest in, life satisfaction has increased worldwide. However, research on life satisfaction focused toward the urban dwellers' residential community is mainly from western countries, and the limited research from China is solely focused on the geriatric population via a narrowly constrained research perspective.

With a diary study, we tested the positive effect of prosociality on life satisfaction. Fifty-six Spanish undergraduate students (45 females; Mage = 21.08 years) rated their life satisfaction, prosociality, self-esteem, and physical appearance for 5 consecutive days. Multilevel results indicated that within-individual positive deviations in prosociality (i.e., behaving more prosocial than usual) were uniquely and significantly associated with higher life satisfaction on that specific day.

Previous studies have indicated positivity as a basic trait which lies at the very heart of self-esteem, life satisfaction, and dispositional optimism, and predisposes people to view life and experience from a positive point of view. The present research addresses the extent to which age, positivity and its abovementioned expressions may be associated with healthy functioning in old age. Fifty-one men and eighty-one women, all Spanish, predominantly middle-class and educated, in good health and ranging in age from 62 to 80, participated in this research project.