Ricerc@Sapienza

Although personal resources support adjustment during hard times at work, social resources can have comparable influence in preventing the negative impact of adverse circumstances (Hobfoll 2001, 2002). This study investigates the contribution of both individual and group level positivity, a personal resource, in perceived intragroup conflict. Data on positivity and perceived intragroup conflict were collected from 140 employees belonging to 14 different groups at two different organizations and were analyzed using the Group Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (Kenny et al. 2012).

Over the last thirty years, the actor-partner interdependence model (Kenny, 1996) became an important methodology to address interpersonal perceptions in dyads. In this contribution, we present each practical step to conduct an extended version of it, the actor-partner interdependence mediation model (Ledermann, Macho, & Kenny, 2011) using multilevel modeling. Specifically, we posit that individuals’ and their romantic partners’ positivity, a personality disposition, enhance relationship satisfaction, through the individuals’ perceptions of partners’ positivity.

Despite the well-established protective functions of positivity (i.e., a dispositional self-evaluative tendency to view oneself, life, and future under a positive outlook) from middle adolescence to old age, its reliable assessment and contribution to a proper psychological functioning have received little attention during previous developmental phases.

Background: Positivity is a general tendency to react to life experiences in a positive way, a pervasive optimistic view of oneself, one’s life, and one’s future, associated with greater positive affection and lower functional impairments. The aim of the study was to examine the role of positivity in predicting the length of hospitalization in patients operated of thoracic surgery and physical and mental health in patients born with Anorectal Malformations (ARM).

Objectives: Anorectal malformations (ARMs) are rare congenital colorectal anomalies, which may have a negative impact on health-related quality of
life (HRQoL) due to long-lasting consequences, like fecal incontinence. The aim of the present study was to test whether a pervasive mode of appraising
and viewing life experiences from a positive stance (ie, positivity) mediates the effect of fecal continence on HRQoL.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the extent to which a effect does exist between Positivity (POS), smoking and socio-demographic factors in determining quitting smoking in subjects participating in a Group Counselling Program (GCP) for smoking cessation.METHODS: 481 subjects were contacted through a telephone call. A logistic regression analysis was carried out.

Questo studio esamina, in un campione di disoccupati, il ruolo della positività e la sua capacità di sostenere la salute mentale e fisica, diminuendo gli effetti dello stress economico percepito e promuovendo i comportamenti rilevanti per la salute. Sono stati intervistati 101 disoccupati (51.5% femmine) tra i 35 e i 45 anni con un disegno "cross-sectional". Tramite un Modello di Equazioni Strutturali, la positività è risultata positivamente associata alla salute mentale attraverso la diminuzione dello stress economico percepito e l'adozione dei comportamenti rilevanti per la salute.

In the current study, the possible association of positivity (POS), recently defined as general disposition to view life under positive outlook, with immune markers and post-stress modifications, was analyzed. Circulating lymphocyte subsets and serum cytokine levels were evaluated before and after a standard mild acute stress test, in 41 healthy students, previously selected by a questionnaire for their level of POS (high [POS-H] and low [POS-L]). The CD3(+) and CD4(+) cell frequency was higher in the POS-H students before and after acute stress.

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.

The present study examined in a stringent developmental model whether positivity, conceptualized as a pervasive mode of appraising, viewing, and perceiving life from a positive stance, predicts chronic positive affectivity across time or vice versa. Participants [263 participants (47 % males)], aged 15.5 at the beginning of the study and 23.5 at the end, reported on measures of positivity and dispositional positive affect four times.