Introduction to a Culturally Sensitive Measure of Well-Being: Combining Life Satisfaction and Interdependent Happiness Across 49 Different Cultures

Introduction to a Culturally Sensitive Measure of Well-Being: Combining Life Satisfaction and Interdependent Happiness Across 49 Different Cultures. Kuba Krys et al. Journal of Happiness Studies, Dec 26 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10902-022-00588-1

Abstract: How can one conclude that well-being is higher in country A than country B, when well-being is being measured according to the way people in country A think about well-being? We address this issue by proposing a new culturally sensitive method to comparing societal levels of well-being. We support our reasoning with data on life satisfaction and interdependent happiness focusing on individual and family, collected mostly from students, across forty-nine countries. We demonstrate that the relative idealization of the two types of well-being varies across cultural contexts and are associated with culturally different models of selfhood. Furthermore, we show that rankings of societal well-being based on life satisfaction tend to underestimate the contribution from interdependent happiness. We introduce a new culturally sensitive method for calculating societal well-being, and examine its construct validity by testing for associations with the experience of emotions and with individualism-collectivism. This new culturally sensitive approach represents a slight, yet important improvement in measuring well-being.

Discussion

We developed a new approach to measure levels of well-being across diverse cultural contexts. We designed a new culturally sensitive approach to measuring well-being along two dimensions based on mounting empirical evidence that cultures vary in the way well-being and/or happiness is valued and construed. Cultures vary in relative focus on the individual versus the family (Delle Fave et al., 2016; Krys et al., 2019b, 2022a), and in construing well-being using an individual-focused life satisfaction framework versus an interdependent conceptual framework (Hitokoto & Uchida, 2015; Krys et al., 2020). Accordingly, our new, culturally sensitive approach adjusts individual-level well-being scores according to the particular type of well-being that tends to be valued within a respondent’s indigenous culture. This new approach represents an incremental improvement to the array of methods available to researchers seeking to measure, describe, and compare levels of well-being across the world.

It is important to note that, empirically, the CS approach is not substantially different from the vast array of other well established quantitative measures of well-being. Indeed, our new CS measure of well-being is explicitly comprised of several thoroughly tested and well validated measures of well-being. Each of the measures used to calculate CS Well-being, as well as many others, has been shown to be highly reliable and valid across many different cultural contexts. We acknowledge that the current status quo of empirical research on well-being is highly valid, credible, and valuable. Empirically, the advent of the CS approach represents a slight, yet important, improvement in the fidelity of well-being measurement.

The CS approach represents a substantial improvement with respect to other measures when considered conceptually. The vast majority of existing evidence for differences in country-level well-being was derived based on the use of identical measures across diverse cultural contexts (Cheng et al., 2016; Diener et al., 1995; Hofstede, 2001; Jasielska et al., 2018; Kuppens et al., 2008; Steel et al., 2018). Well-being research is a subfield within psychological science that is in need of tools that are more applicable across diverse cultural contexts. Many large scale studies show that an overwhelming majority of empirical psychological research is based on WEIRD samples (Adams et al., 2017; cf. Lee et al., 2021). For example, an analysis of the top journals across six sub-disciplines of psychology found that 68% of participants were American and that 96% of participants were from Western industrialized nations (Arnett, 2008). The development of the CS approach to measure well-being is a marked, incremental step towards conceptualizing psychological phenomena less ethnocentrically.

The CS approach involves the use of several different previously established and well-validated measures. Although all the measures used in our study have been shown to be valid and reliable across several different cultural contexts, there also exists evidence that different well-being measures (including the IH) do not perform in the same way across different cultural contexts. Recently Gardiner et al. (2020) found that well-being measures tend to perform better when they are used within the culture in which they were developed. This finding further supports the importance and potential utility of using culturally sensitive measures of well-being for large-scale cross-cultural research.

We found that individual LS, as measured by the SWLS, is positively associated with country-level values of individualism. This finding is consistent with prior reports that LS tends to covary with societal levels of individualism (Cheng et al., 2016; Diener et al., 1995; Hofstede, 2001; Kuppens et al., 2008; Steel et al., 2018). Conversely, we did not observe that CS well-being was associated with societal levels of individualism. We did however find that across both types of well-being measures, country level values of de-contextualized versus contextualized self, were positively associated with happiness. De-contextualized versus contextualized self represents how much a person thinks about their identity within the context of others (e.g., Someone could understand who you are without needing to know which social groups you belong to vs If someone wants to understand who you are, they would need to know which social groups you belong to). Prior research demonstrates that contextualism is an important facet of cultural collectivism (Owe et al., 2013). Our current findings suggest the de-contextualism may also confer some societal characteristics linked to well-being measured in several different ways.

We also found that both methods of measuring well-being tended to be associated with the experience of positive and negative emotions (r = -0.215). This finding supports the construct validity of CS Well-being and contributes to a growing body of research demonstrating the link between emotional experience and life satisfaction (Kang et al., 2003; Kuppens et al., 2008). Across our sample, we also found that the association between CS Well-being and positive emotions (r = 0.455) were stronger than between well-being and negative emotions (r = −0.215). This finding is consistent with that of a previous study showing that the experience of positive emotions is more strongly related to life satisfaction than the absence of negative emotions (Kuppens et al., 2008). Emotional experience seems to play an important role in determining many different forms well-being, that include happiness and LS.

This study and the CS approach are limited in several important ways. We focused on only two different types of well-being originating from WEIRD and Confucian cultural contexts: LS and IH. There exist other forms of well-being and/or happiness that are applicable to people of other cultures. For example, spirituality is strongly associated with well-being in Africa and Latin America (Selman et al., 2013), and dispositional simpatico (emphasis on expressive displays of personal charm, graciousness, and hospitality) is an important part of well-being and happiness within many Latin-American cultures (Sanchez-Burks et al., 2000). This study is also limited in terms of the way participants responded to each scale. More specifically, being asked about one’s individual life-satisfaction may indirectly affect the way one responds to items related to interdependent happiness of one’s family. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether our instructions to think about ideal levels of well-being (Diener et al., 2000) activated the ideal self or the ought self (Higgins, 1987); future studies may need to employ more direct instruction. In addition, this study is limited in the way culture was operationalized. In our analyses, we equated culture with country. However there exists considerable heterogeneity of cultural values within countries, which we did not consider here. These issues need further empirical research to uncover their potential effects.

Furthermore, we conceptualized well-being more in terms of feeling good than functioning well or one’s sense of meaning. One’s sense of meaning is often construed as an important factor related to happiness and well-being in many different parts of the world (Costin & Vignoles, 2020; Oishi & Diener, 2014). The fact that these other aspects of well-being and/or happiness were not included in the current study is an important limitation. We anticipate that future research will consider how these other forms of well-being and/or happiness can be incorporated into global and cross-cultural studies on well-being. Furthermore, future research is needed based on more representative samples. Our study was based primarily on student samples and serves as one step towards developing more culturally sensitive indices of well-being. Lastly, this study was also limited in that measures individualism-collectivism were obtained from country-level databases and not measured directly in this study. By adding data from different databases, assessed on national level, an additional level of ambiguity was created. We anticipate that this study will stimulate further empirical research on culturally sensitive methods of measuring many different psychological constructs.

The above limitations and future directions are of “technical” nature. However, it is also important to highlight other broad and conceptual issues. For example, as of the beginning of 2000s, most people and most nations tend to report being happy or very happy (e.g., Oishi et al., 2007). Despite this fact, policy-makers and scientists are striving to develop ways to enhance happiness. We affirm that happiness of many people and many nations can be enhanced, but in our understanding, well-being is not completely interchangeable with happiness. What other-than-happiness constructs people across cultures recognize as key components to their good life, and what are their ideal levels, is currently an important but open empirical question.

The results of this study have practical implications. This tool holds potential to examine the way several other culture-level variables, such as cultural tightness-looseness (Gelfand et al., 2011) or relational mobility (Thomson et al., 2018), may correspond to variation in well-being. Furthermore, our findings illustrate the importance of considering how much a particular construct is valued within a context, and that this approach could be applied to other psychological phenomenon. For example, cultures vary in terms of what types of social policies are valued and prioritized (Krys et al., 2022b). Thus, by incorporating what types of societal goals a culture or country tends to have, policy makers may be better positioned to measure how proximate or distal actual realization of culture-specific goals are.

People around the world want to be happy. Therefore, more and more governing bodies employ well-being as a compass for guiding their societies (Durand, 2018). To escape post-colonial traps in well-being indicators research and in policy-making, researchers and international governing bodies may need to acknowledge that happiness across cultures has various facets. Doing so will promote “buy-in” from many non-WEIRD societies. Large-scale cross-cultural research on well-being will be improved by considering more culturally sensitive measures of well-being. We hope this study serves as one small step forward inspiring this research focus.

Most people uncritically swallowed the fake diagnosis of their true selves by a supposedly transformative, but bogus new brain-reading machine

Emulating future neurotechnology using magic. Jay A. Olson et al. Consciousness and Cognition, Volume 107, January 2023, 103450. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2022.103450

Abstract: Recent developments in neuroscience and artificial intelligence have allowed machines to decode mental processes with growing accuracy. Neuroethicists have speculated that perfecting these technologies may result in reactions ranging from an invasion of privacy to an increase in self-understanding. Yet, evaluating these predictions is difficult given that people are poor at forecasting their reactions. To address this, we developed a paradigm using elements of performance magic to emulate future neurotechnologies. We led 59 participants to believe that a (sham) neurotechnological machine could infer their preferences, detect their errors, and reveal their deep-seated attitudes. The machine gave participants randomly assigned positive or negative feedback about their brain’s supposed attitudes towards charity. Around 80% of participants in both groups provided rationalisations for this feedback, which shifted their attitudes in the manipulated direction but did not influence donation behaviour. Our paradigm reveals how people may respond to prospective neurotechnologies, which may inform neuroethical frameworks.

Introduction

Novelist Arthur C. Clarke (2013) famously asserted that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. But the reverse can also be true: magic tricks can be made indistinguishable from advanced technology. When paired with real scientific equipment, magic techniques can create compelling illusions that allow people to experience prospective technologies first-hand. Here, we demonstrate that a magic-based paradigm may be particularly useful to emulate neurotechnologies and potentially inform neuroethical frameworks.

Broadly defined, neurotechnology involves invasive or non-invasive methods to monitor or modulate brain activity (Goering et al., 2021). Recent developments in neural decoding and artificial intelligence have made it possible, in a limited fashion, to infer various aspects of human thought (Ritchie et al., 2019). The pairing of neural imaging with machine learning has allowed researchers to decode participants’ brain activity in order to infer what they are seeing, imagining, or even dreaming (Horikawa et al., 2013, Horikawa and Kamitani, 2017). For example, one study identified the neural correlates of viewing various face stimuli; EEG data from a single participant could be used to determine which of over one hundred faces was being presented (Nemrodov et al., 2018). Other studies have used fMRI brain activity patterns to infer basic personality traits after exposing people to threatening stimuli (Fernandes et al., 2017). Similar decoding methods have also been used to determine what verbal utterances participants were thinking about in real time (Moses et al., 2019).

Other recent developments have enabled researchers to decode information that participants are not even aware of themselves. One fMRI study decoded the semantic category of words (e.g., animal or non-animal) presented below the level of awareness (Sheikh et al., 2019). Researchers have used the same method to infer which of two images participants would choose several seconds before the participants themselves were aware of making this decision (Koenig-Robert and Pearson, 2019).

Although these findings are impressive, brain reading remains in its infancy. The information decoded from brain activity is often relatively rudimentary and requires cooperation from participants. Brain reading is further limited by the cost and technical expertise required to design and operate the imaging machines. Nevertheless, given that brain reading has the potential to become a powerful and commonplace technology in the future (Yuste et al., 2017), it is important to avoid the delay fallacy wherein discussions of the implications of emerging technologies lag behind the technological frontier (Mecacci and Haselager, 2017, van de Poel and Royakkers, 2011).

Ethicists have accordingly started to speculate about the potential ramifications of various neurotechnologies. Future developments in neural decoding may carry implications across several domains including personal responsibility, autonomy, and identity (Goering et al., 2021, Ryberg, 2017). For example, brain reading could be used to predict the risk of recidivism (Ienca and Andorno, 2017) or to influence attributions of criminal responsibility by inferring one’s mental state at the time of the crime (Meynen, 2020). Regarding autonomy, employers could use future brain reading to screen out undesirable characteristics in their employees. Brain reading also has the potential to undermine personal identity by changing how we think about ourselves. Some people may see feedback from neurotechnology as a more objective and accurate representation of personality traits, biases, or beliefs than those accessible through introspection (cf. Berent and Platt, 2021). In this way, technology may trump our subjective experiences in the understanding of who we are.

Although neurotechnology could potentially boost self-understanding, many people find the prospect of brain reading intrusive (Richmond, 2012); it violates the long-standing expectation that one’s thoughts are private (Moore, 2016). The implications of this potential loss of privacy, however, remain unclear. Thomas Nagel (1998, p. 4) argues that such privacy is fundamental to a properly functioning society: “the boundary between what we reveal and what we do not, and some control over that boundary, are among the most important attributes of our humanity.” Conversely, aside from nefarious uses such as government control, Lippert-Rasmussen (2016) argues that access to others’ thoughts could offer an additional source of information to foster intimacy and authenticity. In his view, “the gaze of others would become much less oppressive if everyone’s inner lives were transparent to everyone else” (p. 230). The speculated consequences of future neurotechnology thus show considerable range.

Importantly, these consequences may not remain merely speculative. Given the widespread and complex implications of future brain reading technologies, ethicists have proposed forward-thinking policies such as the adoption of “neurorights” to protect citizens (Baselga-Garriga et al., 2022, Yuste et al., 2017). These efforts to safeguard people from the uses and misuses of brain reading depend, in part, on our ability to anticipate people’s future reactions. More caution is needed, for example, if people see brain reading as an invasion of privacy versus a novel way to promote authenticity.

However, simply asking people about how they would react to future neurotechnologies may be insufficient. People often overestimate their responses to future events (Dillard et al., 2020, Gilbert et al., 1998) and have difficulty explaining their attitudes reliably (Hall et al., 2012). One study found that when people read vignettes of neurotechnology predicting and influencing behaviour, they interpret the situations based on their current metaphysical assumptions, even if these assumptions would be contradicted by the information in the vignettes (Rose et al., 2015). Reasoning hypothetically about a future machine may have limited validity compared to the concrete experience of having a machine control one’s mind. Instead, “Wizard of Oz” prototyping could offer a potential solution (Kelley, 1984). Here, a simulation is created of a future product by fabricating an apparently working prototype, which is then tested in real-world scenarios to generate more accurate responses from users.

We developed a Wizard of Oz-style paradigm to emulate prospective neurotechnologies based on elements of performance magic. Indeed, many of the abilities enabled by future neurotechnologies can be mimicked using magic tricks. Most relevant is the branch of performance magic known as mentalism, which involves mimicking abilities such as mind reading, thought insertion, and prediction. A brain scanner decoding a participant’s thoughts resembles a magician reading the mind of a spectator, and a device that inserts thoughts to affect behaviour resembles magicians influencing the audience’s decisions without their awareness (Olson et al., 2015). In this way, magic could create the compelling illusion of future neurotechnological developments before they are available.

We have previously demonstrated the believability of combining magic with neurotechnology by convincing university students that a brain scanner could both read and influence their thoughts (Olson et al., 2016). In a condition designed to simulate mind reading, participants chose an arbitrary two-digit number while inside a sham MRI scanner. The machine ostensibly decoded their brain activity while they focused on the number. A simple magic trick allowed the experimenter to demonstrate that the machine’s decoded number matched the one that the participant had previously chosen. The same magic trick was then used to simulate thought insertion. In this mind-influencing condition, participants were again instructed to think of a number. Instead of being told that the machine would decode their brain activity, they were told that the machine would manipulate their brain through “electromagnetic fluctuations”. The magic trick made it appear as if the machine had randomly chosen a number and then influenced participants to choose it. In this condition, participants felt less control over their decisions and reported a range of experiences, including hearing an ominous voice controlling their choices.

By combining neuroscientific-looking props with magic, we were thus able to convince educated participants to both believe in and directly experience a “future” machine that could accurately read and influence their decisions. However, given the relatively inconsequential target of the brain reading — arbitrary number choices — it is difficult to assess how participants would react to having the machine decode thoughts that are more meaningful or private, including those relevant to neuroethics.

Here, we extend our method to create a future context in which brain reading is powerful enough to decode information central to the self, such as political attitudes. We focused on attitudes towards charity because people often believe that such moral values characterise one’s “true self” (Strohminger et al., 2017). According to the lay understanding, this true self is a more private and accurate version of the self that is indicative of one’s core identity (Schlegel et al., 2011). We aimed to manipulate this core aspect of the self in order to assess reactions to more personal and ethically relevant domains. To do so, we emulated a neurotechnological machine that could identify people’s attitudes towards charity better than their own introspection. First, we aimed to explore how participants would react to a potential invasion of mental privacy by having a machine seemingly infer their consumer preferences and political attitudes. Second, we explored the crucial issue of people’s trust in neurotechnology by simulating a scenario in which the machine could give personal feedback that is inconsistent with what participants report. Finally, we investigated how people might adapt their own beliefs based on this discrepant feedback. How might people react to this dissonance between their own subjective feelings and the machine’s seemingly objective assessment? Could such brain reading supersede one’s own judgement? We present a novel method to begin answering these questions.

Psychology students reported particularly high rates of mental health problems, business students reported the highest rate of drug abuse, while law students reported the highest alcohol misuse

Variations in psychological disorders, suicidality, and help-seeking behaviour among college students from different academic disciplines. Margaret McLafferty,Natasha Brown,John Brady,Jonathon McLaughlin,Rachel McHugh,Caoimhe Ward,Louise McBride,Anthony J. Bjourson,Siobhan M. O’Neill,Colum P. Walsh,Elaine K. Murray. PLoS One, December 30, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279618

Abstract

Background: Elevated levels of suicidality, ADHD, mental ill-health and substance disorders are reported among college students globally, yet few receive treatment. Some faculties and courses appear to have more at-risk students than others. The current study aimed to determine if students commencing college in different academic disciplines were at a heightened risk for psychopathology, substance use disorders and suicidal behaviour, and examined variations in help-seeking behaviour.

Materials and methods: The study utilised data collected from 1,829 first-year undergraduate students as part of the Student Psychological Intervention Trial (SPIT) which commenced in September 2019 across four Ulster University campuses in Northern Ireland and an Institute of Technology, in the North-West of Ireland. The SPIT study is part of the World Mental Health International College Student Initiative (WMH-ICS) which uses the WMH-CIDI to identify 12-month and lifetime disorders.

Results: Students from Life and Health Sciences reported the lowest rates of a range of psychological problems in the year prior to commencing college, while participants studying Arts and Humanities displayed the highest levels (e.g. depression 20.6%; social anxiety 38.8%). However, within faculty variations were found. For example, psychology students reported high rates, while nursing students reported low rates. Variations in help seeking behaviour were also revealed, with male students less likely to seek help.

Conclusions: Detecting specific cohorts at risk of psychological disorders and suicidality is challenging. This study revealed that some academic disciplines have more vulnerable students than others, with many reluctant to seek help for their problems. It is important for educators to be aware of such issues and for colleges to provide information and support to students at risk. Tailored interventions and prevention strategies may be beneficial to address the needs of students from different disciplines.

Discussion

Early analysis of the SPIT data revealed variations in the prevalence of mental health and substance disorders, suicidal behaviour and ADHD among undergraduate students commencing college in NI and the ROI [10, 12]. The current study added to this research, revealing that prevalence rates varied between faculties and also within faculties, providing important information for educators, with some courses having more students with psychological difficulties than others. Variations in help seeking behaviour were also revealed.

Overall, the study found high prevalence rates of suicidal behaviour and a range of mental health and substance abuse problems, which is of great concern. Suicidal behaviour was particularly high among students in the IT in the ROI. A recent study conducted among third level students in Ireland, found that students attending Institutes of Technology had poorer mental health [38]. Furthermore, the IT has the highest proportion of students from a disadvantaged area, when compared to other higher education institutes in the ROI [39], which may partially explain the elevated prevalence rates revealed in the current study.

When examining students attending college in NI, variations were revealed across the four UU campuses, with very high rates of psychopathology revealed among those attending Campus B. Conversely, students on Campus D reported the lowest rates of mental health problems but had the highest rate for drug abuse, and when comparing students across the NI campuses they also had the highest rate for alcohol abuse. Some geographical locations may have higher levels of mental health problems in the population than others for a number of reasons, for example, they may have elevated levels of deprivation. However, as students are not necessarily from the area the campuses are located in, further analyses were conducted to determine why these variations might occur.

The finding that students on Campus D were the least likely to engage in suicidal behaviour and have the lowest levels of depression or panic disorder, but high rates of substance abuse may be related to the demographic characteristics of students attending the campus, with males making up a large percentage of the student population. This is in line with previous research which reported higher levels of substance problems among male students, while females are more likely to have internalizing problems such as depression [7], as was found in the current study. It should also be noted however, that males may be less likely to admit to having a psychological problem, due to stigma, internalized traditional masculine norms and fears of looking weak [40]. Indeed, studies have found that young males are more prone to underreporting symptoms of mood disorders, and demonstrate higher levels of denial about psychological disorders on self-report surveys [41, 42].

When considering variations in prevalence rates between faculties, the lowest rates of mental health and substance problems were revealed among students in L&HS. A higher proportion of students in L&HS were 21 or over when compared to students from other faculties. Many students may have completed exams in the year prior to starting college, which may partially account for the elevated 12-month prevalence rates reported among younger students. The highest prevalence rates were found within the faculty of AH&SS, with the exception of alcohol misuse which was highest amongst students from the Business School. This is consistent with findings from another Irish study [32]. It should be noted that the Business School had the highest percentage of younger students in the current study, therefore this finding is particularly concerning, as prolonged, heavy alcohol usage throughout the academic course of study is associated with poorer academic performance, attrition, and increased likelihood of mood disorders [43]. Substance awareness campaigns during secondary education may be beneficial and further information sessions in the college setting would be advantageous.

In relation to treatment seeking, students in L&HS were least likely to have received treatment while those in AH&SS were most likely to have received treatment or felt that they may have needed treatment in the year prior to starting college, which is in line with the reported prevalence rates. Nevertheless, the proportion of students receiving or acknowledging that they may need help is much lower than the prevalence rates of disorders reported. In accordance with prior studies [34], students from CE&BE were least likely to believe that they may have needed help, which may be related to the fact that many males are enrolled on these courses. Indeed, it has been reported that male college students tend to have poorer mental health literacy and are poorer at recognising symptoms of depression, therefore male dominated courses may have lower levels of help-seeking and they may score lower on self-report questionnaires due to poor recognition of symptoms [44]. The most important reason participants in the current study reported for not seeking help was that they wanted to handle it themselves or they talked to friends or family. It is important therefore to encourage help seeking behaviour and provide information on a wide range of services available within the college and community setting.

Further analyses were conducted to uncover at risk subgroups, within the student population. While many students in the faculty of L&HS had low levels of mental health problems, when individual courses were examined, distinct variations were uncovered. For example, psychology students reported elevated rates of panic disorder and social anxiety, which is in line with previous research [20]. Furthermore, these students were most likely to say that they felt that they may have needed treatment which would suggest that while the psychology students had an awareness about their mental health issues, it did not encourage them to seek help. This is in accordance with prior research which reported that taking psychology classes does not appear to predict positive attitudes to seeking mental health care for mental health problems [45, 46]. One of the reasons provided for not seeking help, by psychology students in the current study, was a fear of it impacting on their academic and future career. These findings would imply that when promoting help-seeking behavior among those in the health profession, especially psychology students, it is important to be mindful of their fears and encourage them to disclose any problems.

Nursing students were least likely to report a range of psychological problems. It should be noted however that mental health nursing students reported higher rates of disorders than those studying general nursing, with the exception of depression, which may have drawn them towards the course, in the first instance. Mental health nursing students were most likely to have received treatment despite lower levels of disorders. This may be related to their knowledge and understanding of the importance of treatment [20]. Engineering students were least likely to have received treatment or felt that they needed treatment, but they also reported low levels of psychological and substance related issues. As this is a male dominated course, the question remains if these findings may be related to a reluctance of males to disclose mental health issues and to seek help for their problems or poor symptom awareness.

Indeed, many students appear to be unwilling to seek help from traditional sources within the college. This maybe be because they are concerned that the information may be shared with academic staff, although if adjustments are made, such as extensions to deadlines, this can be very advantageous. Moreover, stigma, preference for self-management and time commitments can be deterrents. Students on the health professional courses, for example, mental health nurses or psychology students, may be particularly reluctant to divulge that they have a mental health problem for fear that it may impact on their career [46]. It may be useful therefore for colleges to employ the use of more anonymised, self-directed, digital or online interventions [47]. The second phase of the SPIT study involves the trial of an online CBT based guided intervention and the findings may provide a useful alternative to face-to-face sessions, particularly for those who don’t want to seek help from traditional sources.

The study also found that art students, in particular, reported very high rates of a range of mental health problems and suicidal behaviour, which is in accordance with prior research [30]. An interesting finding was that the prevalence rate of bipolar disorder among those studying art was almost twice the average rate reported in the study overall. Indeed, studies have revealed high levels of creativity among those with bi-polar disorder [48, 49]. Almost a fifth of art students also had clinical levels of depression in the previous 12 months and were most likely to engage in self-harm or have attempted suicide. It is very important therefore that support is offered to this vulnerable cohort within the college setting.

Business students reported the highest rate of drug abuse, while law students reported the highest alcohol misuse rates and suicide ideation and plans but not attempts. Prior studies have suggested that such findings are connected to stressors related to the course [31, 50]. It must be remembered, however, that this cohort was surveyed shortly after registering at college, before they had engaged on their course. It may be beneficial to conduct further research to help determine factors that may draw students with such problems towards these courses.

Previous authors have theorised that specific traits and environmental influences shape intellectual interests and attract certain individuals to specific courses [51]. Socioeconomic status and problematic early life experiences may have an impact. Widening access to higher education, while being extremely beneficial, can bring additional challenges, with students enrolling from diverse backgrounds. They may be attracted towards certain courses, such as psychology or law, due to negative early life experiences. For example, it has been found that students who study humanities, social work and counselling were more likely to report childhood adversities [52, 53], which are strongly associated with poor mental health [11]. Additionally, personality is thought to influence degree selection. For example, high levels of neuroticism have been found in law and psychology students [29, 54]. These factors may not only attract individuals towards specific degrees but also predispose them to poorer mental wellbeing. Further research is therefore warranted to explore these risk factors in greater detail and plans are in place to conduct additional analyses utilising the SPIT data.

As this study identified courses with many at-risk students it may be beneficial to provide targeted support and information to students through their lectures and encourage social interaction with their peers, creating a sense of belonging as they embark on their college life. Discipline specific support may be warranted. For example, students on some courses, such as those involving the arts, may feel isolated and they may benefit from initiatives to increase social interaction. Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) and wellbeing sessions may be beneficial to help support the transition to university life [55]. As these are embedded within courses, such sessions can be tailored to the needs of the students, addressing the individual challenges of that specific course, with first year students being supported by their higher year peers.

Limitations

While this study identified several important findings, a number of limitations should be considered when interpreting the results. Firstly, the study relies on self-report measures, therefore some students may not have responded accurately or honestly. Secondly, only the 191 students who said that they felt that they may have needed help in the previous year, but were not in treatment, were asked the subsequent question related to reasons why they would not seek help, therefore these findings may not be generalised to the wider population. Furthermore, the current study is cross-sectional in nature, and is based on findings from year one only, when students started college for the first time. It will be very beneficial to monitor these students throughout their time at college, to determine if suicidality, psychopathology and substance abuse prevalence rates vary as they progress through their courses, some of which may be more stressful and academically challenging than others. Finally, it should be noted that a number of courses were not well represented in the study.

To conclude, the study revealed that many students commence college with pre-existing psychological and substance related problems and suicidal behaviour. However, the prevalence rates varied considerably across academic disciplines, with some courses having many at-risk students enrolled. However, many of these students did not seek help for these problems. It is important therefore for educators to be aware of such issues and for colleges to provide information and support to students at risk. Tailored interventions and prevention strategies may be beneficial to address the needs of students from different disciplines. This may be even more important, since the pandemic, when students were working remotely, with some cohorts missing out on practical classes, lab work and placements, with many struggling since the return to face-to face leaning. The findings from this study should appeal to educators and those with an interest in student mental health and wellbeing.

Higher social status benefits women's well-being and relationship quality, until they surpass their male partner

All is nice and well unless she outshines him: Higher social status benefits women's well-being and relationship quality but not if they surpass their male partner. Melissa Vink, Belle Derks, Naomi Ellemers, Tanja van der Lippe. Journal of Social Issues, December 17 2022. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12573

Abstract: In two studies, we find that climbing the societal ladder has positive associations with women's well-being and relationship outcomes but can also have negative consequences when women surpass their male partners in status. In Study 1 (N = 314), we found that women who reported having higher personal status also reported several positive relationship outcomes (e.g., higher relationship quality than women with lower personal status). However, these associations reversed for women who surpassed their partners in social status. In Study 2, a diary study (N = 112), we show how women's implicit endorsement of gender stereotypes qualifies the negative associations of surpassing one's partner in status. Among women with higher status than their partner, traditional women intend to adjust their behavior to fit the gender norm (e.g., thinking about reducing work hours in favor of their time at home), whereas egalitarian women did not, but felt guilty toward their partner. We show how the relationship dynamics of women who have surpassed their partners in social status should be considered when attempting to tackle structural discrimination and advance women's careers.

GENERAL DISCUSSION

In two studies, we reveal the contradictory associations women contend with when they reverse traditional status divisions in their relationships. Our data shows that climbing the social ladder has several positive outcomes for women, but this only is the case insofar as their social status does not surpass that of their male partner. Furthermore, the way women respond to their higher status depends on whether they implicitly endorse stereotypical gender beliefs. This research suggests that gender stereotypes prescribing that men should be the breadwinner and women should be the caregiver of their families have their impact on the relationship of women who break with these gendered expectations (Eagly et al., 2000; Heilman, 2001; Prentice & Carranza, 2002).

Replicating earlier findings that higher social status is related to more happy marriages (Bartley et al., 2005; Belle, 1990; Wilcox & Marquardt, 2010), we show in both studies that women who reported high social status also experience more positive outcomes in romantic relationships than women who reported low social status. The main point of the cross-sectional study, however, is that relationship outcomes are not only predicted by women's personal status. Crucially, women's relationship outcomes were also predicted by how their social status compared to their partners’ status, and here the results are generally more negative as their relative status is higher. This pattern was replicated and extended in the diary study in which we showed that women who reported higher status relative to their partner also reported more negative relationship and work-life outcomes during the 8 days of the study.

By providing insight into the underlying dynamics that partly explain negative relationship outcomes for women in a role-reversed relationship, we complement previous work showing that relationships in which the woman earns more than the man are less satisfying than more traditional relationships (Bertrand et al., 2015; Meisenbach, 2009; Pierce et al., 2013; Wilcox & Nock, 2006; Zhang, 2015). Specifically, we show that—in addition to objective income differences—women's perception of the social status division of their own relationship also predicts relationship outcomes. We reveal how these perceptions influence daily experiences and decisions about time allocations and activities in relationships where the woman has higher status relative to her partner.

Both women with traditional and egalitarian gender associations face difficulties

Additionally, we show how women's implicit gender associations (i.e., the degree to which they associated career-related words with men and family-related words with women) related to how women feel and cope when they surpass their partner in social status. Other than anticipated, we did not find that women's implicit gender associations qualify their relationship outcomes. However, we did find that among women who had higher status relative to their partner, those with more traditional implicit gender associations were more likely to consider on a daily basis how they might adjust their behavior to accommodate this (e.g., by sacrificing leisure time and reducing working hours in favor of their family). It is possible that especially women with traditional gender associations feel that they deviate from the traditional norm when they have surpassed their partner in status. These women may be more sensitive to the negative associations of surpassing one's partner in status. This would be in line with the notion of gender deviance neutralization, which maintains that men and women who violate gender norms try to reduce their deviance by showing more traditional behaviors (Bittman et al., 2003; Brines, 1994; Greenstein, 2000). In this case, this might be achieved by these women sacrificing leisure time and time at work to spend more time with their families.

We observed a different pattern for women with more egalitarian associations. When they had higher status relative to their partner, these women did not think about adjusting their behavior. However, they did report feeling guilty toward their partner on a daily basis. Women with egalitarian gender associations might realize that surpassing their partner in status is not in line with current gender norms in society. People feel guilt when they evaluate their moral transgression as a violation of an important norm and having hurt another person (Haidt, 2003; Ortony et al., 1988; Tangney & Dearing, 2002). Feeling guilt toward their partner might motivate women to change their behavior and recognize that their partner's relationship expectations and standards differ from their own (Baumeister et al., 1995). Repeated and uncontrollable feelings of guilt are associated with lower well-being (Ferguson et al., 2000) and psychological distress (e.g., anxiety; Jones & Kugler, 1993). Consequently, women's feelings of guilt toward their partner might eventually cause them to adjust their behavior somehow to bring it more in line with current gender norms. However, this might also imply that if gender norms are more egalitarian (e.g., because friends have similar role-reversed status divisions within their relationships), these women feel less or no guilt (Haidt, 2003). Future research might investigate how norms relate to long-term consequences of guilt experienced by women with egalitarian gender associations and who have surpassed their male partner in status.

Limitations

A first limitation of our studies is that we only investigated women's perceptions of the status division in their relationship as well as how it impacts their relationship outcomes and well-being. Future research can expand these associations by applying a dyadic approach and see how women's outcomes are affected by their partner's perceptions of the relative status division within their relationship. Furthermore, this line of research could also investigate whether these associations are similar for men in role-reversed relationships. In our own work, we find first evidence that heterosexual couples highly agree upon the status division within their relationship and that both the man's and the woman's relationship quality suffers when they report being in a role-reversed relationship (Vink et al., in press).

A second limitation is that we chose to use the Implicit Association Task to measure a person's endorsement of gender stereotypes because explicit measures of gender stereotypes are susceptible to social desirability, and the IAT has been found to outperform these explicit gender stereotype measures in predicting actual behavior (Greenwald et al., 2009). It is important to be mindful of the recent critiques on using the IAT to measure a person's implicit gender stereotypes (Hahn & Gawronski, 2019; Gawronski & Bodenhausen, 2006; Gawronski et al., 2017). These critiques are related to women's potential awareness of their scores, susceptibility to situational factors, and stability over time. Irrespective of these critiques, our results indicate that the extent to which women associate work with men and family with women predicts how women themselves feel and cope when they surpass their partner in social status 8 days after filling out the IAT.

A third limitation is that both of our samples included women with mostly higher educational degrees. As such, it remains to be seen whether our results are generalizable to women with lower educational degrees. Lower educated individuals are more likely to endorse social conservative ideologies that favor maintaining the current status quo (e.g., the existing gender hierarchy; Jost et al., 2003). For this reason, it could be that lower educated women who have surpassed their partner in status report even more negative relationship outcomes compared to higher educated women. On the other hand, lower educated women are more often the breadwinner of the family because of temporary economic reasons (e.g., the man being unemployed) than higher educated women (Drago et al., 2005). When women work out of financial necessity, both men and women may find it easier to justify women's breadwinning role (Heckert et al., 1998; Orbuch & Custer, 1995). Future research could examine whether lower educated individuals indeed report more negative relationship outcomes when they are in a role-reversed relationship. Furthermore, it could assess whether their relationship outcomes are qualified by the fact that the woman works out of economic necessity or not.

Implications

This research adds another layer to our understanding of why gender inequality persists (see e.g., Ellemers, 2018). Women are stigmatized when they are successful in the workplace (Heilman & Okimoto, 2007; Rudman et al., 2012), but growing evidence shows how women who become more successful than their partner are also stigmatized (Hettinger et al., 2014; MacInnis & Buliga, 2019; Vink et al., in press). Moreover, we show that successful women experience negative relationship outcomes when they surpass their partner in status. These relational dynamics offer an additional perspective on the other considerations that may prevent women from pursuing professional and societal success.

More specifically, women with higher status than their partners walk a tightrope for breaking with traditional gender norms. Women with traditional gender beliefs and who thus feel that their relative status in the relationship is conflicting with their gender role try to adjust their behavior but still report lower relationship quality and well-being. On the other hand, women with egalitarian gender beliefs and who thus feel that their role is in line with their own attitudes feel guilty toward their partner. Though the process of women with traditional and egalitarian gender associations is different, either way, these women are worse off compared to women who have not surpassed their partner in status.

Consequently, and in order to increase women's labor market participation and their chances of career success, systematic and structural change is needed rather than (well-intended) interventions aimed at individual women or couples (Barker et al., 2010). Our results suggest that social policies aiming to promote women's employment and career success must not only focus on individual women but also on what support they need from the organization in their careers, and what support is required in order to ensure that no problems arise on the home front. Policies that target individual women and the support they need at work may unintentionally assume that the male employees have the “most important” or “most successful” career in the family. In contrast, men also need support in combining their own careers with that of their partners. In fact, men who violate traditional gender norms are still stigmatized, and there have been few changes in that regard in the past decades (Croft et al., 2015). To illustrate, fathers who decide to work fewer hours to take care of their families are seen as “weak” and experience worse work outcomes than mothers who also choose to work fewer hours (Rudman & Mescher, 2013). For policies to be successful, they should also tackle the stereotype that men should be breadwinners and prioritize their careers. By placing the focus primarily on female employees and not on male employees, organizations are actually also perpetuating the stigma that a relationship with a more successful woman is “abnormal” and therefore stigmatizing.

In order to break this stigma, policymakers who address gender equality should be mindful of the broader relational contexts in which the targets of their policies operate. This focus is in line with the argument presented by Doyle and Barreto (2023), who emphasize the role of the social and relational context in which individuals operate as a crucial factor in understanding and tackling stigma. Policymakers can do this by applying a more relational focus when designing and implementing new social policies within the government and organizations. For example, policies that aim to facilitate career advancement for women might be complemented with policies that support homemaking roles for fathers (e.g., extending paid parental leave) to help them move away from the male breadwinner model (Cooke, 2006). Furthermore, HR professionals and managers in organizations can facilitate role-reversed couples by, for instance, by considering the careers of employees’ partners during performance reviews and by stepping away from the expectation that a good employee is someone who prioritizes their work 24/7 (Petriglieri, 2018). Indeed, team leaders that facilitate the combination of work-life issues succeed in preventing stress and conflict among male and female employees, resulting in increased well-being, health, and work performance (Van Steenbergen, 2007). Through this relational approach toward careers, employers can become more aware of how the careers of their employees’ partners also affect the choices and behaviors of individual employees.

Suggestions for future research

This research shows how women's social status can have negative consequences for their relationship outcomes once they surpass their male partner in status, and how women intent to behave in line with traditional gender roles. Future research can unravel the specific mechanisms that cause these associations. Some studies show how others outside the relationship stigmatize men and women in role-reversed relationships (Hettinger et al., 2014; MacInnis & Buliga, 2019; Vink et al., in press). However, more research is needed to examine how the negative social evaluations of others relate to the experiences of women and men in role-reversed relationships. To illustrate, future research can investigate whether it is mainly men's loss in status that causes stigmatization in heterosexual relationships or whether women's relative increase in status also predicts stigmatization (see Link & Phelan, 2001 for how stigmatization is associated with status loss). Also, a more elaborate investigation of how stigma is related to couples’ experiences may show that role-reversed couples experience less support and social acceptance than traditional couples, which is also related to negative outcomes in the interpersonal context (less flourishing and increased distress; Debrosse et al., 2022). Also, Park et al. (2022) show how lower socioeconomic status is often devaluated in higher education contexts. Consequently, the lower status of men with successful female partners may be even more salient in the couples’ contexts, making stigmatization even more likely to occur for these men. As experiences with stigma are associated with decreased relational closeness and impaired relationship satisfaction (Frost & LeBlanc, 2023), future research can investigate whether couples in role-reversed relationships experience decreased relational closeness toward each other compared to traditional couples.

GPT-3 displayed a surprisingly strong capacity for abstract pattern induction, matching or even surpassing human capabilities in most settings; large language models have acquired an emergent ability to find zero-shot solutions to a broad range of analogy problems

Emergent Analogical Reasoning in Large Language Models. Taylor Webb, Keith J. Holyoak, Hongjing Lu. Dec 19 2022. https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.09196v1

Abstract: The recent advent of large language models - large neural networks trained on a simple predictive objective over a massive corpus of natural language - has reinvigorated debate over whether human cognitive capacities might emerge in such generic models given sufficient training data. Of particular interest is the ability of these models to reason about novel problems zero-shot, without any direct training on those problems. In human cognition, this capacity is closely tied to an ability to reason by analogy. Here, we performed a direct comparison between human reasoners and a large language model (GPT-3) on a range of analogical tasks, including a novel text-based matrix reasoning task closely modeled on Raven's Progressive Matrices. We found that GPT-3 displayed a surprisingly strong capacity for abstract pattern induction, matching or even surpassing human capabilities in most settings. Our results indicate that large language models such as GPT-3 have acquired an emergent ability to find zero-shot solutions to a broad range of analogy problems.

---

GPT-3 “has been forced to develop mechanisms similar to those thought to underlie human analogical reasoning — despite not being explicitly trained to do so […] through a radically different route than that taken by biological intelligence.”

Use time of social media and streaming services was associated with reduced sexist attitudes

Can hedonic technology use drive sexism in youth? Reconsidering the cultivation and objectification perspectives. Ofir Turel. Behaviour & Information Technology, Dec 29 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2022.2159874

 Abstract: The information systems (IS) literature has examined sexism and gender inequality issues primarily in the context of the IS workforce. I suggest that we should extend this perspective by emphasising the role of technologies in promoting sexist attitudes in youth. A review of the literature suggests that hedonic technologies, such as videogames, video streaming and social media sites, have been often portrayed as delivering sexist content, and through cultivation, producing sexist attitudes and behaviours. Here, I build on cultivation, objectification, and ambivalent sexism theories, and hypothesise that (1) such effects exist in teenage users of videogames, video streaming services and social media, and that (2) such effects are more pronounced in males. Findings based on two secondary, large nationally representative datasets (n1 = 3,300, n2 = 3,946) of high school seniors do not, for the most part, support the hypotheses. The persistent non-significant and sometimes opposite to expectation findings are very informative, because they demonstrate that the overall role of modern hedonic technologies in driving sexism in teenagers may be limited or even positive, despite claims in popular media and findings of prior lab-based research. This is because the use time of videogames was only weakly associated with sexist attitudes and use time of social media and streaming services was associated with reduced sexist attitudes. The findings make first strides toward understanding the topic of IS content delivery and sexism and pave the way for more IS research on this important topic.

Keywords: Hedonic technologiessexismcultivation theorygender-based differencesvideogamessocial media

People with social anxiety disorder fear not only negative but also positive evaluation by others, because they are afraid that it will turn against them

A mixed methods investigation of reasons underlying fear of positive evaluation. Gillian A. Wilson, Bailee L. Malivoire, Stephanie E. Cassin, Martin M. Antony. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, December 15 2022. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2818

Abstract: Fear of negative evaluation (FNE) is a hallmark feature of social anxiety disorder (SAD). There is also evidence that people with SAD fear receiving positive evaluation and that fear of positive evaluation (FPE) is distinct from FNE. However, researchers have speculated that concerns related to negative evaluation may actually underlie FPE. This study sought to advance our understanding of FPE by employing both quantitative and qualitative methods to assess the reasons underlying participants' endorsement of FPE on the Fear of Positive Evaluation Scale and the extent to which these reasons reflect FNE versus FPE in a sample of individuals with SAD (n = 47) and a nonclinical comparison group (n = 49). Results indicated that responses to the FPES items primarily reflected an underlying FNE. Consistent with contemporary cognitive–behavioural theories of SAD, fear of proximal or eventual negative judgement emerged as the most common reason for participants' responses on the FPES. However, participants reported other reasons that did not reflect FNE, such as fear of hurting people's feelings and uncertainty associated with positive evaluation. All of the reasons underlying participants' ratings on the FPES were reported by both the SAD group and the nonclinical comparison group; however, individuals with SAD endorsed each of the reasons to a greater extent. These findings suggest that the FPES does not exclusively assess FPE as intended; however, the emergence and endorsement of reasons other than FNE suggest that FPE exists as a distinct construct.

Are Progressives in Denial About Progress? Yes, but So Is Almost Everyone Else

Are Progressives in Denial About Progress? Yes, but So Is Almost Everyone Else. Gregory Mitchell and Philip E. Tetlock. Clinical Psychological Science, December 22, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/21677026221114315

Abstract: Scott Lilienfeld warned that psychology’s ideological uniformity would lead to premature closure on sensitive topics. He encouraged psychologists to question politically convenient results and did so himself in numerous areas. We follow Lilienfeld’s example and examine the empirical foundation beneath claims that positive illusions about societal change sustain inequalities by inducing apathy and opposition to reform. Drawing on data from a large-scale survey, we find almost the opposite: a pervasive tendency, across ideological and demographic categories, to see things as getting worse than they really are. These results cast doubt on functionalist claims that people mobilize beliefs about societal trends to support political positions and suggest a simpler explanation: Most laypeople do not organize information in ways that provide reliable monitoring of social change over time, which makes their views on progress susceptible to memory distortions and high-profile current events and political rhetoric.