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Identifying Psychological Constructs

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Identifying Psychological Constructs

Identify the construct of interest and research question. Provide a detailed description of the construct and explain what search terms you used to locate literature.

Happiness is a construct that means different things to people. It is the ultimate goal for most, if not all, people. The topic of happiness has gained popularity over the years, with researchers striving to gain a better understanding of it in the hope of increasing the well-being of people and enabling people to lead a more meaningful life. Generally, happiness is considered as the positive emotions that people have in relation to the pleasurable activities that they indulge in daily. Some consider happiness to be the absence of negative emotions and the presence of positive emotions. This paper will focus on the topic of happiness and how individuals can attain it. Whereas some psychologists believe that happiness is within the control of people, others do not hold this idea. In this paper, it is assumed that individuals have some level of control over their happiness. Furthermore, various researchers have come up with different ways through which people can boost their levels of happiness. Some of the few mentioned include: being compassionate, being generous, undertaking kind acts, taking pleasure in experiences and sensations, and endorsing positive relations, among others. In this case, the paper strives to answer the question, “Assuming happiness is within individuals’ control, do acts of kindness boost levels of happiness?

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While researching this topic, the key search terms that were used were happiness, kindness, generosity, boost, and control. A total of 1109 items appeared. Narrowing the topic down to the link between happiness and generosity, 9 items were found. The articles that were more related to the topic were then chosen. To obtain articles between 1990 and 1999, a custom range of the search was made, and the most appropriate article on the topic of happiness was selected.

Article Review

Rowland, L., & Curry, O. S. (2019). A range of kindness activities boost happiness. The Journal of Social Psychology, 159(3), 340-343. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2018.1469461

In this article, the authors make a link between happiness and acts of kindness. Their research shows that prosocial spending and acts of kindness to others and the self are said to boost happiness. The research question in the article is “Do different types of kindness activities have different effects on happiness?” 5 hypotheses were made. Generally, the researchers tried to find out whether happiness levels were higher among individuals who were kind to others as compared to themselves, whether happiness increased among those who were kind to people they had strong ties with as compared to those with weak ties, whether happiness increased among people who performed and not merely observed kind acts and whether the level of happiness was higher for individuals performing more kindness activities.

691 participants who were recruited online through email and social media were used in the study. They were randomly assigned to 4 experimental groups of strong versus weak ties and self versus observer kind acts. The participants were expected to perform acts of kindness for a period of 7 days and record them. They were unaware of the hypothesis made in the study. One-way ANOVA was used to confirm the increases in happiness. The results showed that performing acts of kindness increased happiness. The authors also found that kindness to weak ties, strong ties, to self, as well as observing acts of kindness, had an equally positive impact on the level of happiness. There was no comparison made to other constructs like non-kind acts. However, the authors believed that the very presence of kindness in one’s life was sufficient to boost their level of happiness. Being generous is considered an act of kindness, and that is why this article was chosen for this study.

Park, S. Q., Kahnt, T., Dogan, A., Strang, S., Fehr, E., & Tobler, P. N. (2017). A neural link between generosity and happiness. Nature Communications, 8(1), 1-10.

Generous behavior is said to have the capability of increasing happiness which could then motivate generosity among people. In this study, the authors made use of functional magnetic resonance imaging together with a public pledge for future generosity to find out the brain mechanisms that link generous behavior with enhancements in happiness. Participants were made to promise to spend money on themselves (control group) or on others (experimental group) over the next 4 weeks. The hypothesis made was the participants who had devoted to spending their money on others would behave more generously in the decision-making task and self-report greater increases in happiness in comparison with the control group.

A group comparison of the parameters was done using ANOVA, and t-tests were also done. A two-sample t-test was used to compare the control group with the experimental group.  The results showed that compared to the control group, the experimental group participants made more generous choices in an independent decision-making task and also showed more escalations in self-reported happiness. Generous decisions were said to engage the temporoparietal junction more in the experimental group compared to the control group. Giving to others is said to activate the region of the brain that is associated with the reward cycle and contentment. The interplay of these brain regions links generosity that is commitment-induced with happiness. Like in the study conducted by Rowland and Curry, this study confirmed that generosity as an act of kindness boosts the level of happiness among people. Using the fMRI makes this study even more believable.

Manusov, E. G., Carr, R. J., Rowane, M., Beatty, L. A., & Nadeau, M. T. (1995). Dimensions of happiness: a qualitative study of family practice residents. The Journal of the American Board of Family Practice, 8(5), 367-375.

In this article, the authors made use of the qualitative interview to find out the various definitions or meanings of happiness as described by individuals in certain residences. The authors claim that all the stressors mentioned in the interview were considered negative and hence were negatively linked with happiness. Happiness was used interchangeably with other constructs as optimistic, peaceful, relaxed, carefree, and content, among others. Some participants claimed the ability to sympathize and empathize with other people as a major source of happiness. Some of the commonly described sources of happiness among the participants include positive relationships with other people, a balanced lifestyle, and making achievements in goals. Some of the minor factors that enhance happiness include having a sense of autonomy or control, and religious commitment or religion. Generally, religious commitment is linked to faith, and commitment to faith is associated with increased compassion. Compassionate individuals have more probability of providing emotional support to other people, and those who offer this support to others have a higher likelihood of being happier.

A total of 59 residents from 4 different families were interviewed. These interviews were audiotaped and semi-structured. Field notes and tapes were analyzed for trends. The Faces Scale was used as a happiness visual analog scale. The authors concluded that a well-balanced lifestyle, pursuit of relationships, and goals, accentuation of the positive, religious commitment, a sense of autonomy or control, and feedback were all important to the level of happiness among people, particularly students. Generally, research shows that acts of kindness play an important role in enhancing happiness levels among people.

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Question 

Week 2 Assignment: Psychological Constructs

After conducting scientific observations about a construct of interest, it is important to have a foundational understanding of existing research of the construct.

Psychological Constructs

For this assignment, you are going to identify a psychological construct you would like to know more about, such as life satisfaction, stress, happiness, optimism, etc. Then, identify a research question- what do you want to know about this construct. For example, a research question might be “does work impact life satisfaction?” This is an important step. It is critical to identify a research question before finding your articles. This question will guide your search.

Based on the research question, you are going to search for scholarly journal articles about your construct of interest. While Google scholar can be helpful, you have access to journal databases via the online library. A commonly used database for finding psychological research is APA PsycArticles. For this assignment, use PsycArticles to search and retrieve research articles to study your construct. This assignment is not meant to be a simple Google search. Your articles should be related to a research question and focused on an area of interest. Here is a link to APA PsycArticles through the APUS Online Library:

If you need help navigating the database, our Online Librarians are always available to help and love to hear from students.

Selection Criteria for Articles

When selecting articles, be sure to include the following:

  1. One article must be from a peer reviewed journal
  2. One article must contain your construct in the title
  3. One article must be within the date range 1990 to 1999

Assignment Format

A. Introduction of Construct and Research Question (250-300 words)

B. Article Review (250-300 words, APA citation does not count toward the word count requirement)

For each article, include the following information:

    1.  APA formatted citation of the article
      • Author last name, First and Middle initials. (Year). Article title. Journal title, volume number (issue number), pages.
        • Example
          • Smith, P. A. (2018). On finding journal articles: A made up citation. Journal of Made Up Psychology, 100(2), 203-214.
    2. Identification of the research question(s) and description of how the authors investigated the construct of interest, including how they measured the focal and related constructs.
    3. Description of the key finding(s) of the focal construct.
    4. Attachment of the PDF or electronic copy of the article

Be sure to allow enough time to read through the articles. You are not expected to understand all the methods and analyses.

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