Properties of phase transitions are conveniently investigated using order parameters. However, the order parameter may not always be phenomenologically accessible. Besides, in nature most fields are non-order parameter fields. This lead to the question whether it is possible to extract relevant information about, or even identify, the onset of a phase transition using nonorder parameter fields....

Numerous studies agree that income inequality, rather than absolute income, is an important predictor of happiness. However, its specific role has been controversial. We argue that income inequality and happiness should exhibit an inverted U-shaped relationship due to the dynamic competing process between two effects: when income inequality is relatively low, the signal effect will be the domin...

OBJECTIVES Many older adults have significant depressive symptoms but few people access care for these. This study explores which personal, clinical and need factors facilitate or hinder acceptance of a new outreaching preference-led intervention programme. METHODS From a sample of 9661 community-dwelling 65+ year olds, 244 persons with depressive symptoms according to the Patient Health Ques...

The present research introduces a new mechanism by which emotion can affect evaluation. On the basis of the self-validation hypothesis (R. E. Petty, P. Briñol, & Z. L. Tormala), the authors predicted and found that emotion can influence evaluative judgments by affecting the confidence people have in their thoughts to a persuasive message. In each study, participants first read a strong or weak ...

The present study aims at investigating the conceptions of happiness and unhappiness in a sample of Italian psychology undergraduates. Participants completed a questionnaire asking them to report the most important things that made them feel happy (happiness components) and those ones that made them feel unhappy (unhappiness components). Different measures of overall happiness and overall unhap...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to explore if inner strength is independently associated with a reduced prevalence of depression after controlling for other known risk factors associated with depression. METHODS A population-based cross-sectional study was performed, where all women living in Åland, a Finnish self-govern island community in the Baltic Sea, aged 65 years or older were sen...

In fact, Stella felt some resentment towards the challenge itself. It was not that she did not 'do creative’; it was more about her fear of unknown, the fear of losing the safety of routine the fear of change. She had read a few articles about resistance to change before and was able to recognise the tell-tale symptoms of resistance not to change per se, but rather to the uncertainties and pote...