The subjective experience of feeling consciously connected with others and our environment-to that which is larger than ourselves-has been found to promote physical and mental health, or well-being. Various ways of evaluating this sense of connectedness have been studied under controlled scientific conditions. Through these studies, more has been learned about the effect of connectedness, ways ...

Theories of hedonic, eudaimonic, and social well-being provide 3 extensively studied models for explaining flourishing mental health. Few studies have examined whether these models can be integrated into a comprehensive structure of well-being. The present study builds upon previous theoretical and empirical work to determine the complex relationships among these 3 models of well-being. Confirm...

Concerned about the health and emotional wellbeing of children adversely affected by their parents’ divorce, legislatures throughout the United States have enacted laws requiring divorcing parents to attend coparenting classes. The goal of this state intervention in the post-divorce family is to ensure that parents learn ways to minimize conflict between them and harm to their children. While t...

'Reconciliation' generally means the development of good relations where they have never truly existed before. This paper refers principally to the example of Northern Ireland and the Irish peace process. Psychiatrists should examine what really contributes to 'large group' reconciliation, as the absence of the psychiatric perspective would be a serious loss in the search for post-conflict well...

Two studies examined the role of mindfulness in romantic relationship satisfaction and in responses to relationship stress. Using a longitudinal design, Study 1 found that higher trait mindfulness predicted higher relationship satisfaction and greater capacities to respond constructively to relationship stress. Study 2 replicated and extended these findings. Mindfulness was again shown to relat...

There is accumulating scientific evidence of the potential of play and playfulness to enhance human capacity to respond to adversity and cope with the stresses of everyday life. In play we build a repertoire of adaptive, flexible responses to unexpected events, in an environment separated from the real consequences of those events. Playfulness helps us maintain social and emotional equilibrium ...

Do people's worldviews change across the life course? Beliefs in the benevolence (goodness) of the world and their relations with age and well-being were examined in a 2-year study of a nationally representative sample (N = 2,138) ranging in age from 18 to 101 years. Multilevel modeling analyses controlling for demographics, mental health history, prior experience with stressful life events, an...