This article presents the development of a socially interactive industrial robot. An Avatar is used to embody a cobot for collaborative industrial assembly tasks. The embodied covatar (cobot plus its avatar) is introduced to support Flow experiences through co-regulation, interactive emotion regulation guidance. A real-time continuous emotional modeling method and an aligned transparent behavioral model, BASSF (Boredom, Anxiety, Self-efficacy, Self-compassion, Flow) is developed. The BASSF model anticipates and co-regulates counterproductive emotional experiences of operators working under stress with cobots on tedious industrial tasks. The targeted Flow experience is represented in the three-dimensional Pleasure, Arousal, and Dominance (PAD) space. We present how, despite their noisy nature, PAD signals can be used to drive the BASSF model with its theory-based interventions. The empirical results and analysis provides empirical support for the theoretically defined model, and clearly points to the need for data pre-filtering and per-user calibration. The proposed post-processing method helps quantify the parameters needed to control the frequency of intervention of the agent; still leaving the experimenter with a run-time adjustable global control of its sensitivity. A controlled empirical study (Study 1, N = 20), tested the model’s main theoretical assumptions about Flow, Dominance, Self-Efficacy, and boredom, to legitimate its implementation in this context. Participants worked on a task for an hour, assembling pieces in collaboration with the covatar. After the task, participants completed questionnaires on Flow, their affective experience, and Self-Efficacy, and they were interviewed to understand their emotions and regulation during the task. The results from Study 1 suggest that the Dominance dimension plays a vital role in task-related settings as it predicts the participants’ Self-Efficacy and Flow. However, the relationship between Flow, pleasure, and arousal requires further investigation. Qualitative interview analysis revealed that participants regulated negative emotions, like boredom, also without support, but some strategies could negatively impact wellbeing and productivity, which aligns with theory. Additional results from a first evaluation of the overall system (Study 2, N = 12) align with these findings and provide support for the use of socially interactive industrial robots to support wellbeing, job satisfaction, and involvement, while reducing unproductive emotional experiences and their regulation.

The Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) assesses two distinct dimensions of meaning in life: presence of meaning and search for meaning. The MLQ is the most widely used instrument for measuring meaning in life, yet there is a limited variety of validity evidence on the originally proposed two-factor confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) solution. In this light, the present research examined, across five studies (total N = 3,205), several aspects of the MLQ’s validity and tested cross-gender and cross-national measurement invariance. We also examined the usefulness of the exploratory structural equation model (ESEM) of the MLQ as an alternative to the standard CFA model. The results obtained provide evidence for: (a) the validity (structural, convergent, concurrent, and incremental) of the MLQ ESEM factors; (b) full scalar invariance of the MLQ ESEM model across gender and partial measurement invariance across four countries; and (c) similar cross-national relationships between MLQ ESEM factors and measures of depression and life satisfaction. The present research provides support for the value of applying the ESEM framework in overcoming limitations of the CFA model when examining evidence on the MLQ’s validity.

The Meaning in Life Questionnaire assesses presence of and search for meaning in life. Although the questionnaire has shown promising psychometric properties in samples from different countries, the scale’s measurement invariance across a large number of nations has yet to be assessed. This study is aimed at addressing this gap, providing insight into how meaning in life is constructed and experienced across countries and into the extent to which cross-country comparisons can be made. A total of 3867 adult participants from 17 countries, aged 30–60, balanced by gender, and with at least secondary education, completed the questionnaire as part of the Eudaimonic and Hedonic Happiness Investigation. Single sample confirmatory factor analysis, multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, and alignment optimization were applied to investigate the scale’s performance across the samples. Good psychometric properties and high levels of approximate measurement invariance emerged for the Presence subscale after removal of item 9, the only reverse-phrased item. Performance of the Search subscale varied more across samples, suggesting caution in interpreting related results supporting approximate measurement invariance. The conceptualization of presence of meaning operationalized in the corresponding subscale (without item 9) appears consistent across countries, whereas search for meaning seems to be less universally homogenous and requires further exploration. Moreover, the Meaning in Life Questionnaire does not reflect the conceptual distinction between “purpose” and “meaning” currently acknowledged by researchers. This issue should be further explored in studies addressing the scale’s performance across cultures.

Worldviews are culturally derived assumptions that influence individual and collective behaviors, values, and representations of reality. The study of mental functions is not exempt from this influence, as reflected in scientific theories, methodological approaches, and empirical studies. Despite acknowledging the interplay of mental processes with developmental, environmental, and cultural dimensions, psychological research is still primarily based on quantitative methods, and on the conceptualization of mental phenomena as unfolding along polarized continua. A lively epistemological debate surrounds this approach, especially underscoring the risk of blurring the distinction between constructs derived from statistical models and real-life processes and experiences. Based on this debate and on recent empirical evidence derived from the positive psychology literature, this paper is aimed at proposing an integrated view of mental health, as a holistically patterned, contextually imbedded, and dynamic phenomenon changing over time and across life events, with harmony, harmonization and dynamic balance as core qualities. The heuristic potential of investigating the qualitative configuration patterns of mental health dimensions across individuals and groups, beyond their position along a quantitative continuum, is outlined. The development of more integrated approaches and methodologies to investigate mental health as a harmonization process, taking into account personal, contextual and developmental features, would be aligned with evidence derived from the integration of traditional nomothetic and ideographic approaches, and other life sciences. However, the development of a transdisciplinary line of research requires further inputs from different epistemological views, as well as higher attention to the potential contribution of different philosophical traditions.

Abstract The concept of harmony was neglected by scientific psychology until recent years, when the growing interest in the investigation of well-being, happiness and the good life brought this dimension to the attention of researchers. Within the literature on human positive functioning, harmony was variously defined and operationalized as a component of well-being in the context of broader theoretical models. This chapter is aimed at providing an overview of the psychological contributions to the study of harmony, which was investigated in relation to intrapersonal, interpersonal, and transcendent dimensions of human experience. Although not explicitly included in the current psychological classifications of virtues, harmony shares features with the virtues of temperance, kindness, justice, and transcendence. Due to this multifaceted structure, the identification of harmony with a virtue requires further conceptual elaboration and empirical investigation.

The present scoping review investigated the current state of the art concerning factors affecting physical and mental health and well‐being of workers using collaborative robots (cobots) in manufacturing industries. Each identified factor was classified using the SHELLO (Software‐Hardware‐Environment‐Liveware‐Liveware‐Organization) conceptual model. Strengths and limitations of such an approach were outlined. A total of 53 papers were included in the scoping review and analyzed following PRISMA guidelines. In 35 papers at least one risk factor referred to the SHELLO Liveware‐Hardware interaction, followed by factors concerning Liveware‐Software (16 papers), Liveware‐Liveware (11 papers), Liveware intrinsic factor (10 papers), Liveware‐Organization (8 papers), and Liveware‐Environment (8 papers). This work highlighted that methodological research is still primarily focused on traditional risk assessment and physical safety. However, several research directions concerning the design of cobots as active collaborators were identified, promoting workers' mental health and well‐being, too. The SHELLO model proved to effectively highlight human factors relevant for the design of cobots and can provide a systemic approach to investigate human factors in other complex sociotechnical systems. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time the model is applied in the field of human–cobot interaction.

Problem statement: Satisfaction and enjoyment in everyday experience, work and leisure is important for understanding subjective well-being. However, people experience different levels of pleasure, meaning, and engagement during specific activities. Research questions: The study investigated the effect of activity type (related or unrelated to learning) on momentary positive and negative affect and satisfaction. Purpose: Students generally find meaning in education-related activities, although they usually do not enjoy them. Whereas pleasurable (predominantly freely chosen) activities immediately increase well-being, meaningful activities that are often imposed, may have a delayed effect on satisfaction and affect. However, the temporal extent of these effects is still unclear. Research methods: 117 students (aged 18-27 years, 28% males) participated in the experience sampling study during one week. They were prompted five times per day to describe what they were doing and to assess momentary positive and negative affect and satisfaction on hand-held devices. Reported activities were coded as learning-related or other activities. Findings: Hierarchical linear modelling showed that engaging in learning activities immediately decreased satisfaction and increased negative affect, when compared with other activities. The delayed effects were significant up to three hours for negative affect and six hours for satisfaction. On the other hand, the activity type had neither immediate nor delayed effect on positive affect. Conclusions: Learning-related activities decrease subjective well-being, but this effect ceases after six hours. In general, freely chosen activities are source of pleasure and enjoyment. On the other hand, learning-related activities are necessary for the realization of long-term goals, but they are often not enjoyable because they are mainly imposed. (C) 2019 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.UK

Benevolent and corrective humor are two comic styles that have been related to virtue, morality, and character strengths. A previous study also supported the viability of measuring these two styles with the BenCor in 22 countries. The present study extends the previous one by including further countries (a total of 25 countries in 29 samples with N = 7813), by testing the revised BenCor (BenCor-R), and by adding two criterion measures to assess life satisfaction and four broad humor dimensions (social fun/entertaining humor, mockery, humor ineptness, and cognitive/reflective humor). As expected, the BenCor-R showed mostly promising psychometric properties (internal consistency and factorial validity). Consistent with previous studies, benevolent humor correlated positively with life satisfaction in most countries, while corrective humor was uncorrelated with life satisfaction. These relationships were only slightly changed when controlling for social fun/entertaining humor and mockery, respectively. Benevolent humor was mostly positively associated with cognitive/reflective humor, followed by social fun/entertaining humor and mockery. Corrective humor was mostly positively associated with mockery, followed by cognitive/reflective and social fun/entertaining humor, although these relationships differed between the countries. Overall, the present study supports the viability of benevolent and corrective humor, which has yet received insufficient attention in psychology, for cross-cultural investigations and applications of humor, well-being, and morality.

Recently, two forms of virtue-related humor, benevolent and corrective, have been introduced. Benevolent humor treats human weaknesses and wrongdoings benevolently, while corrective humor aims at correcting and bettering them. Twelve marker items for benevolent and corrective humor (the BenCor) were developed, and it was demonstrated that they fill the gap between humor as temperament and virtue. The present study investigates responses to the BenCor from 25 samples in 22 countries (overall N = 7,226). The psychometric properties of the BenCor were found to be sufficient in most of the samples, including internal consistency, unidimensionality, and factorial validity. Importantly, benevolent and corrective humor were clearly established as two positively related, yet distinct dimensions of virtue-related humor. Metric measurement invariance was supported across the 25 samples, and scalar invariance was supported across six age groups (from 18 to 50+ years) and across gender. Comparisons of samples within and between four countries (Malaysia, Switzerland, Turkey, and the UK) showed that the item profiles were more similar within than between countries, though some evidence for regional differences was also found. This study thus supported, for the first time, the suitability of the 12 marker items of benevolent and corrective humor in different countries, enabling a cumulative cross-cultural research and eventually applications of humor aiming at the good.

The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to evaluate the measurement invariance of the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) across five European countries: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia; (2) to investigate mean differences in life satisfaction in these five countries; (3) to examine associations between SWLS and a single-item life satisfaction measure across countries. A total of 1162 students completed the SWLS via an online questionnaire. The measurement invariance was tested by a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis. Full scalar invariance of SWLS was found. Students in Austria reported greater life satisfaction than students in other countries. SWLS strongly correlated with a single-item measure across countries. Our findings supported measurement invariance of SWLS across five countries.

We are pleased to announce the inaugural volume of the Journal of Well-Being Assessment, a new journal dedicated to the advancement of the well-being assessment theory, research and practice across domains and cultures.The journal aims at including different assessment topics and theories within the common topic of well-being.A new journal on well-being assessment not only brings together separate fields of assessment and well-being but also researchers and practitioners interested in well-being assessment.We strongly believe that this journal is an important addition to the field of well-being assessment and that further advancement in the study of well-being is tied to the availability of high quality measures.

In well-being research the term happiness is often used as synonymous with life satisfaction. However, little is known about lay people's understanding of happiness. Building on the available literature, this study explored lay definitions of happiness across nations and cultural dimensions, analyzing their components and relationship with participants' demographic features. Participants were 2799 adults (age range = 30-60, 50% women) living in urban areas of Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Hungary, India, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, and United States. They completed the Eudaimonic and Hedonic Happiness Investigation (EHHI), reporting, among other information, their own definition of happiness. Answers comprised definitions referring to a broad range of life domains, covering both the contextual-social sphere and the psychological sphere. Across countries and with little variation by age and gender, inner harmony predominated among psychological definitions, and family and social relationships among contextual definitions. Whereas relationships are widely acknowledged as basic happiness components, inner harmony is substantially neglected. Nevertheless, its cross-national primacy, together with relations, is consistent with the view of an ontological interconnectedness characterizing living systems, shared by several conceptual frameworks across disciplines and cultures. At the methodological level, these findings suggest the potential of a bottom-up, mixed method approach to contextualize psychological dimensions within culture and lay understanding.