2023-09-29 17:20:00
Periods of collective stress, such as a pandemic or climate crisis, have a major impact on psychological well-being.
A study conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic by 62 scientists in 51 countries found a relationship between specific emotions and well-being.
Psychological well-being is promoted by positive emotions, but the way we feel emotions is very specific, underlines the researchers’ press release. For example, we not only feel good, but also relieved, determined or amused. Likewise, we don’t just feel bad, but angry, sad, or alone.
Emotions with the same charge, positive or negative, can also lead to completely different behaviors. For example, we don’t behave the same way when we are proud and when we are grateful. Or when we are angry and when we are bored.
Rui Sun and Disa Sauter from the Department of Psychology at the University of Amsterdam, together with their colleagues, studied the relationship between 20 emotions and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic in 24,221 participants in 51 countries.
While emotions were defined as states that fluctuate in the short term, well-being was defined as reflecting people’s overall evaluation of their lives.
The 20 emotions studied, with the potential to be linked to well-being, were: awe, calm, compassion, determination, empathy, gratitude, hope, love, relief, sensory pleasure (smell, sound, touch, etc. ), anger, anxiety, boredom, confusion, disgust, fear, frustration, loneliness, regret and sadness.
The researchers also carried out a replication study in the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as a longitudinal study with around 100 participants who kept a daily diary.
Four positive emotions were associated with well-being, resilience and health:
Calmness and hope were also inversely associated with distress.
Across countries, five emotions consistently predicted subsequent changes in well-being.
calm ; hope; anxiety; loneliness; sadness.
Calmness and hope were linked to better psychological well-being, while anxiety, loneliness and sadness were linked to lower well-being.
Calm, researchers point out, activates the parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for the body’s rest (or relaxation) response. For example, parasympathetic nerves slow heart rate and breathing. This system is part of the autonomic nervous system and has an action opposite to the sympathetic nervous system which is active in moments when we are tense and must perform.
Hope is a factor of resilience, notably by helping to focus on opportunities. It thus acts as a protective mechanism against stress.
“These findings can help strengthen individual and societal interventions aimed at improving well-being,” concludes Disa Sauter.
For more information, see the links below.
Psychomedia with sources: University of Amsterdam, Emotion.
All rights reserved.
1696011304
#emotions #impact #wellbeing #times #collective #stress