Kostadin Kushlev

In Defense of Parenthood Children Are Associated With More Joy Than Misery

Recent scholarly and media accounts paint a portrait of unhappy parents who find remarkably little joy in taking care of their children, but the scientific basis for these claims remains inconclusive. In the three studies reported here, we used a strategy of converging evidence to test whether parents evaluate their lives more positively than do nonparents (Study 1), feel relatively better than do nonparents on a day-to-day basis (Study 2), and derive more positive feelings from caring for their children than from other daily activities (Study 3). The results indicate that, contrary to previous reports, parents (and especially fathers) report relatively higher levels of happiness, positive emotion, and meaning in life than do nonparents.

The Pains and Pleasures of Parenting: When, Why, and How Is Parenthood Associated With More or Less Well-Being?

The relationship between parenthood and well-being has become a hot topic among scholars, media, and general public alike. The research, however, has been mixed-some studies indicate that parents are happier than nonparents, whereas others suggest the reverse. We suggest that the question of whether parents are more or less happy than their childless peers is not the most meaningful one. To reconcile the conflicting literature and expand understanding of the emotional experience of parenthood, we present a model of parents well-being that describes why and how parents experience more or less happiness than nonparents (i.e., mediators of the link between parenthood and well-being). We then apply this model to explain when parents are more likely to experience more or less happiness (i.e., moderators of parents well-being, such as parent age or child temperament). Supporting our model, we review 3 primary methodological approaches: studies comparing parents and nonparents, studies examining changes in well-being across the transition to parenthood, and studies comparing parents experiences while with their children to their other daily activities. Our review suggests that the relationship between parenthood and well-being is highly complex. We propose that parents are unhappy to the extent that they encounter relatively greater negative emotions, magnified financial problems, more sleep disturbance, and troubled marriages. By contrast, when parents experience greater meaning in life, satisfaction of their basic needs, greater positive emotions, and enhanced social roles, they are met with happiness and joy.

Findings all psychologists should know from the new science on subjective well-being.

Recent decades have seen rapid growth in the science of subjective well-being (SWB), with 14,000 publications a year now broaching the topic. The insights of this growing scholarly literature can be helpful to psychologists working both in research and applied areas. The authors describe 5 sets of recent findings on SWB: (a) the multidimensionality of SWB; (b) circumstances that influence long-term SWB; (c) cultural differences in SWB; (d) the beneficial effects of SWB on health and social relationships; and (e) interventions to increase SWB. In addition, they outline the implications of these findings for the helping professions, organizational psychology, and for researchers. Finally, they describe current developments in national accounts of well-being, which capture the quality of life in societies beyond economic indicators and point toward policies that can enhance societal well-being. Nous avons assisté lors des dernières décennies à une forte croissance de la science du bien-être subjectif, les publications se chiffrant actuellement à environ 14 000 par année. Les constats dont cette littérature savante grandissante font état peuvent être utiles aux psychologues œuvrant dans les domaines de la psychologie appliquée et de la recherche. Les auteurs y décrivent cinq ensembles de récents constats au sujet du bien-être subjectif : (a) la multidimensionnalité du bien-être subjectif; (b) les circonstances qui influencent le bien-être subjectif; (c) l’impact des différences culturelles sur le bien-être subjectif; (d) les effets bénéfiques du bien-être subjectif sur la santé et les relations sociales; et (e) les interventions visant à augmenter le bien-être subjectif. On y précise également les implications de ces constats pour les professions d’aide, la psychologie organisationnelle et les chercheurs. Finalement, les auteurs y décrivent les développements actuels des témoignages de bien-être, lesquels rendent compte de la qualité de vie dans les sociétés, au-delà des indicateurs économiques, et nous guident vers des politiques visant à augmenter le bien-être de la société.

Checking email less frequently reduces stress

Limiting the frequency of checking email throughout the day reduced daily stress.Lower daily stress predicts greater well-being (e.g., higher positive affect).The frequency of checking email did not directly impact other well-being outcomes. Using email is one of the most common online activities in the world today. Yet, very little experimental research has examined the effect of email on well-being. Utilizing a within-subjects design, we investigated how the frequency of checking email affects well-being over a period of two weeks. During one week, 124 adults were randomly assigned to limit checking their email to three times a day; during the other week, participants could check their email an unlimited number of times per day. We found that during the limited email use week, participants experienced significantly lower daily stress than during the unlimited email use week. Lower stress, in turn, predicted higher well-being on a diverse range of well-being outcomes. These findings highlight the benefits of checking email less frequently for reducing psychological stress.

Bike sharing station placement leveraging heterogeneous urban open data

Bike sharing systems have been deployed in many cities to promote green transportation and a healthy lifestyle. One of the key factors for maximizing the utility of such systems is placing bike stations at locations that can best meet users trip demand. Traditionally, urban planners rely on dedicated surveys to understand the local bike trip demand, which is costly in time and labor, especially when they need to compare many possible places. In this paper, we formulate the bike station placement issue as a bike trip demand prediction problem. We propose a semi-supervised feature selection method to extract customized features from the highly variant, heterogeneous urban open data to predict bike trip demand. Evaluation using real-world open data from Washington, D.C. and Hangzhou shows that our method can be applied to different cities to effectively recommend places with higher potential bike trip demand for placing future bike stations.

Parents Reap What They Sow Child-Centrism and Parental Well-Being

A controversial feature of modern parenting is “child-centrism,” the tendency for parents to prioritize their children’s well-being above their own. It has been suggested that child-centric parenting in its various forms may undermine parental well-being. Contrary to popular belief, more child-centric parents reported deriving more happiness and meaning from parenthood (Study 1). Study 2 employed the day reconstruction method (Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz, & Stone, 2004) to capture parents’ actual experiences while taking care of their children. Consistent with Study 1, greater child-centrism was associated with the experience of greater positive affect, less negative affect, and greater meaning in life when engaged in child care activities. This link between child-centrism and well-being stands in contrast to recent arguments about the pitfalls of overinvestment in children, while dovetailing with a growing body of evidence that personal well-being is associated with investing in others rather than oneself.

Silence Your Phones: Smartphone Notifications Increase Inattention and Hyperactivity Symptoms

As smartphones increasingly pervade our daily lives, people are ever more interrupted by alerts and notifications. Using both correlational and experimental methods, we explored whether such interruptions might be causing inattention and hyperactivity-symptoms associated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) even in people not clinically diagnosed with ADHD. We recruited a sample of 221 participants from the general population. For one week, participants were assigned to maximize phone interruptions by keeping notification alerts on and their phones within their reach/sight. During another week, participants were assigned to minimize phone interruptions by keeping alerts off and their phones away. Participants reported higher levels of inattention and hyperactivity when alerts were on than when alerts were off. Higher levels of inattention in turn predicted lower productivity and psychological well-being. These findings highlight some of the costs of ubiquitous connectivity and suggest how people can reduce these costs simply by adjusting existing phone settings.

Higher Income Is Associated With Less Daily Sadness but not More Daily Happiness

Although extensive previous research has explored the relationship between income and happiness, no large-scale research has ever examined the relationship between income and sadness. Yet, happiness and sadness are distinct emotional states, rather than diametric opposites, and past research points to the possibility that wealth may have a greater impact on sadness than happiness. Using data from a diverse cross section of the U.S. population (N = 12,291), we show that higher income is associated with experiencing less daily sadness, but has no bearing on daily happiness. This pattern of findings could not be explained by relevant demographics, stress, and people’s daily time use. Although causality cannot be inferred from this correlational data set, the present findings point to the possibility that money may be a more effective tool for reducing sadness than enhancing happiness.

Parents Are Slightly Happier Than Nonparents, but Causality Still Cannot Be Inferred: A Reply to Bhargava, Kassam, and Loewenstein (2014)

research-article2013 PSSXXX10.1177/0956797613508561Nelson et al.Reply to Bhargava, Kassam, and Loewenstein Commentary Parents Are Slightly Happier Than Nonparents, but Causality Still Cannot Be Inferred: A Reply to Bhargava, Kassam, and Loewenstein (2014) Psychological Science 2014, Vol. 25(1) 303xad–304

Put the Phone Down: Testing a Complement-Interfere Model of Computer-Mediated Communication in the Context of Face-to-Face Interactions

If there ever was a key to happiness, this key would open a door that leads straight to a rich social life. And in the era of smartphones, this key to social connection is in our pockets anytime and anywhere. Or is it? Using the experience sampling method (ESM), we explore the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in the context of face-to-face (FtF) social interactions, testing two competing hypotheses: (1) a complementarity hypothesis stating that more channels of communication should be associated with higher well-being and (2) an interference hypothesis stating that FtF interactions could be impoverished by adding computer-mediated channels of communication. We surveyed 174 millennials (M age = 19.28; range: 17–22) 5 times a day over a period of a week (4,508 episodes). When participants reported a mix of CMC and FtF socializing in the same episode, they felt worse and less connected than when solely interacting FtF.