" how nuts are the dutch " is an online research platform that became established on 13 december 2013 in the netherlands .

hownutsarethedutch has been designed by researchers from the university of groningen to support self-measurement of mental health for the entire population of the netherlands .

the project shows how crowdsourcing can be used for studying mental health in the general population .

hownutsarethedutch ( hoegekisnl in dutch ) provides automatic personalized feedback on filled-out questionnaires to provide participants with more basic insight in their mental health , including a comparison with the scores of other participants .

hownutsarethedutch is meant to reduce mental health stigma and to promote a discrete categorization of mental health , by showing that all people have both personal strengths and weaknesses , and that most psychological characteristics are distributed continuously in the population .

a background goal is to develop and evaluate personalized interventions to improve mood-related problems and social-emotional functioning .

in the first year 13000 inhabitants of the netherlands and belgium participated .

hownutsarethedutch

hownutsarethedutch ( hoegekisnl ) : a crowdsourcing study of mental symptoms and strengths . - semantic scholar
krieke lvd , jeronimus bf , blaauw fj , wanders rbk , emerencia ac , schenk hm , et al . hownutsarethedutch ( hoegekisnl ) : a crowdsourcing study of mental symptoms and strengths . int j meth psychiat res . 2015 , in press .
we assessed whether or not participants had a romantic partner , a pet , a religious belonging , and daytime activities ( including paid work , unpaid work , school , household activities , and retirement ) using the living situation questionnaire of the hownutsarethedutch study [ 21 ] ; s1 text .
hownutsarethedutch ( dutch : hoegekisnl ) is a national crowdsourcing study designed to investigate multiple continuous mental health dimensions in a sample from the general population ( n = 12 , 503 ) . its main objective is to create an empirically based representation of mental strengths and vulnerabilities , accounting for ( i ) dimensionality and heterogeneity…
questionnaire data on wellbeing ( manchester short assessment of quality of life / happiness index ) , psychological symptoms ( depression anxiety stress scales ) , and personal strengths and resources ( humor , humor style questionnaire ; empathy , empathy quotient questionnaire ; social company ; religion ; daytime activities , living situation questionnaire ) were collected in a population - based internet study ( hownutsarethedutch ; n = 12 , 503 ) . data of the subset of participants who completed the above questionnaires ( n = 2411 ) were used for the present study . regression analyses were performed to predict wellbeing from symptoms , resources , and their interactions .
smartphone credits – short update ( maria schenk ) as mentioned in the previous ilab newsletter ( may2014 ) , there are smartphones available for use in ilab studies . for the study “hownutsarethedutch” ( hoegekisnl ) , we make use of this opportunity . several participants completed the study with the smartphones provided by ilab . we chose vodafone prepaid cards for providing the connectivity . as for any telecom provider , using vodafone cards has pros and cons . the vodafone service and coverage are good . also , the sim cards can be registered online and in case of loss or theft vodafone will replace the sim card for free . the sim cards cost €5 , - , with €5 , - of data for free after registration . the calling credit can be upgraded using cards of €10 , - or a multiple of €10 , - . data can be purchased in amounts of 200 mb ( €9 , 50 ) or 1 gb ( €14 , 95 ) , nothing in between . for hownutsarethedutch we purchased 1 gb , which would definitely be enough for the participants to finish the study . the data balance is valid for 30 days after purchase . the sim card is valid for 1 year after the last time use . all in all we are content with vodafone prepaid .
participants from the general population of the netherlands were recruited by means of a crowdsourcing procedure , in a call to participate in research on mental health as a dimensional and dynamic phenomenon , by means of radio broadcasts , television , local podium discussions , newspapers , and magazines . in this project , called hownutsarethedutch ( in dutch : hoegekisnl ) , individuals were invited to visit the website urltoken ( also urltoken ) and to assess themselves on their mental health in a cross - sectional internet study . participants could fill out questionnaires on several domains of mental health , including sociodemography , wellbeing , psychopathology , and various psychosocial strengths and resources . these questionnaires were presented on the website in “modules” , that is , a set of questionnaires covering a specific domain . the order in which the modules could be completed was partly fixed . all modules were visible from the start , but initially only some of them were activated . the first mandatory module was the “start” module , assessing participants’ sociodemographic profile . subsequently , participants got access to three key modules : 1 ) affect / mood ; 2 ) wellbeing ; and 3 ) living situation , which could be completed in any order . after the affect / mood and wellbeing modules had been completed all other modules became available and could be completed in any order . most of the questionnaires were existing and well - validated questionnaires , except the living situation questionnaire . details on the hownutsarethedutch project are provided elsewhere [ 21 ] .
the wellbeing module of the hownutsarethedutch study included the manchester short assessment of quality of life ( mansa ) [ 22 ] , the happiness index ( hi ) [ 23 ] , the ryff scales of psychological wellbeing ( ryff ) [ 15 ] , and the social production function instrument for the level of wellbeing ( spf - il ) [ 24 ] . as explained in the introduction , in this study , we focused on global judgments of life satisfaction and not on specific domain satisfactions like work , social relations , or personal autonomy [ 15 ] . therefore , we selected those items of the above - mentioned questionnaires that exclusively assess global judgments of life satisfaction . one of the items we selected was the first item of the manchester short assessment of quality of life [ 22 ] , which rates global life satisfaction with the question “how satisfied are you with your life as a whole at this moment ? ” . participants answered this question on a 7 - point scale ranging from 1 = “couldn’t be worse” , via 4 = “mixed ( satisfied and unsatisfied ) ” , to 7 = “couldn’t be better” . global life satisfaction is considered as a prominent indicator of subjective wellbeing in the literature [ 7 , 15 ] . the second item we selected was happiness as assessed with the happiness index , which measures people’s happiness with a single item [ 23 ] . participants rated the question “do you feel happy in general ? ” on an 11 - point scale ( 0–10 ) . previous work showed this single item to be reliable and valid in community surveys , and to show good concurrent validity ( with other happiness / wellbeing / life satisfaction questionnaires ) and divergent validity [ 23 , 25 ] . happiness is often used interchangeably with subjective wellbeing and many researchers argue that happiness may be typically what people have in mind when they refer to wellbeing [ 26 – 28 ] . we calculated a composite score for subjective wellbeing from these two items by standardizing and averaging them . we did so for statistical reasons , that is , to enhance the reliability of the wellbeing measure . cronbach’s α for this measure was 0 . 87 .
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aim the interdisciplinary center psychopathology and emotion regulation ( icpe ) aims to perform high - quality research at the crossroads of various disciplines , including psychiatry , psychology , epidemiology , neurosciences , and internal medicine . the program focuses on common mental health problems , with a special emphasis on affective disorders . main goals are to unravel psychobiological processes involved in the onset and course of affective disorders , and to develop and evaluate personalized interventions to improve mood - related problems and social - emotional functioning . affective problems account for a large proportion of the burden of disease throughout the life span . apart from being a cause of suffering on their own , they are also highly prevalent in a wide range of somatic and psychiatric disorders , and interfere with their course . affective problems are often rooted in early life , with diverging expressions and consequences in subsequent phases of life . these characteristics render affective disorders particularly relevant for healthy ageing .
approach the interdisciplinary nature of the icpe is reflected in both the research themes and the methods used . large longitudinal epidemiological surveys ( e . g . , trails , nesda , lifelines ) are complemented with studies involving more , or more in - depth , measurements in smaller groups to elucidate underlying endophenotypes and temporal patterns . the study designs are both observational and experimental , and involve a variety of ( neuro ) psychological , social , and biological measures , including neuroimaging techniques .
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temporal dynamics of health and well - being : a crowdsourcing approach to momentary assessments and automated generation of personalized feedback . - pubmed - ncbi
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temporal dynamics of health and well - being : a crowdsourcing approach to momentary assessments and automated generation of personalized feedback .
van der krieke l 1 , blaauw fj , emerencia ac , schenk hm , slaets jp , bos eh , de jonge p , jeronimus bf .
from the university of groningen ( van der krieke , blaauw , emerencia , schenk , bos , de jonge , jeronimus ) , university medical center groningen , university center of psychiatry , interdisciplinary center psychopathology and emotion regulation ( icpe ) , the netherlands ; university of groningen ( blaauw ) , johann bernoulli institute for mathematics and computer science , distributed systems group , the netherlands ; leyden academy on vitality and ageing ( slaets ) , leiden and university of groningen , university medical center groningen , the netherlands .
recent developments in research and mobile health enable a quantitative idiographic approach in health research . the present study investigates the potential of an electronic diary crowdsourcing study in the netherlands for ( 1 ) large - scale automated self - assessment for individual - based health promotion and ( 2 ) enabling research at both the between - persons and within - persons level . to illustrate the latter , we examined between - persons and within - persons associations between somatic symptoms and quality of life .
a website provided the general dutch population access to a 30 - day ( 3 times a day ) diary study assessing 43 items related to health and well - being , which gave participants personalized feedback . associations between somatic symptoms and quality of life were examined with a linear mixed model .
a total of 629 participants completed 28 , 430 assessments , with a mean ( sd ) of 45 ( 32 ) assessments per participant . most participants ( n = 517 [ 82 % ] ) were women and 531 ( 84 % ) had high education . almost 40 % of the participants ( n = 247 ) completed enough assessments ( t = 68 ) to generate personalized feedback including temporal dynamics between well - being , health behavior , and emotions . substantial between - person variability was found in the within - person association between somatic symptoms and quality of life .
we successfully built an application for automated diary assessments and personalized feedback . the application was used by a sample of mainly highly educated women , which suggests that the potential of our intensive diary assessment method for large - scale health promotion is limited . however , a rich data set was collected that allows for group - level and idiographic analyses that can shed light on etiological processes and may contribute to the development of empirical - based health promotion solutions .
ella mai – boo ' d up ( remix ) ft . nicki minaj & quavo
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preserving subjective wellbeing in the face of psychopathology : buffering effects of personal strengths and resources . - pubmed - ncbi
preserving subjective wellbeing in the face of psychopathology : buffering effects of personal strengths and resources .
bos eh 1 , snippe e 1 , de jonge p 1 , jeronimus bf 1 .
university of groningen , university medical center groningen , interdisciplinary center psychopathology and emotion regulation , groningen , the netherlands .
many studies on resilience have shown that people can succeed in preserving mental health after a traumatic event . less is known about whether and how people can preserve subjective wellbeing in the presence of psychopathology . we examined to what extent psychopathology can co - exist with acceptable levels of subjective wellbeing and which personal strengths and resources moderate the association between psychopathology and wellbeing .
satisfactory levels of wellbeing ( happiness score 6 or higher ) were found in a substantial proportion of the participants with psychological symptoms ( 58 % and 30 % of those with moderate and severe symptom levels , respectively ) . the association between symptoms and wellbeing was large and negative ( - 0 . 67 , p < . 001 ) , but less so in persons with high levels of self - defeating humor and in those with a partner and / or pet . several of the personal strengths and resources had a positive main effect on wellbeing , especially self - enhancing humor , having a partner , and daytime activities .
cultivating personal strengths and resources , like humor , social / animal company , and daily occupations , may help people preserve acceptable levels of wellbeing despite the presence of symptoms of depression , anxiety , and stress .
pmid : 26963923 pmcid : pmc4786317 doi : 10 . 1371 / journal . pone . 0150867
distribution of happiness ratings in three symptom severity subgroups ( n = 2411 ) .
normal / mild subgroup : mean ( sd ) = 7 . 3 ( 1 . 2 ) , range 1–10 ; moderate subgroup : mean ( sd ) = 5 . 7 ( 1 . 8 ) , range 0–9 ; severe subgroup : mean ( sd ) = 4 . 2 ( 2 . 2 ) , range 0–9 .
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conceived and designed the experiments : ehb es pdj bfj . analyzed the data : ehb . wrote the paper : ehb es pdj bfj .
, which permits unrestricted use , distribution , and reproduction in any medium , provided the original author and source are credited .
) . the funder had no role in study design , data collection and analysis , decision to publish , or preparation of the manuscript .
in 1946 , the world health organization defined health as “a state of complete physical , social , and emotional wellbeing , and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” [ 1 ] . it is by now conventional wisdom that the absence of somatic or psychological symptoms is not a sufficient condition for high levels of subjective wellbeing [ 2 ] . similarly , the presence of symptoms does not necessarily imply low wellbeing . for example , people suffering from ill - health or disease may still feel happy and satisfied with their life [ 3 – 5 ] , in keeping with the stoic argument that each person has the capacity to be happy , no matter how daunting and painful the circumstances of life might be . individuals with somatic or mental health complaints are more than the sum of their symptoms , and also have intact faculties , character strengths , and positive experiences [ 6 , 7 ] . these may counteract or buffer against the negative impact of symptoms . thus , while the absence of symptoms is not a guarantee for wellbeing , the presence of symptoms does not preclude it .
this latter observation fits in with the large body of literature on resilience after trauma . traumatic experiences are known to increase the risk of psychopathology , but surprisingly many people do not develop mental health problems after trauma ( 50–90 % ) [ 8 , 9 ] . several factors underlying resilience have been proposed , of which autonomy , a sense of mastery or internal locus of control , self - esteem , humor , purpose ( including religion and spirituality ) , and social support are among the most frequently reported [ 10 – 12 ] .
most research on resilience has focused on preserving mental health after a traumatic event . less research has been devoted to preserving a sense of subjective wellbeing in the presence of psychopathology [ 2 ] . people may deal differently with symptoms because they differ in their personal strengths and resources , and therefore may retain different levels of subjective wellbeing despite of these symptoms . although in some areas of psychotherapy there has been a shift from an exclusive focus on symptoms to the cultivation of strengths and positive outcomes [ 6 , 13 , 14 ] , it remains unclear to what extent people with psychological symptoms can preserve a sense of wellbeing and which factors contribute to such “wellness within illness” [ 5 ] .
the present study is based upon the 12 , 503 individuals who participated in the cross - sectional study between december 19 th 2013 ( launching date of the internet platform ) and december 13th 2014 ( end of first - year wave ) . inclusion criteria were adulthood ( 18 + ) and informed consent on use of the data for scientific research . no formal written or oral consent was obtained because the data were analyzed anonymously . the medical ethical committee of the university medical center groningen approved the study procedures and declared the study was excepted from review by the medical research involving human subjects act ( in dutch : wmo ) because it was a non - randomized open study targeting anonymous volunteers in the general population ( number m13 . 147422 ) . for the present study we selected those participants who filled out all the questionnaires relevant to this study and who filled out the questionnaires on psychopathology and wellbeing within one and the same week . this resulted in a final sample of 2411 participants .
humor was assessed with the humor style questionnaire ( hsq ) , which distinguishes affiliative , self - enhancing , aggressive , and self - defeating humor [ 35 ] the hsq contains 32 items ( 8 for each subscale ) which are rated on a likert scale ranging from 1 = “totally disagree” to 7 = “totally agree” . the subscales refer to potentially beneficial and detrimental ways in which people tend to make use of humor in everyday life . affiliative humor refers to the use of humor to amuse others and facilitate relationships ( cronbach’s alpha = . 89 ) . self - enhancing humor refers to use of humor to cope with stress and maintain a humorous outlook during times of difficulty ( α = . 87 ) . aggressive humor refers to usage of sarcastic , manipulative , put - down , or disparaging humor ( α = . 70 ) . self - defeating humor refers to excessive self - disparagement , ingratiation , or defensive denial ( α = . 82 ) . we examined the differential effects of these different humor styles , because some of these may act as resilience factors , while others may be detrimental .
empathy was assessed with the 40 - item empathy quotient ( eq ) questionnaire , which captures both shared emotions and cognitive empathy or theory of mind [ 36 ] . the eq is intended to measure how easily participants pick up on other people’s feelings and how strongly they are affected by them ( e . g . , “i can easily tell if someone else wants to enter a conversation” ) . each item is rated on a 4 - point likert scale ranging from 0 = “strongly agree” to 3 = “strongly disagree” . the eq scale had a cronbach’s alpha of 0 . 89 .
of the 2411 participants included in the study , 1557 were female ( 65 % ) . mean age was 49 . 5 years ( sd = 13 . 7 , range 18–81 ) . the majority of the participants was highly educated ( 81 % high , 15 % middle , 4 % low ) . 73 % of the participants had a partner , 46 % had a pet , 25 % belonged to a religious denomination , and 93 % reported to have daytime activities . average symptom levels were low , but the scores spanned the entire range of dass subscales ; dass depression scores ranged from 0 to 42 ( mean = 6 . 0 , sd = 7 . 3 ) ; dass anxiety scores ranged from 0 to 40 ( mean = 3 . 1 , sd = 4 . 3 ) ; dass stress scores ranged from 0 to 42 ( mean = 7 . 7 , sd = 6 . 6 ) ; and the dass total scores ranged from 0 to 120 ( mean = 16 . 7 , sd = 16 . 0 ) . according to the dass manual [ 24 ] , the following cut - offs can be used for the depression subscale ( normal / mild < 14 , moderate 14–20 , severe / extremely severe≥21 ) , the anxiety subscale ( normal / mild < 10 , moderate 10–14 , severe / extremely severe≥15 ) , and the stress subscale ( normal / mild < 19 , moderate 19–25 , severe / extremely severe≥26 ) . in our sample , 2066 participants ( 85 % ) had normal / mild symptom levels , whereas 207 participants ( 9 % ) had moderate symptom levels and 138 participants ( 6 % ) had severe or extremely severe symptom levels on one or more of the subscales . note that we use these cut - offs purely for illustrative purposes , as dass scores are meant to reflect a continuous underlying dimension [ 39 ] .
to compare happiness scores for participants with different symptom levels , we compared participants with normal / mild , moderate , and severe / extremely severe symptom levels on one or more of the subscales of the dass . the results are presented in fig 1 . the happiness index is presented in the figure because we think that a happiness score is more easy to interpret than our composite wellbeing score . nevertheless , life satisfaction scores and the composite wellbeing scores showed similar distributions .
the figure shows that most participants with low symptom scores report high happiness scores : 93 % ( n = 1927 ) of these participants rate their happiness as satisfactory ( 6 or higher ) . in the moderate symptoms subgroup , 58 % ( n = 119 ) of the participants rate their happiness at 6 or higher . in the subgroup with severe symptom levels , 30 % ( n = 42 ) of the participants rate their happiness at 6 or higher . the range in happiness scores was equal in all three subgroups ( viz . 9 units ) . the standard deviation was substantially higher in the moderate and severe symptoms subgroups compared to the normal / mild subgroup ( sd = 1 . 2 vs . 1 . 8 vs . 2 . 2 ; levene statistic : 94 . 3 ( df = 2408 ) , p < . 001 ) .
without the resource variables in the model , the association between symptoms and wellbeing was large and negative ( beta = - 0 . 69 , 95 % bootstrapped ci - 0 . 73 to - 0 . 65 , p < . 001 ; results not shown in table ) . table 1 shows the results of the univariable regression analyses on the moderating effects of personal resources in the association between psychological symptoms and wellbeing . three personal resources moderated the negative association between symptoms and wellbeing , viz . self - defeating humor , partner status , and having a pet . as expected , these moderating effects were positive , implying that the negative effect of symptoms on wellbeing was attenuated in persons with higher levels of self - defeating humor , with a partner , and / or with a pet . thus , these resources seem to buffer against the negative effects of symptoms on wellbeing . the size of the moderating effects was small .
univariable regression analyses predicting wellbeing from symptoms , personal resources , and the interaction between symptoms and resources ( n = 2411 ) .
note . dependent variable : wellbeing . all continuous variables are z - transformed , thus estimated coefficients equal standardized b values ( beta ) . categorical variables 0 = no , 1 = yes . adjusted for sex , age , and education . in bold : significant effects . ci = confidence interval .
the main effects of the personal resources on subjective wellbeing were significant for affiliative humor , self - enhancing humor , partner status , empathy , and daytime activities , such that higher scores on these resources were related to higher levels of wellbeing . the main effect of self - defeating humor was significant but had a negative sign , which implies that for people with average symptom levels , more self - defeating humor was related to lower levels of wellbeing ( the main effects of the continuous variables apply to persons with average symptom levels in these analyses , since continuous variables were standardized ) . the size of the main effects ranged from small to large .
table 2 shows the results of the multivariable regression analyses predicting wellbeing from symptoms , resources , and the interaction between symptoms and resources . this model supported the moderating effect of self - defeating humor and partner status in the association between symptoms and wellbeing . the moderating effect of having a pet became nonsignificant in this multivariable model , and was therefore removed from the model . the significant main effects of self - enhancing humor , self - defeating humor , partner status , empathy , and daytime activities persisted . consistent with the univariate analyses , these main effects were positive except for self - defeating humor . the largest effect sizes were observed for partner status ( beta = 0 . 33 ) and daytime activities ( beta = 0 . 24 ) .
multivariable regression analysis predicting wellbeing from symptoms , personal resources , and the interaction between symptoms and resources ( n = 2411 ) .
note . multivariable regression analyses ; dependent variable : wellbeing . all continuous variables are z - transformed , such that estimated coefficients are standardized b values ( beta ) . having a partner 0 = no , 1 = yes . adjusted for sex , age , and education . non - significant effects have been removed from this model one by one . ci = confidence interval .
the current study provides evidence for the idea that acceptable levels of wellbeing can co - exist with significant psychopathology . although higher levels of anxiety , depression , and stress predicted lower levels of wellbeing , a considerable proportion of the participants with moderate to severe symptom levels rated their happiness as satisfactory ( 58 % and 30 % of those with moderate and severe symptom levels , respectively ) . one reason for this finding may be that these participants can buffer against—or compensate for—the negative effect of symptoms by means of their personal strengths and resources . this argument is supported by our finding that the negative effect of symptoms on wellbeing is attenuated in individuals with higher levels of self - defeating humor , with a partner , and / or with a pet . hence , these resources seem to have a protective effect on the detrimental effect of symptoms on wellbeing . moreover , several personal resources showed a positive main effect on wellbeing , especially self - enhancing humor , having a partner , daytime activities , and empathy . this implies that these resources are advantageous regardless of the level of symptoms .
the observation that the presence of psychological symptoms does not rule out satisfactory levels of subjective wellbeing is consonant with studies by bergsma et al . [ 40 ] and palmer et al . [ 5 ] , in which a substantial number of people with mental disorders showed moderate to high levels of happiness . thus , some people can retain acceptable levels of subjective wellbeing despite of their symptoms . such differences in resilience against symptomatology are not well accounted for in our psychiatric phenotypes , which are defined exclusively in terms of symptoms [ 41 ] . this may be one reason why research into the etiology of psychiatric disorders—based on these phenotypes—is often inconsistent , and why observed effect sizes are generally small [ 42 , 43 ] .
the factor with the highest effect size in the multivariable analysis was having a partner , which was positively associated with wellbeing ( main effect ) , especially in the presence of symptoms ( interaction effect ) . this is consonant with the literature on resilience after trauma showing the stress - buffering effects of intimate social relationships [ 10 , 12 ] . of course , it is not so easy to translate this finding to a concrete clinical intervention : getting a partner is not easy , especially not for people with mental health problems . interestingly , our results suggest that the company of a pet may be a viable alternative . although pets do not seem to increase wellbeing in people with average symptom levels , they do seem to mitigate the negative impact of symptoms at higher levels of psychopathology , in keeping with previous studies that showed that pets can increase positive affect among individuals suffering from depression [ 44 ] and can serve as important sources of social support [ 45 ] . some general practitioners prescribe a dog for people with ( subsyndromal ) levels of depression and loneliness [ 46 ] , with positive effects . a dog or another pet may not only provide social company , it may also increase opportunities for positive affect [ 47 ] , enhance activity levels , and address mental faculties involved in care and empathy [ 48 ] , which in turn may enhance subjective wellbeing [ 49 , 50 ] .
we showed differential effects of different humor styles in the present study . as far as we know , this is the first study in which different humor styles are investigated with regard to their distress - buffering effects . our analyses showed that self - enhancing humor was the humor style with the largest positive effect on wellbeing . self - defeating humor was negatively related to wellbeing , but the moderating effect of this humor style on the association between symptoms and wellbeing was positive . this suggests that self - defeating humor is unfavorable in individuals with average symptom levels , but favorable in people with high symptom levels . the negative main effect found for self - defeating humor is consistent with findings by martin et al . [ 35 ] , who also found negative associations between this humor style and several measures of mood and wellbeing . these authors have suggested that aggressive and self - defeating humor are deleterious forms of humor . our findings suggest that at higher symptom levels a little bit of self - irony may not be so bad at all . humor may contribute to effective coping , and may be a way to exercise some control [ 51 ] .
we did not find significant main or interaction effects for religious belonging . religion or spirituality has been reported to be a resilience factor in studies on trauma by a number of authors [ 10 , 52 ] . our negative finding may be explained by the fact that we measured whether people belonged to a religious denomination , which is not necessarily the same as having strong religious or spiritual beliefs and practices .
daytime activities were positively associated with wellbeing in our study , in line with some previous observations [ 47 , 53 ] . this result supports the intuition that having a daily occupation is beneficial ; it may provide meaning , distraction , day structure , social relations , and self - esteem [ 47 , 53 ] . yet , we did not find a moderating effect of daytime activities . this may imply that daytime activities are beneficial regardless of the level of symptoms , but it may also reflect a lack of power ; only 7 % of our sample did not have daytime activities . it should also be noted that we cannot rule out reverse causality , viz . people may not be able to work because they have low levels of subjective wellbeing and high levels of symptoms . this is a limitation of our design .
the effects that were significant in this study were small to large in size compared to those generally observed in the psychological literature [ 38 ] . their combined effect may especially be large , because the observed effects were additive : our multivariable analysis showed that the main effects of self - enhancing and self - defeating humor , having a partner , empathy , and daytime activities were independent of one another . the same was true for the moderating effects of having a partner and self - defeating humor . moreover , some effects may accumulate over time via feedback loops with other traits and environmental factors [ 54 ] . targeting multiple domains of personal strengths and resources may therefore be a fruitful strategy ; the total effect of these strengths and resources largely outweighs the negative effect of symptoms .
our study has implications for psychiatric research as well as clinical diagnostics and interventions . the results suggest that subtyping in psychiatric research should not be confined to identifying people with different symptomatology [ 55 , 56 ] , but should also consider differences between people in wellbeing and personal strengths and resources . the results also substantiate calls for a more positive focus in clinical diagnosis and intervention [ 6 , 21 , 57 ] . for example , the world psychiatric association charged a workgroup for the development of a more comprehensive model of classification and diagnosis [ 58 ] , including positive aspects of health and personal and social resources [ 57 ] . furthermore , treatment and prevention strategies for psychiatric disorders may benefit from a shift from an exclusive focus on symptom reduction to strategies aimed at fostering strengths and resources . a number of studies have already shown some evidence for the effectiveness of interventions aimed at cultivating positive mental faculties and social resources [ 59 – 62 ] . interestingly , these interventions do not need to be very encompassing . relatively simple strategies , like “spend more time socializing” , “count your blessings” , and “perform one kind act a day” have shown to enhance feelings of wellbeing [ 25 , 47 , 50 , 63 ] . such interventions are relatively easy to implement in daily life , and have no costs and no side effects .
to conclude , this study shows that it is possible to maintain acceptable levels of wellbeing in the presence of psychopathology , and provides evidence that this may be explained by the compensatory and buffering effects of personal strengths and resources . differences between individuals in such resources may be another source of heterogeneity in psychiatric research and practice . cultivating these positive factors in therapy may help to supplement the traditional “fix - what’s - wrong” approach by a “build - what’s - strong” approach [ 6 ] .
office for national statistics . personal well - being in the uk , 2014 / 15 . statistical bulletin , september 23 , 2015 .
snippe e , jeronimus bf aan het rot m , bos eh , de jonge p , wichers m . prosocial people smile : the daily dynamics of an upward spiral . submitted .
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the ilab research meeting about the use of diaries in clinical practice will take place the 29th of september ( 15 . 00 - 17 . 00 , ucp room 3 . 18 ) . a ucp pilot study , personalizing a diary , and providing feedback to patients will be discussed by seven speakers ( michelle servaas , renske kroeze , date van der veen , anne van gils , tineke oldehinkel , elskebos and rob wanders ) . the first ilab meeting in 2015 will be on the 30th of march . ideas for topics to discuss during this meeting are welcome .
ilab introduction meeting every first tuesday of the month karin janssens will introduce the ilab and the ilab google drive environment to new employees and students . the first meeting was attended by 6 persons , who found the introduction helpful . the meeting is also open for current employees or students who want to know more about the ilab or encounter problems while using google docs . the upcoming introduction meetings are ( 1 p . m to 1 . 30 p . m . ) : 7 october 2014 room k1 . 25 2 december 2014 room k1 . 25 6 january 2015 room k1 . 25 3 february 2015 room k1 . 25 3 march 2015 room k1 . 25
equipment there is still ilab equipment available for clinical research , such as iphones , ipads and actometers . please remember that you have to reserve this equipment in advance by filling out the reservation sheet on the google drive platform and contacting jantina douglas .
freezer control hannekegeugies and maria schenk are now , together with tom bak , responsible for the - 80◦c freezers in the basement of the ucp . that means that they will take action when the alarm of the freezer goes off in order to save frozen material if needed . we are very happy that they are willing to do so and would like to thank them for their efforts !
work group automatic feedback a new ilab workgroup will start in october 2014 to bring together all researchers who want to provide study participants automatic feedback based on the electronic diaries these participants filled out . during the work group we will discuss problems and search for solutions regarding the provision of automatic feedback . if you want to participate , and did not do so already , you can sign in for the group by sending an e - mail to karin janssens .
new employee ( michelle servaas ) my name is michelle servaas and i have a research position at the ilab , ucp ( umcg ) . in my phd thesis , i investigated the underlying neural mechanisms of the personality trait neuroticism to gain insight into why individuals scoring high on this trait are more vulnerable to develop psychopathology . furthermore , i am an intern at the ucp learning about diagnostics and treatment of chronic depressive patients . part of this internship was performing an ema pilot study ( ema pilot ucp ) to investigate whether individual patient feedback could be generated using an idiographic approach , namely ecological momentary assessment ( ema ) . the goal of this approach is to monitor fluctuations in , among others , mood , physical activity , social context and daily hassles via a short questionnaire that has to be filled out multiple times a day for a longer period of time by the patient . subsequently , network analyses were performed on these ema data to gain insight into the relationships between the various variables and their causal effect on each other ( lag - based analysis ) . feedback of the analyses were given to the patients and evaluated by both the patients and their therapist . in the current research position , i will develop research methods to investigate the connection between ema data and resting - state functional magnetic resonance imaging data in healthy controls and remitted depressive patients , using network analyses .
google drive update new information on google drive mainly concerns information about physical activity and sleep and how to measure this subjectively and objectively in diary studies . moreover , information about questionnaires used in the alzheimer study , hoegekisnl and the ema pilot ucp has become available .
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citation : bos eh , snippe e , de jonge p , jeronimus bf ( 2016 ) preserving subjective wellbeing in the face of psychopathology : buffering effects of personal strengths and resources . plos one 11 ( 3 ) : e0150867 . urltoken
copyright : © 2016 bos et al . this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license , which permits unrestricted use , distribution , and reproduction in any medium , provided the original author and source are credited .
data availability : data are available from the data repository of the university of groningen ( urltoken ) .
funding : the work was funded by vici grant # 91812607 received by pdj from the netherlands organization for health research development ( zonmw ; urltoken ) . the funder had no role in study design , data collection and analysis , decision to publish , or preparation of the manuscript .
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j ormel , bf jeronimus , r kotov , h riese , eh bos , b hankin , . . .
mutual reinforcement between neuroticism and life experiences : a five - wave , 16 - year study to test reciprocal causation .
lvd krieke , bf jeronimus , fj blaauw , rbk wanders , ac emerencia , . . .
h riese , h snieder , bf jeronimus , t korhonen , rj rose , j kaprio , . . .