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Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Contributors -- 1 The Social Psychology of Living Well: Historical, Social and Cultural Perspectives -- Part I Conceptual Issues -- 2 Happiness and Meaningfulness as Two Different and Not Entirely Compatible Versions of the Good Life -- 3 Evolutionary Imperatives and the Good Life -- 4 On the Adaptive Functions of Good Life: Going Beyond Hedonic Experience -- 5 Living Life Well: The Role of Mindfulness and Compassion -- Part II The Role of Purposeful Activities in Living Well -- 6 For What It's Worth: The Regulatory Pleasure and Purpose of a Good Life -- 7 Whither Happiness? When, How, and Why Might Positive Activities Undermine Well-Being -- 8 Understanding the Good Life: Eudaimonic Living Involves Well-Doing, Not Well-Being -- 9 Religious Engagement and Living Well -- Part III Affective and Cognitive Aspects of Living Well -- 10 Biological Underpinnings of Positive Emotions and Purpose -- 11 Nostalgia Shapes and Potentiates the Future -- 12 Negative Affect and the Good Life: On the Cognitive, Motivational and Interpersonal Benefits of Negative Mood -- 13 Expansive and Contractive Learning Experiences: Mental Construal and Living Well -- Part IV Social and Cultural Factors in Living Well -- 14 Satisfying and Meaningful Close Relationships -- 15 Early Social Experiences and Living Well: A Longitudinal View of Adult Physical Health -- 16 Positive Parenting, Adolescent Substance Use Prevention, and the Good Life -- 17 Internet and Well-Being -- 18 Technology and the Future of Happiness -- Index -- Backcover.

From leading authorities, this significantly revised and expanded handbook is a highly regarded reference in a rapidly growing field. It thoroughly examines the conscious and unconscious processes by which people manage their behavior and emotions, control impulses, and strive toward desired goals. Chapters explore such vital issues as why certain individuals have better self-control than others; how self-regulation shapes, and is shaped by, social relationships; underlying brain mechanisms and developmental pathways; and which interventions can improve people's self-control. The volume also addresses self-regulatory failures and their consequences, with chapters on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, criminality, addictions, and money management challenges. As a special bonus, purchasers of the third edition can download a supplemental e-book featuring two notable, highly cited chapters from the second edition. New to This Edition *Incorporates the latest topic areas, theories, and empirical findings. *Updated throughout, with 21 new chapters and numerous new authors. *Cutting-edge topics: implicit self-regulation processes, the role of physical needs and processes (such as the importance of sleep), the benefits of dampening positivity, the frequency and consequences of emotional control in the workplace, and self-regulation training. *Expanded coverage of motivational factors, romantic relationships, and lapses of self-control. *Supplemental e-book featuring selected chapters from the prior edition.

Possibilities are deeply engrained in psychology's attempts to understand human behavior. This special issue offers diverse and novel insights into the role of possibilities. Two articles on morality show surprising links to mental illness and to counterfactual outcomes: People think doing immoral things is a sign of mental illness, and morally unwelcome outcomes stimulate retroactive imputation of more alternatives. Three articles address classic questions of determinism and choice: Possibilities are shaped by prior events, but pure determinism is useless for psychological theory, and meanwhile some perspectives in modern physics clash with psychological observations and experience. Imitation promotes prosociality but people are highly selective as to what they imitate.

Social psychology studies how situations cause behavior. Situations are partly defined by a matrix of possibilities (including probabilities and contingencies), and so human responses are caused not merely by realities but also by possibilities—even including some possibilities that never materialize. The human mind has complex abilities to recognize, imagine, and deal with possibilities. Two important dimensions of possibility, here labeled horizontal and vertical, differ as to how controllable the outcome is for any particular agent and where the value basis originates. Success/failure is an example of the vertical dimension and normally is only partly controllable, whereas open choice such as ordering off a menu is an example of the horizontal dimension. Possibilities and agency develop complex relationships to time: The future is defined by alternative possibilities whereas the past cannot be changed, though it can be re-imagined counterfactually and also reinterpreted. Last, we highlight the problem of how possibilities and probabilities combine. Statistical analysis of variance strategies offer three models of combination: independent and additive (like main effects), damping versus intensifying each other (as in spreading interactions), or reversing each other's effects (as in crossover interactions).

Abstract
We treat meaning as nonphysical connection and potential organization. Meaning is a resource that can be used by animals to improve survival and reproduction. The evolu­tion of brains to exploit meaning occurred in two heuristic steps. First, solitary brains developed mental representations of patterns for learning and guiding adaptive action. Second, humankind greatly expanded the usefulness of meaning by using it collectively, such as by deliberately communicating information, creating a body of shared beliefs and understandings, and using meaning to organize social life. The intentional application of meaning to life, as in the quest for a meaningful life, is a later development linked to ways of organizing behavior to maximize future outcomes and relate the individual to societal systems.

The independent variables for all studies published in odd-numbered volumes of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology were recorded. The variables were then sorted on the basis of resemblance into an emerging scheme of categories. This procedure resulted in a list of 51 categories; this list arguably contains all dimensions of situational structure that have been shown to exert a significant effect on behavior. The 51 categories were then organized into a scheme of situational structure. The following 5 aspects of situational structure were suggested: the stimulus environment, which is comprised of the physical environment and the situation's temporal and spatial structure, as well as any social structure that is external to the subject; characteristics of the subject, which involve all relevant attributes of the subject as well as relevant prior experience; cognitive and affective dynamics, which involve the subject's attentional, interpretive, and emotional states and processes, as well as the subject's expectancies and goals; relationship background, which involves prior or incipient interactions between the subject and other people in the situation; and matrix of possibilities, which involves the range of behavioral alternatives available to the subject as well as the potential consequences and implications of various alternatives. The scheme is discussed in terms of issues of environmental psychology, especially environmental controllability.

This book is a collection of skeptical social essays in which the author reveals that much of our popular beliefs, psychology and science are defective, because, although we live in the 21st century, our approach to them is deeply rooted in our culture, and biased by history and evolution. These essays help the reader take a step sideways, think independently, and not fall victim to fads, fakes, and frauds. Anyone who values a deeper understanding of contemporary social reality and the changes taking place in it should read this book, from students to scientists and intellectuals. Through these essays we learn to look under the veneer of reality, behind the altars of science, under the scenery of pop-psychology and behind the facade of therapeutic culture. Thanks to essays on suicide, euthanasia and more, we also come close to the edge of life and death. Contrary to many meticulous social critical analyzes, in sharing his thoughts the author takes us on a picturesque journey through bounty hunters, ludicrous machines, compulsive hoarding, Charlie Chaplin, and much more

Social psychological research on the self is culled to develop some basic theoretical propositions about social movement participation. It is suggested that the self (1) consists of a cognitive structure based on reflexive consciousness & the capacity for self-awareness, (2) is defined by its social & interpersonal connections, & (3) actively makes choices, controls its own responses, & takes responsibility for its own actions. The importance of factor 2 in determining whether one joins & remains a participant in a social movement is discussed, focusing on the interaction between participation & the individual need to belong. The mediating effects of social conditions, charismatic movement leaders, & individual personality differences in attachment/belongingness are also explored. Contributions of factor 3, representing the self's executive function, volition, or agency, are explored using experimental data. It is concluded that a social movement's ability to attract &/or retain members may lie in how well it addresses their individual needs for belongingness or volition. 32 References. K. Hyatt Stewart