Projects / Programmes
PERSONALITY, COGNITION AND WELL-BEING
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.09.00 |
Social sciences |
Psychology |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| S260 |
Social sciences |
Psychology |
| S261 |
Social sciences |
Differential and individual psychology |
well-being, personality, self-concept, cognition, positive psychology, optimal functioning, quality of life, psychological health, subjective emotional well-being, psychological well-being, satisfaction with life, good life, positive affect, negative affect, optimism, happiness, hope, flow, self-esteem, general factor of well-being, basic dimensions of personality, Big Five, FFM model, general factor of personality, intelligence, g-factor, emotional intelligence, moral intelligence, spiritual intelligence, cognitive style, values, value orientation, structural hierarchy, multivariate research
Researchers (9)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
Optimal functioning and well-being is under increasing focus of the most recent research in psychology. Despite the great research efforts, the relationships between psychological wellness and the broad domains of personality and cognition variables have not been yet satisfactorily studies. This project is aimed to investigate thoroughly the relationships between essential dimensions of personality, cognition and well-being and to develop integral theoretical models concerning the hierarchical structures of all three domains and their connections. The special advantage of the project is the inclusion of the most general dimensions of personality (general factor of personality or the Big One) and well-being (general factor of well-being), being very recently discovered by the merits of the members of the project team.
The project will be accomplished by different research and data processing methods and techniques including the experimental and especially the multivariate studies and analyses (factor-, cluster-, and multidimensional scaling analyses, optimal scaling, SEM methods and analyses). All included psychological variables (in personality, cognition and well-being domain) will be measured by appropriate psychological measures that are psychometrically well-grounded (measures of personality dimensions, cognitive dimensions and styles, dimensions of values and dimensions of well-being). The results of the project will be published in the world leading journals dealing with personality, cognition and well-being (positive psychology). According to our expectations, the results of the project will have considerable impact for the scientific progress of psychology in its most recent improvements and will probably retain the importance for a period of time.
The project will be realized by the team of researchers that excel in the previous research of personality, cognitive psychology, positive psychology and well-being. By expectiation, the project will include also the cooperation of young researcher.
Significance for science
The results of the research project are important for both theoretical and practical reasons. The research of the relationships between personality, cognition and well-being represents one of the most propulsive trends of recent psychological science. The present project encompassed the scientific modeling of the relationships between the crucial aspects and dimensions of personality, cognition and the factors of mental well-being. Further, the results clearly established and confirmed the associations between basic dimensions of personality and cognition on one side and the dimensions of the well-being on the other side. Our starting hypothetical model that predicted this associations was thus confirmed even beyond the expectations. More than anytime before, we can trust into the intimate connection between personality, cognition and well-being, the connection that can be reasonably explained only on the biological, genetic and evolutionary basis. The results of the research project will definitely contribute to the better theoretical explanation or model of the realm of psychological wellness and health. Finally, the research project could have also practical effects by stimulation of applied research and othere activities promoting psychical wellness and health being so important for the progress of humanity.
The scientific weight of the research done during the project could be differentiated in the following results:
1. The empirical elaboration of the general model of relationships between personality, cognition and well-being.
2. Further clarification of the role of personality and cognitive dimensions as predictors of well-being in different areas of human life-perspective.
3. New findings concerning the structure of personality in the new light (the pyramidal model of personality structure with the General Factor of Personality at the apex).
4. New findings of the cognitive functioning (cognitive strategies, cognitive development).
5. New findings in the field of the structure of well-being.
6. New findings in the research of cross-cultural similarities and differences in personality structure and in the structure of well-being.
The majority of empirical research has been thus dedicated to the elaboration of structural hierarchies of independents (personality, cognition and their mutual interactions) and dependents (well-being), as well as to the establishment of essential correlative and causal relations between both areas of dimensional structure.
In addition, the existence of general factors in all mentioned structural hierarchies have been convincingly demonstrated. One of the main results of this line of research was the elaboration of the new structural paradigm of personality, which was further considered in the connection to a wide spectrum of psychological, bioevolutionary and cross-cultural variables. The investigations of the members of program team contribute also to the confirmation of the universality and stability of core personality structure.
As expected, the established dimensions of personality and cognition (including their interaction, represented by values) explained substantial amounts of the variance in the well-being domain. Further progress has been made in other fields, including developmental psychology, social psychology, educational psychology, organizational psychology, health psychology and traffic psychology.
The results of the project will have both theoretical and practical meaning. They should contribute to further theoretical understanding of relationships between personality, cognition and well-being and to the further and more improved understanding of the relationships between these variables and major domains of human life-perspective, including the aspects of:
1. Family life, love and partnership;
2. Education, schooling and academic life or career;
3. Work and job career;
4. Free time and leisure behavior;
5. Psychological health and coping.
Significance for the country
The results of the research project promise a more effective involvement of Slovenian psychological science in the most recent developments in the investigated areas, and even more, the results are offering the perspective of one of the leading research centres, especially in the domain of investigating the relationships between personality, cognition and psychological wellness. The results of the project represent a great stimulation for the scientific development of Slovenia including the important applications and practical implementations that could be directly used for the advancement and progress of our society and its competitiveness in the contemporaneous world.
The findings and accomplishments of the Programme Research Group are important already in the light of the promotion of psychology and psychological disciplines in Slovenia and in further reinforcement of their role in strategic planning and operational implementations in various fields of societal development (especially in post-crisis processes):
In the programming the scientific and cultural activities;
In the optimization of the education and schooling;
In the promotion of the creativity and innovativeness in the marketing, entrepreneurship, effectiveness of wor organizations;
In the progress of the quality of life, health, security and other aspects of mental and physical well-being.
Beyond the theoretical relevance of the research, the findings should also stimulate the applied research aiming to promote the success and effectiveness of the behaviour concerning the life-perspective domains including partner and family relations, education, schooling, professional work, psychological well-being, health and optimal functioning. This is undoubtedly in high concordance with the most emergent goals of psychology in our times.
The results of the research program could be useful for the national strategy of family planning, education, professional work, health psychology promotion and prevention efforts. They could support the strivings toward better quality of life through the implementation on different levels: human relations, therapist-patient communication, partnership, parenting, education, schooling, family and marital counselling, organizational behaviour and others.
The results of the research should contribute to the more effective levels of decision-making in different fields that are important from the sides of the national identity, coping with the consequences of the economic crisis as well as from the side of preserving Slovenian natural and cultural heritage.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2008,
2009,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2008,
2009,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
