Publications

2023
Symons X. 2/2023. “Why Conscience Matters: A Theory of Conscience and Its Relevance to Conscientious Objection in Medicine.” Res Publica, 29, Pp. 1-21.
Tai A.S., Lin S.H., Chu Y.C., Yu T., Puhan M.A., and VanderWeele T. 1/2023. “Causal Mediation Analysis with Multiple Time-varying Mediators.” Epidemiology, 31, 4, Pp. 8-19. Publisher's Version
Lomas T. and VanderWeele T.J. 1/2023. “The complex creation of happiness: Multidimensional conditionality in the drivers of happy people and societies.” The Journal of Positive Psychology, 18, 1, Pp. 15-33. Publisher's Version
Lomas T., Diego-Rosell P., Shiba K., Standridge P., Lee M.T., B. Case, Lai A. Y., and VanderWeele T.J. 1/2023. “Complexifying Individualism Versus Collectivism and West Versus East: Exploring Global Diversity in Perspectives on Self and Other in the Gallup World Poll.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 54, 1, Pp. 61-89. Publisher's VersionAbstract
A wealth of research has suggested the West tends toward individualism and the East toward collectivism. We explored this topic on an unprecedented scale through two new items in the 2020 Gallup World Poll, involving 121,207 participants in 116 countries. The first tapped into orientations toward self-care versus other-care (“Do you think people should focus more on taking care of themselves or on taking care of others?”). The second enquired into self-orientation versus other-orientation (“Which of the following is closest to your main purpose in life? Being good at what you do in your daily life, Caring for family and close friends, or Helping other people who need help?”). We anticipated that self-care and self-orientation would index individualism (hence be higher in the West), while other-care and other-orientation would index collectivism (hence be higher in the East). However, contrary to expectation, there was greater self-care in the East (45.82%) than in the West (41.58%). As predicted though, there was greater self-orientation in the West (30.20%) than in the East (23.08.%). Greater self-care in the East invites one of two interpretations. Either these items: (a) index individualism and collectivism as anticipated, so in some ways the East is more individualistic and the West less individualistic than assumed; or (b) do not index individualism and collectivism as anticipated, so the concepts are more complex than often realized (e.g., collectivism may involve prioritizing self-care over other-care). Either way, the findings help complexify these concepts, challenging common cross-cultural generalizations in this area.
Rutledge J.C. 1/2023. “Divine Morality or Divine Love? On Sterba’s New Logical Problem of Evil.” Religions, 14, 2, Pp. 157. Publisher's Version
Ahrenfeldt L.J., Möller S., Hvidt N.C., VanderWeele T.J., and Anker Stripp T. 1/2023. “Effect of religious service attendance on mortality and hospitalisations among Danish men and women: longitudinal findings from REGLINK-SHAREDK.” European Journal of Epidemiology . Publisher's Version
Lomas T. and Case B. 1/2023. “A history of psychogeography and psychocosmology: Humankind's evolving orientation on Earth and in space.” Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, 4, Pp. 100090. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Although psychology has tended to focus on the individual, paradigms have emerged looking at people in context, such as social psychology. More recently, these have included fields attending to humans’ ecological context, such as ecopsychology. However, little has been conducted on spatial orientation, on how humankind has understood itself in relation to the Earth (“psychogeography”) or the universe (“psychocosmology”). To address this lacuna, this paper presents a historical narrative of psychogeography and psychocosmology, identifying four main perspectives that emerged over time. First, stretching into pre-history, belief in a flat Earth and a layered cosmos. Second, beginning around the 6th Century BCE, a spherical Earth and a geocentric cosmos. Third, from the 15th Century onwards, an expanded Earth and a heliocentric cosmos. Finally, in the 20th Century, an unstable Earth and an acentric cosmos. The paper illuminates the evolving way humans have understood their world and place in the wider universe, and highlights the psychological impact of these developments.
Weziak-Bialowolska D., Lee M.T., Bialowolski P., Chen Y., VanderWeele T.J., and McNeely E. 1/2023. “Prospective associations between strengths of moral character and health: longitudinal evidence from survey and insurance claims data.” Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology , 58, Pp. 163–176. Publisher's Version
Mathur M.B., Covington C., and VanderWeele T.J. 1/2023. “Variation across analysts in statistical significance, yet consistently small effect sizes.” PNAS, 120, 3, Pp. e2218957120. Publisher's Version
2022
Kaftanski W. and Hanson J. 12/6/2022. “Authenticity, and Meaning in Life: Toward an Integrated Conceptualization of Well-Being.” Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Pp. 1079032. . Publisher's VersionAbstract
Most conceptions of well-being either ignore suffering or assume an ideal version of human life in which suffering would be eliminated. This trend is especially emblematic of positive psychology. Recent research on well-being indicates a mediating function of meaning in life between suffering and well-being demonstrating that making sense of past experiences is significantly correlated with high presence of meaning in life. Hence, meaning-making serves the role of an active coping mechanism that alleviates suffering. This and related strategies of defining, measuring, and augmenting well-being however overlook a form of suffering that is ineliminable and in fact essential to personal growth. In this paper the insights of the existentialist philosopher Søren Kierkegaard are developed to formulate an integrated conceptualization of well-being that regards “negative” affects as crucial for a rich and complete life. The complexity of the relationship between meaning in life, suffering, and authenticity concerning well-being are discussed. A synthetic perspective on the subjective dimension of the experience of suffering and on the objective nature of human limitations that often cause suffering is discussed in relation to the notions of meaning in life and authenticity. Finally, an integrated conceptualization of well-being is posited. It entails suffering as constitutive of meaning in life and authenticity, which are key components of a well-lived life.
VanderWeele T.J. 12/2022. “Abortion and Mental Health—Context and Common Ground.” JAMA Psychiatry, 80, 2, Pp. 105–106. Publisher's Version
Weziak-Bialowolska D., Lee M.T., Bialowolski P., McNeely E., Chen Y., Cowden R.G., and VanderWeele T.J. 12/2022. “Associations between the Importance of Well-Being Domains and the Subsequent Experience of Well-Being.” Sustainability, 15, 1, Pp. 594. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Prior cross-sectional research suggests that the importance assigned to well-being domains may be associated with actual self-reported well-being in these same domains. However, cross-sectional data cannot discern directionality, leaving an open question as to whether valuing well-being leads to higher actual well-being or the other way around—higher levels of well-being lead to valuing well-being more. In the present study, we used longitudinal data from 1209 employees to examine the associations between the perceived importance of six well-being domains (emotional health, physical health, meaning and purpose, social connectedness, character strengths, and financial stability) and subsequent well-being in these domains reported approximately 1 year later. Lagged linear regression models demonstrated that valuing character strengths and valuing social relationships were most strongly associated with subsequent well-being. None of the valuations were associated with higher subsequent emotional well-being and only one (importance of physical health) predicted physical health. We also found that higher valuations of character strengths and physical health were associated with lower ratings of subsequent financial stability. A stronger sense of the importance of each well-being domain was predictive of subsequent character strengths. Our findings suggest that living well appears to be achieved by valuing immaterial goods, especially social connectedness and character strengths, as opposed to domains such as financial stability or physical health.
Cowden R.G., Nakamura J.S., Zhuo Job Ch., Case B., Kim E.S., and VanderWeele T.J. 11/29/2022. “Identifying pathways to religious service attendance among older adults: A lagged exposure-wide analysis.” Plos ONE, 17, 11, Pp. e0278178. Publisher's VersionAbstract
We used prospective data (spanning 8 years) from a national sample of older U.S. adults aged > 50 years (the Health and Retirement Study, N = 13,771) to evaluate potential factors that lead to subsequent religious service attendance. We applied a lagged exposure-wide epidemiologic design and evaluated 60 candidate predictors of regular subsequent religious service attendance. Candidate predictors were drawn from the following domains: health behaviors, physical health, psychological well-being, psychological distress, social factors, and work. After rigorous adjustment for a rich set of potential confounders, we observed modest evidence that changes in some indices of physical health, psychological well-being, psychological distress, and social functioning predicted regular religious service attendance four years later. Our findings suggest that there may be opportunities to support more regular religious service attendance among older adults who positively self-identify with a religious/spiritual tradition (e.g., aid services for those with functional limitations, psychological interventions to increase hope), which could have downstream benefits for various dimensions of well-being in the later years of life.
Lomas T. and VanderWeele T.J. 11/5/2022. “The Garden and the Orchestra: Generative Metaphors for Conceptualizing the Complexities of Well-Being.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19, 21, Pp. 14544. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Our understanding of well-being, and related concepts such as health and flourishing, is shaped by the metaphors through which we think about such ideas. Current dominant metaphors—including a pyramid, ladder, and continuum—all have various issues. As such, this paper offers two other metaphors which can better do justice to the nuanced complexities of these notions, namely, a garden and an orchestra. Through these metaphors, this paper articulates a comprehensive framework for conceptualizing and appreciating the nature of well-being (and associated concepts), which it is hoped will generate further insights and research into these valued and sought-after phenomena.
Liu C., Murchland A.R., VanderWeele T.J., and Blacker D. 11/2022. “Eliminating racial disparities in dementia risk by equalizing education quality: A sensitivity analysis.” Social Science & Medicine, 312, Pp. 115347. Publisher's Version
Lee M.T. and Mayor I. 11/2022. “ Health and Flourishing: An Interdisciplinary Synthesis.” In Human Flourishing , Pp. 49–68. Cham: Springer. Publisher's Version
Wong P.T.P., Cowden R.G., Mayer CH., and Bowers V.L. 11/2022. “Shifting the Paradigm of Positive Psychology: Toward an Existential Positive Psychology of Wellbeing.” In Broadening the Scope of Wellbeing Science, Pp. 13-27. Cham: Springer. Publisher's Version
Cowden R.G., Seidman A.J., Duffee C., Węziak-Białowolska D., McNeely E., and VanderWeele T.J. 11/2022. “Associations of suffering with facets of health and well-being among working adults: longitudinal evidence from two samples.” Scientific Reports, 12, 1, Pp. 10.1038/s41598-022-24497-8. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Suffering is an experiential state that every person encounters at one time or another, yet little is known about suffering and its consequences for the health and well-being of nonclinical adult populations. In a pair of longitudinal studies, we used two waves of data from garment factory workers (Study 1 [T1: 2017, T2: 2019]: n = 344) and flight attendants (Study 2 [T1: 2017/2018, T2: 2020]: n = 1402) to examine the prospective associations of suffering with 16 outcomes across different domains of health and well-being: physical health, health behavior, mental health, psychological well-being, character strengths, and social well-being. The primary analysis involved a series of regression analyses in which each T2 outcome was regressed on overall suffering assessed at T1, adjusting for relevant sociodemographic characteristics and the baseline value (or close proxy) of the outcome assessed at T1. In Study 1, associations of overall suffering with worse subsequent health and well-being were limited to a single outcome on each of the domains of physical health and mental health. Overall suffering was more consistently related to worse subsequent health and well-being in Study 2, with associations emerging for all but two outcomes. The pattern of findings for each study was largely similar when aspects of suffering were modeled individually, although associations for some aspects of suffering differed from those that emerged for overall suffering. Our findings suggest that suffering may have important implications for the health and well-being of worker populations.
Nakamura J.S., Oh J., VanderWeele T.J., and Kim E.S. 11/2022. “Pathways to reduced overnight hospitalizations in older adults: Evaluating 62 physical, behavioral, and psychosocial factors.” PLoS One, 17, 11, Pp. e0277222. Publisher's VersionAbstract
As our society ages and healthcare costs escalate, researchers and policymakers urgently seek potentially modifiable predictors of reduced healthcare utilization. We aimed to determine whether changes in 62 candidate predictors were associated with reduced frequency, and duration, of overnight hospitalizations. We used data from 11,374 participants in the Health and Retirement Study—a national sample of adults aged >50 in the United States. Using generalized linear regression models with a lagged exposure-wide approach, we evaluated if changes in 62 predictors over four years (between t0;2006/2008 and t1;2010/2012) were associated with subsequent hospitalizations during the two years prior to t2 (2012–2014 (Cohort A) or 2014–2016 (Cohort B)). After robust covariate-adjustment, we observed that changes in some health behaviors (e.g., those engaging in frequent physical activity had 0.80 the rate of overnight hospital stays (95% CI [0.74, 0.87])), physical health conditions (e.g., those with cancer had 1.57 the rate of overnight hospital stays (95% CI [1.35, 1.82])), and psychosocial factors (e.g., those who helped friends/neighbors/relatives 100–199 hours/year had 0.73 the rate of overnight hospital stays (95% CI [0.63, 0.85])) were associated with subsequent hospitalizations. Findings for both the frequency, and duration, of hospitalizations were mostly similar. Changes in a number of diverse factors were associated with decreased frequency, and duration, of overnight hospitalizations. Notably, some psychosocial factors (e.g., informal helping) had effect sizes equivalent to or larger than some physical health conditions (e.g., diabetes) and health behaviors (e.g., smoking). These psychosocial factors are mostly modifiable and with further research could be novel intervention targets for reducing hospitalizations.
Cowden R.G., Counted V., and Ho M. Y. 11/2022. “Positive Psychology and Religion/Spirituality Across Cultures in Africa, Asia, and Oceania.” In Handbook of Positive Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality , Pp. 243–259. Cham: Springer. Publisher's Version

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