In this study, the authors tested four cultural models—independence, interdependence, conflict, and integration—that describe the hypothesized relationships between dimensions of self-construal and components of subjective well-being among individualistic and collectivistic countries. Collectivistic countries that have undergone rapid socioeconomic changes (i.e., East Asian countries) and those with limited changes (i.e., African countries) were differentiated. Participants were 791 university students from four Western countries, 749 university students from three East Asian countries, and 443 university students from three African countries. Findings provided some support for the applicability of (a) the independence model to individuals from Western countries and (b) the integration model to individuals from East Asian countries. Mixed results were found among the African countries. The interdependence model is more applicable to African participants from the sub-Saharan region, but the integration model is more applicable to those from the North African region.

As personality traits can influence important social outcomes, the current research

Students who habitually procrastinate may be at risk of underachieving academically as well as putting their health and well-being in jeopardy. The current review of research on procrastination leads to the identification of four broad task likeability factors as encapsulating a range of procrastination patterns. These are: (1) perceived low level of task enjoyment; (2) anticipation of aversive outcomes; (3) estimated inability to do the task; and (4) competing attractiveness of alternative tasks. Each of these low task likeability factors can lead to procrastination when accompanied by particular self-regulation shortcomings, identified respectively as intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, anxieties of performance evaluation, low self-efficacy of performance and weak attentional control of distracters.A self-regulation coaching framework is proposed as a comprehensive way to address academic procrastination. After identifying the low task likeability areas that are involved when faced with an assignment, student coachees can be facilitated to raise self-awareness and develop necessary self-regulation strategies to alleviate their procrastination patterns. The practical implications of this coaching approach are potentially vast. Therefore, further research to evaluate its efficacy is recommended as the next step towards this endeavour.

Although the Positive Psychology (PP) approach has only recently established itself as a specialism within coaching, there is already a fresh perspective beginning to take shape within the field. This second wave (Held, 2004, Lomas & Ivtzan, 2016) or PP2.0 (Wong, 2011) calls for us to embrace the dark sides along with the bright sides and to integrate the challenging and difficult aspects of human experience into our understanding of wellbeing and flourishing. The author welcomes this second wave (PP2), making an appeal for PP coaches to embrace the ‘bad’ along with the ‘good’. The current article recognises that PP2’s emphasis on the coexistence, compatibility and contextual nature of emotions can be extrapolated to carefully considered techniques used within coaching conversations. The variety of possible coaching approaches is summarised and discussed by introducing the acronym TEARS HOPE as a mnemonic and model for PP2 coaching with difficult emotions.

No abstract