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This paper examines key assumptions about the benefits of self-oriented care and other-oriented care that have been guiding considerable amounts of research and applications in psychology. More specifically, the paper questions the importance of what can be referred to as the ‘Oxygen Mask Assumption,’ the belief that it is often best to take care of oneself to better take care of others. Based on mounting evidence of the benefits of prosocial behaviour, both for the giver and the receiver, this paper proposes an explicitly other-oriented model of wellbeing. The paper first outlines the Oxygen Mask Assumption and research demonstrating the importance of self-oriented care and the implicit model guiding much of this research. This is followed by examining recent research on the benefits of prosocial behaviour, and the introduction of an other-oriented model of wellbeing. Predictions based on both models are evaluated in light of current research. Theoretical and practical implications of adopting an other-oriented model are discussed., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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The Attentional Control Theory (ACT) posits that, while trait anxiety may not directly impact performance, it can influence processing efficiency by prompting the use of compensatory mechanisms. The specific nature of these mechanisms, which might be reflective, is not detailed by the ACT. In a study involving 110 students (M = 20.12; SD = 2.10), surveys were administered to assess the students’ metacognitive beliefs, trait anxiety, and emotion regulation strategies (ERSs). The participants engaged in two working memory exercises: the digit span task from the WAIS-IV and an emotional n-back task. The findings indicated that anxiety, metacognitive beliefs, and maladaptive ERSs did not affect task performance but were correlated with increased response times. Several regression analyses demonstrated that a lack of confidence in one’s cognitive abilities and maladaptive ERSs predict higher reaction times (RT) in the n-back task. Additionally, maladaptive ERSs also predict an increased use of strategies in the digit span task. Finally, two mediation analyses revealed that anxiety increases processing efficiency, and this relation is mediated by the use of maladaptive ERSs. These results underscore the importance of the reflective level in mediating the effects of trait anxiety on efficiency. They highlight the necessity of incorporating metacognitive beliefs and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies for a thorough comprehension of the Attentional Control Theory. Recognizing these factors offers valuable perspectives for enhancing cognitive capabilities and fostering academic achievement., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Trait anxiety, emotion regulation strategies, and metacognitive beliefs influence executive functions (EFs) and academic achievement. This study examines their interplay and impact on academic success. In total, 275 adolescents (10–17 years) and parents completed an online questionnaire assessing trait anxiety, emotion regulation strategies, metacognition, parent-reported behaviors related to executive functioning, and overall school average. Preliminary analyses confirmed consistency with the existing literature for each variable and their interaction. Furthermore, we conducted a network analysis among the main variables. This analysis supports the need to pay more attention to reflective variables—maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and metacognitive beliefs about worry—when studying trait anxiety. These variables were linked to problematic executive functioning in adolescents, and the latter was negatively linked to academic achievement. This study offers innovative insights by investigating relationships less explored in the scientific literature. It reveals high and significant correlations between metacognitive beliefs, maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, and trait anxiety (r > 0.500, p < 0.001) but also between these variables and both executive functioning and academic achievement. These findings offer new perspectives for research and underscore the importance of holistically examining the psychological factors related to academic success., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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Doctoral students face many challenges that were reinforced by COVID-19-related lockdowns. We assessed this impact over 1 year on doctoral students' depression, anxiety, stress, well-being, and doctoral engagement. We also investigated the potential protective role of self-compassion and savouring on mental health, well-being, and doctoral engagement. A total of 134 PhD students from several French universities responded to the three-time points of this longitudinal study. The results showed a significant increase in depression, anxiety and stress and a significant decrease in well-being and doctoral engagement during the first year of the pandemic. Self-compassion and savouring predicted lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress, and higher levels of well-being over time. Savouring alone predicted higher doctoral engagement over time. This study reveals the significant impact of the pandemic year on the mental health of doctoral students, and the relevance of self-compassion and savouring as psychological resources to cope with adversity., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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Both creativity and responsibility are important higher-order skills to develop to meet the challenges of the Anthropocene, and both are related to attentional states of consciousness and to ethics. Meditation is a set of practices that trains attentional and emotional regulation. A few studies have shown that different kinds of meditation can foster different kinds of creative thinking, and others have begun to investigate the effect of the combination of meditation and ethics on ethical characteristics (but not yet on creativity or precisely on responsibility, so far). Here, we present a nonrandomized trial with an active control group among second-year science university students (n = 84) to test the effect of the secular Meditation-Based Ethics of Responsibility (MBER) program on creative potential, self-reported awareness, and sense of one’s own responsibility. The results show a large effect of the program on sense of one’s own responsibility and convergent and divergent creative writing tasks, both in conceptual–semantic and engineering-like verbal ideation. They also suggest that convergent conceptual–semantic thinking might moderate the effect of the MBER program on the awareness and sense of one’s own responsibility. This work opens up new research and educational perspectives linked to necessary behavioral changes in the Anthropocene., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Context: Parental burnout increases the risk of deleterious consequences on parents’, couples’, and children's physical and mental health. Methods: The current study (N = 134) aimed to assess the effectiveness of a Cognitive Behavioural Stress Management (CBSM) group programme in terms of parental burnout reduction. In total 67 parents attended the 8-week CBSM intervention groups, and another 67 parents were assigned to the waiting-list control group. We compared the effectiveness of the CBSM intervention with a waiting-list control group directly after the end of the programme and at three-months follow-up. Results: The results showed that compared to the control group the CBSM programme contributed to the reduction of parental burnout symptoms with statistically significant and small effect size. Moreover, the contrast analyses showed that the reduction in parental burnout severity was maintained at 3 month-follow-up. The reduction in parental burnout scores was mediated by the decrease in stress and the increase in unconditional self-kindness. Conclusions: These results highlight the potential benefits of the CBSM programme for parental burnout prevention and reduction., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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This thesis focuses on the acquisition of emotional competence (EC) skills in adults and its impact on well being. The first part of the thesis is dedicated to the definition of EC, including a review of EC in order to better understand and operationalize its main dimensions and correlates. We also present a systematic review of EC intervention studies on adult populations in order to assess their outcomes and make recommendations for the development and implementation of future interventions. We then provide a theoretical and practical framework for emotional competence (EC) based interventions. We describe the main components of an EC intervention, underline the important characteristics of the intervention pedagogy and discuss theoretical and practical implications of this framework.In a second part we investigate whether a sustainable improvement in emotional competencies is possible in adults, and what are the conditions and effects of this improvement on well-being (e.g. on mental and physical health and quality of interpersonal relationships). Results of three empirical studies confirm that EC can be significantly increased following an intervention (and compared to a control group) and that this intervention impacts favourably personal and interpersonal well-being as measured by psychological health, quality of relationship and employability.A last part of the thesis explores the mechanisms underlying this improvement of competencies and well-being. We focus on emotional acceptance, self-compassion, self kindness and behavioural flexibility. Because there was no scale measuring self-compassion or self kindness in French, we validate two scales and assess the relationships between these constructs and well-being.We then examined the possible benefits of emotional acceptance and behavioural flexibility in a randomized controlled study, showing how increasing emotional competence can enhance these change processes and how these processes can, in turn, enhance w, Doctorat en Sciences psychologiques et de l'éducation, info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished