Todd B Kashdan
Biographic Data
| ID | 112077 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Todd B Kashdan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Todd B |
| FAMILY NAME | Kashdan |
| SIGNATURE | KASHDAN T B |
| AFFILIATIONS | George Mason University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6438-0485 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 63 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 120 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 63 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Spanish adaptation of the multidimensional workplace curiosity scale
The Spanish adaptation of the Multidimensional Workplace Curiosity Scale maintains good psychometric properties for exploring this personality dimension in Spanish adults. The paper discusses the theoretical and practical implications of having this scale in the Spanish labor context
Curious and Persistent, but not Consistent: Self‐regulation Traits and Creativity
The present study examines two self‐regulation traits, grit and curiosity, in predicting creative achievement in an adult sample ( N = 522). Grit has been related to achievement in various domains, and although prior empirical work failed to find associations with everyday creative activities in adolescent and young adult samples, theoretically it is relevant to long‐term creative achievement (which requires persistence). Curiosity supports creat…
How Curiosity Enhances Performance: Mechanisms of Physiological Engagement, Challenge and Threat Appraisal, and Novelty Deprivation
Research has shown that curiosity plays a crucial role in human performance and well-being. Based on multi-dimensional models of curiosity, we examined potential underlying mechanisms for this relationship. Extending prior research, we expected state and trait variants of curiosity to predict more challenge and less threat appraisals for novel tasks (i.e., joyous exploration dimension), stronger dissatisfaction when denied opportunities to do som…
A unified approach to managing emotions and pursuing purpose in life
Much of the scientific work on emotion regulation has examined strategies in isolation. Now that we have a better understanding of emotion regulatory strategy use and frequency, there is an opportunity to explore new psychological territory. As a starting point, we illustrate how a highly touted strategy, cognitive reappraisal, supercharges a critical component of well-being: purpose in life. We also examine how purpose in life offers a framework…
Behaving versus thinking positively: When the benefits of cognitive reappraisal are contingent on satisfying basic psychological needs
Purpose in life: A resolution on the definition, conceptual model, and optimal measurement
Theoretically, purpose serves as a basic dimension of healthy psychological functioning and an important protective factor from psychopathology. Theory alone, however, is insufficient to answer critical questions about human behavior and functioning; we require empirical evidence that explores the parameters of purpose with respect to measurement, prediction, and modification. Here, we provide empirically supported insights about how purpose can …
Positive Emotions Boost Enthusiastic Responsiveness to Capitalization Attempts. Dissecting Self-Report, Physiology, and Behavior
When individuals communicate enthusiasm for good events in their partners' lives, they contribute to a high-quality relationship; a phenomenon termed interpersonal capitalization. However, little is known when individuals are more ready to react enthusiastically to the partner's success. To address this gap, we examined whether positive and negative emotions boost or inhibit enthusiastic responses to partner's capitalization attempts (RCA). Parti…
Does negative emotion differentiation influence how people choose to regulate their distress after stressful events? A four-year daily diary study
Much is known about the types of strategies people use to regulate emotions. Less is known about individual differences that influence emotion regulation strategy selection. In this study, we tested the moderating role of negative emotion differentiation (NED; i.e., the ability to label and describe subtle differences among negative emotions) on the relationship between the intensity of stressful daily events and the strategies used to regulate d…
Psychological flexibility: What we know, what we do not know, and what we think we know
Psychological flexibility is the tendency to respond to situations in ways that facilitate valued goal pursuit. Psychological flexibility is particularly useful when challenges arise during goal pursuit that produce distress. In acceptance and commitment therapy, psychological flexibility is considered the pinnacle of emotional health and well‐being. A growing body of research demonstrates that psychological flexibility leads to psychological ben…
Understanding psychological flexibility: A multimethod exploration of pursuing valued goals despite the presence of distress.
Psychological flexibility (PF), defined as the ability to pursue valued life aims despite the presence of distress, is a fundamental contributor to health (Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010). Existing measures of PF have failed to consider the valued goals that give context for why people are willing to manage distress. Using 4 independent samples and 3 follow-up samples, we examined the role of PF in well-being, emotional experience and regulation, res…
Meaning in life buffers the impact of experiential avoidance on anxiety
The momentary benefits of positive events for individuals with elevated social anxiety
Understanding how individuals with varying levels of social anxiety respond to daily positive events is important. Psychological processes that increase positive emotions are being widely used as strategies to not only enhance well-being but also reduce the symptoms and impairment tied to negative emotional dispositions and conditions, including excessive social anxiety. At present, it is unclear whether and how levels of social anxiety impact th…
Valuing emotional control in social anxiety disorder: A multimethod study of emotion beliefs and emotion regulation
This study examines relationships between emotion beliefs and emotion regulation strategy use among people with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and a psychologically healthy control group. Using experience-sampling methodology, we tested group differences in 2 types of emotion beliefs (emotion control values and emotion malleability beliefs) and whether emotion beliefs predicted trait and daily use of cognitive reappraisal and emotion suppression. …
Is grit relevant to well‐being and strengths? Evidence across the globe for separating perseverance of effort and consistency of interests
OBJECTIVE: Researchers conceptualize grit as the combination of two facets: perseverance of effort and consistency of interests toward long-term goals. We tested the reliability of grit facet scores across the globe and examined how differently each grit facet related to well-being and personality strengths. METHOD: An international sample of 7,617 participants from six of the seven continents (excluding Antarctica) completed an online survey. RE…
Measuring well-being: A comparison of subjective well-being and Perma
We compared Seligman’s PERMA model of well-being with Diener’s model of subjective well-being (SWB) to determine if the newer PERMA captured a type of well-being unique from the older SWB. Participants were 517 adults who completed self-report measures of SWB, PERMA, and VIA character strengths. Results from four analytic techniques suggest the factor underlying PERMA is capturing the same type of well-being as SWB. Confirmatory factor analysis y…
The five-dimensional curiosity scale: Capturing the bandwidth of curiosity and identifying four unique subgroups of curious people
Emotion regulation strategies in daily life: Mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal and emotion suppression
Most empirical studies of emotion regulation have relied on retrospective trait measures, and have not examined the link between daily regulatory strategies and every day emotional well-being. We used a daily diary methodology with multilevel modelling data analyses (n = 187) to examine the influence of three emotion regulation strategies (mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal and emotion suppression) on the experience of daily negative and positive…
When Empathy Matters: The Role of Sex and Empathy in Close Friendships
Based on prior theory and research (Ciarrochi & Heaven, 2009; Eagly & Wood, 1999), we hypothesized that the link between empathy and friendship would be moderated by sex: Girls will nominate empathic boys as friends, whereas boys will not tend to nominate empathic girls. We collected measures of empathy, friendship social support, and close friendship nominations in grade 10 across 1,970 students in 16 schools ( M age = 15.70, SD = .44; males = 9…
Personality Strengths as Resilience: A One‐Year Multiwave Study
We examined how personality strengths prospectively predict reactions to negative life events. Participants were 797 community adults from 42 countries. At five points over the course of 1 year, participants completed a series of questionnaires measuring seven personality strengths (hope, grit, meaning in life, curiosity, gratitude, control beliefs, and use of strengths), subjective well‐being, and frequency and severity of negative life events. …
Sexuality leads to boosts in mood and meaning in life with no evidence for the reverse direction: A daily diary investigation
Sex is rarely discussed in theories of well-being and rarely empirically examined using methods other than cross-sectional surveys. In the present study, a daily diary approach was used (for 21 days with 152 adults) to explore the relationship between the presence and quality of sexual episodes and well-being (positive affect, negative affect, meaning in life). Time-lagged analyses demonstrated that sexual activity on 1 day was related to greater…
Examining the within-person effect of affect on daily satisfaction
Examining the effect of affect on life satisfaction judgments: A within-person perspective
Different types of well-being? A cross-cultural examination of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being.
A large international sample was used to test whether hedonia (the experience of positive emotional states and satisfaction of desires) and eudaimonia (the presence of meaning and development of one's potentials) represent 1 overarching well-being construct or 2 related dimensions. A latent correlation of .96 presents negligible evidence for the discriminant validity between Diener's (1984) subjective well-being model of hedonia and Ryff's (1989)…
What Triggers Anger in Everyday Life? Links to the Intensity, Control, and Regulation of These Emotions, and Personality Traits
Why do people experience anger? Most of our knowledge on anger‐triggering events is based on the study of reactions at a single time point in a person's life. Little research has examined how people experience anger in their daily life over time. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive examination of the situational determinants of anger over the course of 3 weeks. Using daily diary methodology, people ( N = 173; 2,342 anger episodes) reporte…
Buffering the Negative Impact of Poverty on Youth: The Power of Purpose in Life
Being good by doing good: Daily eudaimonic activity and well-being
The curiosity and exploration inventory-II: Development, factor structure, and psychometrics
Gratitude and grit indirectly reduce risk of suicidal ideations by enhancing meaning in life: Evidence for a mediated moderation model
Buffering the Negative Impact of Poverty on Youth: The Power of Purpose in Life
The five-dimensional curiosity scale: Capturing the bandwidth of curiosity and identifying four unique subgroups of curious people
Being present in the face of existential threat: The role of trait mindfulness in reducing defensive responses to mortality salience
Terror management theory posits that people tend to respond defensively to reminders of death, including worldview defense, self-esteem striving, and suppression of death thoughts. Seven experiments examined whether trait mindfulness-a disposition characterized by receptive attention to present experience-reduced defensive responses to mortality salience (MS). Under MS, less mindful individuals showed higher worldview defense (Studies 1-3) and se…
Sexual Healing: Daily Diary Investigation of the Benefits of Intimate and Pleasurable Sexual Activity in Socially Anxious Adults
Character strengths and well-being in Croatia: An empirical investigation of structure and correlates
Curious and Persistent, but not Consistent: Self‐regulation Traits and Creativity
The present study examines two self‐regulation traits, grit and curiosity, in predicting creative achievement in an adult sample ( N = 522). Grit has been related to achievement in various domains, and although prior empirical work failed to find associations with everyday creative activities in adolescent and young adult samples, theoretically it is relevant to long‐term creative achievement (which requires persistence). Curiosity supports creat…
Genetic and environmental influences on the positive traits of the values in action classification, and biometric covariance with normal personality
Examining the within-person effect of affect on daily satisfaction
Examining the effect of affect on life satisfaction judgments: A within-person perspective
Affective outcomes in superficial and intimate interactions: Roles of social anxiety and curiosity
"Facilitating creativity by regulating curiosity": Comment
373 few published studies of either the positiveincentive value of food or of conditioned taste aversions in anorexics. Vitousek and Gray’s comments about the positive-incentive value of food in anorexics, although intended as an attack on our position, cry out for more research. Anorexics act in some ways as if they are experiencing aversions for food and in others as if food has a very high positiveincentive value—just the sort of ambivalent be…
Curiosity and Exploration: Facilitating Positive Subjective Experiences and Personal Growth Opportunities
In an effort to expand research on curiosity, we elaborate on a theoretical model that informs research on the design of a new measure and the nomological network of curiosity. Curiosity was conceptualized as a positive emotional-motivational system associated with the recognition, pursuit, and self-regulation of novelty and challenge. Using 5 independent samples, we developed the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory (CEI) comprising 2 dimensions:…
Experiential avoidance as a generalized psychological vulnerability: Comparisons with coping and emotion regulation strategies
Expanding the Topography of Social Anxiety: An Experience-Sampling Assessment of Positive Emotions, Positive Events, and Emotion Suppression
The relation between social anxiety and hedonic activity remains poorly understood. From a self-regulatory perspective, we hypothesized that socially anxious individuals experience diminished positive experiences and events on days when they are unable to manage socially anxious feelings adequately. In this 21-day experience-sampling study, we constructed daily measures of social anxiety and emotion regulation. Greater dispositional social anxiet…
When similars do not attract: Tests of a prediction from the self‐expansion model
This study tested the hypothesis from the self‐expansion model that the usual effect of greater attraction to a similar (vs. dissimilar) stranger will be reduced or reversed when a person is given information that a relationship would be likely to develop (i.e., that they would be very likely to get along) with the other person. The study employed the “bogus stranger” paradigm and focused on similarity/dissimilarity of interests in the context of…
Affective outcomes in superficial and intimate interactions: Roles of social anxiety and curiosity
Curiosity and pathways to well-being and meaning in life: Traits, states, and everyday behaviors
Stability and specificity of meaning in life and life satisfaction over one year
Materialism and Diminished Well–Being: Experiential Avoidance as a Mediating Mechanism
Being preoccupied with the pursuit of money, wealth, and material possessions arguably fails as a strategy to increase pleasure and meaning in life. However, little is known about the mechanisms that explain the inverse relation between materialism and well–being. The current study tested the hypothesis that experiential avoidance mediates associations between materialistic values and diminished emotional well–being, meaning in life, self–determi…
Genetic and environmental influences on the positive traits of the values in action classification, and biometric covariance with normal personality
Reconsidering happiness: The costs of distinguishing between hedonics and eudaimonia
In recent years, well-being researchers have distinguished between eudaimonic happiness (e.g., meaning and purpose; taking part in activities that allow for the actualization of one's skills, talents, and potential) and hedonic happiness (e.g., high frequencies of positive affect, low frequencies of negative affect, and evaluating life as satisfying). Unfortunately, this distinction (rooted in philosophy) does not necessarily translate well to sc…
Understanding the Search for Meaning in Life: Personality, Cognitive Style, and the Dynamic Between Seeking and Experiencing Meaning
Although several theories assert that understanding the search for meaning in life is important, empirical research on this construct is sparse. Three studies provide the first extensive effort to understand the correlates of the search for meaning in a multistudy research program. Assessed were relations between search for meaning and well‐being, cognitive style, and the Big Five, Big Three, Approach/Avoidance, and Interest models of personality…
Being good by doing good: Daily eudaimonic activity and well-being
Meaning in life across the life span: Levels and correlates of meaning in life from emerging adulthood to older adulthood
Meaning in life is thought to be important to well-being throughout the human life span. We assessed the structure, levels, and correlates of the presence of meaning in life, and the search for meaning, within four life stage groups: emerging adulthood, young adulthood, middle-age adulthood, and older adulthood. Results from a sample of Internet users (N = 8756) demonstrated the structural invariance of the meaning measure used across life stages…
Purpose in Life as a System that Creates and Sustains Health and Well-Being: An Integrative, Testable Theory
Purpose—a cognitive process that defines life goals and provides personal meaning—may help explain disparate empirical social science findings. Devoting effort and making progress toward life goals provides a significant, renewable source of engagement and meaning. Purpose offers a testable, causal system that synthesizes outcomes including life expectancy, satisfaction, and mental and physical health. These outcomes may be explained best by cons…
Depression and everyday social activity, belonging, and well-being.
Dysfunctional social behavior has been implicated in the experience of depression. People with greater depressive symptoms report more frequent negative social interactions and react more strongly to them. It remains unknown, however, whether reaction strength differs depending on whether social interactions are positive or negative. Drawing on socio-evolutionary models of depression (N. B. Allen & P. B. T. Badcock, 2003), we proposed that people…
Gratitude and subjective well‐being in early adolescence: Examining gender differences
Gratitude was examined among 154 students to identify benefits from its experience and expression. Students completed measures of subjective well‐being, social support, prosocial behavior, and physical symptoms. Positive associations were found between gratitude and positive affect, global and domain specific life satisfaction, optimism, social support, and prosocial behavior; most relations remained even after controlling for positive affect. Gr…
Gender Differences in Gratitude: Examining Appraisals, Narratives, the Willingness to Express Emotions, and Changes in Psychological Needs
Previous work suggests women might possess an advantage over men in experiencing and benefiting from gratitude. We examined whether women perceive and react to gratitude differently than men. In Study 1 , women, compared with men, evaluated gratitude expression to be less complex, uncertain, conflicting, and more interesting and exciting. In Study 2 , college students and older adults described and evaluated a recent episode when they received a …
The curiosity and exploration inventory-II: Development, factor structure, and psychometrics
Psychological flexibility as a fundamental aspect of health
Character strengths and well-being in Croatia: An empirical investigation of structure and correlates
Being present in the face of existential threat: The role of trait mindfulness in reducing defensive responses to mortality salience
Terror management theory posits that people tend to respond defensively to reminders of death, including worldview defense, self-esteem striving, and suppression of death thoughts. Seven experiments examined whether trait mindfulness-a disposition characterized by receptive attention to present experience-reduced defensive responses to mortality salience (MS). Under MS, less mindful individuals showed higher worldview defense (Studies 1-3) and se…
Using personal and psychological strengths leads to increases in well-being over time: A longitudinal study and the development of the strengths use questionnaire
Dynamic, Contextual Approaches to Studying Personality in the Social World
This special issue of Journal of Personality , composed of eight original articles, attends to the intersection of intrapersonal and interpersonal processes. Articles adopt a contextual approach to personality with attention to the need to belong (and the lack thereof), self‐presentation concerns and styles, sexuality, curiosity, self‐regulatory strength and strategies, and dynamic methodologies and analyses to study people within relationships. …
When Curiosity Breeds Intimacy: Taking Advantage of Intimacy Opportunities and Transforming Boring Conversations
Curious people seek knowledge and new experiences. In 3 studies, we examined whether, when, and how curiosity contributes to positive social outcomes between unacquainted strangers. Study 1 (98 college students) showed that curious people expect to generate closeness during intimate conversations but not during small talk; less curious people anticipated poor outcomes in both situations. We hypothesized that curious people underestimate their abi…
Psychology (62 works) · Social Psychology (60 works) · Developmental psychology (45 works) · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction (30 works) · Clinical Psychology (22 works) · Psychotherapist (20 works) · Cognitive psychology (16 works) · Anxiety (15 works) · Optimism, Hope, and Well-being (15 works) · Personality (15 works)