Abstract

Positive affectivity plays an important role in the endowment of resilience, which in turn is an important factor for individuals’ adaptation to adversities in the changing environment. Based on hope theory and the Science of WellBeing we investigate a ternary model (character, motivation, and regulatory mode) for individual empowerment that promotes positive affectivity. A total of 1,876 participants, four separate samples, responded to the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (Study I-IV), the Temperament and Character Inventory (Study I), the modified Situational Motivation Scale (Study II), the Regulatory Mode Questionnaire (Study III), and the modified Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (Study IV). We investigated, separately, each empowerment component’s relationship to positive affect (Study I-III) and the positive affect-resilience relationship (Study IV). Four regression analyses showed that character (β = .28; Study I), intrinsic motivation (β = .35; Study II) and locomotion (β = .53; Study III) predicted positive affect, which in turn, predicted resilience (β = .53; Study IV). The ternary structure of empowerment (character, intrinsic motivation, and locomotion) does indeed predict positive affect thereby endowering individuals with a strength that emerges as resilience. However, the Ternary Empowerment Model suggested here needs to be further developed and studied in order to ensure that it actually is ternary in nature.

Keywords: Cooperativeness, Empowerment, Intrinsic Motivation, Locomotion, Positive Affect, Regulatory Mode, Resilience, Self-Directedness