Fuhrer, J., Van Acker, M., Saarelainen, S.M. Existential Urban Obstacles (EUC) to Well-Being
Phase: Data collection.

This research is supported by EU Horizon Europe under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND grant No 101081327 YUFE4Postdocs.

Content:

This project will undergo three distinct phases:

• Data collection in the USA (500 representative participants).
• Data collection in Joensuu, thanks to a collaboration with the Joensuu city council, which will facilitate the distribution of the questionnaire (expected participants: at least 500).
• Data collection in Antwerp.

Is the presence of communal places, defined as places where people can socialize and foster social engagement, in one's neighborhood a predictor of subjective well-being and meaning in life? And is this association mediated by basic psychological need satisfaction? To explore this question and limit potential confounding variables, we will test a more complex model.

Specifically, we will examine whether the subjective perception of (i) the presence of communal places, (ii) perceived neighborhood disorder, and (iii) neighborhood trustworthiness predicts subjective well-being, operationalized as life satisfaction and the frequency of positive and negative emotions, as well as the subjective experience of the dimensions constituting the psychological experience of meaning in life, operationalized as purpose, coherence, significance, and impact.

To better understand the underlying mechanisms, we will also examine whether these associations are mediated by basic psychological need satisfaction, operationalized as the fulfillment of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. In addition, we will test whether individuals experiencing greater economic distress report fewer communal places in their neighborhood, and whether this may help explain why they tend to experience lower subjective well-being and less meaning in life compared to economically advantaged individuals.

Finally, we aim to determine whether the presence of communal places is a good predictor of neighborhood trustworthiness and neighborhood disorder.

To this aim, we will use a cross-sectional survey of adult participants. In this survey, we implemented three self-report measures of neighborhood perceptions: presence of communal places, neighborhood disorder, and trustworthiness. We also included one self-report measure of economic perception, namely perceived economic adversity. Finally, we included several measures of well-being, including basic psychological need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, and relatedness), meaning in life (purpose, coherence, significance, and a sense of having a positive impact), and subjective well-being (life satisfaction and the frequency of positive and negative emotions).

Fuhrer, J. Fifty Shades of Wellbeing: Addressing an Overlooked Source of Confusion.
Phase: Article under review
Content: Despite constant progress, the science of well-being remains marked by confusion, with a proliferation of competing conceptual frameworks, theoretical approaches, and measurement tools undermining both scientific progress and real-world applications in areas such as counseling, therapy, and public policy. This paper identifies an overlooked contributor to this confusion: the adoption of Philosophically Dense Concepts (PDC) into empirical science, facilitated by academic practices that favor theoretical novelty and discourage interdisciplinary collaboration. Using a conceptual genealogy of the hedonic-eudaimonic well-being distinction as a paradigmatic example, I show how such PDC, when translated from philosophy into psychology and social and health sciences, became semantically fuzzy and led to inconsistent theoretical frameworks and measurement tools. The paper concludes with recommendations on how to better deal with PDC in well-being research and the emerging science of flourishing.

Fuhrer, J., Jeancolas, C., Vantard, M., Nourrit, D., Thon, R., & Knoop, M. Psychology of Interdisciplinarity
Phase: (Data currently processed)
Content: This project, conducted in collaboration with the MITI (Mission for Cross-cutting and Interdisciplinary Initiatives) team at the CNRS, aims to draw a "psychological portrait" of interdisciplinary researchers: better understanding their experiences, quality of life, personality traits, and psychological dispositions. The approach is primarily quantitative and inferential, with an additional open-ended qualitative question. Data collection is ongoing, and we are targeting the entire CNRS researcher mailing list to ensure a robust and representative dataset.

And more to come...

Including a project on the psychology of safety, and another on AI and the good life.