Longitudinal studies examining identity development in adulthood are scarce, and little is known about the processes through which a stable identity is maintained or revised. This study addresses these gaps by examining (a) longitudinal patterns of identity status development from emerging through established adulthood and (b) processes of continued identity development among individuals who are stable in committed identity statuses. Quantitative analyses of identity status development across ages 25, 29, 33, and 39 (N = 105) revealed group-level changes, with more individuals in identity achievement and fewer in moratorium and identity diffusion at age 39 than at younger ages. However, the largest group of participants (35%, n = 37) were assigned the same committed identity status at all four time points. Longitudinal qualitative analysis of this subset from ages 33 and 39 resulted in a model with three processes of continued identity development: anchoring commitments in views of oneself, story integration, and connecting oneself to older and younger generations. The findings show that there is identity status change toward maturity from emerging through established adulthood, and that processes of continued development take place for individuals considered stable in their identity.

Literature shows that justice beliefs and justice experience (peer victimization) shape adolescent prosociality. However, how adolescents react to the (in)congruence between justice beliefs and justice experiences in peer environments remains unclear. We utilized response surface analysis to examine how belief-experience justice (in)congruence affects adolescents' prosocial behaviors. Study 1 with a cross-sectional design (N = 2963, Mage = 15.86 ± 0.72, 40.0% girls) showed that, generally, adolescents with stronger justice beliefs and more justice experiences were more likely to engage in global prosocial behaviors, which increased with the belief-experience justice fit; when adolescents encountered belief-experience justice conflicts, their beliefs played a more crucial role than experiences in driving prosocial actions. Study 2 with two-wave data (N = 3038, Mage = 16.83 ± 0.79, 53.6% girls) essentially replicated the cross-sectional pattern in Study 1 and further found that adolescents' beliefs no longer dominantly promoted prosociality seven months later under belief-experience conflicts. Moreover, boys and girls behave differently depending on prosocial contexts, especially according to situational visibility. These findings demonstrate that even in unjust peer environments, adolescents' justice beliefs are resilient enough to guide them toward current prosocial actions, which yet would fade over time.

Does virtue benefit its possessor, or is it beneficial for others but not the self? We tested two highly influential theories that offer contradictory answers. In particular, we focused on three "hard cases" for the theory that virtue promotes well-being-that is, three virtues that aren't obviously enjoyable (compassion, patience, and self-control). Two preregistered studies (total N = 43,164 observations; N = 1218 participants) tested for within- and between-person associations between each virtue and well-being. Study 1 used experience sampling with adolescents. Study 2 used the day reconstruction method with United States adults. Study 1 found positive links across the board. Study 2 found positive within- and between-person links with eudaimonic well-being, but more complex associations with affective well-being. Study 2 also revealed that situations that afford opportunities to exercise these virtues are challenging and unpleasant. However, exercising compassion, patience, and self-control seems to help people cope with these challenges. These findings contradict the theory that virtue is good for others but not for the self, aligning with the theory that being good leads to being well. They also provide preliminary evidence about how virtues like compassion, patience, and self-control might benefit their possessors.

Alexithymia refers to difficulties in experiencing and expressing emotions, differentiating them from bodily sensations, restricted imagination, and externally oriented thinking. Mood and affective symptoms are often confounded with alexithymia due to the typical assessment through self-report. Performance measures may allow a more objective assessment of alexithymia. The goal of this study was to identify unique or shared performance-based features during emotional face processing. A total of 171 students provided data on alexithymia (BVAQ) and mood/affective symptoms (DASS-21), along with performance and eye movements during an emotional face processing task. LASSO regressions isolated features associated with alexithymia or mood/affective symptoms. Cognitive alexithymia in the BVAQ was linked to delayed attentional disengagement from facial eye regions, increased face fixations/visual search, and accurate but slower responses. Mood/affective symptoms showed a pervasive link to faster but less accurate responses, accompanied by decreased facial fixations and visual search. Performance-based attentional dynamics during emotional face processing clearly distinguished (cognitive) alexithymia from mood and may aid in a multi-method assessment of alexithymia. Metrics such as these may better reflect behavioral dispositions and can be used as possible transdiagnostic markers of psychopathology.

This study evaluates the effects of an act of kindness intervention on increasing daily social contact and reducing loneliness among community adults experiencing loneliness. It also explores heterogeneity in effects and potential moderators, including individual differences in baseline social health and intervention implementation. In a randomized controlled trial, 208 adults were randomly assigned to perform daily acts of kindness for others (Kindness condition) or take a short break for themselves (Control condition) for 2 weeks. Dairy assessments of loneliness and social contact were collected 3 days before and after the intervention. We did not find consistent average effects. Although loneliness decreased in the Kindness condition, the reduction was not significantly greater than in the Control condition. In contrast, a group difference was observed in social contact, which remained stable in the Kindness condition but declined in the Control condition. Notably, significant individual differences emerged: the intervention was more effective for participants with higher baseline social anxiety and loneliness, and when a greater proportion of prosocial acts targeted weak social ties and a smaller proportion targeted strangers. These findings highlight the importance of identifying individual differences-for whom and under what conditions prosociality-based interventions are most effective.

This study examined the intra-individual associations between prosocial behavior and two dimensions of subjective well-being-life satisfaction and hedonic balance-in the daily lives of young adults. Two samples of Italian and Spanish participants aged 18-35 completed self-report measures at different intervals: a daily sample assessed for ten consecutive days (N = 388; 76% women) and a weekly sample assessed for five consecutive weeks (N = 260; 80.3% women). The weekly interval was included as a "sensitivity analysis" to evaluate the stability of effects over longer periods. We employed Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models (RI-CLPMs) to investigate within-person dynamics while accounting for stable between-person differences. In the daily sample, prosocial behavior was associated with increases in life satisfaction from one day to the next one. This effect was not observed across weekly assessments. Although we did not find any empirical evidence that prosocial behavior affects hedonic balance, within-person correlations between variables were observed in the daily sample, but these tended to disappear in the weekly period. Incorporating prosocial behaviors into daily routines may promote young adults' life satisfaction. This study contributes to the growing knowledge on how prosocial behavior influences subjective well-being in everyday life.

The application of digital phenotyping in personality research leverages smartphone-generated data to quantify individual differences in personality constructs. It can be conceptualized as an extension of Experience Sampling Methods (ESMs), as it allows for the continuous, insitu collection of behavioral and contextual data. This study expands beyond the FFM/Big5 model to include 59 traits/types from 16 personality constructs, including temperament and personal value theories. Digital footprints were collected from 104 participants' smartphones over 7-10 days. Both hypothesis-testing (deductive) and machine learning (inductive) methods were applied to analyze the data. Four personality constructs of 16 (25%) were successfully predicted (r 0.034-0.53): Adult Attachment, FFM/Big5, Distress Tolerance, and Creativity, given an adopted r ≥ 0.34threshold for successful predictions. Overall, a total of 22 out of 59 individual traits and types of the 16 constructs were successfully predicted (37.29%). Gradient Boosted Trees emerged as the most effective machine learning predictive model (compared with Decision Tree, Random Forest, and Support Vector Machine), particularly when analyzing communication-related information features. This study demonstrates the capacity of Digital Phenotyping of smartphone data to broaden the possibilities of remote personality psychology research and highlights its potential applicability in People Analytics research and additional cross-disciplinaryscholarly fields.

Self-esteem has important implications for life outcomes, yet little is known about its antecedents at both the trait and state levels. We examined agency and communion-coded from personal narratives about a past turning-point event-as predictors of trait self-esteem levels, long-term trait changes, and short-term fluctuations (instability) in state self-esteem. We used data from a 5-wave intensive longitudinal study of Dutch master's students (N = 281, Mage = 24.5, 75% females) over a 2-year period, tracking their university-to-work transition. Participants completed a questionnaire and 14-day experience sampling assessments at each wave. Mixed-effects location scale models were used. Agency and communion were positively associated with self-esteem at the beginning of the transition. While communion did not predict instability in state self-esteem, we found some evidence for agency negatively predicting self-esteem instability across days but not across moments. Results neither revealed differences in trait changes as a function of agency or communion nor significant heterogeneity in change trajectories overall. Agency appeared more frequently in students' narratives compared to communion. Results suggest that agentic but not communal narratives negatively predict daily self-esteem instability during the work transition but provide limited insight into momentary self-esteem instability and trait changes.