Acting on our Behalf, Dwelling on Something Else: Exploring the Effects of Private Self-Consciousness and Curiosity on Psychological Well-Being

This study investigates whether varying forms of private self-consciousness and curiosity have an effect on psychological well-being. There already exists research that explores self-reflection and self-rumination as types of private self-consciousness and how they relate to well-being, as well as there being research exploring the association between curiosity and well-being. To our knowledge, no available research paper explored both simultaneously, which we aim to do as a way to establish a framework for conceiving these variables in the future and discovering whether there are grounds for their interaction. Furthermore, while there is a consensus about rumination being a maladaptive aspect of self-consciousness which negatively directs our attention to the self and self-related problems, we would like to address the ambiguous findings with regards to self-reflection, with high levels of it sometimes being associated with beneficial psychological outcomes, and at times with pathology. The research was conducted completely online, with short version PWB, CEI-II and RRQ scales being administered in English as their original language and adapted to Bosnian and Italian. Responses were given by 381 people with varying nationalities. We hypothesized that self-rumination would have a negative association with well-being, whereas self-reflection and curiosity would have a positive association with it. We firstly conducted a multiple regression analysis which confirmed our hypothesis, with adjusted r-squared value=0.34 and F=57.9 with a significant p-value of 2.2e-16. Afterwards, we conducted structural equation modeling as a step toward establishing causal relationships between the given variables, and we obtained a model with an adequate fit: chi-square=839.95 (df=451), <0.001, CFI = .91, RMSEA =.05, SRMR=0.057, and the standardized regression coefficients suggested that we can once again confirm our hypothesis with regards to self-rumination and curiosity, but not with regards to self-reflection, which is also in line with previous research that claimed ambiguous results. Notably, we found an interesting association between self-reflection and personal growth as a part of the psychological well-being scale.

This study investigates whether varying forms of private self-consciousness and curiosity have an effect on psychological well-being. There already exists research that explores self-reflection and self-rumination as types of private self-consciousness and how they relate to well-being, as well as there being research exploring the association between curiosity and well-being. To our knowledge, no available research paper explored both simultaneously, which we aim to do as a way to establish a framework for conceiving these variables in the future and discovering whether there are grounds for their interaction. Furthermore, while there is a consensus about rumination being a maladaptive aspect of self-consciousness which negatively directs our attention to the self and self-related problems, we would like to address the ambiguous findings with regards to self-reflection, with high levels of it sometimes being associated with beneficial psychological outcomes, and at times with pathology. The research was conducted completely online, with short version PWB, CEI-II and RRQ scales being administered in English as their original language and adapted to Bosnian and Italian. Responses were given by 381 people with varying nationalities. We hypothesized that self-rumination would have a negative association with well-being, whereas self-reflection and curiosity would have a positive association with it. We firstly conducted a multiple regression analysis which confirmed our hypothesis, with adjusted r-squared value=0.34, and F=57.9 with a significant p-value of 2.2e-16. Afterwards, we conducted structural equation modeling as a step towards establishing causal relationships between the given variables, and we obtained a model with an adequate fit: chi-square=839.95 (df=451), <0.001, CFI = .91, RMSEA =.05, SRMR=0.057, and the standardized regression coefficients suggested that we can once again confirm our hypothesis with regards to self-rumination and curiosity, but not with regards to self-reflection, which is also in line with previous research that claimed ambiguous results. Notably, we found an interesting association between self-reflection and personal growth as a part of the psychological well-being scale.