[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-141879-en":3,"doc-seo-141879-105":31,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":28,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":29,"read_time":30},141879,7971461740909,"Levi","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d",8,"Research & Report","Happy Soldiers are Highest Performers - Research Paper","Exploring how affective well-being predicts objective work performance, this research analyzes U.S. Army data to link happiness-related states to award recognition. High positive affect, low negative affect, and dispositional optimism each forecast performance and heroism awards for soldiers, including across genders, enlisted ranks, officers, ethnic groups, and education levels. Baseline well-being predicts awards over four years, with additive effects beyond each other and an almost fourfold difference between highest and lowest groups. Relationships also show curvilinear patterns and involve both arousal-related positive emotions and low sadness and anger.","Journal of Happiness Studies  \n[https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-021-00441-x](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-021-00441-x)  \nRESEARCH PAPER  \nHappy Soldiers are Highest Performers  \nPaul B. Lester1 · Emily P. Stewart2 · Loryana L. Vie2,3 · Douglas G. Bonett4 · Martin E. P. Seligman2 · Ed Diener5  \nAccepted: 3 August 2021  \nThis is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply 2021  \nAbstract  \nWe examined the prediction of affective well-being to work performance in the United States Army. We found that high positive affect (PA), low negative affect (NA), and high optimism predicted awards for performance and heroism in a sample of 908,096 U.S. Army soldiers (mean age 29.60 years old, SD = 9.16 years; with over ¼ of a million ethnic minorities and over 150,000 women) . Baseline high PA, low NA, and high optimism predicted awards over a four-year follow up window, in which 114,443 soldiers (12.60%) received an award. Each well-being variable predicted future awards for both women and men, for enlisted soldiers as well as officers, for several ethnicities, for varying levels of education, and controlling for a number of other potential explanatory variables. The effects of high positive and low negative affect were additive, with each predicting significantly beyond the other. Comparing the soldiers highest vs. lowest in well-being predicted an almost fourfold greater award recognition in the high group. Awards were predicted by both high and low arousal positive emotions, as well as low sadness and low anger. The relations between PA, NA, and optimism with award attainment were curvilinear, with the greatest difference in award attainment occurring between low and moderate levels of affective well-being, with little effect between moderate and high well-being.  \nKeywords Subjective well-being · Positive affect · Negative affect · Optimism · Performance  \nIn recent decades, research indicates that high levels of subjective well-being (SWB) are associated with beneficial outcomes such as health and citizenship (Diener & BiswasDiener, 2018 ; Diener et al., 2015) . In addition to positive affect (PA) and negative affect  \n* Ed Diener  \n[ediener@illinois.edu](ediener@illinois.edu)  \n1 Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, USA  \n2 Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA  \n3 Research Facilitation Laboratory, U.S. Army, Washington, USA  \n4 University of California, Santa Cruz, USA  \n5 The Gallup Organization, University of Utah, University of Virginia, Salt Lake City, USA  \n1 3  \n(NA), dispositional optimism, too, has been associated with multiple benefits, including better health (Rasmussen et al, 2009), an energetic task-focused approach to goals (Carver et al., 2009), and better social relationships (Srivastava et al., 2006) . Yet, there also is along scholarly tradition of examining employee well-being in relation to work outcomes. Indeed, while much of this original workplace research focused on job satisfaction, the focus shifted more recently to the link between affective well-being and work performance (Kaplan et al., 2009) .  \nA review of the evidence indicates that SWB is associated with work performance and income, with longitudinal and some experimental evidence suggesting that this might be a causal association (Tenney et al, 2016) . In general, high positive affect has been associated with better work performance, and high negative affect with poorer performance, and we see this across populations, types of work, and types of well-being, as well as the shape of this relationship (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005) . Optimism, too, can have a powerful influence on work performance (Jensen et al., 2007; Luthans et al., 2008; Seligman & Schulman, 1986; Youssef & Luthans, 2007), though it must be realistic, as optimism can suffer from the “too much of a good thing” phenomenon (Hmieleski & Baron, 2009; Tenney et al., 2015) .  \nThe SWB and opti","cbCaigRyIhyXkX9l","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaigRyIhyXkX9l","pdf",956347,3,1,22,"English","en",105,"# Abstract\n## Affective well-being as a predictor of performance awards\n## Scope and sample characteristics\n## Measurement approach: positive affect, negative affect, and optimism\n## Key findings: additive and curvilinear relations\n## Rationale and prior literature context","[{\"question\":\"What aspects of well-being predict Army award recognition in this study?\",\"answer\":\"Higher positive affect, lower negative affect, and higher optimism each predict future performance and heroism awards. Each variable shows significant predictive value beyond the others.\"},{\"question\":\"Do the results hold across different soldier groups?\",\"answer\":\"Yes. Predictions are observed across women and men, enlisted soldiers and officers, multiple ethnicities, and varying education levels, while controlling for other explanatory variables.\"},{\"question\":\"How do the authors describe the overall pattern between well-being and awards?\",\"answer\":\"The relations between positive affect, negative affect, optimism, and award attainment are curvilinear, with the largest differences occurring between low and moderate well-being and little additional effect at moderate-to-high levels.\"}]","Happy Soldiers are Highest Performers - Research Paper | PDF",1787669819,55,{"code":4,"msg":32,"data":33},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":34,"title":13,"keywords":35,"description":14,"schema_data":36,"social_meta":87,"head_meta":89,"extra_data":91,"updated_unix":29},"happy-soldiers-are-highest-performers-research-paper","",{"@graph":37,"@context":86},[38,54,69],{"@type":39,"itemListElement":40},"BreadcrumbList",[41,45,49,51],{"item":42,"name":43,"@type":44,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":46,"name":47,"@type":44,"position":48},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":50,"name":12,"@type":44,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":44,"position":53},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/happy-soldiers-are-highest-performers-research-paper/141879/",4,{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":55,"author":56,"headline":13,"publisher":58,"fileFormat":61,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":62,"datePublished":63,"encodingFormat":61,"isAccessibleForFree":64,"interactionStatistic":65},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":57},"Person",{"url":42,"name":59,"@type":60},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-04","2026-08-25",true,{"@type":66,"interactionType":67,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":68},"ViewAction",{"@type":70,"mainEntity":71},"FAQPage",[72,78,82],{"name":73,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":75},"What aspects of well-being predict Army award recognition in this study?","Question",{"text":76,"@type":77},"Higher positive affect, lower negative affect, and higher optimism each predict future performance and heroism awards. Each variable shows significant predictive value beyond the others.","Answer",{"name":79,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":80},"Do the results hold across different soldier groups?",{"text":81,"@type":77},"Yes. Predictions are observed across women and men, enlisted soldiers and officers, multiple ethnicities, and varying education levels, while controlling for other explanatory variables.",{"name":83,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":84},"How do the authors describe the overall pattern between well-being and awards?",{"text":85,"@type":77},"The relations between positive affect, negative affect, optimism, and award attainment are curvilinear, with the largest differences occurring between low and moderate well-being and little additional effect at moderate-to-high levels.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":88,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":59,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":90,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":93},[94,98,102,106,111,116,121,124,129,132,136],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":95,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":97},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":48,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":99,"show_sort_weight":100,"slug":101},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":53,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":112,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":113,"show_sort_weight":114,"slug":115},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":118,"show_sort_weight":119,"slug":120},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":122,"slug":123},30,"research-report",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":126,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":128},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":130,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":131},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":133,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":134,"show_sort_weight":133,"slug":135},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":137,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":138,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":139},19,"General","general"]