Browsing by Author "Antikainen, Minea"

Objectives: Mental fortitude constructs have been associated with coping better with adversities and increased well-being. However, it is not known how mental fortitude traits manifest as daily states. Moreover, most of the research in psychology has focused on concepts of North American origin, and therefore the understanding of psychological resources is limited by the English lexicon. This thesis examines how sisu, a Finnish trait describing perseverance and inner strength in the face of adversity, appears in everyday life. Furthermore, positive and negative affectivity have been linked with well-being and personality. Therefore, associations between positive and negative affects and beneficial and harmful sisu are also clarified. Methods: The data used in this study was from the Sisu at Work project of the University of Helsinki and VTT. The participants (N= 82) were knowledge workers from four Finnish organizations. The beneficial and harmful sisu of the participants were assessed with the Sisu Scale developed as a part of the Sisu at Work project. After that, the participants evaluated their sisu-related states on a Likert scale once a day and positive and negative affect three times a day for three weeks with a mobile application. The associations between sisu traits, sisu-related states, and affects were examined with multilevel modelling. Age and sex were controlled in the analyses. Results and conclusions: High beneficial sisu was associated with more frequent determination, feelings of control, and positive affect. Harmful sisu, in turn, was associated with accepting a task that was too challenging, getting stuck to something, and persisting in a dull task. Furthermore, high harmful sisu was associated with less satisfaction and feelings of control. Age or sex did not have an influence on the associations. These findings are mostly in line with previous studies about the relationship between mental fortitude and positive affectivity. Furthermore, it seems that sisu has a role in facing everyday nuisances, although it has been usually linked with major challenges in the Finnish language. Further research is needed about sisu-situation interactions and the role of negative affectivity in sisu.