Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Serenity

Overview
"Serenity: The state of being calm, peaceful and untroubled (Oxford Languages, 2021)."



Typically associated with mindfulness, faith and spirituality, serenity is a feeling of internal peace despite external events. Historically, serenity has been associated with religion and faith, however, secular terms have been defined. Serenity has emerged as a topic of psychological discourse in the positive psychology movement and is related to mindfulness. Serenity is currently being assessed as a way to promote overall wellbeing, decrease stress and change the way we react to adverse stimuli. Psychological research aims to cultivate and optimise serenity in both a clinical and personal sense. Serenity is discussed in relation to its origins in religion and its usefulness to psychology as having a dispositional effect on emotional experience. Ways to foster serenity are discussed, as well as the application of biological, cognitive and social theories of emotion to serenity as a disposition.

Figure 1 displays the process of meditation, a way of fostering serenity.

Focus questions:
 * What causes serenity?
 * What are its consequences?
 * How can serenity be fostered?

What is serenity?


Serenity is an emotion best described as feelings of inner peace and stability regardless of external stimuli. Origins of serenity lie in spirituality, however, positive psychology has begun to assess increasing serenity as a mechanism for increasing wellbeing.

Serenity as an emotion has been a debated concept. Generally, serenity is considered to be likened to cognitively complex emotions; when in truth, serenity as a psychological concept is less of an emotion and more similar to a personality trait or disposition to the way in which we experience other emotions.

Origins of serenity
Serenity is typically a spiritual or religious concept, related to concepts such as inner peace and faith (in a figure such as god(s) or the universe) that everything will be okay. Figure 2 presents a Chinese garden of serenity, a place synonymous with relaxation.

Serenity as a psychological concept
Serenity as a psychological concept differs from colloquial and spiritual meaning as it is largely operationalised, which is a noteworthy factor due to the difficulty of defining and operationalising something so ambiguous as faith. Psychological research has developed two leading measures of an individual's level of serenity, The Dispositional Serenity Scale and The Brief Serenity Scale. Much research of serenity as a psychological concept had been published in an effort to improve nursing standards and quality of care in both an objective and a spiritual sense.

Developing serenity
Typically Serenity is categorised as a multi-disciplinary emotion, combining various emotions. The Dispositional Serenity Model considers Faith, Humility and Gladness, while The Brief Serenity Scale considers Acceptance, Inner-haven and trust.

Overlap exists between Faith and Trust, Humility and Acceptance and Gladness and Inner Haven.

Faith and trust
Faith and trust as aspects of serenity are associated with inner strength, resilience, and having faith in the world and the meaningfulness of life.

Some ways in which Faith and trust may be fostered include:


 * Mindfulness Based Yoga
 * Meditation
 * The Serenity Prayer

Humility and acceptance
Humility and acceptance as aspects of serenity are associated with actioning change and accepting what cannot change and having full acceptance of oneself and full acceptance of the aspects of the world in which they cannot change.

Humility and Acceptance are relevant to ego development as they may provide the basis of mature defence mechanisms by fostering the elimination of immature ego defence mechanisms such as denial, delusion, fantasy and repression by encouraging the individual to accept the parts of the world that they cannot change.

Some ways in which humility and acceptance may be fostered include:


 * Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
 * Meditation
 * Mindfulness Based Yoga
 * The Serenity Prayer

Gladness and inner-haven
Gladness and inner-haven as aspects of serenity are associated with feeling love and connectedness with the world and inner peace, inner calm, inner security, inner strength and inner centred-ness.

Some ways in which gladness and inner-haven may be fostered include:


 * Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
 * The Serenity Prayer
 * Mindfulness Based Yoga
 * Prosocial relationships and community
 * Relaxation techniques
 * Meditation
 * Gratitude Practices

You are now aware of your breathing Mindfulness, breathing exercises, meditation and relaxation techniques are all useful cultivators of serenity.

Decrease of health anxiety
Health anxiety is a measure of the anxiety a person has in regard to their wellbeing and general health, a person with high health anxiety would typically be more likely to seek out healthcare for symptoms that others with low health anxiety wouldn't. High health anxiety typically does not serve the individual or the health system, as it can cause frequent seeking of healthcare, worry for the individual and a greater workload for healthcare providers.

Higher levels of serenity can help alleviate some health anxiety by functioning as a buffer for the individual. What is meant by this is that individuals with higher levels of serenity typically have less cortical arousal when faced with typically health-anxiety provoking stimuli.

Decreased stress
Decreased stress is a commonly discussed influence of developing high levels of serenity. This is most likely due to the way of which high levels of serenity can function as a buffer, however, could also be related to the ways in which serenity practices, such as The Serenity Prayer encourage us to accept what we cannot change about our life, the inverse of denial.

=== Promotion of optimal health === High levels of serenity can promote optimal health by way of increasing mindfulness, reducing depression and anxiety, promoting acceptance of oneself and coming to terms with what cannot be changed.

Ego defence mechanisms
Humility and Acceptance as part of serenity may assist the individual in adopting mature ego-defence mechanisms by encouraging the individual to accept what they cannot change about the world. This would help to eliminate potentially maladaptive defence mechanisms such as denial, delusion, fantasy and repression.

What is the primary function of serenity?} - A basic emotion + A mediator of emotion - Motivation

The dispositional serenity scale
The Dispositional Serenity Scale is one of the first measures of serenity, developed by Boyd-Wilson et al., 2004, based on Roberts & Aspy, 1993's contribution to the definition of serenity in a secular orientation. The Dispositional Serenity Scale measures three sub-scales:

Faith: Trust, Inner strength, resilience

Humility: Actioning change and accepting what cannot change

Gladness: Feeling love and connectedness with the world

=== The brief serenity scale === The Brief Serenity Scale is a factor analysis of which yields a measure of serenity by way of spirituality and wellbeing. It has 22 Items across three subscales:

Acceptance: Having full acceptance of oneself and full acceptance of the aspects of the world in which they cannot change

Inner haven: Associated with ideas such as inner peace, inner calm, inner security, inner strength and inner centred-ness.

Trust: Having faith in the world and and the meaningfulness of life

Typically, findings of the Brief Serenity Scale reflect positive relationships with positive affect and mindfulness, but a negative relationship with negative affect, anxiety, depression, health distress and transplant-related stress.

Limitations of the models
Serenity is a hard emotion to operationalise. This is due to its multidisciplinary nature and its spiritual influences. Operationalising something like faith or inner-haven make scales like the Dispositional Serenity Scale and the Brief Serenity Scale quite subjective. Another notable limitation of the models is bias of the participant's answers; social-desirability could have a profound effect on the usefulness of the model as the participant may want to present themselves as cool, calm and collected. However, these models are the leading scales of which we have, most probably due to their multi-factorial approach to measurement.

James-Lange Theory of emotion
The James-Lange theory of emotion theorises that emotion serves to help us make sense of bodily reactions when we encounter external stimuli.

When applying the role of the James-Lange Theory of emotion to serenity rather than examining the effect of the emotion as a way of making sense of our bodily reaction, serenity would provide a buffer between the bodily reaction and the emotion expressed. In figure 3, representing the typical James-Lange Theory of emotion, the buffering effect of serenity would reside between the stimulus and the physical reaction.

==== Facial Feedback Hypothesis ==== The Facial Feedback Hypothesis theorises that we rely on our facial expressions to alert us of our emotional state.

Case Study Two patients in a hospital receive the same diagnosis, with no immediate threat, concerns or variables between the two patients, aside from their level of serenity.

Patient one has low levels of serenity: After receiving the news their mouth gasps open and they exclaim: "What?", moments later, they realise they are experiencing fear and anger about the news they have received.

Patient two has high levels of serenity: After receiving the news, they frown. Moments later they realise they are disappointed with the situation.

In light of the James-Lange Theory: This case study represents the role of serenity in the James-Lange Theory of emotion. Rather than acting as a response to the environmental stimulus (of receiving bad news), serenity provides a buffering effect for patient two, lessening their experience of typically adverse emotions such as anger and fear.

In light of the Facial Feedback Hypothesis: This case study represents how the facial muscles and expression affect our emotional experience, patient one feels angry and fearful due to their emotional expression presented. Dispositional Serenity provided a buffer to the reaction that patient two presented, meaning they did not experience the fear and anger because they did not have the same biological reaction.

=== Cognitive === Cognitive theories of emotion argue that while some basic emotions have roots in biology, complex emotions require cognitive and socio-cultural perspectives. Cognitive theories suggest that emotions are influenced by three cognitive processes:

Figure 4 Demonstrates Cognitive Appraisal Theory.
 * Appraisal - Before the event occurs: primarily: gain or loss involved in the outcome of the event. Secondarily: Can I cope with this situation?
 * Emotional Knowledge - When feeling the emotion : ability to discriminate and articulate between emotions.
 * Attributions - After the event: Primarily: is the outcome good or bad? Secondarily: Why did the outcome occur?

Case Study Two Friends work separately on an assignment. They both put in the same amount of effort and time. All things are equal between them, however, Abby has a much higher level of serenity than Stephen. When they get their marks back, they have both scored badly on the task.

Abby, who has high levels of serenity, went into the assignment knowing that she would already pass the unit, even if she attained a low score. Therefore when she got her marks back, although she was not filled with joy and pride, she only felt mild regret. She attributes the outcome to not trying her hardest and moves on with her life.

Stephen, who has low levels of serenity, went into the assignment believing that his mark is a huge representation of his intellect. When he receives the mark back he feels overwhelming negative emotions. He is overwhelmed with regret from not trying harder and attributes the outcome to not being 'smart enough', despite the outcome not having great consequence to his life.

In light of Cognitive Appraisal Theory: Abby's high levels of serenity have afforded her to make optimistic appraisals about the task, as she has a sense of inner peace that is not reliant on external markers. As a result of this, her mark did not elicit very strong emotions, and her attribution of the outcome was realistic. In this case, her high levels of serenity helped her to accept what she cannot change of the situation, and try to change what she can.

Stephen's low levels of serenity did not afford him these abilities, as a result, he made an appraisal of the situation that did not serve himself. His attributions of the outcome were overwhelmingly negative because he does not have the inner peace that would allow for him not to take it personally. He places too much emphasis on unchangeable aspects of the scenario.

Social
It is likely that the effect of prosocial interactions such as Social Affective Sharing and Cognitive Sharing would increase levels of serenity by enhancing feelings of interconnectedness, trust and acceptance of the world.

==== Social-Affective sharing ==== Social-Affective Sharing theorises that through listening, comforting, empathising and providing assistance, people can become closer together.

==== Cognitive sharing ==== Cognitive Sharing theorises that through reframing events, creating meaning of events and reprioritising one's goals and motives, the experience of emotion can change.

Conclusion
Serenity is an emerging concept in the field of positive psychology, despite its historic conceptualisation as feelings of relaxation and faith in religious and spiritual contexts. It represents a novel concept of an emotional mediator as part of existing theories of emotion, changing the way that people respond to their environment. Two leading models of serenity measurement currently exist: The Brief Serenity Scale and the Dispositional Serenity Scale. Concepts of these theories can largely be synthesised to represent three leading sub-scales of serenity: trust and faith, inner haven and gladness and humility and acceptance. Many mechanisms exist to increase the level of these scales in personal experience, and therefore serenity at a larger level; notably, most of these mechanisms of fostering serenity resonate with mindfulness, meditation and gratitude. Serenity is an important and useful mediator in emotional experiences and could serve any person who tries to cultivate it.

To choose serenity is to:} + Accept what I cannot change + Have faith in the world + Have faith in oneself