Emerging Areas II: Hedonic and Eudaimonic Wellbeing, Character Strengths, Resilience and Post-Traumatic Growth; Health Behaviours, Lifestyle and Chronic Disease, and Psychoneuroimmunology; and the Psychology–Technology Interface

Resilience is positive adaptation despite significant adversity. Emmy Werner's longitudinal study of children born on the Pacific island of Kauai in 1955 found that about one-third of the high-risk children grew into competent, caring adults, helped by an easy temperament, at least one supportive caregiver and community support. Ann Masten called resilience "ordinary magic" because it arises from common protective systems — attachment, self-regulation, mastery motivation, family, school and community — rather than rare traits. Protective factors operate at individual, family and community levels, and George Bonanno found resilience the most common trajectory after loss and trauma.

Post-traumatic growth (Tedeschi and Calhoun, 1996) is positive psychological change experienced as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life circumstances — not a return to baseline (resilience) but growth beyond it. Their Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory measures five domains: appreciation of life, relating to others, personal strength, new possibilities and spiritual and existential change. Growth and distress can coexist, and growth is fostered by deliberate rumination, disclosure and social support.

Health-promoting behaviours include physical activity, a balanced diet, adequate sleep, safe sex and screening; health-compromising behaviours include smoking, harmful alcohol use, a sedentary life and unsafe sex. Models of health behaviour: the health belief model (Rosenstock) — perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits and barriers, cues to action and self-efficacy; the theory of planned behaviour; and Prochaska and DiClemente's transtheoretical model — the stages of change: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance, with interventions matched to the stage.

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) studies how psychological processes, the nervous system and the immune system interact. It began with Ader and Cohen (1975), who paired saccharin with an immunosuppressive drug in rats and found that saccharin alone later suppressed immunity — conditioned immunosuppression. Kiecolt-Glaser showed that examination stress lowered natural-killer-cell activity in students and that wounds healed more slowly in stressed caregivers; Sheldon Cohen (1991) found that people under more stress were more likely to develop colds after exposure to a virus. For cancer, psychological factors are clearly linked to quality of life and to health behaviours, but evidence that stress or personality causes cancer or speeds its progression is mixed, and early claims that group therapy lengthens survival have not been consistently replicated; psychosocial interventions reliably reduce distress. For HIV/AIDS, several studies associate stress and depression with faster decline in CD4 cells, and psychological factors strongly affect adherence to antiretroviral therapy; cognitive-behavioural stress management and stigma reduction are important interventions.

Digital learning — e-learning, blended and flipped classrooms, and massive open online courses — is guided by Richard Mayer's cognitive theory of multimedia learning and John Sweller's cognitive load theory (intrinsic, extraneous and germane load). Mayer's principles include the multimedia principle (words and pictures beat words alone), coherence (remove extraneous material), signalling, redundancy (do not add on-screen text to narrated graphics), spatial and temporal contiguity, modality (narration beats on-screen text with graphics) and segmenting. The digital divide in access and skills limits who benefits.

Digital etiquette ("netiquette") is respectful, responsible conduct online — courtesy, respect for privacy, consent before sharing images or information, and awareness that messages are permanent and public; it is one element of digital citizenship. Cyberbullying is intentional, repeated harm inflicted through electronic media. Compared with traditional bullying it can be anonymous, continuous (24 hours a day), reach a wide audience and leave permanent content, and victims show elevated depression, anxiety, loneliness and school avoidance. Prevention combines clear school policies, teaching empathy and bystander intervention, reporting mechanisms and parental involvement.

Online sexually explicit material, which the syllabus calls cyber pornography, is studied for its consumption and implications. Cooper's "Triple-A engine" — accessibility, affordability and anonymity — explains why online consumption rose so sharply. Research on implications distinguishes the majority of adult users who report no problems from a minority whose use becomes compulsive and distressing; ICD-11 includes compulsive sexual behaviour disorder among impulse-control disorders. Concerns for adolescents centre on early, often unintended exposure and its possible influence on attitudes and expectations about relationships, though causal evidence is limited. Parental mediation of digital use takes several forms (Livingstone and Helsper): active mediation (discussing content and its meaning), restrictive mediation (rules on time, place and content), co-use (using media together) and technical mediation (filters and monitoring software). Restrictive mediation reduces risks but also opportunities; active, autonomy-supportive mediation tends to reduce risk while preserving children's benefits and trust.