Washing away your sins will set your mind free: physical cleansing modulates the effect of threatened morality on executive control

The effect of threatened morality on negative emotions and on altruistic behaviour has been shown to diminish following physical cleansing (hand-washing). We hypothesised that threatened morality will broadly impair the executive control system, and that physical cleansing will moderate this detrimental effect. Thirty-seven participants were asked to write about an immoral deed they had committed, whereupon half of them were allowed to wipe their hands. Three executive control tasks—Stroop, stop-signal, and object interference—were then administered to all participants. Participants who had not wiped their hands, but not those who did, demonstrated impaired performance, compared to hand-washing controls, in all three tasks. We conclude that threatened morality has a detrimental effect on executive control, specifically on conflict monitoring and response inhibition, and that physical cleansing “frees” this system, counteracting the detrimental effects of morality threats. We discuss possible implications for obsessive–compulsive disorder, which is characterised by deficient executive control and in which both threatened morality and physical cleansing are central concerns.     

Forcing your luck: Goal-striving behavior in chance situations

Previous research suggests that desired end-states (i.e., goals) initiate a set of motivational processes supporting goal-attainment. For example, motivational intensity (e.g., effort investment) increases as distance to the goal decreases. The present studies investigate whether this goal-gradient can also be observed in chance determined situations, situations in which there is a desired end-state (i.e., winning) but in which increased effort investment does not support goal-attainment. Three studies provide consistent evidence for the goal-gradient in chance determined situations. We show that participants (in the lab and in a TV game show) invest more effort into goal-directed behavior the closer they get to the end of the game. The moderation of expectancy and value was, however, modest. Interestingly, participants’ self-reports suggest that their dynamic changes in behavior were unintentional and perceived as non-instrumental. Findings are related to theories of goal pursuit and illusory control, and contrasted to the principle of resource conservation, according to which such behavior should not occur.     

Suicide: bad act or good intervention

This article develops a different perspective on the ethics of suicide, based on theoretical and clinical grounds. In terms of value theory, applying "good" or "bad" to the suicide act makes no sense. We need to shift our focus from a search for an ethical statement about suicide (e.g., "rational suicide") to the ethical justification for intervention based on the needs and interests of an affirming therapeutic profession. We choose to intervene because of values we hold about well-functioning, existence, potential for human life; and because as emphatic, social beings, we feel for others and are motivated by that feeling. This justification leads us to suggest a situational case-centered ethics for suicide intervention.     

How prosocial behavior turns bad into good: An examination among Turkish-Bulgarian adolescents

Building on the Altruism Born of Suffering (ABS) Hypothesis, the present research tests the mediator role of prosocial behavior on the link between perceived personal discrimination and several psychological well-being outcomes in a sample of Turkish-Bulgarian minority youth. We argue that perceived personal discrimination is linked to prosocial behavior, which in turn alleviates discriminations’ detrimental effects on life satisfaction, self-esteem, negative affect and loneliness. Results revealed that prosocial behavior partially mediated the link between perceived personal discrimination and life satisfaction, perceived personal discrimination and self-esteem, and perceived personal discrimination and loneliness, while no mediating effect was found for negative affect. Our research contributes to the existing literature on minority youth dealing with discrimination, and proposes prosocial behavior to be a mechanism of resilient functioning against the maladaptive effects of perceived personal discrimination.

     

When good decisions have bad outcomes: The impact of affect on switching behavior

Four experiments test the hypothesis that an unfavorable outcome of a good decision leads individuals to switch away from that decision due to negative emotional responses to the outcome. Negative emotional reactions led many participants to abandon the option that they recalled as having been more successful overall in the past (Study 1) and which they expected to perform better in the future (Study 2). A prompt to consider the future success rates of the two alternatives did not eliminate switching (Study 2). An experimental manipulation in Study 3 indicated that individuals switch when they focus on their affective reactions rather than beliefs about the earlier disappointing outcome. In Study 4, individuals with a general tendency to focus on cognitions (i.e., those high in need for cognition) were less likely to switch away from the better option following a disappointing outcome. These results suggest that an emotional reaction to a negative outcome can lead people to switch away from the options that they believe are most likely to be successful on the next occasion.     

Resistance can be good or bad: how theories of resistance and dissonance affect attitude certainty

This research investigated how lay theories about resisting persuasion can affect attitude certainty. Specifically, people who believed that resistance was negative (i.e., implies close-mindedness) showed different levels of attitude certainty after resisting persuasive messages than people who believed resistance was positive (i.e., implies intelligence). When people held positive lay theories of resistance and overcame ostensibly strong arguments, they showed increased attitude certainty (compared to those who overcame ostensibly weak arguments). However, individuals who believed that resistance was negative did not show increases in attitude certainty when overcoming strong arguments. Experiment 2 suggests that the effect of lay theories and perceived argument strength on attitude certainty was due to dissonance created by believing that resistance is undesirable but nonetheless resisting persuasion.     

Forecasting good or bad behaviour: A non‐transparent test of contrastive responses to cultural cues

Bicultural individuals vary in the degree to which their two cultural identities are integrated – Bicultural Identity Integration (BII). Among Asian‐Americans, for example, some experience their Asian and American sides as integrated (high BII) whereas others experience the two as divided (low BII). Past research on social judgement found that individual differences in BII affect the way biculturals respond to cultural cues or norms in their situation. Asian‐Americans with low BII tend to contrast to the cultural norm (e.g. they exhibit typically American judgements when in Asian cultural situations) rather than assimilate to them, a response observed more among high BII individuals (e.g., they exhibit typically Asian judgements when in Asian cultural situations). Research has interpreted the contrastive response as reflecting implicit identity motives, yet past studies used measures that make cultural differences salient. Conscious awareness of the experimental hypothesis could elicit contrastive responses. The present research assessed forecasts of others' behaviour in which cultural group differences are less obvious: Asians, compared to Westerners, forecast more positive behaviours from others. In three experiments with Asian‐Americans, we found the contrastive response by low BII individuals persisted. They made more positive forecasts after exposure to American versus Asian cultural cues. This suggests that the moderating role of BII on responses to cultural cues is not a matter of demand characteristics or limited to stereotypical cultural differences. Implications for bicultural identity, implicit processes, and organizational behaviour are discussed.     

Framing alters risk-taking behavior on a modified Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) in a sex-specific manner

Framing uncertain scenarios to emphasize potential positive or negative elements influences decision making and behavior. The current experiment investigated sex differences in framing effects on risk-taking propensity in a modified version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Male and female undergraduates completed questionnaires on sensation seeking, impulsiveness, and risk and benefit perception prior to viewing one of three framing conditions for the BART: (1) positively-framed instructions emphasizing the ability to earn money if balloons were inflated to large size; (2) negatively framed instructions emphasizing the possibility that money could be lost if balloons were inflated to bursting; and (3) completely framed instructions noting both possible outcomes. Results revealed correlations between BART performance and impulsiveness for both sexes. Compared to positive and complete framing, negatively framed instructions decreased balloon inflation time in women but not men, indicating sex differences in response to treatments designed to alter risk-taking behavior.     

Litter gender composition affects maternal behavior of the primiparous mouse dam (Mus musculus)

Thirty-nine litters of the outbred Swiss CD-1 mouse strain were reduced at birth to 6 pups, according to three conditions: MM (all males), MF (3 males and 3 females), or FF (all females). The maternal behavior of their respective dams (frequency and duration of nursing, licking, nest-building, and other activities such as eating, drinking, sniffing, grooming, and undirected locomotor activity) were scored during a single 10-min session on Days 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 14, and 18. Dams rearing MM litters showed higher scores of maternal care on Days 2 and 18 in the case of nursing, on Days 2, 7, and 10 in the case of nest-building, and on Day 18 in the case of licking. These results confirm previous rat data, which indicated that male and female pups are exposed early in infancy to a different pattern of maternal behavior. Concomitant measurements of pup development (body-weight gain and achievement of a number of physiological and neurobehavioral landmarks) indicated that these effects of litter gender composition are not mediated by gross changes in the maturational trends of the pups.     

The good,the bad (and the ugly): The role of curiosity in subjective well‐being and risky behaviors among adolescents

Previous studies have shown that enhanced trait curiosity has positive influence on well‐being. It remains an open question, however, whether curiosity has any detrimental effects on behavioral outcomes in adolescence. The main aim of this research was to investigate the role of trait curiosity in the prediction of risky behavior engagement and subjective well‐being (SWB) among adolescents. A total of 371 Serbian adolescents (mean age 15.5, SD = 0.57) participated in the 5‐month follow up study. The results showed that the embracing component of curiosity (but not stretching) predicted risky behavior engagement, while the stretching component of curiosity (but not embracing) predicted positive affect. In addition, neither embracing nor stretching was a significant predictor of negative affect and life satisfaction. The results of this study call into question the conceptualization of curiosity as a completely positive emotional‐motivational system, and suggest that curiosity can contribute to negative outcomes in adolescence.     

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so: Informational support and cognitive appraisal of the work‐family interface

This paper examines whether cognitive appraisals regarding work‐family role combination can be influenced by providing informational support. We conducted an experiment among female employees with young children working in a financial services organization (N=149). Participants received information communicating either a scarcity or an expansion perspective on human energy, prior to completing a survey. In support of our predictions, results showed that employees appraised the task of combining their work and family roles more positively after exposure to an expansion rather than a scarcity message. This research offers new theoretical insights into the role of cognitive appraisal in work‐family research and offers scope for designing intervention programs that help employees to view role‐combining more positively.     

Third-party forgiveness: (not) forgiving your close other's betrayer

Building on attribution and interdependence theories, two experiments tested the hypothesis that close friends of victims (third parties) are less forgiving than the victims themselves (first parties). In Experiment 1, individuals imagined a scenario in which either their romantic partner or the romantic partner of a close friend committed the identical relationship offense. Third parties were less forgiving than first parties, a phenomenon we termed the third-party forgiveness effect. This effect was mediated by attributions about the perpetrator's intentions and responsibility for the offense. In Experiment 2, first and third parties reported an actual offense and their subsequent unforgiving motivations. The third-party forgiveness effect was replicated and was mediated by commitment to the perpetrator. Perpetrator apology or amends to the victim increased third-party forgiveness. Future third-party research can expand interpersonal forgiveness research beyond the victim-perpetrator dyad.     

What (not) to add in your ad: When job ads discourage older or younger job seekers to apply

Both older and younger job seekers face difficulties when entering the workforce. Qualification-based targeted recruitment (QBTR) might be used to attract older/younger job seekers, yet how this strategy is perceived by older/younger job seekers has not been considered before. The present study fills this gap and investigated effects of negatively metastereotyped information in job ads (i.e., personality requirements or traits) on application intention and self-efficacy of both older and younger job seekers. An experimental study (N_total = 556; 44.6% aged 50 or older, 55.4% aged 30 or younger) showed that negatively metastereotyped traits in job ads (e.g., “flexible”) lowered older job seekers’ application intention and that this effect was mediated by older job seekers’ self-efficacy regarding that trait. No such effects were found among younger job seekers. Results showed that organizations can fail to attract older candidates because of the traits mentioned in job ads, which is particularly alarming when aiming to target age-diverse applicants. Suggestions for practitioners and future research are formulated.     

Beyond individual justice facets: How (Mis)alignment between justice climates affects customer satisfaction through frontline customer extra-role service behavior

ABSTRACT

This study examines the combined effect of organizational justice facets on store-level customer extra-role service behavior, and subsequently on customer satisfaction. Hypotheses were tested on a sample of 1,951 employees in 121 business units from four countries, and on 55,731 customers of an international retailer. The results of polynomial regression and response surface analysis revealed that unit customer service performance and customer satisfaction are higher when justice facets are aligned at high levels, compared to when they are aligned at low levels. Moreover, we found evidence that the consequences of misalignment between justice facets are asymmetrical. Unit outcomes were higher when distributive justice (DJ) and procedural justice (PJ) climates were both higher than the interpersonal justice climate, compared to when the inverse was true. Conversely, unit outcomes increased when informational justice (INF-J) climate was higher than DJ and PJ climates, compared to when DJ and PJ climates were higher than INF-J climates. The observed effects of misalignment between justice facets were non-linear, as complex curvilinear relationships were moderator-dependent. Customer satisfaction was higher in stores with higher team customer service behavior, and team service behavior was found to be a significant conduit by which justice facets (mis)alignment influence customer satisfaction.     

How to be a good professional: existentialist continuing professional development (CPD)

ABSTRACT

This article reflects on the construct and practice of continuing professional development (CPD) and its significance for the professional careers workforce. The article presents the idea of the CPD triad and considers how professional bodies, employers and individuals can each benefit from a practitioner's ongoing commitment to continuing professional development. The tension between the practitioner's quest for lifelong learning is set against professional body demands, leading to the conclusion that these are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Consideration is given to propositional, practical and procedural knowledge, and to overall competence. The article explores an existentialist approach to professional learning, and concludes that, along with personal agency, this could usefully be adopted by career practitioners to weather turbulent times.