Risk-Taking,Framing Effects,and Affect

This paper examines the influence of affect′s two primary dimensions, Pleasantness and Arousal, on risk-taking behaviors. In Study 1, higher levels of Arousal led subjects to pay less for insurance to protect themselves from potential losses. In Study 2, a between-subjects design examined willingness-to-pay for statistically equivalent lotteries and insurance. Higher Arousal led to higher risk-seeking expressed as higher willingness-to-pay for lotteries but lower willingness-to-pay for insurance. Higher Negative Affectivity (i.e., Unpleasantness and high Arousal) led to higher willingness-to-pay for insurance for possible losses of substantial value. Also, higher Calmness (i.e., Pleasantness and low Arousal) led to greater willingness-to-pay for lotteries. The results are interpreted in terms of two mechanisms: (i) congruency between Pleasantness and selected risk-taking decision strategy and (ii) Arousal-induced restriction in attentional capacity.     

Multi-attribute choice and affect: The influence of naturally occurring and manipulated moods on choice processes

Based on a two-dimensional model of affect that views Pleasantness and Arousal as affect's two primary dimensions, this study investigates the effects of emotions on choice processes and outcomes. In Study 1, subjects first described their naturally occurring emotional state and then performed two multi-attribute product choice tasks. Subjects in more pleasant mood deliberated longer, used more decision-related information, re-examined more previously examined information, and made more interdimensional moves. Subjects in more aroused mood spent less time deliberating, revealed less information, ignored more product-describing attributes, and re-examined less of previously examined information. Study 2 replicated many of these effects with experimentally manipulated emotions and using a managerial decision-making task. The results are interpreted in terms of (1) a congruency between one's hedonic state and selected decision strategy and (2) a restriction in attentional capacity induced by increased Arousal.     

Cognitive ability influences on written expression: Evidence for developmental and sex-based differences in school-age children

Some studies have demonstrated that the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) cognitive abilities influence writing; however, little research has investigated whether CHC cognitive abilities influence writing the same way for males and females across grades. We used multiple group structural equation models to investigate whether CHC cognitive ability influences on written expression differed between grades or sex using the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition and the Kaufman Tests of Educational Achievement, Second Edition co-normed standardization sample data (N = 2117). After testing for consistent measurement of cognitive abilities across grades and sex, we tested whether the cognitive ability influences on written expression were moderated by grade level or sex. An important developmental shift was observed equally across sex groups: Learning Efficiency (Gl) influences decreased whereas Crystallized Ability (Gc) influences increased after fourth grade. Further, Short-Term Memory (Gsm) and Retrieval Fluency (Gr) influences on written expression depended on sex at grades 1–4, with larger Gr influences for females and larger Gsm influences for males. We internally replicated our main findings using two different cognitive explanatory models, adding further support for the developmental and sex-based differential cognitive ability influences on writing. Explanatory cognitive models of writing need to incorporate development, and possibly, sex to provide an expanded understanding of writing development and guard against potential generalizability issues characteristic of special population (i.e., male-female) studies.     

On being happy but fearing failure: The effects of mood on self-handicapping strategies

Does temporary mood influence people’s tendency to engage in self-handicapping behaviors? Based on past research on self-handicapping and recent work on affect and social behaviors, this experiment predicted and found that positive mood significantly increased the tendency to engage in two kinds of self-handicapping strategies. Participants (N = 94) first received contingent or non-contingent positive feedback about performance on a task of ‘cognitive abilities’, and then underwent a positive, neutral, or negative mood induction using video films. Self-handicapping was assessed in terms of their subsequent preference for (a) drinking a performance-enhancing, or performance-inhibiting herbal tea, and (b) engaging or not engaging in performance-enhancing cognitive practice. As predicted, happy mood and non-contingent feedback significantly increased self-handicapping on both measures. The implications of these results for everyday performance tasks, and for recent affect-cognition theories, are discussed.     

The Role of Couple Discrepancies in Cognitive and Behavioral Egalitarianism in Marital Quality

Although gender ideologies and perceptions of equity in the division of household tasks have been associated with marital quality, there is limited understanding of the relationship between discrepancies (in husbands’ and wives’ subjective ideals and accounts of the division of labor) and relationship quality. We examined cognitive egalitarianism (beliefs about gender roles), behavioral egalitarianism (perceptions of the division of household tasks and management), and marital quality among 220 heterosexual, newlywed couples (N?=?440) living in east and central regions of the United States. We used multi-level modeling to examine associations between cognitive egalitarianism, behavioral egalitarianism, and marital quality with a specific focus on discrepancies in the reports of husbands and wives. As hypothesized, both husbands and wives had lower marital quality when their cognitive egalitarianism was discrepant from their partner, and such a discrepancy had a greater influence on wives’ reports of marital quality, especially for wives with higher cognitive egalitarianism. Although we expected similar results for the associations between behavioral egalitarianism and marital quality, we found that the strength of the association between wives’ behavioral egalitarianism and marital quality decreased as the discrepancy from their husbands’ behavioral egalitarianism increased. The association between cognitive egalitarianism and marital quality also increased as behavioral egalitarianism increased for wives but not for husbands. The results of this study illustrate the central role of spousal discrepancy in perceptions and enactment of household labor.     

Developing a measure of interpretation bias for depressed mood: An ambiguous scenarios test

The tendency to interpret ambiguous everyday situations in a relatively negative manner (negative interpretation bias) is central to cognitive models of depression. Limited tools are available to measure this bias, either experimentally or in the clinic. This study aimed to develop a pragmatic interpretation bias measure using an ambiguous scenarios test relevant to depressed mood (the AST-D).¹ In Study 1, after a pilot phase (N = 53), the AST-D was presented via a web-based survey (N = 208). Participants imagined and rated each AST-D ambiguous scenario. As predicted, higher dysphoric mood was associated with lower pleasantness ratings (more negative bias), independent of mental imagery measures. In Study 2, self-report ratings were compared with objective ratings of participants’ imagined outcomes of the ambiguous scenarios (N = 41). Data were collected in the experimental context of a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner. Consistent with subjective bias scores, independent judges rated more sentences as negatively valenced for the high versus low dysphoric group. Overall, results suggest the potential utility of the AST-D in assessing interpretation bias associated with depressed mood.     

Absorbed in the moment? An investigation of procrastination,absorption and cognitive failures

Mood-repair conceptualizations of procrastination suggest that regulation of immediate mood is prioritized over instrumental action towards goals. The aim of the current research was to examine how and why absorption – a mindset reflecting a responsiveness to engaging stimuli – may account for procrastinators’ tendency to focus on immediately rewarding activities at the cost of their long term goals, and the cognitive implications of being absorbed in the moment. Across two student samples (Study 1: N = 103; Study 2: N = 339) procrastination was associated with absorption. A bootstrapping analysis of the indirect effects of procrastination on absorption through state anxiety in Study 1 was significant supporting the hypothesized role of absorption as a vulnerability towards mood-regulating distractions for procrastinators. In Study 2 small but significant indirect effects of procrastination on cognitive failures through absorption emerged, supporting the proposition that absorption may have a cognitive toll for procrastinators. Taken together, these findings suggest a cognitive escape hypothesis to explain how procrastinators deal with negative moods, and provides new insights into the factors and processes that contribute to the self-regulation difficulties that characterize trait procrastination.     

Superior perception of phasic physiological arousal and the detrimental consequences of the conviction to be aroused on worrying and metacognitions in GAD

Although people suffering from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) often report arousal symptoms, psychophysiological studies show no evidence of autonomic hyperarousal. Hypersensitivity toward and catastrophic interpretation of phasic arousal cues may explain this discrepancy. The authors tested (a) whether GAD sufferers perceive nonspecific skin conductance fluctuations (NSCFs), an indicator of phasic autonomic arousal, better than controls do and (b) whether the conviction to be aroused contributes to the maintenance of worrying and metacognitive beliefs about worrying. Thirty-three GAD sufferers and 34 healthy controls participated in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to detect their own NSCFs during a signal detection task. GAD sufferers accurately detected more of their NSCFs than did controls, who tended to miss NSCFs. In Experiment 2, participants were instructed to relax following worry induction. While relaxing, they received nonveridical feedback indicating either arousal or relaxation. Arousal feedback conserved negative metacognitive beliefs regarding worrying and also maintained negative mood and worry exclusively in GAD participants. These findings suggest that superior perception of phasic arousal cues and their catastrophic misinterpretation increases worrying, negative metacognitive beliefs about worrying, and anxious mood in GAD.     

Being Forgotten: Implications for the Experience of Meaning in Life

ABSTRACT

Two studies investigated the effects of being forgotten on the target of memory. In Study 1, undergraduate women (N = 96) who had completed a lab session two days prior, were randomly assigned to be remembered, forgotten, complimented, or to a control group. In the absence of effects on mood or social self-esteem, being forgotten resulted in lower meaning in life. In Study 2, participants (N = 47) who had completed a group exercise were informed two days later that no one remembered them, that everyone remembered them, or that no one wanted to work with them. Being forgotten led to lower meaning in life than being remembered but did not differ from being excluded. Being forgotten may be considered a type of incipient ostracism that influences meaning in life but not mood or state social self-esteem.     

Effects of dispositional self-focus,appraisal and attention instructions on responses to a threatening stimulus

Abstract

Two studies are reported which explored the relationship between self-focused attention and anxiety. The first study tested the hypotheses that self-focused attention is associated with anxiety in threatening situations and that the relationship is mediated by negative appraisal processes. Study 1 showed no significant interaction between self-focus and negative appraisal on state-anxiety. However, self-focus was associated with increments in state-anxiety, high levels of worry and somatic symptom reports in a threatening situation. The relationship between self-focus and state-anxiety was mediated by somatic symptoms. Study 2 used cognitive and somatic self-attention instructions and external focus instructions to verify the hypothesis that self-focus on somatic arousal is associated with anxiety. It is concluded that specific self-focusing tendencies are associated with the elicitation and exacerbation of anxiety.     

On the experience of self-relevant feedback: How self-concept organization influences affective responses and self-evaluations

We evaluated how self-concepts are represented in memory, testing predictions about how self-relevant feedback influences mood and self-evaluation. Specifically, we view the self as comprised of multiple self-aspects (e.g., daughter, sorority sister), each associated with specific attributes (e.g., shy, philanthropy). Study 1 showed that priming a self-aspect increased the accessibility of attributes idiosyncratically associated with the activated self-aspect. In Studies 2 and 3, positive or negative self-relevant feedback was provided to observe how affect and self-evaluations are mediated by self-concept representation. Study 2 demonstrated that changes in mood were accounted for by how feedback impacted evaluations of the currently activated self-aspect. Moreover, evaluations of other self-aspects shifted as they shared more attributes with the self-aspect implicated by feedback. In Study 3, feedback about an attribute also influenced affect, with stronger mood change revealed for attributes associated with a greater proportion of self-aspects. This work demonstrates that affective experiences resulting from self-relevant feedback are not determined by one’s self-concept representation in its entirety, but rather, by the impact of that feedback on activated self-aspects.     

Effects of Cognitive Feedback Components,Display Format,and Elaboration on Performance

Balzer, Sulsky, Hammer, and Sumner (1992) demonstrated that task information, rather than cognitive information or functional validity information, is the necessary component of cognitive feedback (CFB). We designed a laboratory experiment to replicate the effects of (CFB) components while jointly investigating the impact of CFB display format and CFB elaboration on performance. Undergraduates (N = 323) were each randomly assigned to a single experimental condition in a 4 × 2 × 2 factorial design which manipulated the CFB components (TI, CI, TI + CI, or TI + CI + FVI), CFB display format (alphanumeric or graphic), and CFB elaboration (typical or augmented). The experimental task, procedures, and dependent measures were identical to Balzer et al. (1992). A main effect of CFB components was found, with results replicating the Balzer et al. findings that task information was necessary for improved performance. The main effects of CFB display format and CFB elaboration, as well as their interactions with each other and the CFB components, had little impact on judgment performance or reactions to feedback. Practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Positive Emotions in Traumatic Conditions: Mediation of Appraisal and Mood for Military Personnel

The current study examines the relative contributions of cognitions and moods with U.S. military personnel under traumatic stress conditions. Soldiers exposed to traumatic stress conditions reported significantly elevated psychological symptoms. Both cognitive appraisal styles and mood states were related to trait resilience. Both appraisal and mood mediated the relationship between trait resilience and psychological adjustment. Current mood states were a significant predictor of psychological adjustment beyond the trait of resilience and aspects of cognitive appraisal. Positive affect did relate to better psychological adjustment even under traumatic stress conditions.     

The influence of positive mood on different aspects of cognitive control

Some evidence suggests that positive mood influences cognitive control. The current research investigated whether positive mood has differential effects on two aspects of cognitive control, working memory and prepotent response inhibition. In Study 1, following either a positive or neutral mood induction, participants completed the Running Memory Span (RMS), a measure primarily of working memory storage capacity, and the Stroop task, a measure of prepotent response inhibition. Results were that the positive mood group performed worse on the RMS task but not on the Stroop task. In Study 2, participants completed the RMS and another measure of prepotent response inhibition, the Flanker task. Results were that when in a positive mood state participants performed worse on the RMS but not on the Flanker task. Overall, this research suggests that positive mood has differential effects on cognitive control, impairing working memory but having no effect on prepotent response inhibition.     

The role of cognitive appraisal in media-induced presence and emotions

In the present study, we applied Valins’ (1966) bogus bodily feedback paradigm to investigate the roles of cognitive appraisal (tele)presence, and emotion in the context of media usage. Participants (N=30) viewed short sequences of a TV show, whereby false heart rate feedback was provided. In line with Valins’ paradigm, the manipulation we used in this study included two levels: high vs. low false heart rate feedback. We assessed presence, enjoyment, and the real heart rate. Participants reported stronger experiences of presence and enjoyed the clips more when they wrongly believed that they had been aroused. Since bogus feedback increases the sensation of presence, the results indicate that presence—like emotions—can be influenced by cognitive appraisals. It is likely that the false heart rate feedback was attributed to the stimulus, which in turn enhanced the sensation of presence.     

认知评价对主观情绪感受和生理活动的作用

围绕认知评价对情绪的作用, 针对传统认知评价实验方法的缺陷, 本研究改进认知评价的操作方法, 以情绪片段为实验材料, 以事先的评价背景替代与观看同步的评价策略, 以生理指标与情绪自评反映情绪变化, 考察41名大学生的认知评价对负性情绪的影响。结果发现, 持有利于情绪调节评价的个体, 负性情绪感受降低, 皮肤电反应减弱, 但心率无变化。研究表明, 认知评价影响个体的主观情绪体验, 并在一定程度上抑制负性情绪所致的生理唤起的增高。     

Anger,personality, and optimistic stress appraisals

Two studies examined the impacts of experimentally induced anger and personality on appraisals of hypothetical stressors. Consistent with predictions Study 1 (N = 62) revealed that anger (compared to a neutral state) led to more optimistic appraisals of the stressors, and that those impacts were limited to appraisal dimensions known to evoke anger. Study 2 (N = 116) partially replicated these findings, and also revealed that personality moderated these effects such that the most optimistic appraisals emerged among the most extraverted and emotionally stable participants. These findings add to the extant work on the cognitive consequences of discrete emotions, integrate the affect, judgement, and personality literatures with appraisal theories of emotion, and suggest future research & directions.     

Dispositional mindfulness,insomnia, sleep quality and dysfunctional sleep beliefs in post-treatment cancer patients

Dispositional mindfulness, or the tendency to be more mindful in daily life, has been associated with better psychological functioning and reduced overall distress. This study investigated the degree to which dispositional mindfulness was associated with sleep disturbances in cancer patients with insomnia. Further, we examined whether levels of mindfulness moderated the relationship between stress levels, mood disturbance, insomnia severity, sleep quality and dysfunctional sleep beliefs. Participants (N = 111) were adults who had been previously treated for cancer and currently met diagnostic criteria for insomnia. Higher levels of acting with awareness, non-judging and non-reacting were associated with better sleep and psychological outcomes. Despite these significant associations, mindfulness facets did not significantly moderate the relationship between stress, mood and sleep outcomes. This negative finding raises the possibility that increased mindfulness may not act directly to improve psychological outcomes, but rather through a series of other cognitive and affective changes. Our results emphasize the importance of addressing mood symptoms and stress appraisals as predictors of sleep disturbance in cancer patients.     

心理理论与社会互动方式对初中生社会善念发展的影响

为了探讨初中生社会善念的发展特点及相关影响因素,实验1采用卡通插图范式和SoMi范式,以628名7~9年级初中生为被试,考察不同心理理论类型初中生的社会善念的发展;实验2使用社会互动情境和SoMi范式,以360名7~9年级初中生为被试,考察社会互动方式与反馈类型对不同年级初中生社会善念的影响。结果发现:(1)初中生的社会善念不存在年级和性别差异,但7年级中高情感心理理论初中生的社会善念显著多于高认知心理理论初中生;(2)7年级初中生在积极反馈条件下的社会善念较多,而8年级初中生在消极反馈条件下较多,9年级初中生在这两种条件下则不存在显著差异;(3)在合作情境中,初中生在积极反馈下的社会善念更多,而在竞争情境中,初中生在消极反馈下的社会善念更多。研究说明初中生的社会善念具有跨年龄和跨性别的稳定性,并且会受到心理理论、社会互动方式及反馈类型的影响。     

State mood,task performance,and behavior at work: A within-persons approach

We examine the intra-individual relationships between state mood and the primary components of the individual-level criterion space (task performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and work withdrawal) as they vary within the stream of work. Using experience-sampling methods, 67 individuals in a call center responded to surveys on palmtop computers at random intervals 4–5 times each day for 3 weeks (total N = 2329). These data were matched to objective task performance obtained from organizational call records (total N = 1191). Within-persons, periods of positive mood were associated with periods of improved task performance (as evidenced by shorter call time) and engaging in work withdrawal. Trait meta-mood moderated these relationships. Specifically, individuals who attended to their moods had a stronger relationship between mood and speed of task performance (call time) and individuals able to repair their mood cognitively evidenced a weaker relationship between mood and withdrawal. Implications and the use of within-persons designs are discussed.