The cost of forgiveness: Observers prefer victims who leave unfaithful romantic partners

Ninety‐six male fraternity members (Study 1), 112 female voters (Study 2), and 219 undergraduates (Study 3) read scenarios in which a group representative forgave, retaliated, or left a romantic partner after the partner's sexual infidelity was publically revealed. Observers rated a victim who forgave his or her partner to be as mature as a victim who ended the relationship, but also as weaker and less competent. They rated a victim who forgave to be more mature but almost as weak and incompetent as a victim who retaliated. Symbolic concerns that the victim's behavior violated shared values (all three studies) or damaged the group's power/status (Study 3) mediated the relationship between victim behavior and victim ratings. These data demonstrate how the symbolic concerns that shape observers' judgments of an offender can extend to observers' judgments of the victim. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hungry people prefer larger bodies and objects: The importance of testing boundary effects

Several lab-based studies have indicated that when people are hungry, they judge larger women's bodies as more attractive, compared to when they are satiated. These satiety-dependent judgements are assumed to provide explanatory power when it comes to the noted cross-cultural differences in attitudes towards women's adiposity, whereby people who live in regions that are under greater nutritional stress tend to have more favourable attitudes towards bigger bodies. However, it is premature to assume that women's bodies are the proper or actual domain of the satiety-dependent judgement shifts found within research study testing contexts until stimuli other than female bodies have also been tested: The research programme falls into the trap of confirmation bias unless we also seek out disconfirmatory evidence and test the boundaries of the effects of hunger. Accordingly, we collected attractiveness judgements of female and male bodies manipulated to vary in size by varying level of adiposity, and objects manipulated to vary in size, from 186 participants who also reported their current hunger level. We found that larger sizes of stimuli in general, and women's bodies in particular, especially when judged by women, were judged as more attractive by the hungrier participants. We discuss these patterns in the context of the Insurance Hypothesis, the Environmental Security Hypothesis, and the impact of hunger on acquisition.     

How beliefs influence the relative magnitude of pleasure and pain

Loss aversion is an economic assumption about utility—people value giving up a good more than they value getting it. It also has hedonic meaning—the pain of a loss is greater in magnitude than the pleasure of a comparable gain. But value and pleasure are not necessarily identical. We test the hedonic interpretation of loss aversion in experimental markets. With hedonic forecasts, sellers imagine the pain of losing their endowment, and buyers imagine the pleasure of being endowed. With hedonic experiences, sellers rate the pleasure of having the endowment, and buyers rate the pain of being without it. Contrary to loss aversion, predicted pleasure is greater in magnitude than predicted pain, and experienced pleasure surpasses experienced pain. We show that the relative magnitude of pleasure and pain depends on beliefs about the likelihood of outcomes, as well as utilities. Surprise makes gains more pleasurable and losses more painful. With surprising gains and expected losses, pleasure can surpass pain. But when gains and losses are equally likely (or losses are surprising and gains are expected), the opposite pattern can occur. Finally, within‐group and between‐group prices are significantly correlated with hedonic experiences. Sellers who feel better with their endowments assign higher selling prices, and buyers who feel worse about the absence of endowment assign higher buying prices. Despite the fact that hedonic experiences deviate from loss aversion, these emotions predict the endowment effect. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The consequences of pain: The social and physical pain overlap on psychological responses

Current theories suggest that social and physical pain overlap in their neurological and physiological outcomes. We investigated how social and physical pain overlap in their psychological responses by testing the hypothesis that both social and physical pain would thwart satisfaction on four human needs, worsen mood, and increase desire to aggress. In Experiment 1, recalling an experience of social or physical pain produced overlapping effects in the form of thwarted self‐esteem and control needs and increased negative affect and desire to aggress. In Experiment 2, we induced social (Cyberball ostracism) or physical pain (cold pressor) within the laboratory session, and found that both pain types produced feelings of being ignored and excluded, and thwarted belonging, self‐esteem, control, and meaningful existence. Our results provide further support to pain overlap theories and indicate that social and physical pain cause common psychological consequences, resulting in new ways to understand and manage pain. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Malicious pleasure: schadenfreude at the suffering of another group

Two studies examined intergroup schadenfreude--malicious pleasure at an out-group's misfortune. Study 1 showed that schadenfreude regarding a German loss in soccer was increased by interest in soccer and threats of Dutch inferiority. The effect of inferiority threat was especially strong for participants less interested in soccer; the more interested showed relatively high schadenfreude. Study 2 replicated these effects by showing a similar pattern of schadenfreude regarding losses by Germany and Italy in another setting. However, schadenfreude toward legitimately superior Italy was lower when a norm of honest and direct expression was made salient to participants lower in soccer interest. These results establish schadenfreude as an emotion that is moderated by the salient dimensions of particular intergroup relations.     

The role of need satisfaction as a distinct and basic psychological component of autobiographical memories: a look at well-being

The purpose of the present research was to show that satisfaction of the psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness constitutes a basic component characterizing autobiographical memories. In Study 1, a coding scheme and a self-rating method for measuring need satisfaction in memories were developed and shown to be highly related to each other. Across 3 studies using graduate and undergraduate students (Study 1: N=244; Study 2: N=309; Study 3: N=159), need satisfaction was found to be moderately associated with well-being measures, over and above several other memory components usually assessed in research on autobiographical memories. In addition, this association between need satisfaction in autobiographical memories and well-being held, even after controlling for person-level measures, such as personality traits, self-determined orientation, or experience of need satisfaction in general in one's life, thus suggesting that autobiographical memory and semantic self-knowledge are distinct databases.     

Both early and late changes in psychological variables relate to treatment outcome for musculoskeletal pain patients at risk for disability

We know little about why some people get better after psychological treatments for pain disability, whereas other people do not. In order to understand differences in treatment response, we need to explore processes of change during treatment. It has been suggested that people with pain complaints who change early in treatment have better outcomes. Therefore, we aimed to investigate whether changes in psychological variables at different time points are related to outcome, and whether early or late changes are better predictors of outcome. We used the fear avoidance model as a theoretical framework. We followed 64 patients weekly over 6–7 weeks and then determined outcome. Our findings indicate that people who decrease in catastrophizing and function early in treatment as well as in depressive symptoms, worry, fear avoidance beliefs and function late in treatment have better outcomes. Early decreases in function, and late decreases in depressive symptoms and worry uniquely predict improvements in disability. While early and late changes covaried concurrently, there were no significant sequential relationships between early and late changes. Changes in the proposed process variables in the fear avoidance model, early as well as late in treatment, thus add valuable information to the explanation of outcome.     

Different and similar at the same time: when the activation of dissimilarity makes people look more similar

Whether two people are presented as similar or different may have a strong impact on the outcome of their comparison. In the present research, we examined the counterintuitive hypothesis that activating dissimilarity increases the perception of similarities between people, in other words increases perceived feature overlap, during the comparison process. We investigated this prediction by asking people to judge the perceived similarity between two faces with a suboptimally related or unrelated morph inserted in between (to influence joint categorization), and with similar or different facial expressions (to vary the salience of similar or different features). The results confirmed our expectations: In the similarity (joint categorization) condition, two faces that differed in expression were perceived as more dissimilar than faces with the same expression. More important for our prediction, in the dissimilarity condition two faces with different expressions were no longer perceived as more dissimilar than two faces with the same expression. We discuss implications of these findings for the mechanisms underlying comparisons between people. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The mediators of experiential purchases: Determining the impact of psychological needs satisfaction and social comparison

Once basic needs are satisfied, the relation between income and subjective well-being is small, and materialism leads to diminished well-being. This study attempts to determine: (1) whether experiential purchases, as opposed to materialistic purchases, are likely to increase well-being and (2) whether these increases are likely to be due to increased satisfaction of psychological needs and/or decreased social comparison. Participants indicated that experiential purchases represented money better spent, brought more happiness to themselves, and brought more happiness to others. Path models demonstrated that experiential purchases had an indirect effect on one's well-being through two independent paths: (1) increased relatedness, which then led to increased vitality, and (2) decreased social comparison. Discussion focuses on why vitality and social comparison affect well-being.     

The concept of psychogenic pain: A psychological investigation of women with pelvic pain

Women with pain occurring in the absence of pathology have been reported to have personality and mood disturbances which account for their pain. These studies suffer from both methodological and theoretical difficulties. A common methodological problem is the absence of comparison groups of women with pain of equivalent chronicity yet with diagnosed pathology. This study compares women with and without pathology, matched for pain chronicity, on a range of psychological measures. No differences were observed between “pathology” and “no pathology” groups on global measures of personality or mood. Differences do emerge in specific attitudes and exposure to illness. The implications of these findings for our understanding of pain mechanisms are discussed and the limitations of the notion of “psychogenic” pain are considered.     

The role of attentional strategies in moderating links between acute pain induction and subsequent psychological stress: evidence for symptom-specific reactivity among patients with chronic pain versus healthy nonpatients

Vulnerability to stressors after pain may depend on the degree to which the strategy used to process information about pain perpetuates thoughts of suffering and distress. Patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) may show susceptibility to stress after pain through symptom-specific (lower paraspinal [LP]) muscle reactivity. Patients with CLBP (n = 100) and healthy nonpatients (n = 105) underwent a cold pressor, under sensory focus, distraction, suppression, or control conditions, and then performed mental arithmetic. Only patients under the suppression condition revealed increased LP tension during pain that was sustained during mental arithmetic and sustained systolic blood pressure after mental arithmetic. Patients with CLBP who suppress pain may detrimentally affect responses to the next noxious event, particularly through prolonged LP muscle tension, that may contribute to a cycle of pain-stress-pain.     

Some affective consequences of social comparison and reflection processes: the pain and pleasure of being close

A self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) model of social behavior was described. According to the comparison process, when another outperforms the self on a task high in relevance to the self, the closer the other the greater the threat to self-evaluation. According to the reflection process, when another outperforms the self on a task low in relevance to the self, the closer the other the greater the promise of augmentation to self-evaluation. Affect was assumed to reflect threats and promises to self-evaluation. In three studies, subjects were given feedback about own performance and the performance of a close (friend) and distant (stranger) other on tasks that were either low in self-relevance (Study 2) or that varied in self-relevance (Studies 1 and 3). In Study 1 (N = 31), subjects' performance on simple and complex tasks after each feedback trial served as a measure of arousal. Being outperformed by a close other resulted in greater arousal than being outperformed by a distant other. In Study 2 (N = 30), evaluative ratings of words unrelated to task performance served as an indirect measure of affect. Results indicated that when relevance is low, more positive affect is associated with a friend's outperforming the self than either a friend's performing at a level equal to the self or being outperformed by a stranger. In Study 3 (N = 31), subjects received feedback while their facial expressions were monitored. Pleasantness of expression was an interactive function of relevance of task, relative performance, and closeness of comparison other. The results of all three studies were interpreted as being generally consistent with the SEM model.     

Towards understanding pleasure at the misfortunes of others: The impact of self-evaluation threat on schadenfreude

In two experiments we demonstrated that a self-evaluation threat intensifies schadenfreude. Moreover, we showed that a self-evaluation threat predicts schadenfreude in both threat-related and threat-unrelated domains and when controlling for feelings of envy and dislike towards the target and evaluations of the misfortune in terms of deservingness. These findings indicate that another's misfortune may be pleasing because it satisfies people's concern for a positive self-view and a sense of self-worth.     

The interplay between psychological need satisfaction and psychological need frustration within a work context: A variable and person-oriented approach

A plethora of empirical data support a positive (or “brighter”) pathway to optimal human functioning as specified within Basic Psychological Needs Theory (Ryan and Deci in Psychol Inq 11(4):319–33, 2000). Yet, far less is known about the negative (or “darker”) pathway, a process evoking of human dysfunction and ill-being (cf. Vansteenkiste and Ryan in J Psychother Integr 23(3):263, 2013). Further, debate surrounds the independence and interplay between psychological need satisfaction and psychological need frustration and how these dynamic constructs are experienced within individuals. In this work, variable and person-oriented analyses were employed to: (i) investigate the relationships between the basic psychological needs and symptoms of stress, depression and anxiety as well as with life satisfaction; and (ii) identify different psychological need profiles and their relationship with psychological function. Participants (N?=?2236; M Age?=?42.16 years; SD?=?7.8) were UK-based operational firefighters who completed an online survey. Results of regression analyses showed a moderating effect of psychological need satisfaction on the relationship between need frustration and negative psychological symptoms. Latent profile analyses revealed five distinct basic psychological need profiles that carry implications for human psychological functioning. Some support for an asymmetrical relationship between need satisfaction and need frustration emerged (Vansteenkiste and Ryan in J Psychother Integr 23(3):263, 2013), yet, examples of above average need satisfaction and frustration scores were also observed. Worker profiles where psychological need frustration prevailed over need satisfaction had the poorest psychological health.

     

The role of additional information in the compliance,satisfaction, psychological,and emotion responses of non-surgical patients with low back pain: An exploratory investigation

Abstract

Noncompliance and the psychological and emotional states of patients with low back pain are major concerns for health professionals. The current study evaluated whether amount of information available to patients enhanced compliance to a medical regimen and whether it reduced negative emotions in patients with low back pain. Forty-five orthopaedic non-surgical patients with low back pain were randomly assigned to one of three information presentation conditions: 1) Standard, 2) Pre-examination, and 3) Post-examination. Patients were also separated by compensation and noncompensation within each information group. Patients completed questionnaires at their initial visit and at their follow-up which evaluated their: levels of compliance to a prescribed treatment program, psychological, and emotional states. Results indicated that some patients benefitted from receiving additional information as the Pre-examination and Post-examination groups demonstrated superior comprehension and recall as well as higher levels of compliance to a physical therapy program. In addition, compensation patients complained of more negative psychological and emotional behaviors in comparison to noncompensation patients. Implications of the research and future research considerations were discussed.     

Spirituality and psychological pain: the mediating role of social support

Spirituality is a multifaceted construct, and often studied as a one- or two-dimensional variable. Recent work has resulted in the development of the RiTE model of spirituality. While preliminarily supported as a useful approach to measuring spirituality, little is known regarding its associations with other outcomes. Past studies have shown inverse associations between spirituality and psychological distress, which appears to be partially a function of social support derived from spiritual beliefs or practices. As such, the present study tested the relationship between the RiTE dimensions and psychache as mediated by multiple types of social support. Parallel mediation results from an undergraduate sample (N?=?1994) showed that all three RiTE dimensions were indirectly associated with psychache via multiple forms of social support. Ritualistic and existential spirituality also displayed direct associations with psychache. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of past literature, applicable theoretical constructs, and treatment considerations.     

半个多世纪来中国人的心理与行为变化——心理学视野下的研究

半个多世纪以来, 史无前例的快速社会变迁对中国文化和中国人的心理与行为产生了广泛而深远的影响。现有研究探讨了中国人在十多个方面的心理和行为变化, 包括文化价值、人格特征、自我建构、人际信任、幸福感、情绪、动机、关系、心理健康以及其他社会态度和行为等。总体上, 这些研究勾画出了半个世纪以来中国人心理变化的总体倾向：(1)与现代社会相适应的个体主义价值和心理行为日益盛行; (2)传统社会所强调的集体主义价值虽日渐衰落, 但其部分仍在当代社会主流价值中占有一席之地; (3)多元文化共存将是当下和未来中国社会的重要特征。一些具体的变化还包括：中国人的一般信任在下降、幸福感先下降但近年来有上升的迹象、心理健康总体水平上升但是不同社会群体升降不一致、总体的负性情绪在增加、性观念更为开放和包容等。未来的研究应在广度(内容、领域)和深度(原因、机制和过程)上对现有研究进行拓展, 努力建构能同时解释心理和行为变化一般规律及中国人的变化独特性的理论。     

The attentional cost of amplitude and directional requirements when pointing to targets

The aim of this study was to investigate the comparative cost of accuracy constraints in direction or amplitude for movement regulation. The attentional cost is operationally defined as the amount of disturbance created in a secondary task by the simultaneous execution of a pointing task in direction or amplitude. The cost is expressed in terms of modifications in response to a secondary task, consisting of a foot-pedal release in response to an auditory stimulus (probe). The probe was introduced during the programming portion or the first, middle, or last portion of the pointing movement. The independent variables were the requirements of the task: direction or amplitude, and the moments of occurrence of the probe. Subjects were submitted to eight experimental conditions: (1) simple foot reaction time to a buzzer; (2) single directional task; (3) single amplitude task; (4) dual directional task (i.e. directional task with probe); (5) dual amplitude task (i.e. amplitude task with probe); (6) retest of foot simple reaction time; (7) retest of single directional task; and (8) retest of single amplitude task. Regulation in direction was more attention-demanding than regulation in distance in terms of programming. During pointing in amplitude, probe RT increased monotonically from start to end of movement execution, whereas directional pointing did not lead to any significant probe RT changes. These results emphasize the specific attentional loads for directional and amplitude pointing tasks, hence the involvement of different central nervous system mechanisms for the programming and regulation of the directional and amplitude parameters of pointing movements.