You can take it with you: individual differences and expatriate effectiveness

The authors report the collaborative efforts of 2 research teams that independently investigated the effects of stable personality traits (the Big Five) and specific behavioral competencies (cultural flexibility, task and people orientations, and ethnocentrism) on key dimensions of expatriate effectiveness: psychological adjustment, assignment withdrawal cognitions, and job performance. Analyses of multiple-source and longitudinal data from 3 studies, including a diverse sample of expatriates in Hong Kong and separate samples of Korean and Japanese expatriates posted around the world, indicate several direct effects of individual differences. Further data show reliable distinctions between the traits and competencies as well as incremental prediction by either set of predictors in the presence of the others.     

Emotional distress regulation takes precedence over impulse control: if you feel bad, do it!

Why do people's impulse controls break down during emotional distress? Some theories propose that distress impairs one's motivation or one's ability to exert self-control, and some postulate self-destructive intentions arising from the moods. Contrary to those theories, Three experiments found that believing that one's bad mood was frozen (unchangeable) eliminated the tendency to eat fattening snacks (Experiment 1), seek immediate gratification (Experiment 2), and engage in frivolous procrastination (Experiment 3). The implication is that when people are upset, they indulge immediate impulses to make themselves feel better, which amounts to giving short-term affect regulation priority over other self-regulatory goals.     

Chewing on it can chew you up: effects of rumination on triggered displaced aggression

Ruminating about a provocation increases the likelihood of displaced aggression following a minor annoyance (trigger). In Study 1, provoked participants who ruminated for 25 min were more aggressive toward a fumbling confederate than were distracted participants. Provocation-induced negative affect was positively related to aggression but only among those who ruminated. Study 2 conceptually replicated Study 1 and also found that the more negatively people reacted to the trigger, the more likely the trigger was to increase displaced aggression. Study 3 replicated the findings of Studies 1 and 2 by using an 8-hr rumination period. All 3 studies suggest that ruminating about a provocation increases the likelihood that a minor triggering annoyance will increase displaced aggression.     

You can say what you think: vindicating the effability of our thoughts

The thesis of Ineffability has it that no proposition can be fully expressed by a sentence, this meaning that no sentence-type, or even sentence-token whose indexicality and ambiguities have been resolved, can fully encode a proposition. The thesis of the propositionality of thoughts has it that thoughts are propositional. An implication of the joint endorsement of these two theses is that thoughts are ineffable. The aim of this paper is to argue that this is not the case: there are effable thoughts, and we can even safely say that, generally, thoughts are effable. In order to defend this insight, I first counter the thesis of the propositionality of thought by bringing some counterexamples to it, which amount to cases of non-fully propositional thought. I then argue that, if thoughts can be and often are non-fully propositional, they can be expressed by sentences that fail to fully express a proposition. I also show that the propositional thoughts that we can entertain are after all effable (in a suitable, relevant sense) and resist some alleged examples of insurmountable ineffability.     

What you don't know can hurt you: The effects of performance criteria ambiguity on sex differences in self-confidence1

Previous investigators have suggested that women display lower self-confidence than men across almost all achievement situations. The empirical validity of this suggestion is assessed in an experiment testing the hypothesis that performance evaluation guidelines moderate sex difference in self-confidence. Undergraduates read the guidelines by which their performance on an impending test would be evaluated. Guidelines were: ambiguous (A); clear—specifying the dimensions of performance to be examined, but not providing any examples of others' performance against which subjects' work would be compared (C); or clear with performance examples (CE). Subjects then completed the test and estimated how will they had done. Results showed the predicted pattern in conditions A and C: While women underestimated their actual performan?e much more than men when guidelines were ambiguous, they did not do so when guidelines were clear. Further, the rise in self-confidence for women from conditions A to C was greater than that for men. Also as predicted, both sexes' self-confidence and performance were higher in condition C than in condition A. Finally, although condition CE was expected to depress only women's self-confidence and performance, both sexes showed this effect. It is concluded that sex differences in self-confidence are moderated by situation variables and that programs designed to reduce such differences might be improved by a greater focus upon women's response to clearly specifiable factors in achievement settings.     

The (non-)benefit of choosing: If you get what you want it is not important that you chose it

Self-Determination Theory argues that autonomy plays a major role in intrinsic motivation. Autonomy can be operationalized as choice. Whether positive effects on motivation are caused by the mere act of choosing or by confounding variables is still unclear. In this study (N?=?299, M_age?=?13.1?±?0.6 years), students could work with two polarizing animals. The first group was allowed to choose (choosing & match), two groups were not. In these groups, the teacher allocated the animals to the students resulting in a second group that received the wanted animal (no choosing & match), and a third group that received the unwanted animal (no choosing & no match). Situational motivation and flow experience were assessed. Regarding intrinsic motivation and flow, students in the no choosing & match treatment scored the highest, students of the no choosing & no match group the lowest. In conclusion, matching and not choosing made the difference.     

If you can't grab it,it won't grab you: The effect of restricting the dominant hand on target evaluations

This research examines whether and how holding one object influences evaluations of another. Across four studies, we find that occupying the dominant (vs. non-dominant) hand leads to lower evaluations of the target object; further, process data suggests that this effect occurs because dominant hand restriction impairs the ease with which the perceiver simulates holding the target. Boundary conditions that document effect attenuation and reversal are also consistent with this premise. Collectively, the studies offer support for a circular chain of influence between the perception and action systems.     

Walk for well-being: The main effects of walking on approach motivation

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of exercise in the development of self-efficacy and approach motivation. An 8-week blind experimental design was used (N?=?185), with two control and two treatment groups. Already physically active participants were assigned to one control group, while participants that reported a sedentary lifestyle at pretest were randomly assigned to either a sedentary control group or one of two treatment groups that began a brisk walking intervention. Treatment group participants walked either outdoors or indoors for 30 min per day, 4 days per week, for 8 weeks. The indoor/outdoor treatment group assignment was implemented to determine if exercising outdoors enhanced the outcomes. Significant main effects of walking were found for exercise self-efficacy, general self-efficacy and global approach motivation tendencies. Walking outdoors resulted in the greatest gains in general self-efficacy and global approach motivation. Given the alarmingly sedentary nature of American culture, these findings further evidence how simple changes in physical activity may have profound effects on well-being.

     

What you know can hurt you: effects of age and prior knowledge on the accuracy of judgments of learning

How do aging and prior knowledge affect memory and metamemory? We explored this question in the context of a dual-process approach to Judgments of Learning (JOLs), which require people to predict their ability to remember information at a later time. Young and older adults (n = 36, mean ages = 20.2 & 73.1) studied the names of actors who were famous in the 1950s or 1990s, providing a JOL for each. Recognition memory for studied and unstudied actors was then assessed using a Recollect/Know/No-Memory (R/K/N) judgment task. Results showed that prior knowledge increased recollection in both age groups such that older adults recollected significantly more 1950s actors than younger adults. Also, for both age groups and both decades, actors judged R at test garnered significantly higher JOLs at study than actors judged K or N. However, while the young showed benefits of prior knowledge on relative JOL accuracy, older adults did not, showing lower levels of JOL accuracy for 1950s actors despite having higher recollection for, and knowledge about, those actors. Overall, the data suggest that prior knowledge can be a double-edged sword, increasing the availability of details that can support later recollection, but also increasing nondiagnostic feelings of familiarity that can reduce the accuracy of memory predictions.     

We can do it: the interplay of construal orientation and social comparisons under threat

The authors investigated how a collective self-construal orientation in combination with positive social comparisons "turns off" the negative effects of stereotype threat. Specifically, Experiment 1 demonstrated that stereotype threat led to increased accessibility of participants' collective self ("we"). Experiment 2 showed that this feeling of "we-ness" in the stereotype threat condition centered on the participants' stereotyped group membership and not on other important social groups (e.g., students). Experiment 3 indicated that in threat situations, when participants' collective self is accessible, positive social comparison information led to improved math test performance and less concern, whereas in nonthreat situations, when the collective self is less accessible, positive comparison information led to worse test performance and more concern. Our final experiment revealed that under stereotype threat, only those comparison targets who are competent in the relevant domain (math), rather than in domains unrelated to math (athletics), enhanced participants' math test performance.     

"Just stop thinking about it": effects of emotional disengagement on children's memory for educational material

Children regulate negative emotions in a variety of ways. Emotion education programs typically discourage emotional disengagement and encourage emotional engagement or "working through" negative emotions. The authors examined the effects of emotional disengagement and engagement on children's memory for educational material. Children averaging 7 or 10 years of age (N=200) watched either a sad or an emotionally neutral film and were then instructed to emotionally disengage, instructed to engage in problem solving concerning their emotion, or received no emotion regulation instructions. All children then watched and were asked to recall the details of an emotionally neutral educational film. Children instructed to disengage remembered the educational film better than children instructed to work through their feelings or children who received no emotion regulation instructions. Although past research has indicated that specific forms of emotional disengagement can impair memory for emotionally relevant events, the current findings suggest that disengagement is a useful short-term strategy for regulating mild negative emotion in educational settings.     

When it does hurt to try: adult age differences in the effects of instructions on implicit pattern learning

Trying to learn sometimes impairs implicit learning of artificial grammars and of control systems. We asked whether such negative effects of trying also occur in implicit learning of subtle sequential regularities and whether such effects vary with adult age. Young (n=12, age=20–23) and older (n=24, age=60–80) adults completed an alternating serial response time task in which predictable pattern events alternated with random ones in a visual/spatial display. Half of the participants were informed about the pattern and were instructed to try to discover it (intentional instructions), and half were not (incidental instructions). Age-related deficits in implicit learning occurred for both conditions. In addition, for the older group, but not for the younger one, intentional instructions impaired implicit pattern learning. This negative effect of trying to learn demonstrates another similarity among implicit learning tasks, supporting the view that some common processes underlie different forms of implicit learning.     

What to do and how to do it: sequence learning of action effects and transformation rules

Many goal-oriented actions, for example in tool use, can be characterized by the involvement of two components: The effect that the acting person wants to achieve and the transformation rule that defines the relationship between a bodily movement and the associated action effect. Both in conjunction specify the concrete action that has to be executed. In our experiments, we utilized a sequence learning paradigm to investigate whether these components are represented separately or are bound together to form a more holistic representation of the action. Participants switched between different transformation rules to achieve certain action effects. In one group, there was a fixed sequence of action effects, with randomly varying transformation rules. In the other group, the sequence of transformation rules was fixed, whereas the action effects were randomly varying. Results indicate that both kinds of sequences can be learned and provide evidence for the notion that transformation rules and action effects are represented separately.     

Sleep on it, but only if it is difficult: Effects of sleep on problem solving

Previous research has shown that performance on problem solving improves over a period of sleep, as compared with wakefulness. However, these studies have not determined whether sleep is beneficial for problem solving or whether sleep merely mitigates against interference due to an interruption to solution attempts. Sleep-dependent improvements have been described in terms of spreading activation, which raises the prediction that an effect of sleep should be greater for problems requiring a broader solution search. We presented participants with a set of remote-associate tasks that varied in difficulty as a function of the strength of the stimuli–answer associations. After a period of sleep, wake, or no delay, participants reattempted previously unsolved problems. The sleep group solved a greater number of difficult problems than did the other groups, but no difference was found for easy problems. We conclude that sleep facilitates problem solving, most likely via spreading activation, but this has its primary effect for harder problems.     

The Fakability of Bar-On's Emotional Quotient Inventory Short Form: Catch Me if You Can

We developed a method for estimating the dollar utility of changes in job performance associated with illnesses and their treatments. Then we applied this method to predict, for each job in the economy, the difference in productivity costs associated with the illness of Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis (SAR) and that due to the difference between 2 commonly used treatments of SAR. The findings suggest that workers are 5% less productive when affected by SAR, and that when workers treat their SAR with desloratadine (a nonsedating antihistamine) instead of diphenhydramine (an over-the-counter 1st-generation antihistamine), they are 7% more productive, translating to a daily productivity cost differential between the 2 treatments of $11 per day, or $2.6 billion annually. The jobs most affected require high amounts of selective attention and perceptual speed (e.g., Aircraft Pilots and Flight Engineers, and those in the fields of manufacturing, security, and emergency response).     

I like it because I said that I like it: evaluative conditioning effects can be based on stimulus-response learning

Evaluative conditioning (EC) effects are often assumed to be based on a learned mental link between the CS (conditioned stimulus) and the US (unconditioned stimulus). We demonstrate that this link is not the only one that can underlie EC effects, but that if evaluative responses are actually given during the learning phase also a direct link between the CS and an evaluative response-a CS-ER link-can be learned and lead to EC effects. In Experiment 1, CSs were paired with USs and participants were asked to evaluate the pairs during the conditioning phase. Resulting EC effects were unaffected by a later revaluation of the USs, suggesting that these EC effects can be attributed to CS-ER learning rather than to CS-US learning. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 with the difference that no evaluative responses were given during the learning phase. EC effects in this study were influenced by US revaluation, suggesting that these EC effects are mainly based on CS-US learning. In Experiment 3, it was shown that EC effects can be found even if the USs are entirely removed from the procedure and the CSs are only paired with enforced evaluative responses. Together the experiments show that the valence of a stimulus can change because of a contingency with an evaluative response. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).