Putting action in perspective

Embodied approaches to cognition propose that our own actions influence our understanding of the world. Do other people's actions also have this influence? The present studies show that perceiving another person's actions changes the way people think about objects in a scene. In Study 1, participants viewed a photograph and answered a question about the location of one object relative to another. The question either did or did not call attention to an action being performed in the scene. Studies 2 and 3 focused on whether depicting an action in a scene influenced perspective choice. Across all studies, drawing attention to action, whether verbally or pictorially, led observers to encode object locations from the actor's spatial perspective. Study 4 demonstrated that the tendency to adopt the actor's perspective might be mediated by motor experience.     

Content Analyses of the Beliefs of Academic Procrastinators

Although relevant nomothetically-based personality literature has made great advances in recent years correlating traits to measures of procrastination, little is known about the specific irrational beliefs of procrastinators, especially when they are actively avoiding tasks or situations. Based on theories from Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), it was hypothesized that compared to non-procrastinators, college student academic procrastinators would show greater self depreciation, greater other depreciation, greater life condition depreciation, and a lower frustration tolerance. Academic procrastination was operationally defined by quartile distributions on two self- report measures and three classroom-based assignments. Procrastinators and non-procrastinating students were given instructions to write approximately 500 words about their thoughts and feelings while they were in the process of actively putting off a specific, real event. While actually procrastinating, students logged on to a web site and made text entries describing what was going through their minds. Data were analyzed with the Psychiatric Content and Diagnosis Program Version 3 (PCAD 3; Gottschalk and Bechtel in Psychiatric content and diagnosis: the PCAD 3. GB Software, Brighton, MI, 2007). Procrastinators and non-procrastinators differed on relevant PCAD scales, supporting the hypotheses derived from REBT theory. Treatment implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Differentiating Procrastinators from Each Other: A Cluster Analysis

Procrastination refers to the tendency to postpone the initiation and completion of a given course of action. Approximately one-fifth of the adult population and half of the student population perceive themselves as being severe and chronic procrastinators. Albeit not a psychiatric diagnosis, procrastination has been shown to be associated with increased stress and anxiety, exacerbation of illness, and poorer performance in school and work. However, despite being severely debilitating, little is known about the population of procrastinators in terms of possible subgroups, and previous research has mainly investigated procrastination among university students. The current study examined data from a screening process recruiting participants to a randomized controlled trial of Internet-based cognitive behavior therapy for procrastination (Rozental et al., in press). In total, 710 treatment-seeking individuals completed self-report measures of procrastination, depression, anxiety, and quality of life. The results suggest that there might exist five separate subgroups, or clusters, of procrastinators: “Mild procrastinators” (24.93%), “Average procrastinators” (27.89%), “Well-adjusted procrastinators” (13.94%), “Severe procrastinators” (21.69%), and “Primarily depressed” (11.55%). Hence, there seems to be marked differences among procrastinators in terms of levels of severity, as well as a possible subgroup for which procrastinatory problems are primarily related to depression. Tailoring the treatment interventions to the specific procrastination profile of the individual could thus become important, as well as screening for comorbid psychiatric diagnoses in order to target difficulties associated with, for instance, depression.     

An action perspective on motor development

Motor development has all too often been considered as a set of milestones with little significance for the psychology of the child. Nothing could be more wrong. From an action perspective, motor development is at the heart of development and reflects all its different aspects, including perception, planning and motivation. Recent converging evidence demonstrates that, from birth onwards, children are agents who act on the world. Even in the newborn child, their movements are never just reflexes. On the contrary, they are purposeful goal-directed actions that foresee events in the world. Thus, motor development is not just a question of gaining control over muscles; equally important are questions such as why a particular movement is made, how the movements are planned, and how they anticipate what is going to happen next.     

Project systems of procrastinators: a personal project-analytic and action control perspective

The purpose of this research was to explore the Personal Project Systems (e.g., Little, 1983) of state-oriented and action-oriented individuals. Eighty-four female and 57 male undergraduates enrolled in an introductory psychology class completed Little’s Personal Projects Analysis (e.g., 1983) and Kuhl’s Action Control Scale (Kuhl, 1994). The results from the present study revealed that the project systems of state-oriented individuals are higher in procrastination, frustration, boredom, uncertainty, and guilt, and lower in absorption, control, outcome, progress and self-identity. These findings are discussed in terms of previous research in the area of procrastination, project-analytic theory (e.g., Little, 1983) and Kuhl’s theory of action (e.g., Kuhl, 1994).     

The positive and negative framing of affirmative action: a group dominance perspective

Using a sample of 328 White, Latino, and Black Los Angeles County adults, the authors examined the tendency to employ various affirmative action "frames" (e.g., affirmative action as a "tie-breaking" device or as a quota-based policy). All three groups agreed about which frames cast affirmative action in a positive light and which cast it in a negative light. Although minorities had a tendency to frame affirmative action in terms that most people find morally acceptable, Whites had a tendency to frame affirmative action in terms most people find unacceptable. In addition, compared to minorities, Whites were less supportive of affirmative action regardless of how it was framed. LISREL modeling also was employed to test two competing models regarding predictors of the tendency to use frames that one personally finds to be relatively negative versus positive. Consistent with the expectations of social dominance theory and a motivated cognition perspective, the authors found that social dominance orientation (SDO) had significant net direct and indirect effects on one's framing of affirmative action.     

Sport as strategic action: A Habermasian perspective

The purpose of this paper is to explore the moral status of sport through a conceptual structure borrowed from Jürgen Habermas's philosophy and social theory. Habermas distinguishes between communicative and strategic action as two ways in which social action may be coordinated. While the former relies on the building of mutual understanding between social agents, the latter entails one agent manipulating others, as if they were mere objects to be treated instrumentally. In an initial model of sporting practice, it is suggested that sport primarily involves strategic action and in particular encourages the undermining of one's opponent's autonomy. This model is subject to criticism, by scrutinising Habermas's interpretation of the Wittgensteinian notion of a language game, and thus the relationship between communicative language-use and strategic games playing. It will be suggested that games playing has more in common with language-use than Habermas acknowledges, thereby opening up a space for genuinely communicative and expressive action within sport. In conclusion, it will be suggested that the moral significance of sport lies in the fact that its communicative and expressive potential can only be exercised against the moral threat of the dominance of strategic action.     

A complex systems perspective on psychedelic brain action

Recent findings suggesting the potential transdiagnostic efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapy have fostered the need to deepen our understanding of psychedelic brain action. Functional neuroimaging investigations have found that psychedelics reduce the functional segregation of large-scale brain networks. However, beyond this general trend, findings have been largely inconsistent. We argue here that a perspective based on complexity science that foregrounds the distributed, interactional, and dynamic nature of brain function may render these inconsistencies intelligible. We propose that psychedelics induce a mode of brain function that is more dynamically flexible, diverse, integrated, and tuned for information sharing, consistent with greater criticality. This ‘meta’ perspective has the potential to unify past findings and guide intuitions toward compelling mechanistic models.     

Moral cognition and moral action: A theoretical perspective

Considerable theoretical work has been done in the area of moral reasoning. However, little conceptual thinking has been done about the relations between moral cognition and moral action. As a result, empirical research in this area has been unsystematic and difficult to interpret. A theoretical model, the Self Model, is proposed here, starting from the assumption that moral reasons are functionally related to action. First, a concept of cognitive motivation is presented as necessary for any cognitive account of morality. Two cognitive approaches to moral conduct, Piaget's and Haan's, are then discussed in their positive contributions and in their limitations. The Self Model is finally described through a set of empirically testable propositions. Its major theoretical characteristics are: it is cognitive, recognizing as the central function of human cognition the appraisal of truth; it acknowledges a basic duality of motivation, but stresses the normative pull of cognitive motivation; it is developmental; it uses the self as the central explanatory concept, establishing both the sense of personal responsibility and the dynamism of self-consistency.     

Procrastinators and fear of failure: an exploration of reasons for procrastination

Procrastination, the act or tendency of putting things off that should be done today until tomorrow, has recently become a field of interest in the study of academic underachievement. In constructing tests for the measurement of procrastination, and in comparing test scores with self-attributions of reasons for procrastination, an unexpected discrepancy has been observed between fear of failure as a prominent reason for procrastination and test fear of failure being unrelated to procrastination. This study was meant to clarify this discrepancy. Students who procrastinate generally endorse many reasons for procrastination simultaneously. For some relatively homogeneous groups of students fear of failure is one of these reasons. Other groups of students do not attribute procrastination to fear of failure at all. For the sample as a whole, procrastination and fear of failure appear unrelated. However, trait procrastination and fear of failure may interact and result in increased levels of actualprocrastinatory behaviour.     

Collective action control by goals and plans: applying a self-regulation perspective to group performance

In celebration of the 125th anniversary of The American Journal of Psychology, this article discusses a seminal publication by Marjorie Shaw (1932) on small group performance in the rational solution of complex problems. We then propose an approach for the effective regulation of group goal striving based on the collective action control perspective. From this perspective, group performance might be hindered by a collective intention-behavior gap: Groups fail to act on their intentions despite being strongly committed to the collective goal, knowing what the necessary actions are, and being capable of performing them. To reduce this gap, we suggest specific if-then plans (implementation intentions) in which groups specify when, where, and how to act toward their collective goal as an easily applicable self-regulation strategy to automate collective action control. Studies in which implementation intentions improved group performance in hidden profile, escalation of commitment, and cooperation task paradigms are reported and discussed.     

Sex differences in jealousy: the (lack of) influence of researcher theoretical perspective

The sex difference in jealousy is an effect that has generated significant controversy in the academic literature (resulting in two meta-analyses that reached different conclusions on the presence or absence of the effect). In this study, we had a team of researchers from different theoretical perspectives use identical protocols to test whether the sex difference in jealousy would occur across many different samples (while testing whether mate value would moderate the effect). In our samples, we found the sex difference in jealousy to occur using both forced choice and continuous measures, this effect appeared in several different settings, and, we found that mate value moderated participant responses. The results are discussed in light of the controversy surrounding the presence of the effect.     

Crowd action as intergroup process: introducing the police perspective

Traditional crowd theory decontextualizes crowd incidents and explains behaviour entirely in terms of processes internal to the crowd itself. This ignores the fact that such incidents are characteristically intergroup encounters and draws attention away from the role of groups such as the police in the development of events. This paper begins to rectify this omission through an analysis of interviews with 26 Public Order trained police concerning crowds in general and the Poll Tax ‘riot’ of 31 March 1990 in particular. The analysis shows that, despite a perception of crowd composition as heterogeneous, officers perceive crowd dynamics as involving an anti-social minority seeking to exploit the mindlessness of ordinary people in the mass. Consequently, all crowds are seen as potentially dangerous and, in situations of actual conflict, all crowd members are seen as equally dangerous. In addition, police tactics for dealing with disorder make it very difficult to distinguish between individuals or subgroups in the crowd. This convergence of ideological and practical factors leads to the police treating crowds in disorder as an homogeneous whole. It is argued that such action can often play an important role in escalating (if not initiating) collective conflict and is also a key component of social change in crowd contexts. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

高低拖延者的冲动性特征与延迟折扣差异研究

拖延是一种复杂而常见的心理行为现象.研究结合国外拖延心理研究的新趋势,以拖延者是否具有冲动性人格与行为特征为切人点,采用人格问卷与行为实验相结合方式,综合测量了拖延者的冲动性特质与延迟折扣程度.结果发现:(1)拖延与冲动性具有显著正相关,高拖延者具有较高无计划冲动性、注意力冲动性和运动冲动性;(2)高、低拖延者在延迟折扣率上无显著差异,但在多数实验条件下,高拖延者比低拖延者具有更高延迟折扣程度.研究对理解拖延行为产生原因和制定拖延行为干预措施具有重要价值.     

Recipients' affective responses to affirmative action interventions: A cross-cultural perspective

This study investigated whether individualism-collectivism (cultural) differences would account for the observed relationship between ethnic group status and affective responses to and fairness perceptions of affirmative action interventions. Forty-nine international (Latin America and East Asia), 116 minority, and 106 majority participants from a major southwestern university and its community provided fairness and affective response ratings to an affirmative action scenario. Implementation policy and qualification of the recipient were also manipulated. Though ethnicity was related to individualism-collectivism, the latter did not explain any variance in affective response ratings. Minority and international participants reported more positive affect and higher agreement and fairness levels than did majority participants. Participants in the preferential treatment and equally qualified conditions had more favorable responses than those in the reverse-discrimination and less qualified conditions.     

Rhesus monkeys lack a consistent peak-end effect

In humans, the order of receiving sequential rewards can significantly influence the overall subjective utility of an outcome. For example, people subjectively rate receiving a large reward by itself significantly higher than receiving the same large reward followed by a smaller one (Do, Rupert, & Wolford, 2008). This result is called the peak-end effect. A comparative analysis of order effects can help determine the generality of such effects across primates, and we therefore examined the influence of reward-quality order on decision making in three rhesus macaque monkeys (Macaca mulatta). When given the choice between a high–low reward sequence and a low–high sequence, all three monkeys preferred receiving the high-value reward first. Follow-up experiments showed that for two of the three monkeys their choices depended specifically on reward-quality order and could not be accounted for by delay discounting. These results provide evidence for the influence of outcome order on decision making in rhesus monkeys. Unlike humans, who usually discount choices when a low-value reward comes last, rhesus monkeys show no such peak-end effect.     

Rhesus monkeys lack a consistent peak-end effect

In humans, the order of receiving sequential rewards can significantly influence the overall subjective utility of an outcome. For example, people subjectively rate receiving a large reward by itself significantly higher than receiving the same large reward followed by a smaller one (Do, Rupert, & Wolford, 2008). This result is called the peak-end effect. A comparative analysis of order effects can help determine the generality of such effects across primates, and we therefore examined the influence of reward-quality order on decision making in three rhesus macaque monkeys (Macaca mulatta). When given the choice between a high-low reward sequence and a low-high sequence, all three monkeys preferred receiving the high-value reward first. Follow-up experiments showed that for two of the three monkeys their choices depended specifically on reward-quality order and could not be accounted for by delay discounting. These results provide evidence for the influence of outcome order on decision making in rhesus monkeys. Unlike humans, who usually discount choices when a low-value reward comes last, rhesus monkeys show no such peak-end effect.     

The effects of action,normality, and decision carefulness on anticipated regret: Evidence for a broad mediating role of decision justifiability

Two distinct theoretical views explain the effects of action/inaction and social normality on anticipated regret. Norm theory (Kahneman & Miller, 1986) emphasises the role of decision mutability, the ease with which one can imagine having made a different choice. Decision justification theory (Connolly & Zeelenberg, 2002) highlights the role of decision justifiability, the perception that the choice was made on a defensible basis, supported by convincing arguments or using a thoughtful, comprehensive decision process. The present paper tests several contrasting predictions from the two theoretical approaches in a series of four studies. Study 1 replicated earlier findings showing greater anticipated regret when the chosen option was abnormal than when it was normal, and perceived justifiability mediated the effect. Study 2 showed that anticipated regret was higher for careless than for careful decisions. Study 3 replicated this finding for a sample holding a different social norm towards the focal decision. Finally, Study 4 found that, when decision carefulness, normality and action/inaction were all specified, only the former showed a significant effect on anticipated regret, and the effect was again mediated by perceived justifiability. Decision justification theory thus appears to provide a better account of anticipated regret intensity in this context than does norm theory.     

Effective regulation of affect: An action control perspective on emotion regulation

The present review adopts an action control perspective on emotion regulation, contextualising the gap between emotion control goals (e.g., I want to remain calm) and emotional outcomes (e.g., anger, anxiety, and aggression) in terms of the broader literature on goal pursuit. We propose that failure to effectively regulate emotions can result from difficulties with the self-regulatory tasks of (i) identifying the need to regulate, (ii) deciding whether and how to regulate, and (iii) enacting a regulation strategy. Next we review evidence that a technique traditionally associated with regulating behavioural goals (forming implementation intentions or “if-then” planning) can help to overcome these difficulties. Meta-analysis indicated that forming implementation intentions is effective in modifying emotional outcomes, with a large effect relative to no regulation instructions (k = 21, N = 1306 d ₊ = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.61 to 1.20) and a medium-sized effect relative to goal intention instructions (k = 29, N = 1208, d ₊ = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.42 to 0.65). Our conclusion is that research on emotion regulation might benefit from an action control perspective and the interventions that this perspective offers.