Free to be me: The relationship between the true self,rejection sensitivity,and use of online dating sites

Prior research (Blackhart et al., 2014) found that rejection-sensitive individuals are more likely to use online dating sites. The purpose of the current research was to explain the relationship between rejection sensitivity and online dating site usage. Study 1 examined whether true self mediated the relation between rejection sensitivity and online dating. Study 2 sought to replicate the findings of Study 1 and to examine whether self-disclosure moderated the relationship between true self and online dating in the mediation model. Results replicated those found by Blackhart et al. and also found that true self mediated the relationship between rejection sensitivity and online dating site usage. These findings suggest that rejection-sensitive individuals feel they can more easily represent their “true” selves in online environments, such as online dating sites, which partially explains why they are more likely to engage in online dating.     

The impact of daycare environments on children's mood and behavior

This study examined the influence of different environmental features at nine daycare centers on 74 children's (42 boys and 32 girls) emotions in relation to their individual traits. The environments were predominantly assessed by semantic scales, and the children's emotions using a structured observational technique. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the activation level as well as the control of the behavior were related to the individual traits of the children, whereas the directedness and the hedonic tone of the behavior were related to the environment and the situation (meal or free play). Of special interest is the result that extrovert children displayed higher levels of control than the more introvert children. The most important quality of the physical daycare environment was unity, whereas intensity and familiarity were to most salient qualities of the social environment     

Negative interpretation bias as a mechanism of the relationship between rejection sensitivity and depressive symptoms

Rejection sensitivity and negative cognitive biases have been identified as important risk factors for depression. Rejection sensitivity is defined as the tendency to anxiously anticipate, easily perceive, and overreact to rejection. Although prior studies have found an association between one component of rejection sensitivity, the tendency to anxiously anticipate rejection, and depression, little is known about the mechanisms through which anxious anticipation of rejection might confer depression risk. One possibility is that rejection anticipation leads to negatively biased interpretations, a cognitive risk factor for depression. Results from two studies (one cross-sectional, one longitudinal) indicate that negative interpretation biases mediate the association between the anxious anticipation of rejection and depressive symptoms. These findings indicate that interpretation biases represent a mechanism through which anxious anticipation of rejection confers risk for depression, and suggest that interventions designed to challenge negative interpretations may help to decrease depression risk among individuals who anticipate rejection.     

The effect of belief in weight controllability on anti-fat attitudes: An experimental manipulation

IntroductionAnti-fat attitudes reflect a type of discrimination on the basis of body weight and are one of the last accepted types of social stigma.ObjectiveTo evaluate the effect of exposure to priming messages about the causes of obesity on attitudes toward fat people.MethodParticipants (n = 580, M age = 22.19, 64.1% female) were randomly assigned to one of three possible conditions and then provided responses on three AFA subscales: Dislike, Fear of fat, and Willpower.ResultsPriming participants with messages confirming/challenging the weight controllability belief was associated with higher/lower levels on Willpower respectively compared to the control group. Unexpectedly, participants in both confirming and challenging groups showed significantly higher scores on Fear of fat. No differences were found on scores indicating Dislike.ConclusionThe current findings emphasize the effect of exposure to information about the causes of obesity on weight controllability beliefs.     

Positive attributional style,life events and their effect on children's mood: Prospective study

The present study extended previous research into the role of cognitive style in predicting depressive symptoms in children by examining positive attributional style for positive events in a prospective manner, with a focus on the influence of prior life experience. A non‐clinical sample of 102 children (aged 10–12 years) was recruited. Participants completed self‐report measures of depression, attributional style, stressful life events, and positive life events on two occasions (approximately 6 months apart). Positive attributional style for positive events moderated the relationship between negative life events and follow‐up depressive symptoms. Number of positive events did not significantly moderate the negative life events–depression symptoms relationship although there was a trend in the expected direction. Positive attributional style for positive events appeared to act as both a mediator and moderator in the positive events–depression symptoms relationship. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Effects of achievement goals on self-regulation of eating attitudes among elite female athletes: An experimental study

Introduction

The influence of achievement goals on eating attitudes has mainly been examined through correlational studies (e.g., [De Bruin et?al., 2009] and [Duda and Kim, 1997]), and none of the studies to date has focused on the self-regulation of eating attitudes in athletes. The present study experimentally tested the effects of achievement goals on both self-reported (Study 1) and behavioral indices (Study 2) of the self-regulation of eating attitudes in female figure skaters.

Method

Elite female figure skaters (Study 1: n = 44; Study 2: n = 54) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions designed to induce specific goal involvement (performance-approach, mastery-approach, performance-avoidance, and mastery-avoidance) or a control condition (no goal induction). The participants in Study 1 completed the Self-Regulation of Eating Attitudes in Sport Scale (SREASS, Scoffier, Corrion, Paquet, & Arripe-Longueville, 2010) and those in Study 2 completed a virtual behavioral measure of self-regulation of eating attitudes (VSSR; Scoffier, 2009).

Results

Variance analyses indicated that induced mastery-approach goals and performance-avoidance goals resulted in higher scores for self-regulation of eating attitudes than induced performance-approach goals and mastery-avoidance goals. The relationships were the same at both self-reported and behavioral levels.

Discussion

This experimental study confirms the findings of previous correlational works and shows that achievement goals contribute to the causal processes of self-regulation of eating attitudes. These findings might help to prevent eating disorders in female athletes by providing guidance for the development of adapted motivational strategies.     

Holding your flag: The effects of exposure to a regional symbol on people's behavior

Research has shown that exposure to the national flag alters people's behavior and political and intergroup judgments. In several field studies conducted in an area of France with a strong regional identity, we examined the effect of the presence of the regional flag versus the national flag versus no flag on behaviors. Various situations (e.g., money solicitation, implicit helping behavior, food tasting) were tested in Brittany, on the French west Atlantic coast. Car drivers, passersby in the street, and patrons in bakeries were exposed to no flag versus the French flag versus the Brittany flag held by requesters or presented on a product or on a car. Findings showed that the regional flag increased helping behavior dramatically. Other studies also revealed that the presence of the Brittany flag reduced aggressiveness and influenced preference for food products. The power of a flag as a symbol that could increase in‐group membership is discussed.     

Effects of mood and knowledge on evaluations: An experimental study

An experimental study was conducted to estimate the impact of subjects' mood states on their responses to evaluative ratings. Four experimental groups were induced by either a very negative, mildly negative, neutral or positive mood-inducing film. As hypothesized, systematic differences were found between the groups in their evaluations. Factual knowledge about the evaluation object was, contrary to expected, not found to modify mood effects. This negative finding could, however, be explained by a strong stereotypical impression of the object (a distant travel destination) held by the respondents.     

The roles of trauma exposure,rejection sensitivity,and callous‐unemotional traits in the aggressive behavior of justice‐involved youth: A moderated mediation model

Research has demonstrated an association between childhood trauma exposure and adolescent aggression. This association may be explained by rejection sensitivity, defined as anger, or anxiety in the anticipation of rejection, which can be a consequence of trauma exposure. Callous‐unemotional (CU) traits also are associated with trauma exposure and aggressive behavior; however, research has not yet investigated the interactive roles that rejection sensitivity and CU traits play in the relation between trauma exposure and aggression. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the role of rejection sensitivity in the association between trauma exposure and aggression, and whether this indirect effect was moderated by CU traits. Participants included 380 detained youth (98 girls, 282 boys) who completed self‐report measures of trauma exposure, angry, and anxious rejection sensitivity, CU traits, and aggression. Results of moderated mediation demonstrated that the relation between trauma exposure and aggression exhibited an indirect effect through angry rejection sensitivity, but only at moderate or high levels of CU traits. This pattern was not found for anxious rejection sensitivity. Results suggest that interventions aimed to decrease aggressive behavior in traumatized adolescents may benefit from considering how youth respond to rejection, as well as whether youth endorse CU traits, as this may help to limit further involvement in the juvenile justice system after release.

     

The Role of Parents and Peers in Early Adolescent Substance Use: An Examination of Mediating and Moderating Effects

We examined several models representing the relations among parenting practices, family structure, peer pressure, and drug use in a sample of 443 seventh graders. The setting was an urban school system serving a high percentage of African American students from low-income families. Analyses using structural equation modeling supported a mediation model in which both peer pressure and parenting practices had direct effects on drug use, with peer pressure mediating the influence of parenting. Within this model, family structure had a significant direct effect on parenting, however, contrary to hypotheses, children from two-parent families were more likely to report that they received adequate parenting than were children from single-parent extended families. Several gender differences were also found. Peer pressure was more highly related to drug use for girls than for boys, and the relation between parenting and peer pressure was stronger for boys. Examination of a model that included moderator effects revealed that the relation between peer pressure and drug use increased as a function of poor parenting. Results of our study underscore the importance of drug prevention efforts focused on parenting practices.     

The relationship between justice and attitudes: An examination of justice effects on event and system-related attitudes

Research in organizational justice has always been interested in the relationship between justice and attitudes. This research often examines how different types of justice affect different attitudes, with distributive justice predicted to affect attitudes about specific events (e.g., performance evaluation) and procedural justice predicted to affect attitudes about organizations (e.g., organizational commitment). However, there is mixed support for these predictions. Moreover, this approach generally ignores the relationship between attitudes about the specific event and attitudes toward the organization. In this study we identify three alternative models of justice and attitudes. We use customer responses to complaint handling to test these alternative conceptualizations. Results generally support a mediated model, wherein event attitudes mediate the effect of justice perceptions on system-related attitudes. The implication of these findings for organizations and justice researchers are discussed.     

Looking back and falling further behind: The moderating role of rumination on the relationship between organizational politics and employee attitudes,well-being,and performance

The current study tested the theoretically relevant, yet previously unexamined, role of rumination on the relationship between politics perceptions and a variety of threat responses. Drawing from Response Styles Theory, it was argued that rumination amplifies the effects of politics by enhancing the influence of negative information on cognition, interfering with problem-solving, and undermining sources of social support. The work stress literature, along with extant politics research, served to identify four variables – job satisfaction, tension, depressed work mood, and employee effort/performance – that served as study outcomes. Across three unique samples, hypothesized relationships were strongly supported, indicating that politics perceptions negatively affected work outcomes of high ruminators, but demonstrate little influence on those who engage in less rumination. Moreover, the nonlinear influences of the focal constructs were considered and the results confirmed atypical relational forms. Contributions, implications for theory and practice, strengths and limitations, and future research directions are described.     

Effects of Participation in Decision Making on Performance and Employee Attitudes: A Quality Circles Meta-analysis

This study explores the effects of a participative technique, quality circles (QCs), on several employee attitudes and performance. The sample included 36 studies with 42 independent samples. Mean effect sizes were small for employee attitudes and moderate for job performance suggesting QCs affected job performance to a greater degree than employee attitudes. For organizations involved in quality management these results seem to suggest that quality interventions have a stronger impact on job performance than on employee attitudes. The study conclusions provide a positive outlook on the effects of total quality management interventions on productivity.     

Anxiety sensitivity and its impact on pain experiences and conditions: A state of the art

This paper serves as an introduction to the special issue of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy devoted to the topic of anxiety sensitivity (AS) and its impact on pain experiences and conditions. We provide a historical overview of relevant cognitive behavioural models of chronic pain, summarize recent models incorporating the AS construct, and introduce the papers in the special issue. These papers are organized into two sets – basic laboratory‐based investigations and relatively more applied studies. We attempt to highlight some of the most important findings from each of these investigations and studies, in turn. Then, we consider several important conclusions derived from the set of special issue papers and the implications of these for the practice of cognitive‐behavioural interventions with pain populations. Finally, we make several suggestions for directions for future investigations in this burgeoning area of cognitive behavioural research and practice.     

Effects of test anxiety,ego stress,and attentional skills training on arithmetic reasoning: An experimental evaluation of a brief counseling strategy

Abstract

Two hundred forty high school students (120 male and 120 female) in India performed a moderately difficult multiple choice Arithmetic Reasoning task after undergoing short-term (40 minutes) cognitive treatment in the form of Attentional Skills Training. A 2 × 2 × 2 (Test Anxiety x Attentional Skills Training x Stress) design with separate analysis for boys and girls indicated these results: with intervention the high anxiety subjects under ego stress conditions, compared to their high-anxious control, low-anxious ego stress, or low-anxious control counterparts, reported the maximum significant improvement in performance on the Arithmetic Reasoning test. The low-anxiety subjects performed consistently well with or without treatment or stress conditions. The findings shed new light on the attentional theory of test anxiety, and it was reasoned that long-term effects of cognitive treatment be studied by using varied performance tasks (difficulty level controlled) on different gender and age groups across cultures.     

Tele‐analysis: the use of media technology in psychotherapy and its impact on the therapeutic relationship

A growing number of approaches in psychotherapy make use of internet‐ and other media‐based interactions. This paper discusses the impact on the therapist‐client relationship of using media technology and gives an overview of the current state of the debate. It is suggested that the technical conditions of internet‐based interactions produce new forms of social relationships that differ significantly from face‐to‐face‐interactions and that unconscious, nonverbal cues get lost. Research on the therapeutic interaction making use of ‘discourse linguistic’ methods is presented. The loss of nonverbal cues has implications for psychotherapy in general and especially for the treatment of patients who have difficulties relying on a secure therapeutic relationship. Emotional security in interactional relationships is transmitted to a much greater extent by nonverbal cues than by verbal content; psychoanalytic methods are specialized to refer to this level of interaction. Two alternative scenarios are discussed based on the psychoanalytic theories of Winnicott and Lacan: the risk of an illusionary, idealized image of the other and the possibility that cyberspace can be used for psychological development as a transitional space.