Family environment, affect, ambivalence and decisions about unplanned adolescent pregnancy

This study investigated the relationships among family environment, demographic measures, the decisions made by unintentionally pregnant adolescents regarding postdelivery plans and the certainty with which these decisions were made. Subjects were 175 pregnant adolescents, ages 14 through 22, who intended to carry their pregnancies to term. Greater uncertainty was associated with living with both natural parents or with mother only. Higher levels of negative affect were related to lower levels of perceived family cohesion, independence, expressiveness, and intellectual-cultural orientation. Age, trimester of pregnancy, and family constellation also were related to levels of negative affect. Discriminant analysis revealed that subjects choosing adoption were more likely to be older and to be white than were those choosing to keep the child. They also tended to perceive higher levels of expressiveness and independence in their families. The implications of these findings for the delivery of services and for future research efforts in this area are discussed.     

Nature,nurture, and capital punishment: How evidence of a genetic–environment interaction,future dangerousness,and deliberation affect sentencing decisions

Research has shown that the low‐activity MAOA genotype in conjunction with a history of childhood maltreatment increases the likelihood of violent behaviors. This genetic–environment (G × E) interaction has been introduced as mitigation during the sentencing phase of capital trials, yet there is scant data on its effectiveness. This study addressed that issue. In a factorial design that varied mitigating evidence offered by the defense [environmental (i.e., childhood maltreatment), genetic, G × E, or none] and the likelihood of the defendant's future dangerousness (low or high), 600 mock jurors read sentencing phase evidence in a capital murder trial, rendered individual verdicts, and half deliberated as members of a jury to decide a sentence of death or life imprisonment. The G × E evidence had little mitigating effect on sentencing preferences: participants who received the G × E evidence were no less likely to sentence the defendant to death than those who received evidence of childhood maltreatment or a control group that received neither genetic nor maltreatment evidence. Participants with evidence of a G × E interaction were more likely to sentence the defendant to death when there was a high risk of future dangerousness than when there was a low risk. Sentencing preferences were more lenient after deliberation than before. We discuss limitations and future directions.     

How type of excuse defense, mock juror age, and defendant age affect mock jurors' decisions

The authors investigated the effects of mock juror age (younger vs. older), defendant age (22 vs. 65), and type of excuse defense used by defendants (a highly self-inflicted condition, Cocaine Dependency Disorder, vs. a less self-inflicted condition, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder) on mock juror decisions. Ninety-six younger and 96 older adults read a scenario and answered a questionnaire. Results indicated that the defendant using the highly self-inflicted excuse was more likely to receive a guilty verdict and a longer sentence than was the defendant using the less self-inflicted excuse. Older jurors were more certain of their verdicts and saw the defendant as more responsible for his condition than did younger jurors. Defendant age did not affect juror decisions. In addition, excuse type and juror age affected the jurors' perceptions of the victim's responsibility for the attack. The authors discuss the potential influence of juror age on perceptions of defendant responsibility.     

“金钱-环境”复合收益的风险决策:价值取向的影响

现实中的环境决策,往往要在多个由"金钱-环境"复合而成的结果间做选择。人们如何对异质复合结果进行评估与选择,是决策研究面临的新课题。本研究着重考察个体金钱取向和环境取向的相对强度对复合收益风险决策的影响。结果表明,无论是采用自陈量表(实验1)或内隐联想测验(实验2)来测量价值取向,还是采用混词造句任务(实验3)来启动价值取向,均发现价值取向相对强度对复合风险决策有显著影响。(1)相比于金钱取向占优的个体,环境取向占优的个体在进行复合风险决策时更偏好环境风险较小的复合选项;(2)在复合选项等价匹配任务中,环境取向占优的个体会赋予复合选项中的环境收益以更高权重,倾向于用更多的金钱收益来弥补环境收益的风险折扣;(3)在复合收益风险概率匹配任务中,环境取向占优的个体更倾向于为获取倍增的环境收益而承担更大的复合收益风险。作为对复合结果风险决策的首次探索,本研究初步回答了不同价值取向的个体在金钱-环境复合风险决策中更倾向于规避什么风险、拿什么冒险以及为什么冒险等问题,为今后进一步开展复合决策研究打下了理论和方法基础。     

Thinking about complex decisions: How sleep and time-of-day influence complex choices

In this study, we systematically manipulate a person’s state of sleep; Sleep-deprived and Well-rested along with Matching or Mismatching the decision time-of-day to their circadian preferred time-of-day. We assessed how these conditions influenced performance on an incentivized complex decision task. In the overall analysis of these variables no differences emerged. However, a comparison of the more cognitively depleting Sleep-deprivation/Circadian-mismatch condition to the cognitively enhancing Well-rested/Circadian-match condition showed improved performance in the Well-rested/Circadian matched group for one complex decision task but not for the other. These findings build upon the existing literature on sleep and circadian rhythm effects while uniquely observing the combined effects of these variables on complex decision making.     

Relationship between emotion regulation,negative affect,gender and delay discounting

Current Psychology - The concept of emotion regulation states that individuals with poorly regulated emotions often engage in maladaptive behaviours to escape from or down-regulate their emotions,...     

How values of individualism and collectivism influence impulsive buying and money budgeting: the mediating role of acculturation to global consumer culture

This study examined the effects of individual‐level cultural values of individualism and collectivism on impulsive buying and money budgeting and the mediating role of acculturation to global consumer culture. By applying the person‐environment fit theory and acculturation theory, we argue that people who hold cultural values congruent with the culture they come into contact with are more likely to acculturate to it, and that those who acculturate to global consumer culture (GCC) are more likely to display consumption behaviors stimulated by GCC, namely impulsive buying and poor money budgeting. The findings show that consumers acculturated to GCC report higher impulsive buying and lower money budgeting, and that it is not the distinction between individualism and collectivism, but rather between the vertical and horizontal values that determines the acceptance of GCC and the studied consumption behaviors. Results revealed that vertical individualists (those who believe in competition between individuals and who prioritize their needs over the needs of others) and vertical collectivists (those who believe in the subordination of individuals to groups) were more likely to be acculturated to GCC. Thus, the acceptance of inequality between individuals among other individuals, or within groups, is related to the acceptance of GCC and impulsive buying and money budgeting. The level of acculturation to GCC mediates the relations between vertical individualism and collectivism values and impulsive buying and money budgeting. Theoretical contributions to the research on horizontal/vertical individualism/collectivism, acculturation to GCC, and person‐environment fit theory, as well as practical implications for marketers are discussed.     

Be green and clearly be seen: How consumer values and attitudes affect adoption of bicycle sharing

Environmental concerns have propelled public and private entities to search for ways to increase usage of public bicycle sharing systems. However, usage rates in many cities remain below expectations. Using the theory of perceived value to motivate our hypotheses, this paper evaluates the impact of perceived value on consumer adoption intentions, and assesses the moderating effects of social and personal attitudes towards environmental behavior, on perceived value-adoption intention relationships. Our findings suggest that public bicycle sharing adoption intention is significantly influenced by its perceived functional, conditional, green and social values. Moreover, personal and social attitudes towards “greenness” and bicycle sharing, respectively, are found to moderate the relationship between perceived values and adoption intentions. This research contributes to theory-building in bicycle sharing adoption, and informs business and government leaders on how to promote adoption.     

Intolerance of uncertainty and decisions about delayed, probabilistic rewards

Worry is the inflated concern about potential future threats and is a hallmark feature of generalized anxiety disorder. Previous theoretical work has suggested that worry may be a consequence of intolerance of uncertainty (IU). The current study seeks to explore the behavioral consequences of IU. Specifically, we examine how IU might be associated with aspects of reward-based decision making. We utilized a simple laboratory gambling task in which participants chose between small, low-probability rewards available immediately at the beginning of each trial and large, high-probability rewards only available after some variable delay. Results demonstrate that higher levels of intolerance of uncertainty were associated with a tendency to select the immediately available, but less valuable and less probable rewards. IU also predicted decision-makers' sensitivity to outcomes. We discuss the cognitive and affective mechanisms that are likely to underlie the observed decision-making behavior and the implications for anxiety disorders.     

Mental illness, criminal risk factors and parole release decisions

Research has not examined whether higher rates of parole denial among inmates with mental illness (MI) are the result of the increased presence of criminal risk factors among this population. Employing a representative sample of inmates with (n = 219) and without (n = 184) MI receiving parole release decisions in 2007, this study tested whether the central eight risk factors for recidivism considered in parole release decisions intervened in the relationship between MI and parole release. MI was associated with possession of a substance use disorder, antisocial personality disorder and violent charges while incarcerated; however, these factors were not related to release decisions. MI was found to have neither a direct nor an indirect effect on release decisions. While results indicate that release decisions appear, to some extent, to be evidence-based, they also suggest considerable discretion is being implemented by parole board members in release decisions above and beyond consideration of criminal risk factors.     

Relationships at risk: How the perceived risk of ending a romantic relationship influences the intensity of romantic affect and relationship commitment

Drawing on emotional intensity theory (EIT: Brehm in Personality and Social Psychology Review 3:2–22, 1999; Brehm and Miron in Motivation and Emotion 30:13–30, 2006), this experiment (N?=?104) shows how the manipulated risk of ending a romantic relationship influences the intensity of romantic affect and commitment. As predicted by EIT, the intensity of both romantic feelings varied as a cubic function of increasing levels of manipulated risk of relationship breakup (risk not mentioned vs. low vs. moderate vs. high). Data additionally showed that the effects of manipulated risk on romantic commitment were fully mediated by feelings of romantic affect. These findings complement and extend prior research on romantic feelings (Miron et al. in Motivation and Emotion 33:261–276, 2009; Miron et al. in Journal of Relationships Research 3:67–80, 2012) (a) by highlighting the barrier-like properties of manipulated risk of relationship breakup and its causal role in shaping romantic feelings, and (b) by suggesting that any obstacle can systematically control—thus, either reduce or enhance—the intensity of romantic feelings to the extent that such obstacles are perceived as ‘risky’ for the fate of the relationship.     

Locomotion,incidental learning,and the selection

In three experiments, we examined the effects of locomotion and incidental learning on the formation of spatial memories. Participants learned the locations of objects in a room and then made judgments of relative direction, using their memories (e.g., "Imagine you are standing at the clock, facing the jar. Point to the book"). The experiments manipulated the number of headings experienced, the amount of interaction with the objects, and whether the participants were informed that their memories of the layout would be tested. When participants were required to maintain a constant body orientation during learning (Experiment 1), they represented the layout in terms of a single reference direction parallel to that orientation. When they were allowed to move freely in the room (Experiment 2), they seemed to use two orthogonal reference axes aligned with the walls of the enclosing room. Extensive movement under incidental learning conditions (Experiment 3) yielded a mixture of these two encoding strategies across participants. There was no evidence that locomotion, interaction with objects, or incidental learning led to the formation of spatial memories that differed from those formed from static viewing.     

Message framing with respect to decisions about vaccination: The roles of frame valence,frame method and perceived risk

People respond differently when information is framed either positively or negatively (frame valence). Two prominent models propose that the effects of valence are moderated by (1) the method of framing (attributes vs. goals: Levin, Schneider, & Gaeth, 1998 ) and (2) perceived risk ( Rothman & Salovey, 1997 ). This experiment (N = 200) explores the joint influence of both of these moderators with respect to decisions about a flu vaccination. The study extends previous work by integrating these two models and exploring the moderating effects of two different aspects of perceived risk (personal outcome effectiveness and procedural risk). The results show that personal outcome effectiveness indirectly links frames to intentions. Procedural risk moderates the relationship between valence and method in a manner consistent with predictions from Levin et al.. Partial support for the model proposed by Rothman and Salovey are observed for goal frames only.     

Affect from the top down: How powerful individuals' positive affect shapes negotiations

We tested the hypothesis that the positive affect of powerful negotiators shapes the quality of negotiation processes and outcomes more than the positive affect of less powerful negotiators. Findings from two studies supported the hypothesis: powerful individuals' trait positive affect was the best predictor of negotiators' trust for each other and of whether they reached integrative outcomes. Positive affect predicted joint gains above and beyond negotiators' trait cooperativeness and communicativeness. However, positive affect was unrelated to distributive outcomes; thus, there were no observed disadvantages of being positively affective.     

The recall of relevant and incidental dimensional values as a function of perceptual salience, congitive set, and age.

In two experiments, subjects were presented an array of compound stimuli consisting of values from four, salience-assessed dimensions. Solution to an initial problem required recall of the array locations of values from only the most salient dimension. In addition to perceptual salience, instructions designed to establish cognitive sets for remembering value locations of certain dimensions were varied to explore the roles of these perceptual and cognitive variables in determining recall. In Experiment I, which involved subjects from grades kindergarten, third, and sixth, older subjects recalled more incidental as well as relevant information than younger subjects, and although instructions to remember values of a less salient incidental dimension facilitated their recall, the same instructions also facilitated the recall of values of a more salient incidental dimension even though no reference was made to those values. In Experiment II, adult recall of both relevant and incidental information was affected by instructions about differing numbers and types of dimensions. Adults and the oldest children did not differ in total information recalled, and there was no evidence for an increase with age in the cognitive ability to select only that information that was relevant to solving the initial problem. The results were discussed in terms of developmental changes in memory capacity and the absolute salience of the task information.