Prospective and retrospective evaluations of experiences: how you evaluate an experience depends on when you evaluate it

Prior research (cf. Soman & Shi, 2001 ) has shown that obstacles and periods of low progress in an experience reduce the evaluation of that experience. In this research, we propose that the temporal distance between the obstacle and the time of making the evaluation moderates the effect of the obstacle. Consequently, an early (late) obstacle reduces prospective (retrospective) evaluation more significantly than a late (early) obstacle. In two experiments, we find support for this temporal proximity hypothesis. Further, differences between prospective and retrospective evaluations disappeared when the data were analyzed in terms of temporal distance, suggesting that the judgment policies underlying prospective and retrospective evaluations were the same. We also show that it is possible to create pairs of paths such that one of the two paths would be preferred when viewed in prospect, but the other path might be preferred in retrospect. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relationships between time of day,day of the week,and positive mood: Exploring the role of the mood measure

This study examined the relationship between time of day, day of the week, and two measures of positive affect (PA). According to previous research and the circumplex model of affect, one scale was designed to assess the activation component of PA, and the other one measured the pleasantness aspect. Subjects rated their mood three times a day for 7 consecutive days. Consistent with our hypotheses, PA-Pleasantness showed a peak on the weekend, whereas PA-Activation remained stable throughout the week. Regarding time of day, maximum PA-Activation was reached in the afternoon. In contrast, the Pleasantness component of PA increased from morning to evening. Implications of these results as well as other findings concerning the differential content of PA measures are discussed regarding the fact that a certain scale is most appropriate and maximally valid for representing certain aspects of affective experience.We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers and the associate editor, Robert A. Baron, for their constructive comments on an earlier version of this article.     

Variation in suicide occurrence by time of day, day of the week, month, and lunar phase

Previous studies suggest that suicide occurrence varies by month and day of the week, but not by lunar phase. Variation by time of day has never before been adequately examined; to our knowledge, all previous studies have failed to obtain time-of-death information for a large percentage of cases. We examined suicide occurrence among residents of Sacramento County, CA, during the period from 1925 to 1983. Data were abstracted from coroner's autopsy and investigative reports. In contrast to previous studies, data on time of death were available for a large percentage of cases. 4,190 suicide deaths were identified during the study period. Suicide occurrence varied substantially by time of day; for both sexes and for ages under 65 years, the fewest suicide deaths occurred during the early morning hours, from 0401 to 0800. For recent years of the study, suicides occurred most frequently on Monday for both males and females and for most age groups. Variation by month followed no consistent pattern by gender, age, years of the study, or combinations of these factors. Contrary to popular belief, suicide occurrence did not vary by lunar phase.     

Knowing which day of the week it is: temporal structure and dynamics of memory

The complementary role of static and dynamic information used when one needs to be located in time was studied. Static information refers to temporal knowledge about days of the week, and dynamic information reflects a sense of time, taking into account the present, the near past, and the future. Each day of an actual 7-day wk., 699 women and 620 men were asked to provide a "right" or "wrong" response to a statement such as "Today is X," where X was the name of one of the seven days of the week. Analysis suggested use of a structured temporal representation of the week: the weekend, a landmark, had an anchoring role. Also the dynamics of the content of working memory were indicated. The active "temporal window" participants hold in mind seems directed more towards the future than the past. Results are discussed within the more general context of time management.     

Conscious thought beats deliberation without attention in diagnostic decision-making: at least when you are an expert

Contrary to what common sense makes us believe, deliberation without attention has recently been suggested to produce better decisions in complex situations than deliberation with attention. Based on differences between cognitive processes of experts and novices, we hypothesized that experts make in fact better decisions after consciously thinking about complex problems whereas novices may benefit from deliberation-without-attention. These hypotheses were confirmed in a study among doctors and medical students. They diagnosed complex and routine problems under three conditions, an immediate-decision condition and two delayed conditions: conscious thought and deliberation-without-attention. Doctors did better with conscious deliberation when problems were complex, whereas reasoning mode did not matter in simple problems. In contrast, deliberation-without-attention improved novices’ decisions, but only in simple problems. Experts benefit from consciously thinking about complex problems; for novices thinking does not help in those cases.     

Developing the Receptive and Productive Use of Pronouns in an Autistic Child:

In Experiment I, a preschooler with language delays and unable to answer “my-your” questions was successfully trained to answer “my-your” questions when reinforced for modeling an adult's answers to questions about possessive pronouns. Despite acquisition of the expressive use of the possessive case, generalization probes under conditions of nonmodeling and nonreinforcement showed no transfer at the receptive and expressive levels. Modeling and reinforcement training procedures in Experiment II improved the receptive use of “my-your” performance, but generalization probes revealed no receptive transfer. These same procedures in Experiment III improved the expressive use of “his-her” answers and, this time, immediate generalization of training for “his-her” occurred at the expressive and receptive levels. To facilitate generalization from the expressive to the receptive level, special programming-for-generalization procedures were used, involving reduced rated of reinforcement during training (Experiment I) and intermixing training trails with generalization probe trails (Experiment II).     

Inhibition of return at multiple locations in visual search: When you see it and when you don't

Using a novel sequential task, Danziger, Kingstone, and Snyder (1998) provided conclusive evidence that inhibition of return (IOR) can co-occur at multiple non-contiguous locations. They argued that their findings depended crucially on the allocation of attention to cued locations. Specifically, they hypothesized that because subjects could not predict whether an onset event was a target or a non-target, all onset events had to be attended. As a result, non-targets were tagged with inhibition. The present study tested this hypothesis by manipulating whether target onset was predictable or not. In support of Danziger et al., three experiments revealed that multiple IOR was only observed when attention had to be directed to the cued locations. Interestingly, when attention did not need to be allocated to the cued locations, and multiple IOR was abolished, an IOR effect was still observed at the most recently cued location. Two possible accounts for this single IOR effect were presented for future investigation. One account attributes the effect to motor-based inhibition as hypothesized by Klein and Taylor (1994). The alternative account attributes the effect to weak attentional capture by a peripheral cue. Together the data support the view that multiple IOR is an attentional phenomenon and, as hypothesized by Tipper, Weaver, and Watson (1996), its presence or absence is largely under the control of the observer.     

Progress in ethnic minority psychology: an overview and challenge, or "when you wish upon a star"

The 1999 American Psychological Association president, Richard M. Suinn, presents a historical overview of ethnic minority issues within the American Psychological Association. By weaving the ethnic minority collective history with his personal narrative as a psychologist of color, Suinn reflects on his thoughts and goals for his presidential year. He invites and challenges us to advance the ethnic minority psychological agenda through the development of creative ideas and actions.     

Night and day, you are the one: on circadian mismatches and the transference effect in social perception

A study examined the relation between individuals' circadian rhythm and their tendency to exhibit transference effects in social perception. Individuals tested at times of circadian mismatch (i.e., morning persons tested in the evening and evening persons tested in the morning) exhibited more pronounced transference effects than individuals tested at times of circadian match (i.e., morning persons tested in the morning and evening persons tested in the evening). These findings are compatible with the notion that transference effects represent everyday social-cognitive functioning related to activation of social schemata. Additionally, however, they suggest that transference effects are not the inevitable consequence of activating the significant other's schema. Rather, such effects might be particularly likely to occur when an individual's mental resources are limited, as might be the case during circadian mismatches. This latter suggestion differs from psychodynamic views of transference as exclusively a driven, energy-intensive phenomenon.     

The Effects of Progressive Muscle Relaxation on the Behavior of Autistic Adolescents:

Five autistic adolescents were trained in the use of progressive muscle relaxation to determine the effects of the relaxation training on task-oriented, disruptive, and stereotypic behavior, in a structured academic session. Each academic session was 12 minutes in length. Prior to each session, the children engaged in one of two activities with the relaxation trainer for 10 minutes, i.e., the practice at relaxation or a Simon-says game. Measures of disruption, on-task, and academic rate were gathered in the 12-minute academic session. In addition, a relaxation checklist was used to determine the extent to which the child was relaxed in the relaxation sessions. The results gave little evidence of differential effects as a consequence of the relaxation procedures on any of the dependent measures. The addition of relaxation cues during academic sessions failed to produce any change in the children's behaviors.     

Fewer reasons for staying alive when you are thinking of killing yourself: The brief reasons for living inventory

The Linehan Reasons for Living Inventory is a 48-item scale on which respondents rate how important each item would be for living if suicide were contemplated. The inventory possesses good psychometric properties and can distinguish suicidal from nonsuicidal people among shoppers, psychiatric inpatients, college students, and adolescents. As its length limits its utility in many institutional and screening settings, the purpose of this study was (1) to develop a brief form of the Reasons for Living Inventory appropriate for clinical use and (2) to examine the predictive validity of this brief measure, named the Brief Reasons for Living Inventory (BRFL), to distinguish suicidal from nonsuicidal prison inmates. Results indicate that the brief form was as good as either the Beck Depression Inventory or the Beck Hopelessness Scale at predicting suicidality in this population. Further study is needed to validate the BRFL with different institutionalized and other populations as well as to assess its ability to discriminate suicide ideators from those engaging in overt suicidal behavior.Support for this project was provided in part by the New York State Office of Mental Health Bureau of Forensic Services and the New York State Department of Correctional Services.     

The Emancipation of Time from Autistic Encapsulation: A Study in the Use of Countertransference

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Daily moods and symptoms: effects of awareness of study focus, gender, menstrual-cycle phase, and day of the week

Evaluated changes in daily ratings of moods and symptoms in 30 normally cycling women and 23 men. Women were randomly assigned to two groups for manipulating awareness of the study focus (aware vs. unaware). Principal-components analysis revealed six factors (Dysphoric Moods, Well-being, Physical Symptoms, Personal Space, Food Cravings, Depression) that accounted for 70% of the variance in daily ratings. Repeated-measures analyses revealed cyclic variation on each factor and no significant differences between aware and unaware women during premenstrual or menstrual phases on any measure. Unaware women reported less well-being than men during the premenstrual phase but did not differ on any other measure. Aware women did not differ from men in premenstrual or menstrual ratings on any measure. The way these findings relate to retrospective symptom reports, menstrual attitudes, and changes in moods and symptoms across the week was examined.     

The inner speech of behavioral regulation: Intentions and task performance strengthen when you talk to yourself as a You

People often talk to themselves using the first‐person pronoun (I), but they also talk to themselves as if they are speaking to someone else, using the second‐person pronoun (You). Yet, the relative behavioral control achieved by I and You self‐talk remains unknown. The current research was designed to examine the potential behavioral advantage of using You in self‐talk and the role of attitudes in this process. Three experiments compared the effects of I and You self‐talk on problem solving performance and behavioral intentions. Experiment 1 revealed that giving self‐advice about a hypothetical social situation using You yielded better anagram task performance than using I. Experiment 2 showed that using You self‐talk in preparation for an anagram task enhanced anagram performance and intentions to work on anagrams more than I self‐talk, and that these effects were mediated by participants' attitudes toward the task. Experiment 3 extended these findings to exercise intentions and highlighted the role of attitudes in this effect. Altogether, the current research showed that second‐person self‐talk strengthens both actual behavior performance and prospective behavioral intentions more than first‐person self‐talk. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The translation of knowledge between client and therapist concerning lesbian sexuality: All you wanted to know about lesbian sex and were scared to ask

Lesbian sexuality in the context of therapy is examined in terms of the change in the therapeutic gaze. Once seen as something to ‘treat’, it is now seen in different, more complex ways. Three different positions are described and evaluated. These are the liberal humanist, the liberal educator, and the political reactionary. Finally, a suggestion is made concerning a possible role for therapy within lesbians' lives.     

Size the day: The time perspectives of the Dark Triad

Recent empirical findings on the Dark Triad and Life History Theory suggest that the behaviors linked to the Dark Triad are dominantly characterized by a fast life strategy with increased motivation to acquire short-term benefits and prioritize situations with immediate rewards. Current studies have also suggested that time perspectives could be one of the psychological mediators between actual behavior and life history strategies assuming that a present-oriented attitude is associated with fast life strategies. In line with this suggestion, we predicted to find associations between time perspectives and the Dark Triad traits. The prediction was investigated by self-reports. In accordance with the predictions, the results showed positive associations of the Dark Triad traits with the present-oriented time perspectives. In addition, unlike Narcissism, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy were found to be related to a negative view of the past. Our study provides the first evidence for significant associations between Dark Triad personality and time perspectives.