Self-Discrepancies and Involvement Moderate the Effects of Positive and Negative Message Framing in Persuasive Communication

One individual difference that is conceptually closely related to the positive and negative framing of outcomes in persuasive communications is the person's self-discrepancy. It was expected that a match between a person's self-discrepancy and framing will lead to more persuasion, under the condition that the information is processed centrally (high involvement). Two experiments were conducted to test this expectation, one through the Internet among obese people and one in the laboratory among students. Both experiments showed that only among those with high involvement—assessed as an individual difference—participants with an ideal-discrepancy were persuaded the most by the positively framed information, whereas participants with an ought-discrepancy were persuaded the most by the negatively framed information.     

LTP maintenance and its protein synthesis-dependence

The properties of long-term potentiation (LTP) mirror those of associative memory in a number of interesting ways. Although plasticity at monosynaptic connections is not expected to account for the varied subtle characteristics of distributed memories, nonetheless it is important to establish how far the parallels can be drawn. Here, we briefly address whether properties of LTP such as its duration, reversibility, savings and reconsolidation relate to corresponding memory phenomena. We then address whether LTP stabilization in fact requires protein synthesis, as this has been challenged in recent times much like the necessity for protein synthesis in the consolidation of long-term memory has been queried. We conclude that the case is still very strong for a necessary role of protein synthesis in LTP stabilization, even though the identities of the synthesized proteins and their contributions to the LTP process are not fully understood. However, we highlight areas of research that could be usefully conducted to further our understanding of the properties and protein synthesis-dependence of LTP.     

Bridging the Gap Between Prevention Research and Practice: The Interactive Systems Framework for Dissemination and Implementation

If we keep on doing what we have been doing, we are going to keep on getting what we have been getting. Concerns about the gap between science and practice are longstanding. There is a need for new approaches to supplement the existing approaches of research to practice models and the evolving community-centered models for bridging this gap. In this article, we present the Interactive Systems Framework for Dissemination and Implementation (ISF) that uses aspects of research to practice models and of community-centered models. The framework presents three systems: the Prevention Synthesis and Translation System (which distills information about innovations and translates it into user-friendly formats); the Prevention Support System (which provides training, technical assistance or other support to users in the field); and the Prevention Delivery System (which implements innovations in the world of practice). The framework is intended to be used by different types of stakeholders (e.g., funders, practitioners, researchers) who can use it to see prevention not only through the lens of their own needs and perspectives, but also as a way to better understand the needs of other stakeholders and systems. It provides a heuristic for understanding the needs, barriers, and resources of the different systems, as well as a structure for summarizing existing research and for illuminating priority areas for new research and action. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.     

Psychological correlates of car use: A meta-analysis

This meta-analysis synthesised quantitative research into potentially modifiable psychological correlates of car use and intentions to drive. Online psychology and transportation databases were searched, and inclusion criteria applied to potentially relevant records. An ancestry approach was also employed to search selected publications. Meta-analyses of effect size rs were performed on 23 unique study datasets. Results generally supported the predictive utility of variables derived from the Theory of Planned Behaviour, though cognitions towards not driving displayed uniformly larger effects than were observed for car use cognitions. There was also a strong effect of habit on behaviour. Support for effects of pro-environment cognitions on driving was weak. However, a dearth of available evidence limited our findings and precludes development of clear evidence-based recommendations for intervention design. Directions for future research are discussed.     

When Pains are Mental Objects

In Why pains are not mental objects (1998) Guy Douglasrightly argues that pains are modes rather than objects ofperceptions or sensations. In this paper I try to go a stepfurther and argue that there are circumstances when pains canbecome objects even while they remain modes of experience.By analysing cases of extreme pain as presented by Scarry,Sartre, Wiesel, Grahek and Wall, I attempt to show thatintense physical pain may evolve into a force that, likeimagination, can make our most intense state of experiencebecome a mental object. I shall finally argue that, thoughextreme pains cannot serve as paradigm cases, they do showthe general importance of taking pain states to be objects.     

Attitudes Toward Violence Against Women: A Cross-Nation Study

An understanding of attitudes toward violence against women is vital for effective prevention strategies. In this study we examined attitudes regarding violence against women in samples of undergraduate women and men students from four countries: India, Japan, Kuwait, and the United States. Attitudes toward sexual assault and spousal physical violence differed between men and women and across the four countries. Variations in gender differences across countries indicated that, for attitudes regarding sexual assault of women in particular, sociocultural factors may be a stronger influence than gender. Findings suggest the importance of examining differences within the larger sociocultural context of political, historical, religious, and economic influences on attitudes toward gender roles and violence against women.     

Implications of goal theories for the theories of reasoned action and planned behaviour

This paper argues that the predictive validity of the theories of reasoned action and planned behaviour could be enhanced by considering key ideas from goal theories. In particular, goal theories highlight the importance of: (a) construing action as a process of behavioural selection designed to achieve actors’ goals, (b) assessing the extent to which people have planned how to perform action sequences implied by their goals (c) investigating goal conflict in order to understand intention-behaviour discrepancies (d) examining contextual variations in goal salience to account for the dynamics of choice, (e) using intention stability to index the prioritization of goals, and (f) analyzing the content of the goals underlying attitudes and intentions. Suggestions are made about self-report measures and computations that would permit greater use of these ideas in future research.