Perceived sacrifice and few alternatives commitments: The motivational underpinnings of continuance commitment's subdimensions

Using work on self-concepts and Conservation of Resources theory, the present research examined the motivational underpinnings of continuance commitment's subcomponents of perceived sacrifice and few alternatives. Study 1 (N = 208) found job scope to be positively related to perceived sacrifice commitment, and negatively related to few alternatives commitment. Study 2 (N = 147) found empowerment's meaning dimension to be positively related to perceived sacrifice commitment and self-determination to be negatively linked to few alternatives commitment. In Study 3 (N = 301), perceived sacrifice commitment was found to be positively related to feedback seeking, while few alternatives commitment was negatively related to it. Finally, Study 4 (N = 278) found perceived sacrifice commitment to be positively, and few alternatives commitment negatively, related to career success (promotion and pay raise decisions). Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Children's memory distortions following social contact with a co-witness: Disentangling social and cognitive mechanisms

This study examined whether recalling an event with a co-witness influences children's recall. Individual 3-5-year-olds (n = 48) watched a film with a co-witness. Unbeknown to participants, the co-witness was watching an alternative version of the film. Afterwards both the co-witness and the participant answered questions about the film together (public recall), and the degree to which children conformed to the co-witness's alternative version of events was measured. Subsequently participants were questioned again individually (private recall). Children also completed false belief and inhibitory control tasks. By separating errors made in public and private, the results indicated that both social conformity (32% of errors) and memory distortion (68% of errors) played a role in co-witness influence. Inhibitory control predicted the likelihood of retracting errors in private, but only for children who failed (r=.66) rather than passed false belief tasks (r=-.10). The results suggest that children with a theory of mind conform in the company of the co-witness to avoid social embarrassment, while those a poor theory of mind conform on the basis of an inability to inhibit the co-witness's response. The findings contribute to our understanding of the motivations responsible for co-witness conformity across early childhood.     

Anterior cingulate cortex findings in child disruptive behavior disorders.: A meta-analysis

The brain imaging literature suggests that child disruptive behavior disorders (DBD) are associated with structural and functional abnormalities of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).However, there is a lot of heterogeneity in findings in terms of direction of modifications identified until this point. The present study used a meta-analytic design to aggregate the empirical findings from the literature on functional and structural abnormalities of the ACC in children with DBD. A total of eight structural and functional brain imaging (sMRI and fMRI) studies were included and results obtained from a sample of 266 children show a large effect size (D = ?.98 (95% CI [? 1.18, ? 0.77]) in terms of reduced activation of the ACC in children presenting with DBD. Effects of ACC abnormality were moderated by: 1) the type of imaging used in the study (i.e., functional vs. structural); 2) the presence or absence of co-morbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); 3) the mean age of the samples of children presenting with DBD. Overall, findings confirm functional impairments of the ACC in children with DBD and highlight the importance of using such neurological information to design innovative treatments.     

Attentional disengagement in adults with Williams syndrome

Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by a distinctive behavioral and cognitive profile, including widespread problems with attention. However, the specific nature of their attentional difficulties, such as inappropriate attentional allocation and/or poor attentional disengagement abilities, has yet to be elucidated. Furthermore, it is unknown if there is an underlying difficulty with the temporal dynamics of attention in WS or if their attentional difficulties are task-dependent, because previous studies have examined attention in established areas of deficit and atypicality (specifically, visuospatial and face processing). In this study, we examined attentional processing in 14 adults with WS (20–59 years) and 17 typically developing controls (19–39 years) using an attentional blink (AB) paradigm. The AB is the decreased ability to detect a second target when it is presented in close proximity to an initial target. Overall, adults with WS had an AB that was prolonged in duration, but no different in magnitude, compared with typically developing control participants. AB performance was not explained by IQ, working memory, or processing speed in either group. Thus, results suggest that the attention problems in WS are primarily due to general attentional disengagement difficulties rather than inappropriate attentional allocation.     

Examining Temporal Associations between Perceived Maternal Psychological Control and Early Adolescent Internalizing Problems

The present study examined a) the associations between adolescent-reported maternal psychological control and self-reported internalizing problems one year later, while simultaneously examining the opposite direction of effects and b) the equivalence of these associations across gender. Participants were 479 10-to-14-year old adolescents (55% female) participating in two waves of a study. Results from multi-group, cross-lagged panel analyses indicated that although early adolescents’ depressive symptoms and social anxiety predicted change in perceived maternal psychological control one year later, perceived maternal psychological control did not predict change in early adolescents’ internalizing problems. Elevated levels of depressive symptoms were associated with increased levels of perceived maternal psychological control one year later, whereas elevated levels of social anxiety were associated with decreased levels. Aforementioned findings were consistent across boys’ and girls’ data. Study findings extend limited research on adolescent effects, demonstrating that early adolescents’ internalizing problems play a role in perceived maternal psychological control.     

The Interaction Between Conscientiousness and General Mental Ability: Support for a Compensatory Interaction in Task Performance

Journal of Business and Psychology - We propose a compensatory interactive influence of conscientiousness and GMA in task performance such that conscientiousness is most beneficial to performance...     

Trauma and Relationship Satisfaction in Treatment Seeking Couples: A Dyadic Investigation of Differentiation as a Mediator

Contemporary Family Therapy - The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between interpersonal trauma history and relationship satisfaction, and the mediating effect of...