Happiness and Personal Growth are Attainable in Interferon-Beta-1a Treated Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic debilitating disease. MS is associated with high rates of depression and dissatisfaction with life. “Positive psychology,” (PoP) has endeavored to better understand happiness, meaning in life and how these can be developed. There is a growing interest amongst clinicians and consumers in happiness and personal growth as indicators of patients’ well-being. To evaluate happiness and personal growth in treated relapsing-remitting (RR) MS patients compared with age and gender matched healthy subjects. The Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SLS) and the Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS) were completed by 105 RR-MS patients [70 females, mean age 44.4 ± 13.3 years, Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) 3.6 ± 2.3] and 87 healthy subjects (66 females, mean age 39.7 ± 11.5 years). Scores were correlated with disease and treatment related parameters. All patients were treated for at least 6 months with interferon-beta-1a (Rebif). Mean happiness scores in MS patients for the OHI (103.1 ± 17.0), the SLS (23.9 ± 6.8) and the PGIS (40.1 ± 7.6) were not statistically different from those of healthy subjects. Categorical analysis of the SLS demonstrated a different distribution wherein more MS patients were in the “dissatisfied” subgroup (SLS score < 20) as compared to healthy subjects (24.8% vs. 12.6%, p = 0.045), while rates were similar in the extremely satisfied subgroup (SLS ≥ 30). Happiness was scored similarly in treated RR-MS patients and healthy subjects despite a greater percentage of patients reporting being dissatisfied with their lives. These findings may reflect positive treatment effects, hedonic adaptation or their combination.     

Others' anger makes people work harder not smarter: the effect of observing anger and sarcasm on creative and analytic thinking

The authors examine whether and how observing anger influences thinking processes and problem-solving ability. In 3 studies, the authors show that participants who listened to an angry customer were more successful in solving analytic problems, but less successful in solving creative problems compared with participants who listened to an emotionally neutral customer. In Studies 2 and 3, the authors further show that observing anger communicated through sarcasm enhances complex thinking and solving of creative problems. Prevention orientation is argued to be the latent variable that mediated the effect of observing anger on complex thinking. The present findings help reconcile inconsistent findings in previous research, promote theory about the effects of observing anger and sarcasm, and contribute to understanding the effects of anger in the workplace.     

Explicit memory for unattended words: the importance of being in the "no"

Recognition tests in which participants indicate whether they recognize items using binary yes/no response options have typically yielded "yes" responses at equal rates for unattended old items and new items. Because most responses to unattended stimuli in such tests are "no" responses, we reasoned that a closer examination of "no" responses might reveal memory for unattended items. We modified a classic paradigm to allow participants to indicate high and low levels of confidence in their responses. As in earlier studies, the overall proportion of "yes" responses did not differ between unattended old items and new items. However, there was a crossover effect in the "no" responses: More high-confidence "no" responses were given for new items than for unattended old items, whereas more low-confidence "no" responses were given for unattended old items than for new items. These results indicate explicit memory for unattended material presented under high perceptual load. Our findings suggest that the null effects obtained in previous studies may not have stemmed from failures of perception or memory, but rather may have been due to insufficiently sensitive memory assessment.     

Anger and happiness in virtual teams: Emotional influences of text and behavior on others’ affect in the absence of non-verbal cues

Emotions carry social influence, as evident by emotion contagion - an unconscious process attributed to mimicking of non-verbal cues. We investigate whether emotion contagion can occur in virtual teams; specifically, the emotional influence of text-based and behavior-based cues on participants’ emotion in 4-person virtual teams. In a 2 × 2 design a confederate textually communicated anger or happiness, while behaving in a resolute or flexible pattern. The team task required negotiation offering a performance based reward. We demonstrate that emotion contagion occurs in teams even when communication is only text-based. We show that behaviors are perceived as emotionally charged, resolute behavior interpreted as a display of anger, and flexibility as a display of happiness. Moreover, we demonstrate that incongruence between text-based communication of emotion and emotionally charged behaviors elicits negative emotion in fellow teammates. Our findings extend the boundaries of emotion contagion and carry implications for understanding emotion dynamics in virtual teams.     

Hues of adjustment: Landsmanshaftn in inter-war New York and Tel-Aviv

Jewish immigrants in New York City and Tel-Aviv founded landsmanshaftn – local associations of those arrived from the same country, region, city or village. Comparing these civil organizations' goals, structures, and activities during the interwar period illuminates noteworthy aspects of emerging modern Jewish cultures. Landsmanshaftn advanced various forms of immigrant acculturation in New York and Tel-Aviv. They reflected and enhanced economic, social, political, religious and linguistic circumstances, as well as they unveiled differing urban attitudes, multi-layered national and ethnic identities, and divergent sentiments and ideologies regarding the East-European shtetl. Although Landsmanshaftn reveal distinct modes of adjustment in New York and Tel-Aviv, they also disclose similarities, responding in both cities to the immigrants' need for communal experience. Anat Helman: I would like to thank Eli Lederhendler for his interesting remarks and helpful suggestions.     

Distinctiveness Benefits Novelty (and Not Familiarity), but Only Up to a Limit: The Prior Knowledge Perspective

Novelty is a pivotal player in cognition, and its contribution to superior memory performance is a widely accepted convention. On the other hand, mnemonic advantages for familiar information are also well documented. Here, we examine the role of experimental distinctiveness as a potential explanation for these apparently conflicting findings. Across two experiments, we demonstrate that conceptual novelty, an unfamiliar combination of familiar constituents, is sensitive to its experimental proportions: Improved memory for novelty was observed when novel stimuli were relatively rare. Memory levels for familiar items, in contrast, were completely unaffected by experimental proportions, highlighting their insensitivity to list‐based distinctiveness. Finally, no mnemonic advantage for conceptual novelty over familiarity was observed even when novel stimuli were extremely rare at study. Together, these results imply that novel and familiar items are processed via partially distinct mechanisms, with (at least some facets of) novelty not providing a mnemonic advantage over familiarity.     

Interactive effects of traits on adjustment to a life transition

A longitudinal design was used to test theoretically derived interactive effects of traits on adjustment to relocation 1, 8, and 15 months after relocation of elderly women. Openness interacted with Neuroticism and with Extraversion in affecting changes in distress after relocation by amplifying the basic emotional tendencies of Neuroticism and Extraversion. These were delayed effects, occurring only 15 months after relocation. Openness also interacted with Neuroticism in predicting changes in psychological well-being with the effects occurring primarily early in postmove adjustment. In addition, Extraversion interacted with Conscientiousness and with Agreeableness in predicting changes in distress, such that the beneficial effects of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness were evident only for individuals low on Extraversion. These effects were consistent across time, showing long-term effects. Overall, the findings demonstrate the multiplicity of ways in which trait interactions predict dynamic adjustment to a life transition.     

From What to How: An Initial Review of Publicly Available AI Ethics Tools,Methods and Research to Translate Principles into Practices

Science and Engineering Ethics - The debate about the ethical implications of Artificial Intelligence dates from the 1960s (Samuel in Science, 132(3429):741–742, 1960....     

When two sources of fluency meet one cognitive mindset

Fluency, the subjective experience of ease associated with information processing, has been shown to affect a host of judgments. Previous research has typically focused on specific factors that affect the use of a single, specific fluency source. In the present study we examine how cognitive mindsets, or processing modes, moderate fluency emanating from two simultaneous sources of fluency. As a cognitive mindset manipulation, participants performed Jacoby's process dissociation paradigm. Subsequently, participants engaged in a metamemory task that incorporates (and can separately measure the influence of) two simultaneous sources of fluency: familiarity and accessibility. Our results confirmed that our content-unrelated mindset procedure had affected the use of fluency. Moreover, the use of both fluency sources was attenuated, demonstrating the generality of the effect. The findings highlight the causal dependency of fluency on a complex, cognitively-rich environment.     

When customers exhibit verbal aggression, employees pay cognitive costs

In 4 experimental studies, we show that customer verbal aggression impaired the cognitive performance of the targets of this aggression. In Study 1, customers' verbal aggression reduced recall of customers' requests. Study 2 extended these findings by showing that customer verbal aggression impaired recognition memory and working memory among employees of a cellular communication provider. In Study 3, the ability to take another's perspective attenuated the negative effects of customer verbal aggression on participants' cognitive performance. Study 4 linked customer verbal aggression to quality of task performance, showing a particularly negative influence of aggressive requests delivered by high-status customers. Together, these studies suggest that the effects of even minor aggression from customers can strongly affect the immediate cognitive performance of customer service employees and reduce their task performance. The implications for research on aggression and for the practice of customer service are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).