Does Avatar Appearance Matter? How Team Visual Similarity and Member–Avatar Similarity Influence Virtual Team Performance

This multimethod study investigated how avatar appearance influences virtual team performance. This study is the first to integrate the framework of social identity model of de‐individuation effects (SIDE) and Self‐Identification theory, using “morphing” techniques. Results were obtained from a 2 (team visual similarity: dissimilar vs. similar team avatars) × 2 (member–avatar similarity: cartoon avatars vs. avatar similar to self) experiment (N = 240). The findings indicated that teams using “morphed team avatars,” which combined both a high degree of team visual similarity and member–avatar similarity in their appearances, performed best on the task, and showed greater social attraction than teams in the other conditions. Moreover, content analysis of the chat conversations revealed that these teams interacted more strategically and expressed a greater motivation to solve the task.     

On the association between adolescent autonomy and psychosocial functioning: examining decisional independence from a self-determination theory perspective

In the present study, we focus on the concept of adolescent autonomy and its relation with psychosocial functioning. Specifically, we aim to differentiate between 2 prevailing conceptualizations of autonomy, that is, (a) autonomy defined as independence versus dependence and (b) autonomy defined as self-endorsed versus controlled functioning. A 2nd goal is to examine the relative contribution of each autonomy operationalization in the prediction of adolescents' adjustment (i.e., well-being, problem behavior, and intimacy). Data were gathered in a sample of 707 Belgian adolescents. Using a newly developed questionnaire, we assessed both the degree of independent decision making per se and the self-endorsed versus controlled motives underlying both independent and dependent decision making. The degree of independent decision making could clearly be differentiated from the underlying motives for doing so. Moreover, independent decision making as such showed unique associations with more problem behavior. Further, as expected, self-endorsed motives for both independent and dependent decision making generally related to an adaptive pattern of psychosocial functioning, and controlled motives were associated with maladjustment. The discussion focuses on the difference between the 2 perspectives on autonomy and on the different meaning of the motives underlying independent, relative to dependent, decision making.     

Right‐Wing Authoritarianism: Protective Factor Against or Risk Factor for Depression?

Because the authoritarian personality was introduced to explain the rise of fascism during World War II, research focused on its ability to predict prejudice, leaving its associations with well‐being largely unexplored. Studies that did examine these associations yielded inconsistent results, and some authors even argued that authoritarianism buffers against the negative effects of psychological vulnerability factors (i.e. D‐type personality) and negative life events on well‐being, especially among people in an authoritarian environment. Using a cross‐sectional community sample (N = 1010), Study 1 failed to support the idea that authoritarianism relates to depressive symptoms and buffers against the negative effects of D‐type personality on depressive symptoms. Using a longitudinal college student sample (N = 499), Study 2 showed that authoritarianism did not moderate the effects of life events either and even predicted over‐time increases in depressive symptoms. Using a longitudinal high school sample (N = 590), Study 3 showed that this effect emerged regardless of degree of fit with the social environment (i.e. with family and friends). Taken together, results suggest that authoritarianism constitutes a risk factor for rather than a protective factor against depressive symptoms. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sonic discourses on Muslim Malay modernity: The Arqam sound

Not only has Nasyid music been successful in addressing questions about what it is to be a modern Muslim youth in Southeast Asia, reconciling piety with a ??funky but shariah?? consumerist lifestyle; it also has been expressive of political aspirations for a utopian-style communal society. This essay focuses on how, from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, the Malaysian missionary movement Al-Arqam used nasyid music to articulate ideas of Muslim Malay modernity and on how nasyid music became one of the main interfaces to spread the Arqam message beyond its model villages. The focus is on Arqam??s main ensembles, Nadamurni and the Zikr, and, with the 1994 ban on Arqam??s activities, the celebrated pop group Raihan. Raihan??s sonic explorations into Muslim Malay modernity have challenged orthodox Islamic ideas, but also the entertainment industry and the secular Malaysian state at large. Nasyid culture provides us with an understanding of the larger changes that have occurred within Southeast Asian Islam, away from a previous Islamic revival and toward a post-Islamist chic and new cultural performances that successfully blend entertainment and education.     

Observed need-supportive and need-thwarting teaching behavior in physical education: Do teachers' motivational orientations matter?

ObjectivesThe behaviors physical education (PE) teachers engage in affect a number of important student outcomes. Therefore, it is essential to study the antecedents of these teaching behaviors.Design and methodGrounded in Self-Determination Theory, this cross-sectional study explored the relations between PE teachers' autonomous and controlled motivational orientations and a variety of observed need-supportive and need-thwarting teaching behaviors in 79 PE classes by means of regression analyses.ResultsControl-oriented teachers made less use of an overall need-supportive teaching style and provided less structure during the activity in particular, while they engaged in more need-thwarting teaching behavior in general and in more controlling and cold teaching behavior in particular.ConclusionAlthough autonomy-oriented teachers tended to display the opposite pattern of correlates, these associations were non-significant. As the current findings suggest that teachers' actual teaching behavior is rooted at least partly in their own dispositional motivational orientation, they may inform the design of effective continuous professional development programs and interventions aimed at enhancing teachers' need-supportive teaching. Directions for future research are discussed.     

Context Matters: Promises and Concerns Regarding Nanotechnologies for Water and Food Applications

Expectations in the form of promises and concerns contribute to the sense-making and valuation of emerging nanotechnologies. They add up to what we call ‘de facto assessments’ of novel socio-technical options. We explore how de facto assessments of nanotechnologies differ in the application domains of water and food by examining promises and concerns, and their relations in scientific discourse. We suggest that domain characteristics such as prior experiences with emerging technologies, specific discursive repertoires and user-producer relationships, play a key role in framing expectations of nanotechnology-enabled options. The article concludes by suggesting that domain-specific discourses may lead to undesirable lock-ins into specific de facto assessments pre-structuring anticipatory strategies of actors.     

Age-related changes in brain–behaviour relationships: Evidence from event-related functional MRI studies

A fundamental aim of studies in neurocognitive ageing is to understand age-related changes in brain–behaviour relationships. Neuroimaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be used for observation of these age-related changes only if the assumption of age-equivalent relations between neural activity and haemodynamic activity is valid. In one study, we characterised age-related differences in the coupling of the haemodynamic response to neural activity and found greater voxel-wise noise in older than in younger adults, but age-equivalent signal magnitude. These results suggested that alternative techniques may be necessary for analysing age-related differences in neuroimaging data. In a second study, we utilised one alternative method for comparing fMRI activation between younger and older adults performing a working memory (WM) task. Across three experiments, the results suggested that age-related functional changes in fMRI activation can be isolated to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) during memory retrieval. These results suggest a plausible model for WM decline with normal ageing. In a third study we propose and test a model of age-related PFC dysfunction that may account for these and other age-related differences in cognitive performance.     

An enhanced examination of Holland's consistency and differentiation hypotheses

The research support for Holland's concepts of consistency and differentiation has been equivocal (Nauta, 2010). To provide a reexamination of these concepts, a new method of operationalizing Holland's constructs of consistency and differentiation using the cosine fit function to the RIASEC score profile is proposed. The relation of these new indices to career certainty, congruence and the moderation of the congruence–certainty relation were examined in a sample of 118 college students (study 1). Support was found for the superiority of the cosine fit definitions of consistency and differentiation over the traditional representations. The cosine fit indices were further examined in a second study on 167 adults examining interest stability over 15 years. The cosine fit indices of consistency and differentiation were related to both occupational stability over 15 years and career satisfaction. The results suggest that the concepts of differentiation and consistency may still have merit but only with more exact methods of specification.