Born to learn or born to win? Birth order effects on achievement goals

Given the widespread use and well-known consequences of achievement goals in different competence-relevant situations, it is important to gain a thorough understanding of how these differences in goal pursuit are formed. Using different analytic approaches, we show that birth order lies at the heart of people’s goal preferences as we consistently found that firstborns have developed a preference for mastery goals (which are based on self-referenced standards of competence), whereas secondborns have developed a preference for performance goals (which are based on other-referenced standards of competence). These findings may help explain why people differently define, experience, and respond to competence-relevant situations, including the workplace, the classroom, and the ball field.     

Respect for group members: intragroup determinants of collective identification and group-serving behavior

This experiment examined how (disrespectful vs. respectful) treatment and (negative vs. positive) performance evaluation, both received from the same fellow group members, affects collective identification and willingness to engage in group-serving behavior. It was predicted and found that respectful as opposed to disrespectful intragroup treatment increased collective identification and willingness to engage in group-serving behavior in the immediate group situation, irrespective of whether intragroup evaluation was positive or negative. There was also evidence of a mediating role of collective identification. Regression analyses based on the measurement of perceived intragroup treatment and perceived intragroup evaluation as continuous variables corroborated these findings but also pointed to limits of the positive effects of respectful intragroup treatment. Finally, the interrelation of treatment and evaluation by fellow group members as two possible components of intragroup respect are discussed as well as the political dimension of research on intragroup respect.     

Antecedents of counterproductive behavior at work: a general perspective

Counterproductive work behaviors have predominantly been investigated at relatively narrow levels, with the focus limited to subsets of the behavioral domain as well as to specific explanatory approaches. This study took a broader perspective with respect to both dependent and independent variables. A sample of German employees from 2 organizations reported on their levels of general counterproductive behavior (GCB). In predicting GCB, M. R. Gottfredson and T. Hirschi's (1990) theory of self-control as a general explanation for deviant acts was tested and compared with several alternative approaches. Results from simple and moderated hierarchical multiple regression analyses involving 24 predictors of GCB strongly support hypotheses derived from self-control theory. Little support is found for any effects on individual differences in GCB beyond the direct and conditional impact of internal control.     

Hippocampal Activations during Repetitive Learning and Recall of Geometric Patterns

Hippocampal activation is required for episodic memory. Encoding and retrieval of novel and memorable items have been related to different locations in the hippocampus; however, the data remain ambiguous. The application of a newly designed keyboard allowed investigation of brain activation during encoding and free immediate and delayed recall with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in young healthy controls (n=12). Because of the repetitive learning and recall conditions, an individual learning gradient was used to contrast neural activity at different individual levels of novelty. During learning, subjects were asked to memorize 10 geometric patterns requiring the establishment of intra-item associations for memorization. After learning, subjects were asked to recall the items actively via the keyboard. Learning and recall were alternated five times. Delayed recall was scanned about 15 min after the fifth immediate recall condition without subjects having seen the items again. Left-sided anterior hippocampal activity was observed during conditions of initial learning as well as maximum recall. Neural activity during delayed recall did not reveal hippocampal responses and was characterized by a transition of neural activity from occipitoparietal regions to bilateral temporal cortices. We conclude that both lateralization and segregation depend on the specific relational characteristics of the stimuli requiring establishment of intra-item associations for encoding as well as retrieval. The absence of hippocampal activation during delayed recall together with the increase of lateral temporal involvement possibly corresponds with an emerging transition from episodic to long-term memory.     

Anpassungsleistung und Täuschung in der forensischen Therapie

The term adaptation is often used in forensic interventions in a negative sense to describe courses of treatment without a real modification of thinking and behavior. In many cases adaptation means only a superficial problem adaptation with a risky process. This article describes and explains that in many cases adaptation can be a fundamental performance of development in a positive sense.Finally, key questions for the assessment of different adaptations and a typology of adaptations are presented. Additionally, the difference between a positive or rather desirable adaptation and deception will be defined.     

Rape myths as neutralizing cognitions: evidence for a causal impact of anti-victim attitudes on men's self-reported likelihood of raping

Men's rape myth acceptance (RMA; prejudiced beliefs that serve to exonerate the rapist and blame the victim) has been shown to correlate positively with self-reported rape proclivity (RP). To explore the causal pathway underlying this correlation, two experiments were conducted in which the relative cognitive accessibility of RMA and RP was varied. Male students were asked to report their RP in the context of a scale assessing attraction toward sexual aggression (Experiment 1) or in response to five realistic date-rape scenarios (Experiment 2), either before or after they filled out a 20-item RMA scale. In both studies, the correlation of RMA and RP was significantly greater in the after than in the before condition, suggesting that the belief in rape myths has a causal influence on men's proclivity to rape. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Community Psychology in higher education in Europe: Results of a survey and discussion of the basic competency approach

This report from the Standing Committee on Community Psychology of the European Federation of Psychological Association provides an overview of higher education in Community Psychology (CP) in 14 European countries. Our findings show that 10 countries have some kind of CP teaching in their educational system. Twenty European universities offer a CP‐oriented Master degree, two universities at the Bachelor level and 16 universities also have CP‐oriented Ph.D. programmes. The profiles of the universities focus on two areas: Community psychology in a pure form and a combination of social psychology and community psychology. The other universities vary between clinical, organisational psychology, and a pedagogical focus. Within a certain European emphasis, these universities are analysing and changing the social conditions of community life and mental health. The responding universities failed to report adequately on comprehensive core competences and key elements in CP. To compensate for this deficit, the Standing Committee on Community Psychology proposes to develop a primer of basic CP competences for inclusion in programmes like EuroPsy.     

Ethical and Social Aspects of Neurorobotics

Science and Engineering Ethics - The interdisciplinary field of neurorobotics looks to neuroscience to overcome the limitations of modern robotics technology, to robotics to advance our...     

Visual perception in fencing: Do the eye movements of fencers represent their information pickup?

The present study examined whether results of athletes' eye movements while they observe fencing attacks reflect their actual information pickup by comparing these results with others gained with temporal and spatial occlusion and cuing techniques. Fifteen top-ranking expert fencers, 15 advanced fencers, and 32 sport students predicted the target region of 405 fencing attacks on a computer monitor. Results of eye movement recordings showed a stronger foveal fixation on the opponent's trunk and weapon in the two fencer groups. Top-ranking expert fencers fixated particularly on the upper trunk. This matched their performance decrements in the spatial occlusion condition. However, when the upper trunk was occluded, participants also shifted eye movements to neighboring body regions. Adding cues to the video material had no positive effects on prediction performance. We conclude that gaze behavior does not necessarily represent information pickup, but that studies applying the spatial occlusion paradigm should also register eye movements to avoid underestimating the information contributed by occluded regions.