The Association between Positive Parenting and Externalizing Behavior

The present study examined the role of positive parenting on externalizing behaviors in a longitudinal, genetically informative sample. It often is assumed that positive parenting prevents behavior problems in children via an environmentally mediated process. Alternatively, the association may be due to either an evocative gene-environment correlation, in which parents react to children's genetically-influenced behavior in a positive way, or a passive gene-environment correlation, where parents passively transmit a risk environment and the genetic risk factor for the behavioral outcome to their children. The present study estimated the contribution of these processes in the association between positive parenting and children's externalizing behavior. Positive parenting was assessed via observations at ages 7, 9, 14, 24, and 36 months and externalizing behaviors were assessed through parent report at ages 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 12 years. The significant association between positive parenting and externalizing behavior was negative, with children of mothers who showed significantly more positive parenting during toddlerhood having lower levels of externalizing behavior in childhood; however, there was not adequate power to distinguish whether this covariation was due to genetic, shared environmental, or nonshared environmental influences.     

Standing in the glory or shadow of the past self: Cultures differ in how much the past self affects current subjective well-being

Research in the past 2 decades has made great strides in understanding cross-cultural differences in the correlates and causes of subjective well-being. On the basis of past findings on the cross-cultural differences in temporal perspectives of the self, the present research examined a cross-cultural difference in individuals' subjective well-being as a function of how positively they viewed their present and past selves. Study 1 showed that both European and Asian Americans had higher subjective well-being when they viewed their present selves more positively. However, positive evaluations of the past self were accompanied by higher subjective well-being only among Asian Americans. Study 2 showed that when induced to think positively (vs. negatively) of the present self, both European and Asian Americans judged their current lives more favorably. However, when led to view the past self positively (vs. negatively), only Asian Americans made more favorable judgments about their current lives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Social deviance activates the brain’s error-monitoring system

Social psychologists have long noted the tendency for human behavior to conform to social group norms. This study examined whether feedback indicating that participants had deviated from group norms would elicit a neural signal previously shown to be elicited by errors and monetary losses. While electroencephalograms were recorded, participants (N = 30) rated the attractiveness of 120 faces and received feedback giving the purported average rating made by a group of peers. The feedback was manipulated so that group ratings either were the same as a participant’s rating or deviated by 1, 2, or 3 points. Feedback indicating deviance from the group norm elicited a feedback-related negativity, a brainwave signal known to be elicited by objective performance errors and losses. The results imply that the brain treats deviance from social norms as an error.     

Examining the association between emotion regulation difficulties and probable posttraumatic stress disorder within a sample of African Americans

This study examined the associations between emotion dysregulation and probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among 180 African American undergraduates enrolled in a historically black college in the southern United States. Trauma-exposed participants with probable PTSD reported significantly higher levels of overall emotion dysregulation and the specific dimensions of lack of emotional acceptance, difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior when upset, difficulties controlling impulsive behaviors when distressed, and limited access to effective emotion regulation strategies than participants without Criterion A traumatic exposure and those with Criterion A traumatic exposure but no PTSD (controlling for age and negative affect). Furthermore, results indicated that participants with Criterion A traumatic exposure but no PTSD were significantly less likely to report difficulties controlling impulsive behaviors when distressed and limited access to effective emotion regulation strategies than participants without Criterion A traumatic exposure (controlling for age and negative affect). These findings extend extant research on the role of emotion dysregulation in PTSD, thus providing support for the relevance of emotion dysregulation to PTSD among African American adults in particular.     

Comparing patterns of component loadings: Principal Component Analysis (PCA) versus Independent Component Analysis (ICA) in analyzing multivariate non-normal data

Principal component analysis identifies uncorrelated components from correlated variables, and a few of these uncorrelated components usually account for most of the information in the input variables. Researchers interpret each component as a separate entity representing a latent trait or profile in a population. However, the components are guaranteed to be independent and uncorrelated only when the multivariate normality of the variables is assumed. If the normality assumption does not hold, components are guaranteed to be uncorrelated, but not independent. If the independence assumption is violated, each component cannot be uniquely interpreted because of contamination by other components. Therefore, in the present study, we introduced independent component analysis, whose components are uncorrelated and independent even when the multivariate normality assumption is violated, and each component carries unique information.     

Inspiration or deflation? Feeling similar or dissimilar to slim and plus-size models affects self-evaluation of restrained eaters

The present studies examined the effect of perceiving images of slim and plus-size models on restrained eaters’ self-evaluation. While previous research has found that such images can lead to either inspiration or deflation, we argue that these inconsistencies can be explained by differences in perceived similarity with the presented model. The results of two studies (ns = 52 and 99) confirmed this and revealed that restrained eaters with high (low) perceived similarity to the model showed more positive (negative) self-evaluations when they viewed a slim model, compared to a plus-size model. In addition, Study 2 showed that inducing in participants a similarities mindset led to more positive self-evaluations after viewing a slim compared to a plus-size model, but only among restrained eaters with a relatively high BMI. These results are discussed in the context of research on social comparison processes and with regard to interventions for protection against the possible detrimental effects of media images.     

Age differences in contingency judgement linked to perceptual segregation

We demonstrate large differences in judging positive and null contingencies between younger and older adults with a task commonly used to explore cue competition in both contingency and causality judgements. The one-phase blocking task uses two cues, with separate contingencies with the same outcome. The age differences persisted even when participants knew in advance which of the two contingencies to judge. The age differences disappeared, however, when the stimulus display contained markers aiding perceptual segregation. We suggest that the age differences elicited in the one-phase blocking task are linked to decrements in perceptual segregation.     

The real you? The role of visual cues and comment congruence in perceptions of social attractiveness from facebook profiles

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of social cues in self-presentations and the congruence of other-generated comments with the self-presentation in people's evaluations of a profile owner. A 2 (level of social cues: high vs. low) × 2 (congruent vs. incongruent) × 2 (order) × 2 (multiple messages) mixed-subject experiment was conducted with 104 college students. The results showed that a profile owner was perceived less socially attractive when other-generated comments were incongruent with the profile owner's self-presentation. No matter how people package themselves with extravagant self-presentations, it cannot be very successful without validation from others. Interestingly, an interaction effect between congruence and the level of social cues suggested that perceived popularity was low in the incongruent condition regardless of level of social cue. Theoretical and practical implications were also discussed.     

The integrated model of smartphone adoption: hedonic and utilitarian value perceptions of smartphones among korean college students

Abstract This study aims to propose an integrated model of smartphone adoption that incorporates social influences (SIs), perceived technicality, as well as hedonic and utilitarian attitudes into the technology acceptance model. The proposed model was empirically evaluated by using survey data collected from 239 Korean college students to investigate their perception and attitudes toward smartphone adoption intention. Our results show that users' attitudes and their adoption intention are highly influenced by SI and positive self-image. This implies that a smartphone is a symbolic product that can signal affiliation and enhance the users' status in a group. The results also indicate that hedonic enjoyment is equally important as utilitarian usefulness in predicting the adoption intention, and the two variables mediate the relationships between SI, positive self-image, perceived technicality, and the intention to use. Consequently, the results reveal that smartphones are convergent media that can be viewed as both task-oriented and entertainment-oriented devices.     

Resilience: A Meta‐Analytic Approach

This study investigated the relationship between psychological resilience and its relevant variables by using a meta‐analytic method. The results indicated that the largest effect on resilience was found to stem from the protective factors, a medium effect from risk factors, and the smallest effect from demographic factors.