Remembering talk: Individual and gender differences in reported speech

This study examined individual and group differences in the nature and frequency of reports of past speech in the autobiographical memories of young adults. A sample of 108 participants (60 females, 48 males) responded in writing to six memory prompts. They also completed the Five Factor Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (Spence & Helmreich, 1978). The frequency with which participants used reported speech was correlated with agreeableness, openness, and expressivity; however, regression analyses indicated that narrators’ gender alone was the best predictor. Females used more reported speech than did males. The findings suggest that recollections of past speech are an under-appreciated yet important component of autobiographical memory.     

Phenomenology of autobiographical memories: The Memory Experiences Questionnaire

The phenomenology of autobiographical memories varies on a number of dimensions: some memories are vivid and others dim; some are emotionally intense and others lack emotional content. The present research sought to develop a psychometrically-sound scale to assess the entire range of dimensions on which autobiographical memories differ. We reviewed the literature on memory experiences and identified 10 relevant dimensions: Vividness, Coherence, Accessibility, Time Perspective, Sensory Details, Visual Perspective, Emotional Intensity, Sharing, Distancing, and Valence. We constructed a comprehensive item pool to assess these dimensions and, using data from several large samples (Ns=941; 510; 212), we showed that: (a) all 10 scales had adequate reliability (median alpha=.87; range=.72 to .97), (b) the 10-factor structure provided a good fit to the data, and (c) gender, personality, and memory recency had theoretically meaningful relations with the 10 scales. For example, gender and ethnicity differences in phenomenology were mediated by memory content, and early and recent memories had distinct phenomenologies. The discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical utility of the 10 scales.     

Examining the long-term stability of overgeneral autobiographical memory

Overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM) is a proposed trait-marker for vulnerability to depression, but relatively little work has examined its long-term stability. This study investigated the stability of OGM over several years in 271 late adolescents and young adults participating in a larger longitudinal study of risk for emotional disorders. The Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) was administered twice, with test–retest intervals ranging from approximately 3 to 6 years. There was evidence of significant but modest stability in OGM over several years. Specifically, Spearman rank correlations (ρs) between the proportions of specific and categoric memories generated on the two AMTs were .31 and .32, respectively. We did not find evidence that the stability of OGM was moderated by the length of the test–retest interval. Furthermore, the stability coefficients for OGM for individuals with and without a lifetime history of major depressive disorder (MDD) were relatively similar in magnitude and not significantly different from one another (ρs=.34 and .42 for the proportions of specific and categoric memories for those with a history of MDD; ρs=.31 for both the proportions of specific and categoric memories for those without a history of MDD). Implications for the conceptualisation of OGM are discussed.     

Social Innovation: Enhancing Creative Performance Through Causal Analysis

ABSTRACT

Prior qualitative research has indicated that social innovation, the generation and implementation of new ideas about social relationships and social organization, requires active analysis of the causes operative in a social system. To provide some quantitative evidence bearing on this proposition, 180 undergraduates were presented with six social innovation problems drawn from the business and educational domains. Training in the analysis of causes was provided and manipulations were made to induce analysis through distancing and forecasting. It was found that induction of causal analysis through training and distancing contributed to the originality of obtained problem solutions especially in less familiar domains. The implications of these findings for understanding social innovation are discussed.     

Orienting Under Load: Intrinsic Dynamics and Postural Affordances for Visual Perception

Orientation toward one's surroundings is necessary for prospective control of action, and constraints on orienting activity have consequences for animal survival. Physically coupled load is a constraint for humans wearing protective equipment (firefighters, soldiers, etc.). The consequences of load on postural affordances while transitioning to upright stance was used to quantify the impact of different soldier configurations. Eight participants established upright posture in 4 relevant load configurations (5.0 to 79.2 lb). Load affected the accessibility of optical information at a distance as evidenced by increasing downward head angles and reductions in postural coordination. Reductions in the variability of time to establish upright stance with load suggests a loss of functional adaptability. Load asymmetries played a significant role as the most asymmetric configuration (not the heaviest) had the most detrimental effect on postural affordances. Center of Pressure (CoP) dynamics reflected the consequences of asymmetric loading on postural regulation as greater power and fluctuations across frequencies were observed. Physically coupled load induces significant constraints on orienting activity, and load asymmetry contributes significantly to the detrimental effects of protective equipment on action-perception coupling during whole-body movements.     

Defining and Understanding Mental Toughness within Soccer

This study examined the frequency of observed prosocial and antisocial behaviors in soccer teams, age differences in observed behaviors and motivational variables, and whether motivational variables account for age differences in observed behaviors. Participants were 313 adolescent soccer players, recruited from three age groups: under 13, under 15, and under 17. Each age group was represented by eight teams. Players were filmed during a game and completed questionnaires after the game. Videotaped games were analyzed by two observers, who recorded behaviors for each team rather than each individual player; therefore, all data were analyzed only at the group level. Observed antisocial behaviors were more frequent than prosocial ones. Significant differences were also identified among the three age groups with the oldest group displaying more frequent antisocial and less frequent prosocial behaviors and perceiving a stronger performance climate and a weaker mastery climate in their team compared to the two younger groups. A series of ANCOVAs using motivational variables as covariates indicated that mastery climate followed by performance climate accounted for the largest decrease in the variance of both prosocial and antisocial behaviors attributed to the age group factor. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for promoting fair play in sport.     

The Value of Social Validation in Single-Case Methods in Sport and Exercise Psychology

Social validation is used to determine satisfaction with an intervention and has been utilized in many single-case studies within sport and exercise psychology research and consultancy. This article reviews current social validation procedures and makes recommendations of how a more thorough consideration of the technique could add greater value to the understanding of single-case protocols within research and applied practice. Recommendations include using semi-structured interviews for data collection, using content analysis to analyze these data, reporting social validation results in a thorough manner, collecting social validation information from significant others, and collecting social validation data as frequently as possible.     

Some Costs of American Corporate Capitalism: A Psychological Exploration of Value and Goal Conflicts

Evolutionary psychology has been proposed as a metatheoretical framework for psychology. We argue that evolutionary psychology should be expanded if it is to offer new insights regarding the major issues in psychology. Evolutionary developmental biology can provide valuable new insights into issues such as the domain-specificity of the human mind, the nature–nurture debate, stages in development, and the origin of individual differences. Evolutionary developmental biology provides evidence for the hypotheses that domain-general and domain-specific abilities co-occur, that nature and nurture interact in a dynamic and nonadditive way, that stages occur in development, and that individual differences are the result of pleiotropic effects during development.