The cultural narratives of Francophone and Anglophone Quebecers: using a historical perspective to explore the relationships among collective relative deprivation, in-group entitativity, and collective esteem

Responding to calls to contextualize social psychological variables in history, the present research examines the relationship between collective relative deprivation and collective esteem using a historical perspective. We hypothesized that collective relative deprivation perceived to be experienced during an important low-point in a group's history serves to define the group's current collective identity, which is in turn associated with collective esteem. In Study 1, cultural narrative interviews were conducted with Francophone and Anglophone Quebecers in order to identify key historical chapters for these groups and to examine the extent to which historical low-points were identity-defining features of their narratives. In Study 2, using the information obtained from these narratives, collective relative deprivation was explored across group members' perceived histories and related to current in-group entitativity and collective esteem. The relationship between collective relative deprivation thought to be experienced by one's group during a historical low-point and collective esteem was positive for both Anglophone and Francophone Quebecers and was mediated by in-group entitativity. Collective relative deprivation perceived to be experienced during a historical low-point serves to define one's collective identity, which is in turn associated with greater collective esteem.     

Breaking habits with implementation intentions: a test of underlying processes

Implementation intentions specifying the replacement of a habitual response with an alternative response in a critical situation can overrule habits. In three experiments the cognitive effects of such counterhabitual implementation intentions were investigated. Results showed that implementation intentions eliminated the cognitive advantage of the habitual means in the "horse race" with the alternative response. That is, in the control condition, the habitual means was more accessible than the alternative means on encountering the critical situation, but this was no longer the case when implementation intentions were formulated. However, the cognitive advantage of the habitual means was not immediately replaced by an automatic activation of the alternative means. This suggests that formulating counterhabitual implementation intentions increases individuals' flexibility to choose which behavior to perform in the critical situation but that actual behavior will depart from their habits only to the extent that individuals have strong alternative goal intentions.     

Does climate undermine subjective well-being? A 58-nation study

The authors test predictions from climato-economic theories of culture that climate and wealth interact in their influence on psychological processes. Demanding climates (defined as colder than temperate and hotter than temperate climates) create potential threats for humans. If these demands can be met by available economic resources, individuals experience challenging opportunities for self-expression and personal growth and consequently will report lowest levels of ill-being. If threatening climatic demands cannot be met by resources, resulting levels of reported ill-being will be highest. These predictions are confirmed in nation-level means of health complaints, burnout, anxiety, and depression across 58 societies. Climate, wealth, and their interaction together account for 35% of the variation in overall subjective ill-being, even when controlling for known predictors of subjective well-being. Further investigations of the process suggest that cultural individualism does not mediate these effects, but subjective well-being may function as a mediator of the impact of ecological variables on ill-being.     

Anticipatory and compensatory postural adjustments in sitting in children with cerebral palsy

The aim of this study was to examine postural control in children with cerebral palsy performing a bilateral shoulder flexion to grasp a ball from a sitting posture. The participants were 12 typically developing children (control) without cerebral palsy and 12 children with cerebral palsy (CP). We analyzed the effect of ball mass (1 kg and 0.18 kg), postural adjustment (anticipatory, APA, and compensatory, CPA), and groups (control and CP) on the electrical activity of shoulder and trunk muscles with surface electromyography (EMG). Greater mean iEMG was seen in CPA, with heavy ball, and for posterior trunk muscles (p < .05). The children with CP presented the highest EMG and level of co-activation (p < .05). Linear regression indicated a positive relationship between EMG and aging for the control group, whereas that relationship was negative for participants with CP. We suggest that the main postural control strategy in children is based on corrections after the beginning of the movement. The linear relationship between EMG and aging suggests that postural control development is affected by central nervous disease which may lead to an increase in muscle co-activation.     

Diagnostic value of the Dominic Interactive Assessment with children exposed to intimate partner violence

This article reports on the diagnostic validity of the Dominic Interactive Assessment (DIA) in a sample of Spanish children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV). The study participants included 55 children aged between 6 and 11 years whose mothers visited an IPV counselling centre. Psychopathology and functional impairment were used as the main criteria for assessing predictive and discriminative accuracy, as well as incremental validity, of DIA. The results indicate that DIA permits obtaining useful information from children. This information improves the prediction and validity of the process of clinical assessment of children exposed to IPV. Children's self-reports could prove effective in identifying cases in this high-risk population when developmentally adequate instruments and functional criteria are used.     

Internal attribution of outcome moderates the cortisol response to a cooperative task in women

Several ethological reports have indicated that cooperative behaviors play an adaptive role. However, research has focused on competition in men, and there have been few studies on cooperation. This study aims to analyze the cortisol and psychological responses in women to a cooperative situation compared with a competitive situation in a laboratory context. The sample was distributed into four groups depending on the task and the outcome obtained: Positive cooperation, negative cooperation, competition with victory, and competition with defeat. Our results show that, in comparison with competition, cooperation produces different effects in cortisol, but not in psychological states. Nevertheless, these effects occur only when the task outcome and its appraisal are considered. Only the participants who cooperated and obtained a positive outcome and those who competed and lost showed significant decrements of cortisol. Internal attribution was higher in groups with more stable cortisol levels, suggesting a possible modulator effect of controllability in the way the situation was experienced. These results could be generalized to situations in which negotiation, mediation, and cooperative strategies are relevant for making decisions and/or solving problems.     

A functionalist account of shame-induced behaviour

Recent research has shown that shame activates both a restore and a protect motive (De Hooge, Zeelenberg, & Breugelmans, 2010), explaining the hitherto unexpected finding that shame can lead to both approach and avoidance behaviours. In the present article we show a clear difference in priority and development of restore and protect motives over time. Our experiment reveals that shame mainly motivates approach behaviour to restore the damaged self, but that this restore motive decreases when situational factors make it too risky or difficult to restore. In contrast, the motive to protect one's damaged self from further harm is not influenced by such situational factors. As a consequence, the approach behaviour that shame activates may change over time. These findings add to our understanding of the motivational processes and behaviours following from shame.     

Prospective memory, emotional valence and ageing

Emotional factors have been found to be an important influence on memory. The current study investigated the influence of emotional salience and age on a laboratory measure of prospective memory (PM); Virtual Week. Thirty young and 30 old adults completed Virtual Week, in which the emotional salience of the tasks at encoding was manipulated to be positive, negative or neutral in content. For event-based, but not time-based tasks, positivity enhancement in both age groups was seen, with a greater number of positive PM tasks being performed relative to neutral tasks. There was no negativity enhancement effect. Older adults showed generally poorer levels of PM, but they also demonstrated greater beneficial effects of positive valence compared to young. These effects of emotion on PM accuracy do not appear to reflect the retrospective component of the task as a different pattern of emotion effects was seen on the recall of PM content. Results indicate that older adults' difficulties in prospective remembering can be reduced where the tasks to be remembered are positive.