On the role of passion in performance

The present paper reports two studies designed to test the Dualistic Model of Passion with regard to performance attainment in two fields of expertise. Results from both studies supported the Passion Model. Harmonious passion was shown to be a positive source of activity investment in that it directly predicted deliberate practice (Study 1) and positively predicted mastery goals which in turn positively predicted deliberate practice (Study 2). In turn, deliberate practice had a direct positive impact on performance attainment. Obsessive passion was shown to be a mixed source of activity investment. While it directly predicted deliberate practice (Study 1) and directly predicted mastery goals (which predicted deliberate practice), it also predicted performance-avoidance and performance-approach goals, with the former having a tendency to facilitate performance directly, and the latter to directly negatively impact on performance attainment (Study 2). Finally, harmonious passion was also positively related to subjective well-being (SWB) in both studies, while obsessive passion was either unrelated (Study 1) or negatively related to SWB (Study 2). The conceptual and applied implications of the differential influences of harmonious and obsessive passion in performance are discussed.     

Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Multidimensional Scaling for Construct Validation of Cognitive Abilities

Although factor analysis is the most commonly-used method for examining the structure of cognitive variable interrelations, multidimensional scaling (MDS) can provide visual representations highlighting the continuous nature of interrelations among variables. Using data (N = 8,813; ages 17-97 years) aggregated across 38 separate studies, MDS was applied to 16 cognitive variables representative of five well-established cognitive abilities. Parallel to confirmatory factor analytic solutions, and consistent with past MDS applications, the results for young (18-39 years), middle (40-65 years), and old (66-97 years) adult age groups consistently revealed a two-dimensional radex disk, with variables from fluid reasoning tests located at the center. Using a new method, target measures hypothesized to reflect three aspects of cognitive control (updating, storage-plus-processing, and executive functioning) were projected onto the radex disk. Parallel to factor analytic results, these variables were also found to be centrally located in the cognitive ability space. The advantages and limitations of the radex representation are discussed.     

The nonconscious road to perceptions of performance: Achievement priming augments outcome expectancies and experienced self-agency

Three experiments explored the effects of priming the achievement concept on the expectation of performance outcomes and experiences of self-agency over outcomes in a task in which performance outcomes were dependent on chance. Experiment 1 and 2 showed that achievement priming produced expectations of higher (more successful) outcomes prior to working on the task, regardless of whether priming was subliminal (nonconscious) or supraliminal (conscious) and that this effect could not be attributed to subjective motivation to perform well. Experiment 3 revealed that subliminal achievement priming decreased participants’ experienced self-agency when outcome feedback was low, but increased self-agency when it was high. Together, these results suggest that activating achievement concepts outside of awareness spontaneously triggers expectations of higher task outcomes, which increases or decreases self-agency depending on whether there is a match or mismatch with observed outcomes. Implications for the literature on achievement-priming effects on behavior are discussed.     

A particular resiliency to threatening environments

Being in the numerical minority can impair intellectual performance. We suggest, however, that these negative effects need not extend to everyone because some people—specifically high self-monitors—can overcome the effects of situationally activated stereotypes. In two studies, we manipulated the race/sex composition of small groups and assessed intellectual performance. Results revealed that: (a) self-monitoring moderated the effects of group-composition on performance, such that it was positively related to performance in stressful minority settings, (b) the number of out-group members in a group caused a linear effect on performance that differed for high and low self-monitors, and (c) stereotype activation mediated self-monitoring’s moderating effect on performance. Thus, high self-monitors may be resilient to threatening environments because they react to negative stereotypes with increased (and not decreased) performance. We discuss these results in relation to theories of inter-group contact, stereotype threat, and stress and coping.     

Personality Validity: The Role of Schemas and Motivated Reasoning

We explored the role of schemas and motivated reasoning in personality assessment. Utilizing a sample of 299 participants, we investigated whether applying for a specific job leads applicants to adopt a schema. Once adopting the schema, the respondents use that schema in a way that inaccurately reflects what their behavior is. Consequently, as hypothesized, there is a lowering of validities, in comparison with assessing personality in a neutral setting. An intriguing implication of our research is that personality measurement for selection might be shifted from the employment setting to more neutral settings, such as a counselor setting, in order to be optimized.     

Six Questions for the Resource Model of Control (and Some Answers)

The resource model of self‐control casts self‐control as a capacity that relies on some limited resource that exhausts with use. The model captured our imagination and brought much‐needed attention on an important yet neglected psychological construct. Despite its success, basic issues with the model remain. Here, we ask six questions: (i) Does self‐control really wane over time? (ii) Is ego depletion a form of mental fatigue? (iii) What is the resource that is depleted by ego depletion? (iv) How can changes in motivation, perception, and expectations replenish an exhausted resource? (v) Has the revised resource model unwittingly become a model about motivation? (vi) Do self‐control exercises increase self‐control? By providing some answers to these questions – including conducting a meta‐analysis of the self‐control training literature – we highlight how the resource model needs to be revised if not supplanted altogether.     

Sampling Extreme Groups Invalidates Research on the Paraphilias: Implications for DSM-5 and Sex Offender Risk Assessments

Psychiatrist and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV) text editor Michael First has criticized the addition of victim counts to criteria proposed by the Paraphilia Sub-Workgroup for inclusion in DSM-5 because they will increase false-positive diagnoses. Psychologist and Chair of the DSM-5 Paraphilia Sub-Workgroup, Ray Blanchard, responded by publishing a study of pedohebephiles and teleiophiles which seemed to show that victim counts could accurately identify pedohebephiles who were selected per self-report and phallometric testing. His analysis was flawed because it did not conform to conventional clinical practice and because he sampled groups at opposite ends of the clinical spectrum. In an analysis of his full sample, we found the false-positive rate for pedohebephilia at the recommended victim count selection points was indeed very large. Why? Because data analyses that eliminate intermediate data points will generate inflated estimates of correlation coefficients, base rates, and the discriminative capacity of predictor variables. This principle is also relevant for understanding the flaws in previous research that led Hanson and Bussiere to conclude that sexual recidivism was correlated with “sexual interest in children as measured by phallometric assessment.” The credibility of mental health professionals rests on the reliability of their research. Conducting, publishing, and citing research that reflects adequate sampling and cautious diagnostic theorizing are critical for preserving this credibility. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

In the trenches of real-world self-control: neural correlates of breaking the link between craving and smoking

Successful goal pursuit involves repeatedly engaging self-control against temptations or distractions that arise along the way. Laboratory studies have identified the brain systems recruited during isolated instances of self-control, and ecological studies have linked self-control capacity to goal outcomes. However, no study has identified the neural systems of everyday self-control during long-term goal pursuit. The present study integrated neuroimaging and experience-sampling methods to investigate the brain systems of successful self-control among smokers attempting to quit. A sample of 27 cigarette smokers completed a go/no-go task during functional magnetic resonance imaging before they attempted to quit smoking and then reported everyday self-control using experience sampling eight times daily for 3 weeks while they attempted to quit. Increased activation in right inferior frontal gyrus, pre-supplementary motor area, and basal ganglia regions of interest during response inhibition at baseline was associated with an attenuated association between cravings and subsequent smoking. These findings support the ecological validity of neurocognitive tasks as indices of everyday response inhibition.     

What's outside the black box?: The status of behavioral outcomes in neuroscience research

Kievit et al.'s target paper exemplifies a trend in recent years in psychology and neuroscience to focus on internal mental and neural processes without integrating actual behavior. We discuss the theoretical status of behavior in the context of their model, and present an extension of the model that explicitly includes behavior. Several theoretical and methodological issues relevant to integrating behavior into the model are considered, particularly the distinction between behavior as measured in the laboratory along with neural and psychological processes (proximal behavior) and behavior as measured in situ as part of ongoing daily experience (distal behavior). We conclude by describing several studies that integrate neural, psychological, and behavioral indicators and discuss how these kinds of studies can facilitate a better understanding of behavior and contribute to theory development.