Burnout in High School Athletic Directors: A Self-Determination Perspective

Using the theoretical lens of self-determination theory, we examined correlates of burnout among high school athletic directors (N = 477, M = 45.8 years of age). Structural equation modeling of data from this cross-sectional study indicated that autonomy support from supervisors was positively associated with satisfaction of the three psychological needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, relatedness), whereas controlling behavior from supervisors was negatively correlated with psychological needs satisfaction. Competence was positively correlated with self-determination (autonomy and relatedness were not), which in turn was strongly associated with three dimensions of burnout.     

Drunk,but not blind: The effects of alcohol intoxication on change blindness

Alcohol use has long been assumed to alter cognition via attentional processes. To better understand the cognitive consequences of intoxication, the present study tested the effects of moderate intoxication (average BAC between .071 and .082) on attentional processing using complex working memory capacity (WMC) span tasks and a change blindness task. Intoxicated and sober participants were matched on baseline WMC performance, and intoxication significantly decreased performance on the complex span tasks. Surprisingly, intoxication improved performance on the change blindness task. The results are interpreted as evidence that intoxication decreases attentional control, causing either a shift towards more passive processing and/or a more diffuse attentional state. This may result in decreased performance on tasks where attentional control or focus are required, but may actually facilitate performance in some contexts.     

A Longitudinal Investigation of Posttraumatic Growth in Adult Patients Undergoing Treatment for Acute Leukemia

An acute leukemia diagnosis can be an extremely stressful experience for most patients. Posttraumatic growth (PTG) is positive psychological change experienced following a struggle with highly challenging life circumstances. The current study is the first longitudinal investigation of predictors of PTG and distress in adult acute leukemia patients undergoing induction chemotherapy. Findings suggest that these patients report PTG, and levels of PTG appear to increase over the weeks following leukemia diagnosis and induction chemotherapy. Variables associated with higher total PTG scores over time included greater number of days from baseline, younger age, and greater challenge to core beliefs. Variables associated with higher distress included greater number of days from baseline, greater perceived cancer threat, higher symptom severity, and lower spiritual well-being. Results underscore the critical role that examination of one’s core beliefs may play in the development of PTG over time.     

Representation of object orientation in children: Evidence from mirror-image confusions

Although many cognitive functions require information about the orientations of objects, little is known about representation or processing of object orientation. Mirror-image confusion provides a potential clue. This phenomenon is typically characterized as a tendency to confuse images related by left–right reflection (reflection across an extrinsic vertical axis). However, in most previous studies the stimuli were inadequate for identifying a specific mirror-image (or other) relationship as the cause of the observed confusions. Using stimuli constructed to resolve this problem, Gregory and McCloskey (2010) found that adults’ errors were primarily reflections across an object axis, and not left–right reflections. The present study demonstrates that young children's orientation errors include both object–axis reflections and left–right reflections. We argue that children and adults represent object orientation in the same coordinate-system format (McCloskey, 2009), with orientation errors resulting from difficulty encoding or retaining one (adults) or two (children) specific components of the posited representations.     

Voluntary and reflexive eye movements to illusory lengths

Considerable debate surrounds the extent and manner that motor control is, like perception, susceptible to visual illusions. Using the Brentano version of the Müller-Lyer illusion, we measured the accuracy of voluntary and reflexive eye movements to the endpoints of equal length line segments that appeared different (Experiment 1) and different length line segments that appeared equal (Experiment 3). Voluntary and reflexive saccades were both influenced by the illusion, but the former were more strongly biased and closer to the subjective percept. Experiment 2 demonstrated that these data were the results of the illusion and not centre-of-gravity effects. The representations underlying perception and action interact and this interaction produces biases for actions, particularly voluntary actions.     

What causal conditional reasoning tells us about people's understanding of causality

Causal conditional reasoning means reasoning from a conditional statement that refers to causal content. We argue that data from causal conditional reasoning tasks tell us something not only about how people interpret conditionals, but also about how they interpret causal relations. In particular, three basic principles of people's causal understanding emerge from previous studies: the modal principle, the exhaustive principle, and the equivalence principle. Restricted to the four classic conditional inferences—Modus Ponens, Modus Tollens, Denial of the Antecedent, and Affirmation of the Consequent—causal conditional reasoning data are only partially able to support these principles. We present three experiments that use concrete and abstract causal scenarios and combine inference tasks with a new type of task in which people reformulate a given causal situation. The results provide evidence for the proposed representational principles. Implications for theories of the naïve understanding of causality are discussed.     

Understanding conditional promises and threats

Conditional promises and threats are speech acts that are used to manipulate other people's behaviour. Studies on human reasoning typically use propositional logic to analyse what people infer from such inducements. While this approach is sufficient to uncover conceptual features of inducements, it fails to explain them. To overcome this limitation, we propose a multilevel analysis integrating motivational, linguistic, deontic, behavioural, and emotional aspects. Commonalities and differences between conditional promises and threats on various levels were examined in two experiments. The first shows that both types of inducements are understood as being complementary on the linguistic level, but not reversible, due to the specific temporal order of their actions. In addition, it gives a first assessment of emotional reactions. The second experiment investigated the novel question of whether complementary promises and threats, despite semantic differences, both imply an obligation to cooperate on the deontic level. The data corroborate this hypothesis, and they support various appraisal-theoretical assumptions on the elicitation of emotions. They also reveal that content affects not only the attribution of emotions, but also the deontic interpretation.     

The Perpetrator-Motive Research Design: A strategy for understanding motivations,values, and tactics of criminal offenders

For decades, applied research in the field of behavioral criminology has been successfully utilized to develop theories and training modalities for the purpose of informing practice. One method for conducting this type of research is in-depth interviews of perpetrators. The Perpetrator-Motive Research Design (PMRD) is a 12-step methodological design, which focuses on gaining a thorough understanding of the motivations, values, needs, and tactics of those who commit offenses against others. PMRD has been employed in a pilot study conducted with captive-takers in the FBI's Global Hostage-Taking Research and Analysis Project (GHosT-RAP). Even though global captive-taking is a major domestic and international security problem that affects the interests of the United States, and poses serious challenges abroad, only a modicum of investigative attention has been directed to this problem. This void is addressed through the tripartite mission of GHosT-RAP: (1) to elicit and describe captive-taker values and paradigms, (2) to determine motivations and methods for captive-taking, and (3) to utilize resultant data to improve strategies for mitigation and prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery activities. In addition, GHosT-RAP will serve to formalize and operationalize the PMRD approach into a well-defined, systematic, and replicable process that can be used to better understand a myriad of offenders and their nominal enterprises.     

Stereotypes and Personalities of Musicians

Folk fiddle players and Salvation Army brass band members completed the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI; H. J. Eysenck & S. B. G. Eysenck; 1964) and a questionnaire concerning their opinions about the personality characteristics of orchestral violinists, orchestral brass players, folk fiddlers, and Salvation Army brass band members. The EPI scores of the 2 groups showed a greater neuroticism among string players but not the greater extraversion of brass players found in previous studies on the personalities of musicians. Although participants' views about the personality characteristics of orchestral brass players and orchestral violinists echoed those found in previous research, their views on the Salvation Army (as brass players) and on folk fiddlers (as string players) did not. Results of this study showed that personality differences or stereotypes among musicians are probably determined more by the history and traditions of the group in which they are perceived to be involved than by the instruments they play.