'Thank Goodness That's Over': The Evolutionary Story

If, as the new tenseless theory of time maintains, there are no tensed facts, then why do our emotional lives seem to suggest that there are? This question originates with Prior’s ‘Thank Goodness That’s Over’ problem, and still presents a significant challenge to the new B–theory of time. We argue that this challenge has more dimensions to it than has been appreciated by those involved in the debate so far. We present an analysis of the challenge, showing the different questions that a B–theorist must answer in order to meet it. The debate has focused on the question of what is the object of my relief when an unpleasant experience is past. We outline the prevailing response to this question. The additional, and neglected, questions are, firstly –‘Why does the same event elicit different emotional responses from us depending on whether it is in the past, present, or future?’ And secondly –‘Why do we care more about proximate future pain than about distant future pain?’ We give B–theory answers to these questions, which appeal to evolutionary considerations.     

Employees' Sense of Community, Sense of Control, and Work/Family Conflict in Native American Organizations

This study examines two critical psychological states—employees' sense of work community and their sense of control—as mediating variables between personal/work factors and work/family conflict in the context of two Native American organizations. The questionnaire data come from 151 employees, 77 of whom are Nez Perce Indians. Results using structural equation modeling show that employees' sense of community and sense of control at work mediate the relationship among four personal/work factors (employees' ethnicity, family-sensitive supervision, the intrinsic value they place on their work, and work flexibility) and work/family role conflict.     

Choosing to Enter or Avoid Diagnostic Social Situations

ABSTRACT— Three studies suggest that people control the nature of their relationships, in part, by choosing to enter (or avoid) situations providing feedback about other people's social interest. In Study 1 , chronically avoidant individuals (but not others) preferred social options that would provide no information about other people's evaluations of them over social options that would, but did not prefer nondiagnostic situations more generally. In Study 2 , chronically avoidant students (but not others) in a methods class preferred to have their teacher assign them to working groups (a nondiagnostic situation) over forming their own groups (a diagnostic situation). In Study 3 , individuals experimentally primed to feel avoidant were less likely than those primed to feel secure to choose to receive feedback about how another person felt about them. Overall, the research suggests that choices of socially diagnostic versus socially nondiagnostic situations play an important role in guiding people's social relationships.     

Retrieval savings with nonidentical elements: The case of simple addition and subtraction

The identical elements (IE) theory of fact representation (Rickard, 2005) proposes that memorized facts that are composed of identical elements (e.g., 6 × 8 = 48 and 8 × 6 = 48) share a common representation in memory, whereas facts with nonidentical elements (e.g., 6 × 8 = 48 and 48 ÷ 8 = 6) are represented separately in memory. The IE model has been successfully applied to the transfer of practice in simple multiplication and division, in transition from procedure-based to retrieval-based performance, and in cued episodic recall. In the present article, we examined the effects of practicing simple addition problems (e.g., 3 + 6 = 9) on the performance of corresponding subtraction problems (9 − 6 = 3), and vice versa. According to IE theory, there should be no transfer of retrieval savings between addition and subtraction facts if performance is based on discrete IE fact representations. Cross-operation response time savings were observed, however, for both small, well-memorized problems (e.g., practice 3 + 2, test 5 − 2) and larger problems (6 + 8, 14 − 6), and they were statistically robust when trials that were self-reported as direct retrieval were analyzed. The transfer of retrieval practice savings between facts with nonidentical elements challenges IE theory as a comprehensive model of transfer in memory retrieval.     

Emotional states preceding and following acts of non-suicidal self-injury in bulimia nervosa patients

Bulimia nervosa and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) co-occur at high rates, and both have been conceptualized as maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. Treatments focusing on emotion regulation have been designed for both problem behaviors, yet, there exists very little research examining the temporal emotional states surrounding acts of NSSI. Using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methodology, the current study examined the temporal association between positive and negative emotional states prior to and consequent to acts of NSSI within a subset of bulimia nervosa patients. Results indicate significant increases in negative affect, and decreases in positive affect, prior to an NSSI act. Post-NSSI, positive affect significantly increased while negative affect remained unchanged. The findings offer partial support for an emotion regulation paradigm to understanding NSSI within bulimic populations and implications for treatment are discussed.     

Offering more support than we seek

Two studies provide evidence that, in friendships, people offer support to partners more often than they request identical support for themselves. In one study, people reported being more likely to offer different types of support (e.g., a ride to a train station) than to request identical support. This effect was more pronounced for casual than established friendships. In a second study, people assigned randomly to be in a position to give support or to seek identical support from a friend gave more support than they sought. The observed asymmetry is attributed to people balancing desires to establish and strengthen communal relationships against desires to protect the self from rejection, not to people being inherently more unselfish than selfish.     

The Relationship Between Religion and Religious Coping: Religious Coping as a Moderator Between Religion and Adjustment

This study examined the relationship between and among religion, religious coping, and positive/negative psychological adjustment and investigated whether the four religious coping styles of Self-Directing, Deferring, Collaborative, and Turning to Religion would significantly moderate the relationship between religion and psychological adjustment. Each of the four religious coping measures were significant moderators between religion and positive and negative adjustment. However, the high self-directing and high religion group showed opposite results from the other three coping styles, in that they were the most maladjusted and least satisfied with life compared to the other three integration and religious coping groups. The participants high on religion and high deferring, high collaborative, and high turning to religion groups were less maladjusted and more satisfied than the other three groups in each of these religious coping styles.