Remembering the silver lining: reappraisal and positive bias in memory for emotion

Reappraisal and distraction, unlike suppression, are known to decrease the intensity of negative emotion in the short term. Little is known about long-term characteristics associated with emotion regulation strategies, however. In a longitudinal study, we examined the relation between the strategies people reported using to regulate emotions during a stressful situation and their later memory for their emotions. Students in Italy rated the intensity of positive and negative emotions they were experiencing as they prepared for their high school exit exam. They also rated the extent to which they were regulating emotion using reappraisal, distraction, and suppression. Six weeks later, students recalled their pre-exam emotions. The more students reported engaging in reappraisal before the exam, the more they overestimated positive emotion and underestimated negative emotion when recalling their experience. The association between reported reappraisal and memory bias was partially mediated by positive changes over time in students' appraisals of the exam preparation experience. Reports of engaging in distraction and suppression were not associated with memory bias. Because remembered emotion guides future choices, these findings suggest that reappraisal is a highly adaptive strategy for coping with stressful situations, not only in the short run, but also in the long run.     

Intercultural (Mis)Communication: Why Would You “Out” Me in Class?

This paper conceptualizes Hopson’s notion of crash moments by exploring an intercultural interaction (between an individual who identifies as heterosexual and another who identifies as homosexual) within a graduate classroom by drawing on cultural schema theory and critical incident analysis. Ultimately, this paper deconstructs a communication breakdown through a self-reflexive process in which the researcher was “outed” (someone else disclosed the sexual orientation of a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered individual in a public setting) by a classmate—which the researcher deems as a problematic occurrence, making the incident critical and fitting for analysis within an intercultural communication context. This paper also considers the complexities of sexual identity negotiation as an African American female lesbian at a Historically Black College/University.     

An assessment of the similarities between a measure of positive perfectionism and a measure of conscientious achievement striving

Objectives

The purpose of the study was to examine the similarities between the constructs measured by the positive perfectionism subscale from the Positive and Negative Perfectionism Scale and the achievement striving subscale from the Revised NEO Personality Inventory.

Design

A non-experimental design was adopted.

Method

One-hundred and seventy-nine junior basketball players (age M = 16.50, s = 1.12) completed measures of positive perfectionism, conscientious achievement striving and other external measures.

Results

Analyses revealed that the two scales were highly positively correlated and demonstrated a similar pattern of relationships with the external measures. However, a single latent factor model provided a comparatively poorer fit than a two latent factor model.

Conclusions

There is some evidence that the positive perfectionism and achievement striving constructs measured by the scales in this study are distinguishable as two distinct factors in a confirmatory factor analysis; however, more empirical evidence is needed to establish their substantive differences.     

An Aristotelian Doctrine of the Mean in the Mencius?

Contrary to appearances, Mencius does not deploy anything like the Aristotelian doctrine of the mean to describe Boyi, Yi Yin, and Liu Xiahui. While Confucius’ actions are intermediate between the actions of these three sages, the sages’ character traits do not bracket Confucius’ character traits. Instead, the failings of the three sages are skew to each other. Boyi lacks righteousness; Yi Yin lacks benevolence; and Liu Xiahui lacks wisdom. The comparison of the sages centers on the question of when to resign an advisory position. According to Mencius, one should resign only if one’s advice will not be heeded, or if declining to resign would somehow lead to wrongdoing. Associating with wrongdoers and benefiting from the wrongdoing of others might lead to wrongdoing. Wrong motives might distort one’s advice. Insults from the advisee might be evidence of the futility of giving advice. But in themselves, fastidiousness, non-benevolent motives, and mistreatment by the advisee are not legitimate reasons to resign.     

The Role of Parents and Teachers in the Development of Gender-Related Math Attitudes

Girls tend to have more negative math attitudes, including gender stereotypes, anxieties, and self-concepts, than boys. These attitudes play a critical role in math performance, math course-taking, and the pursuit of math-related career paths. We review existing research, primarily from U.S. samples, showing that parents’ and teachers’ expectancies for children’s math competence are often gender-biased and can influence children’s math attitudes and performance. We then propose three new directions for future research on the social transmission of gender-related math attitudes. First, parents’ and teachers’ own math anxieties and their beliefs about whether math ability is a stable trait may prove to be significant influences on children’s math attitudes. Second, a developmental perspective that investigates math attitudes at younger ages and in relation to other aspects of gender development, such as gender rigidity, may yield new insights into the development of math attitudes. Third, investigating the specific behaviors and mannerisms that form the causal links between parents’ and teachers’ beliefs and children’s math attitudes may lead to effective interventions to improve children’s math attitudes from a young age. Such work will not only further our understanding of the relations between attitudes and performance, but will lead to the development of practical interventions for the home and classroom that ensure that all students are provided with opportunities to excel in math.     

Selecting the Better Model by Using Data,Occam's Razor,and a Little Common Sense: Reply to Ericsson

The issue is which model, practice‐alone or innate talent affecting learning speed and limiting asymptotic performance level, better accounts for expertise development in international chess. The innate talent model does much better by the usual criteria. A study to determine what innate talent for chess might consist is now needed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Longitudinal Effects of Different Types of Practice on the Development of Chess Expertise

A view holds that expertise level depends on practice alone and that certain types of practice are important or unimportant. Supporting evidence largely comes from studies using a correlational retrospective recall paradigm, usually with small samples. Initially, these studies were partially replicated with 533 international chess players. Log number of games played was the strongest predictor of latest performance rating. Then, effects of study hours, having had coaching and the number of games played were examined longitudinally to control for key variables confounded in the retrospective recall paradigm. Groups with a nearly 5–1 median difference in weekly study hours, roughly equated on time in the domain and the number of games played, were observed over 7 years. More study hours had negligible impact. Coaching had some effect over time, and the number of games had a strong effect even when participants were equated on time in the domain. Previous studies show that a factor other than the number of games is important in developing chess expertise. Study is a weak factor at best and could not be that important factor. Chess expertise apparently does not depend on practice (study and the number of games) alone. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Protecting Against Low‐Probability Disasters: The Role of Worry

We carry out a large monetary stakes insurance experiment with very small probabilities of losses and ambiguous as well as exact probabilities. Many individuals do not want to pay anything for insurance whether the probabilities are given exactly or are ambiguous. Many others, however, are willing to pay surprisingly large amounts. With ambiguity, the percentage of those paying nothing is smaller and the willingness to pay (WTP) of the other individuals larger than with exact probabilities. Comparing elasticities with ambiguity, we find that worry is much more important than subjective probability in determining WTP for insurance. Furthermore, when the ambiguous loss probability is increased by a factor of 1000, it has almost no effect on WTP. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Low-income mothers' patterns of partnership instability and adolescents' socioemotional well-being

The present study investigated the association of family structure and maternal partnership instability patterns with adolescents' behavioral and emotional well-being among urban low-income families. Analyses employed data from the Three-City Study to track maternal partnerships over the youth's life span, linking longitudinal family structure and transition patterns to adolescent well-being (N = 2305). Families were classified into nine mutually exclusive longitudinal partnership groups based on current status at wave 3 (single, married, or cohabiting) and the longevity of that status: always (since adolescent's birth with no transitions), stable (lasting two years or more, preceded by transitions), or new (transpiring in the past 2 years). Adolescents in the always married group displayed less delinquency and externalizing problems, according to both youth and mother reports, than peers in always single-parent or newly married households. In contrast, youth in always cohabiting households had higher maternal ratings of internalizing problems and youth with newly cohabiting mothers reported higher psychological distress than peers in similar stability groups with single or married mothers. Overall, several potential explanatory processes for the family structure and stability patterns surfaced: married parent families reported less economic hardship, more family routines and father involvement, and less maternal psychological distress and parenting stress than their single and cohabiting counterparts. Policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

The impact of the transition to cohabitation on relationship functioning: cross-sectional and longitudinal findings

Most Americans now live together before they marry but little is known about how the transition from dating to cohabiting affects relationships. In two studies, we compared dating and cohabiting relationships in terms of commitment and several indices of relationship quality. In Study 1, we used a nationally representative sample of 1,294 unmarried individuals in opposite sex relationships who completed surveys by mail. Findings showed that cohabiting relationships were characterized by more commitment, lower satisfaction, more negative communication, and more physical aggression than dating (noncohabiting) relationships; controlling for selection factors mitigated some of these differences. Study 2 used a subsample of the Study 1 sample to longitudinally examine how transitioning from dating to cohabiting changes a relationship on the same dimensions. Six waves of mailed surveys spanning 20 months were employed. Findings of Study 2 indicated that individuals experienced declines in most indices of relationship quality as well as in interpersonal commitment after cohabitation began, though the frequency of sex increased temporarily. Constraints to stay together substantially increased with cohabitation and over time. Implications of these findings for future research are discussed.