“How much do you like your name?” An implicit measure of global self-esteem

We introduce a single-item implicit measure of global self-esteem. The measure is based on the mere-ownership effect and asks participants to indicate how much they like their name. Six studies attested to the validity of this measure. In addition to showing high test-retest reliability (r = .85), the studies found that Name-Liking was (a) unrelated to impression management, (b) positively related to the Name-Letter-Task, the Self-Esteem IAT, explicit self-esteem measures, and self-reported subjective well-being, (c) more strongly related to explicit measures of global than domain-specific self-esteem, (d) more strongly related to self-esteem judgments made spontaneously as well as under cognitive load, and (e) predicted observer-reported anxiety during an anxiety-inducing interview whereas an explicit measure of self-esteem did not.     

Pleasure and pressure based prosocial motivation: Divergent relations to subjective well-being

We propose two fundamentally different motives for helping: gaining pleasure and fulfilling one’s duty (“pressure”). Using the newly developed Pleasure and Pressure based Prosocial Motivation Scale, we demonstrated the distinctiveness of pleasure and pressure based prosocial motivation in three studies. Although the two motives exhibited different relations to a variety of personality characteristics, they were similarly related to trans-situational helping. Of particular interest, pleasure based prosocial motivation was positively related to self-actualization, self-esteem, life satisfaction, and positive affect and negatively related to negative affect. On the contrary, pressure based prosocial motivation was unrelated to self-actualization, self-esteem, life satisfaction, and positive affect but positively related to negative affect. These results qualify research showing that prosocial life goals generally increase subjective well-being.     

Personality, political skill, and job performance

Based on the socioanalytic perspective of performance prediction [Hogan, R. (1991). Personality and personality assessment. In M. D. Dunnette, L. Hough, (Eds.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (2nd ed., pp. 873–919). Chicago: Rand McNally; Hogan, R., & Shelton, D. (1998). A socioanalytic perspective on job performance. Human Performance, 11, 129–144.], the present study tests whether motives to get along and to get ahead produce greater performance when interactively combined with social effectiveness. Specifically, we investigated whether interactions of the Five-Factor Model constructs of agreeableness and conscientiousness with political skill predict job performance. Our results supported our hypothesis for the agreeableness-political skill interaction. Additionally, after correcting for the unreliability and restricted range of conscientiousness, we found that its interaction with political skill also significantly predicted job performance, although not precisely as hypothesized. Implications of the results and directions for future research are provided.     

Regret aversion and decision process quality: Effects of regret salience on decision process carefulness

A considerable amount of past research has examined the effects of regret aversion on which options decision makers choose. However, past research has largely neglected to address the effect of regret aversion on the decision process. We conducted five experiments to examine the effect of making regret salient on decision process quality. We predicted that increased regret aversion would lead to more careful decision processing. The results consistently supported this prediction across the different decision situations, incentive structures, regret salience manipulations, and dependent variables used. In all experiments making regret salient led decision makers to take significantly longer to reach a decision. In Studies 2a, 2b, and 4 it also led participants to collect significantly more information before making a choice. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Concurrent and lasting effects of emotion regulation on amygdala response in adolescence and young adulthood

This study used functional MRI (fMRI) to examine a novel aspect of emotion regulation in adolescent development: whether age predicts differences in both the concurrent and lasting effects of emotion regulation on amygdala response. In the first, active regulation, phase of the testing session, fMRI data were collected while 56 healthy individuals (age range: 10.50–22.92 years) reappraised aversive stimuli so as to diminish negative responses to them. After a short delay, the second, re‐presentation, phase involved passively viewing the aversive images from the reappraisal task. During active regulation, older individuals showed greater drops in negative affect and inverse rostrolateral prefrontal‐amygdala connectivity. During re‐presentation, older individuals continued to show lasting reductions in the amygdala response to aversive stimuli they had previously reappraised, an effect mediated by rostrolateral PFC. These data suggest that one source of heightened emotionality in adolescence is a diminished ability to cognitively down‐regulate aversive reactions.     

Die Behandlung von Borderline-Persönlichkeitsstörungen

Zusammenfassung Bereits 1681 beklagte sich ein englischer Arzt in einem Brief über Patienten, die ohne jedes Ma? jene lieben, die sie alsbald ohne jeden Grund hassen würden. Weiterhin seien pl?tzliche Ausbrüche von Wut, Schmerz, Angst oder ?hnlichen Emotionen zu beobachten. Mit dieser frühen Beschreibung typischer Borderline-Symptome wird die Darstellung der Entwicklung der Theorie der Borderline-St?rung von den Anf?ngen bis heute eingeleitet. Vor diesem Hintergrund werden der Stand der Diagnostik und die derzeit wichtigen Behandlungskonzepte umrissen, und zwar die psychodynamischen, verhaltenstherapeutischen und klientenzentrierten Ans?tze. Es wird dargelegt, welche Antworten es auf die Frage gibt, was das angemessene therapeutische Setting ist, insbesondere mit Blick auf station?re Behandlungskonzepte. Die vorliegenden empirischen Studien best?tigen die Wirksamkeit von Psychotherapie bei Borderline-St?rungen. Die geringe Zahl der Studien belegt aber auch die Schwierigkeit der empirischen Forschung in diesem Bereich. Der abschlie?ende Ausblick in die Zukunft der Psychotherapie der Borderline-Pers?nlichkeitsst?rungen prognostiziert eine weitere Zunahme von Pers?nlichkeitsst?rungen im Spektrum psychiatrischer Erkrankungen und eine zunehmende Differenzierung des Behandlungsangebots bzw. Spezialisierung der Behandler.      

Eyewitness identification in simultaneous and sequential lineups: an investigation of position effects using receiver operating characteristics

For decades, sequential lineups have been considered superior to simultaneous lineups in the context of eyewitness identification. However, most of the research leading to this conclusion was based on the analysis of diagnosticity ratios that do not control for the respondent’s response criterion. Recent research based on the analysis of ROC curves has found either equal discriminability for sequential and simultaneous lineups, or higher discriminability for simultaneous lineups. Some evidence for potential position effects and for criterion shifts in sequential lineups has also been reported. Using ROC curve analysis, we investigated the effects of the suspect’s position on discriminability and response criteria in both simultaneous and sequential lineups. We found that sequential lineups suffered from an unwanted position effect. Respondents employed a strict criterion for the earliest lineup positions, and shifted to a more liberal criterion for later positions. No position effects and no criterion shifts were observed in simultaneous lineups. This result suggests that sequential lineups are not superior to simultaneous lineups, and may give rise to unwanted position effects that have to be considered when conducting police lineups.     

Changing Me,Changing Us: Relationship Quality and Collective Efficacy as Major Outcomes in Systemic Couple Therapy

We examine the sensitivity to change in the Evaluation of Social Systems (EVOS) scale, which assesses relationship quality and collective efficacy. In Study 1 we conducted a waitlist‐control, short‐term couple therapy RCT study (N = 43 couples) with five systemic therapy sessions treating communication and partnership problems; our intent was to provide high external validity. Construct validity of EVOS was assessed by comparison with additionally applied scales (Family Scales; Outcome Questionnaire, OQ‐45.2). In Study 2, N = 332 individuals completed an experiment with high internal validity in order to verify sensitivity to change in three different social contexts. Results from Study 1 revealed a significant increase in relationship quality in the treatment group directly after treatment, as compared to the control group. Sensitivity to change was slightly better for EVOS than for other measures. While this positive change could not be fully sustained between posttreatment and a 4‐week follow‐up, EVOS score did not fall below baseline and pretreatment levels, supporting moderate‐to‐large sensitivity to change. Study 2 supported high sensitivity to change in EVOS for couple relations, family relations, and work‐team relationships. Therefore, EVOS can be used as an outcome measure to monitor the process of systemic interventions focusing on relationship quality and collective efficacy. Due to its sensitivity to change, EVOS can provide evidence for treatment success with regard to relationship aspects.