Regulatory foci and organizational commitment

We use regulatory focus theory to derive specific predictions regarding the differential relationships between regulatory focus and commitment. We estimated a structural equation model using a sample of 520 private and public sector employees and found in line with our hypotheses that (a) promotion focus related more strongly to affective commitment than prevention focus, (b) prevention focus related more strongly to continuance commitment than promotion focus, (c) promotion and prevention focus had equally strong effects on normative commitment. Implications of these findings for the three-component model of commitment, especially the ‘dual nature’ of normative commitment, as well as implications for human resources management and leadership are discussed.     

Three Avenues for Future Research on Creativity, Innovation, and Initiative

La créativité, l’innovation et l’initiative sont des processus psychologiques qui facilitent la transformation des rôles professionnels individuels, des équipes et des organisations en ce qui est souhaitable. Cet article est donc axé sur des orientations de recherche virtuelles de ce secteur de plus en plus important. Plus précisément, nous indiquons trois graves lacunes, à savoir la nécessité d’une plus grande différenciation des processus, d’une intégration des concepts et d’une analyse transculturelle. Tout d’abord, les différents antécédents potentiels de la créativité spécifique ou des phases de l’innovation ont bénéficié d’une attention insuffisante. Ensuite, la recherche sur la créativité et l’innovation peut être enrichie par une intégration des concepts de proactivité récemment développés telles que l’initiative personelle et la parole. Enfin, les différences transculturelles dans les valeurs, les orientations motivationnelles et les préférences relatives au leadership peuvent rendre compte de la façon dont la créativité et l’innovation sont mises en ?uvre et cultivées à travers le monde. Eu égard à chacun de ces futurs défis, nous faisons des suggestions pour des avancées théoriques et empiriques et discutons des développements virtuels pratiques et méthodologiques. Creativity, innovation, and initiative are psychological processes that facilitate the transformation of individual work roles, teams, and organisations into desired future states. Therefore, the present paper focuses on potential research trends in this increasingly important area. Specifically, we identify three substantive gaps reflecting the needs for greater process differentiation, concept integration, and cross‐cultural analysis. First, potential differential antecedents of specific creativity or innovation phases have received insufficient attention. Second, the creativity and innovation research domain may benefit from an integration of recently developed proactivity concepts such as personal initiative and voice behavior. Third, cross‐cultural differences in values, motivational orientations, and leadership preferences may determine how creativity and innovation are enacted and cultivated across the globe. With respect to each of these future challenges, we provide suggestions for theoretical and empirical advancements and discuss potential practical and methodological developments.     

Psychosoziale Interventionen bei Patientinnen mit Brustkrebs

Breast cancer patients are subject not only to physical strain but also to substantial psychological and social stress as well as major threats and challenges.The paper presented gives an overview of the research status on psychosocial interventions to support patients in their coping endeavours.Psychosocial basic care of women with breast cancer is performed by the physicians treating oncologically and includes information fitting patients' information needs,and responding to their emotional stress.Evaluated training and educational programs are available for physicians to enhance their psychosocial competence.Psychosocial basic care is completed by psychoeducational interventions.In 20–30% of women with breast cancer, there is a need for a special psychotherapeutic treatment.Especially, supportive and cognitive-behavioral therapies in an individual or a group setting contribute to a reduction of anxiety and depression. Even anticipated side-effects of somatic treatments can be diminished by psychotherapy. Research in the field supports that there is a need for broad integration of psychosocial interventions into disease management programs for women suffering from breast cancer.     

Recognition memory for low- and high-frequency-filtered emotional faces: Low spatial frequencies drive emotional memory enhancement,whereas high spatial frequencies drive the emotion-induced recognition bias

This article deals with two well-documented phenomena regarding emotional stimuli: emotional memory enhancement—that is, better long-term memory for emotional than for neutral stimuli—and the emotion-induced recognition bias—that is, a more liberal response criterion for emotional than for neutral stimuli. Studies on visual emotion perception and attention suggest that emotion-related processes can be modulated by means of spatial-frequency filtering of the presented emotional stimuli. Specifically, low spatial frequencies are assumed to play a primary role for the influence of emotion on attention and judgment. Given this theoretical background, we investigated whether spatial-frequency filtering also impacts (1) the memory advantage for emotional faces and (2) the emotion-induced recognition bias, in a series of old/new recognition experiments. Participants completed incidental-learning tasks with high- (HSF) and low- (LSF) spatial-frequency-filtered emotional and neutral faces. The results of the surprise recognition tests showed a clear memory advantage for emotional stimuli. Most importantly, the emotional memory enhancement was significantly larger for face images containing only low-frequency information (LSF faces) than for HSF faces across all experiments, suggesting that LSF information plays a critical role in this effect, whereas the emotion-induced recognition bias was found only for HSF stimuli. We discuss our findings in terms of both the traditional account of different processing pathways for HSF and LSF information and a stimulus features account. The double dissociation in the results favors the latter account—that is, an explanation in terms of differences in the characteristics of HSF and LSF stimuli.     

Age-related variance in decisions under ambiguity is explained by changes in reasoning,executive functions,and decision-making under risk

Previous literature has explained older individuals’ disadvantageous decision-making under ambiguity in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) by reduced emotional warning signals preceding decisions. We argue that age-related reductions in IGT performance may also be explained by reductions in certain cognitive abilities (reasoning, executive functions). In 210 participants (18–86 years), we found that the age-related variance on IGT performance occurred only in the last 60 trials. The effect was mediated by cognitive abilities and their relation with decision-making performance under risk with explicit rules (Game of Dice Task). Thus, reductions in cognitive functions in older age may be associated with both a reduced ability to gain explicit insight into the rules of the ambiguous decision situation and with failure to choose the less risky options consequently after the rules have been understood explicitly. Previous literature may have underestimated the relevance of cognitive functions for age-related decline in decision-making performance under ambiguity.     

Heart Rate Recovery After Exercise in Outpatients with Coronary Heart Disease: Role of Depressive Symptoms and Positive Affect

Heart rate recovery after 1 min of exercise cessation (HRR-1) is an important prognostic factor in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). We aimed to further elucidate the association between HRR-1 and known psychosocial risk factors in patients referred for comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation. We examined 521 patients with coronary heart disease in the first week of an outpatient cardiac rehabilitation program. Depressive and anxiety symptoms were measured with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and positive (PA) and negative affect were rated with the Global Mood Scale. Depressive symptoms showed a significant inverse relationship with HRR-1 (p?<?.05), controlling for sociodemographic and medical covariates, whereas anxiety symptoms did not show a significant association. PA made a significant contribution to HRR-1 as well (p?<?.05). Our findings suggest an independent association between HRR-1 and psychosocial risk factors of CVD.     

Physiological aspects of flow experiences: Skills-demand-compatibility effects on heart rate variability and salivary cortisol

This research addresses flow theory according to which the compatibility of skills and task demands involved in an activity elicits flow experiences that render the activity intrinsically rewarding. Departing from correlational research, we applied experimental paradigms designed to test the impact of a skills-demands-compatibility on the emergence of flow in computerized tasks. On the one hand, the results from self-reports support the balance hypothesis and indicate that skills-demands-compatibility results in a pleasurable flow experience. On the other hand, the results also indicate that skills-demands-compatibility resulted in (a) reduced heart rate variability indicating enhanced mental workload, and (b) stress as indicated by relatively high levels of salivary cortisol. These results indicate that flow experiences combine subjectively positive elements with physiological elements reflecting strainful tension and mental load.     

Social perception as induction and inference: an integrative model of intergroup differentiation, ingroup favoritism, and differential accuracy

Three general properties of social stereotypes are the perception of differences between ingroups and outgroups (intergroup differentiation), the perception of ingroups as having more desirable attributes than outgroups (ingroup favoritism), and the greater accuracy of ingroup perceptions (differential accuracy). We present and test an inductive-reasoning model that accounts for all 3 phenomena, and we explicate the relations among them. Based on empirical evidence, the model assumes that most people have a positive self-image, that they project these self-images more strongly to ingroups than to outgroups, and that their self-images are valid cues for judgments about social groups. Two minimal-group experiments using a crossed-categorization paradigm support the model and provide new evidence for underlying psychological processes.