Performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals: when uncertainty makes a difference

Performance-avoidance goals (the desire to avoid performing more poorly than others do) have been shown to have consistently deleterious effects on performance but the effects of performance-approach goals (trying to outperform others) are more complex. Two studies examine uncertainty as a moderator of the effect of performance-approach goals on performance. Experiment 1 shows that manipulated performance-approach goals lead to better performance than do performance-avoidance goals in the absence of uncertainty about performance but when participants learn that a coactor disagreed with them about problem solutions, creating uncertainty, performance-approach goals do not differ from performance-avoidance goals in their effect on performance. Experiment 2 shows that uncertainty also moderates the effects of self-set performance-approach goals. Moreover, the same dynamic occurs with another kind of uncertainty: negative competence feedback.     

Academic optimistic bias: Implications for college student performance and well-being

Although optimism has several benefits, there are potential drawbacks associated with “too much of a good thing”. Within an academic context, a possible determinant of the adaptiveness of optimistic bias is whether students have a sense of control over academic outcomes: optimistically-biased (OB) achievement expectations paired with perceptions of academic control may enhance performance and well-being; optimistic bias in the absence of perceived control may result in disappointment, poor performance, and diminished well-being. The current longitudinal study examined academic control cognitions (ACC) among OB college students (n = 319) versus non-optimistically biased (non-OB) students (n = 321). We also examined the effects of academic optimistic bias on composite measures of college performance (perceived success, final psychology course grades, cumulative GPA, course attrition) and well-being (positive and negative emotions, health behaviors, future optimism) 6 months later; and determined whether ACC accounted for those associations. Significant MANCOVAs showed OB students had greater ACC, better subsequent well-being, and outperformed their non-OB counterparts. These well-being and performance differences remained significant after statistically accounting for initial aptitude and ACC. Overall, academic optimistic bias was accompanied by perceived controllability over scholastic outcomes, yet beyond the effects of ACC, optimistic bias was associated with better year-end performance and well-being. Findings have implications for maximizing the successful transition of first-year college students.     

Role perceptions: Variations by sex and roles

A Role Perception Scale utilizing a combined projective-objective methodology was developed to assess female and male perceptions of each of three single roles — work, marriage, and parent — and two combined roles — work-marriage and work-parent. Research participants were 134 college students, 88 females and 46 males. Factor analysis of the objective scale, the only part to be scored, resulted in two major orthogonal factors labeled role engagement and competition factors. Sex and role differences for each factor were analyzed using 2×5 split block analysis of variance design with repeated measures. On three out of the five single and combined roles women perceived more engagement than men. In general males perceived roles as more competitive. These sex differences and patterns identified in within-sex analyses across roles are discussed.Parts of this paper were presented at the American Psychological Association Convention, Washington, D.C., September 1976. Research was supported in part by the Dean's Development Fund, New York University, School of Education, Health, Nursing, and Arts Professions. Both authors are senior authors. The order of names is randomly determined. The authors wish to thank Philip Merrifield and Barbara Hummel-Rossi for their statistical assistance in data analysis.     

Social eye gaze modulates processing of speech and co-speech gesture

In human face-to-face communication, language comprehension is a multi-modal, situated activity. However, little is known about how we combine information from different modalities during comprehension, and how perceived communicative intentions, often signaled through visual signals, influence this process. We explored this question by simulating a multi-party communication context in which a speaker alternated her gaze between two recipients. Participants viewed speech-only or speech + gesture object-related messages when being addressed (direct gaze) or unaddressed (gaze averted to other participant). They were then asked to choose which of two object images matched the speaker’s preceding message. Unaddressed recipients responded significantly more slowly than addressees for speech-only utterances. However, perceiving the same speech accompanied by gestures sped unaddressed recipients up to a level identical to that of addressees. That is, when unaddressed recipients’ speech processing suffers, gestures can enhance the comprehension of a speaker’s message. We discuss our findings with respect to two hypotheses attempting to account for how social eye gaze may modulate multi-modal language comprehension.     

Not “Filed Away as Finally Dealt With”

This essay considers some historical, clinical, and personal dimensions of Sandor Ferenczi's contributions to psychoanalysis. It uses a clinical framework to develop a new perspective of the Freud–Ferenczi relation (and of its impact on the development of psychoanalysis), which despite smoldering conflict, persisted for twenty-five years and was Freud's longest-lasting intimate friendship. A case is made for the open, undefensive, experience-drenched basis of Ferenczi's work to assure its continuing usefulness to the psychoanalyst of today, which, as is demonstrated, can lead in surprising directions.     

Aristotle on Necessary Verticality,Body Heat,and Gendered Proper Places in the Polis: A Feminist Critique

Feminist critics have charged that Aristotle's mistaken and harmful remarks about women and slaves show inconsistency or bias-driven arbitrariness. However, this analysis shows that these remarks function within a consistent and coherent theoretical corpus. Thus, both Aristotle's hierarchical and dualistic first principles and the methodology on which his entire corpus is based must be unreliable. Moreover, consistency and coherence must be insufficient warrants of theoretical insightfulness. Aristotle's mistakes suggest caveats for feminist philosophical reconstruction.     

Computer aided self‐monitoring to increase academic production and reduce self‐injurious behavior in a child with autism

Self‐monitoring to increase the on‐task behavior of students with learning disabilities has been the focus of numerous studies in the literature. This study examined the effectiveness of computer aided self‐monitoring of academic task completion to reduce self‐injurious behavior in a 13‐year‐old male student with autism. Using an ABAB design, data were collected over 22 sessions in a resource‐reading classroom. Visual and statistical analyses indicated that when self‐monitoring of activity completion was implemented, rates of completion increased and maladaptive behaviors such as self‐injurious behavior and tantruming decreased. Discussion follows for implications for self‐monitoring with students with autism. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Suicide schemas in non-affective psychosis: An empirical investigation

Suicide is the leading cause of premature death among individuals experiencing psychosis. The risk of suicide is proposed to increase with a greater potential for activation of suicide related schemas. Empirical representations of suicide schemas were compared between individuals experiencing non-affective psychosis, with and without a history of suicidal behaviour. Employing a cross-sectional between-groups comparison design, 84 participants, previously diagnosed with a non-affective psychotic disorder, were recruited from community mental health services. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire and clinical measures of psychopathology. To assess participants’ suicide schemas, a series of direct and indirect cognitive tasks were designed and administered. Pathfinder analysis enabled the construction of empirically derived representations of the groups’ suicide schemas based on responses to the cognitive tasks. The suicide group achieved significantly greater scores on measures of anxiety, depression, hopelessness and suicidality than the non-suicide group, but not on measures indicative of the severity of psychosis. The suicide schema for the suicide group was more elaborate and extensive than for the non-suicide group, even when clinical measures were taken into account. Clinical and theoretical implications are discussed.