Misery loves company: mood-congruent emotional responding to music

We examined emotional responding to music after mood induction. On each trial, listeners heard a 30-s music excerpt and rated how much they liked it, whether it sounded happy or sad, and how familiar it was. When the excerpts sounded unambiguously happy or sad (Experiment 1), the typical preference for happy-sounding music was eliminated after inducing a sad mood. When the excerpts sounded ambiguous with respect to happiness and sadness (Experiment 2), listeners perceived more sadness after inducing a sad mood. Sad moods had no influence on familiarity ratings (Experiments 1 and 2). These findings imply that "misery loves company." Listeners in a sad mood fail to show the typical preference for happy-sounding music, and they perceive more sadness in music that is ambiguous with respect to mood.     

The reactivation of associated information affects source monitoring

In this study, we examined a source-monitoring phenomenon that arises from reactivated related information from the study phase. Three experiments showed that source attributions for target events were influenced not only by the target item itself, but also by studied information about related items. In Experiment 1, source memory for target items that have a high forward association value to a single related study item (e.g., credit) were affected by the source of the associated information (e.g., card), so that memory performance was better when associated items were presented in the same source rather than a different source. A similar effect occurred with bidirectional associates (Exp. 2), as well as with synonymous pairs of words (Exp. 3). We argue that the source information of the reactivated material can be commingled with information about a candidate during a source judgment at retrieval and thereby can affect performance.     

A two-study examination of work–family conflict,production deviance and gender

Building on the spillover and crossover literatures of work–family conflict and the theoretical framework of Conservation of Resources Theory (Hobfoll, 1989) we examine the effects of conflict on production deviance. Using a two-study constructive replication and extension design, we examine how partner work-to-family conflict contributes to job incumbent family-to-work conflict and subsequent engagement in production deviance. In addition, we examine the moderating role of gender on the incumbent family-to-work conflict to production deviance relationship. Study 1 of 344 job incumbents supported the positive relationship between incumbent family-to-work conflict and deviance. In addition, this was moderated by gender such that men engaged in more deviant behaviors in response to family-to-work conflict. Study 2 consisted of 190 matched job incumbents and their partners. These findings supported the mediation of partner work-to-family conflict to production deviance through incumbent family-to-work conflict. Again gender was supported using moderated mediation analysis such that men engaged in more deviant behaviors in response to family-to-work conflict. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.     

Discriminatory peer aggression among children as a function of minority status and group proportion in school context

This study investigates discriminatory peer aggression among primary school aged children as a function of minority status (based on nationality, ethnicity, religion) of the target and the relative proportions of minority and majority children in the school. Participants were 925 8‐ to 12‐year‐olds attending schools in Britain. Children of minority status were no more likely than children of majority background to experience peer aggression in general. However, minority children were more likely to experience being the victims of discriminatory aggression. Two contrasting predictions were tested: that discriminatory aggression would be more likely when the minority group was relatively small in number or, alternatively, that as the proportions of children of minority backgrounds increased across schools, discriminatory aggression would be greater. The latter hypothesis was supported. Findings also revealed that in schools with a lower minority presence, discriminatory aggression experienced by majority children was significantly lower than that reported by minority children. When the school minority rate exceeded 81%, discriminatory aggression was more commonly experienced among majority children than among minority children. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Maternal parenting stress and mothers' reports of their infants' mastery motivation

Mastery motivation is a psychological force that stimulates an individual to attempt to master a task that is challenging to him or her. This prospective longitudinal study examined the relationship between maternal stress, using the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form, and infant mastery motivation, using the Dimensions of Mastery Questionnaire, for 150 mother-infant pairs assessed at both 6- and 18-months of age. Infants of mothers with elevated stress levels at 6 months tended to show lower mastery motivation at 18 months (standardized beta=-.46, p=.001). Conversely, infants with lower general competence (standardized beta=-.24, p=.021) and lower persistence during social interactions with other children (standardized beta=-.18, p=.037) at 6 months of age had mothers with elevated total stress at 18 months of age. Implications for programs which simultaneously intervene with child and mother are discussed.     

The retrieval of ‘liveness’ in William James's Will to Believe

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

Long-term effects of parental wartime captivity on children: Children of POW and MIA servicemen

The question asked by this study was: Are there possible second-generational effects, not only for children of prisoners of war and hostages, but also for children of parents who were/are missing in action? This report, reviewing the literature on prolonged parental wartime captivity in relation to longterm effects on children, with a specific focus on the Center for POW Studies of Vietnam era families, illustrates the strong relationship between mothers' and children's abilities to cope with their highly stressful and ambiguous situation.