Defensive Partisanship? Evidence that In-Party Scandals Increase Out-Party Hostility

Contemporary U.S. politics is characterized by polarization and interpartisan antipathy. This is accompanied by a media landscape saturated with coverage of political scandals. Applying a social identity perspective, we examined whether exposure to scandals that threaten partisan's moral group image (i.e., in-party scandals), may motivate defensive hostility against opposing partisans. Across three experiments we exposed U.S. partisans to scandals attributed to either in-party or out-party politicians. We then assessed partisan hostility using a variety of operationalizations, including anger at a real outgroup politician (Study 1), judgments about the alleged misdeeds of a fabricated outgroup politician (Study 2), and negative perceptions of opposing party members (Study 3). Strength of partisan identity was assessed as a predicted moderator (Study 3). As expected in- (vs. out-) party scandals, were perceived as group-image threats and elicited greater hostility towards opposing partisans, independent of partisans' ideological extremity or prior affective polarization.     

Achieving Effective Remote Working During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Work Design Perspective

Existing knowledge on remote working can be questioned in an extraordinary pandemic context. We conducted a mixed-methods investigation to explore the challenges experienced by remote workers at this time, as well as what virtual work characteristics and individual differences affect these challenges. In Study 1, from semi-structured interviews with Chinese employees working from home in the early days of the pandemic, we identified four key remote work challenges (work-home interference, ineffective communication, procrastination, and loneliness), as well as four virtual work characteristics that affected the experience of these challenges (social support, job autonomy, monitoring, and workload) and one key individual difference factor (workers’ self-discipline). In Study 2, using survey data from 522 employees working at home during the pandemic, we found that virtual work characteristics linked to worker's performance and well-being via the experienced challenges. Specifically, social support was positively correlated with lower levels of all remote working challenges; job autonomy negatively related to loneliness; workload and monitoring both linked to higher work-home interference; and workload additionally linked to lower procrastination. Self-discipline was a significant moderator of several of these relationships. We discuss the implications of our research for the pandemic and beyond.     

Assessing Facets of Mindfulness in the Context of Work: The Mindfulness@Work Scale as a Work-Specific,Multidimensional Measure of Mindfulness

The mindfulness at work literature lacks a multi-faceted measure of mindfulness that is applicable in the work context. Building on predominantly clinically oriented, multi-faceted mindfulness measures, we aimed to develop and validate such a measure and to provide first insights into differential validities of mindfulness subfacets for work outcomes. Data from seven work samples (overall n = 4,977) provided support that (a) a 4-factor structure representing the subfacets of Describing, Nonreactivity, Nonjudging, and Act with Awareness replicates across samples; (b) subfacets and overall scale have good internal consistency and retest reliability; (c) the measure demonstrates convergent and discriminant validity; (d) it demonstrates criterion-related validity for well-being, motivational, and interpersonal work outcomes; (e) the Mindfulness@Work Scale explains variance in outcome variables above a unidimensional measures of mindfulness supporting its incremental validity. Furthermore, relative weights and incremental validity analyses revealed differential validities of subfacets of the Mindfulness@Work Scale in relation to positive psychological states versus psychological distress. Overall, findings suggest that the Mindfulness@Work Scale has good psychometric properties and that a differentiation of subfacets provides novel insights into the role of mindfulness for work outcomes.     

Alexithymia and Self Differentiation: The Role of Fear of Intimacy and Insecure Adult Attachment

It is suggested in literature that there is a link between Alexithymia and Self-Differentiation; however, little is known about possible mediation factors. The goal of this work is to test in a non-clinical population of adults the mediation role of Fear of Intimacy and Adult Attachment in the relationship between Alexithymia and Self-Differentiation. A sample of 258 participants self identified as gay or lesbian, aged 20–50 years (M: 30.29; SD: 7.27), 45% of whom were males, completed self-reported measures of Alexithymia (TAS-20), Self-Differentiation (SDI), Fear of Intimacy (FIS); and Insecure Adult Attachment (RAAS). Our results show that Alexithymia predicts Self-Differentiation both directly and indirectly, through Fear of Intimacy and Insecure adult attachment. In addition, Fear of Intimacy directly influences Self-Differentiation, and also mediates the relationship between Alexithymia and Adult Attachment which, in turn, negatively predicts Self-Differentiation. In conclusion, Alexithymia predicts Self-Differentiation while Fear of Intimacy and adult attachment may act as mediators of the report. Limitations of the study and directions of future research are described.

     

Choosing what to choose from: Preference for inclusion over exclusion when constructing consideration sets from large choice sets

Decision making is a two‐stage process, consisting of, first, consideration set construction and then final choice. Decision makers can form a consideration set from a choice set using one of two strategies: including the options they wish to further consider or excluding those they do not wish to further consider. The authors propose that decision makers have a relative preference for an inclusion (vs. exclusion) strategy when choosing from large choice sets and that this preference is driven primarily by a lay belief that inclusion requires less effort than exclusion, particularly in large choice sets. Study 1 demonstrates that decision makers prefer using an inclusion (vs. exclusion) strategy when faced with large choice sets. Study 2 replicates the effect of choice set size on preference for consideration set construction strategy and demonstrates that the belief that exclusion is more effortful mediates the relative preference for inclusion in large choice sets. Studies 3 and 4 further support the importance of perceived effort, demonstrating a greater preference for inclusion in large choice sets when decision makers are primed to think about effort (vs. accuracy; Study 3) and when the choice set is perceived as requiring more effort because of more information being presented about each alternative (vs. more alternatives in the choice set; Study 4). Finally, Study 5 manipulates consideration set construction strategy, showing that using inclusion (vs. exclusion) in large choice sets leads to smaller consideration sets, greater confidence in the decision process, and a higher quality consideration set.     

The Role of Differentiation of Self in Predicting Rumination and Emotion Regulation Difficulties

Contemporary Family Therapy - The present study examined the predictive power of differentiation of self on rumination and emotion regulation difficulties. The participants (n?=?300),...     

Amorphization under fracture surface in hydrogen-charged and low- temperature tensile-tested austenitic stainless steel

ABSTRACT

The microstructure just below the fracture surface in hydrogen-charged stable austenitic SUS 316L stainless steel, which was subjected to a low strain rate tensile test at ?70°C, was studied by a combination of the focused-ion-beam method and transmission electron microscopy. An amorphous region with a chemical composition almost identical to that of the polycrystalline region was found under the lath-like structure on the fracture surface, although no deterioration of tensile properties by hydrogen appeared. In the amorphous region, band-like regions with wavy contrasts were observed, which were often accompanied by cracks at the boundaries. The presence of the amorphous region with band-like regions implies that amorphization occurred due to high-density vacancies accompanied by agglomerations of excess vacancies in the hydrogen-charged SUS 316L stainless steel that was tensile-tested at low temperatures.     

The Greta Thunberg Effect: Familiarity with Greta Thunberg predicts intentions to engage in climate activism in the United States

Despite Greta Thunberg's popularity, research has yet to investigate her impact on the public's willingness to take collective action on climate change. Using cross-sectional data from a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults (N = 1,303), we investigate the “Greta Thunberg Effect,” or whether exposure to Greta Thunberg predicts collective efficacy and intentions to engage in collective action. We find that those who are more familiar with Greta Thunberg have higher intentions of taking collective actions to reduce global warming and that stronger collective efficacy beliefs mediate this relationship. This association between familiarity with Greta Thunberg, collective efficacy beliefs, and collective action intentions is present even after accounting for respondents’ overall support for climate activism. Moderated mediation models testing age and political ideology as moderators of the “Greta Thunberg Effect” indicate that although the indirect effect of familiarity with Greta Thunberg via collective efficacy is present across all age-groups, and across the political spectrum, it may be stronger among those who identify as more liberal (than conservative). Our findings suggest that young public figures like Greta Thunberg may motivate collective action across the U.S. public, but their effect may be stronger among those with a shared political ideology. Implications for future research and for broadening climate activists’ appeals across the political spectrum are discussed.     

Grandiose narcissism,depression and suicide ideation in Chinese and German students

Current Psychology - In Western cultural context, grandiose (overt) narcissism has been shown to be either unrelated or negatively related to negative mental health (depression, suicide ideation)....     

Pain perception,distress tolerance and self-compassion in Turkish young adults with and without a history of non-suicidal self-injury

Current Psychology - Individuals with a history of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) tend to have altered pain perception and difficulty in regulating their emotions. Previous work on NSSI has relied...