Influence of self-construals on the perception of different self-presentation styles in Korea

The present study investigated how perceivers' self-construals influence the perception of others who use self-enhancement or self-effacement in communication. It was predicated that independent self and interdependent self would differently affect the evaluation of self-enhancing presentation and self-effacing presentation. Two hundred and forty-six Korean college students read a scenario depicting a person using bragging, and positive and negative self-presentations for his/her accomplishment, and then evaluated the presenter in the scenario on intention of future interaction, satisfaction with conversation and likeability. Results showed that people with independent self evaluated the positive presentation more favorably than people with interdependent self, whereas people with interdependent self evaluated the negative presentation more favorably than people with independent self. No significant difference was found in the evaluation of bragging presentation. The results imply that although the purpose of self-presentation is to give positive self to others, it is differently expressed through self-enhancement in North American culture and through self-effacement in East Asian culture. The results also supported previous cross-cultural studies on self-enhancement and self-effacement by providing an examination from individual level analysis.     

An Integrative View of Conflict Adaptation and Active Maintenance

The conflict adaptation (CA) effect refers to the reduction in the interference effect observed in conflict tasks that follow incongruent compared to congruent trials. It has been suggested that CA is caused by the exertion of flexible cognitive control, supported by many behavioral and neuroimaging studies; however, it remains unclear how conflict‐related features of the preceding trial are conveyed to subsequent trials for following adaptation. This review aims to summarize evidence supporting the top‐down modulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and passive short‐term maintenance in the posterior brain areas as mechanisms underlying CA, respectively, and to suggest a new integrated view of CA, including active maintenance in working memory. We review empirical evidences suggesting that both dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and posterior brain regions play critical roles in CA, rather than either top‐down modulation or passive maintenance alone. Although the active maintenance view of CA appears to explain many existing findings, empirical studies are required to directly test this view.     

Cyber- and face-to-face bullying: who crosses over?

A total of 3956 children aged 12–13 years who completed the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC Wave 5) were studied about their experiences of traditional face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying in the last month. In terms of prevalence, sixty percent of the sample had been involved in traditional bullying as the victim and/or the offender whereas eight percent had been involved in cyberbullying as victim and/or offender. The vast majority (95 %) of those involved in cyberbullying were also involved in traditional bullying. Children involved in both traditional bullying and cyberbullying were compared with those involved in only traditional bullying. Boys were more likely to be involved in both types of bullying than girls. Children with friends involved in delinquent activities and who did not have trustworthy and supportive friends were more likely to bully both traditionally and in cyberspace. Computer proficiency and use did not differentiate children who had crossed over from those who had not, although computer use for socializing purposes had some predictive value in identifying those children who crossed over. The study reflects the value of school interventions for children as they approach adolescence, covering both traditional bullying and cyberbullying, and targeting social relationships in order to teach children how to manage them safely and intelligently.     

Is the psychological refractory period effect for ideomotor compatible tasks eliminated by speed-stress instructions?

It has been argued that the psychological refractory period (PRP) effect is eliminated with two ideomotor compatible tasks when instructions stress fast and simultaneous responding. Three experiments were conducted to test this hypothesis. In all experiments, Task 1 required spatially compatible manual responses (left or right) to the direction of an arrow, and Task 2 required saying the name of the auditory letter A or B. In Experiments 1 and 3, the manual responses were keypresses made with the left and right hands, whereas in Experiment 2 they were left-right toggle-switch movements made with the dominant hand. Instructions that stressed response speed reduced reaction time and increased error rate compared to standard instructions to respond fast and accurately, but did not eliminate the PRP effect on Task 2 reaction time. These results imply that, even when response speed is emphasized, ideomotor compatible tasks do not bypass response selection.     

Creative Fixation is No Laughing Matter: The Effects of Funny and Unfunny Examples on Humor Production

How do people come up with humorous ideas? In creative cognition research, exposure to good examples sometimes causes fixation (people get “stuck” on the examples) but other times sparks inspiration (people's responses are more creative). The present research examined the effects of funny and unfunny examples on joke production. A sample of 175 adults read scenarios that they completed with funny responses. All participants were instructed to be funny, but before responding they read (a) funny responses as examples of good responses to emulate, (b) unfunny responses as examples of poor responses to avoid, or (c) no examples. The participants’ own responses were rated for funniness and for similarity to the example responses, and response times were recorded. Reading either funny or unfunny examples, compared to no examples, caused people to come up with funnier jokes. Similarity to the examples was low in all conditions, so fixation was relatively modest, but people who saw unfunny examples spent more time coming up with their responses. Taken together, the findings support the growing literature showing that examples are often inspiring rather than constraining, and they imply that good and bad examples spark creative thought via different paths.     

Challenges Marriage-Hunting People Face: Competition and Excessive Analysis1

In this paper, the reality of marriage hunting is examined through the narratives of marriage-hunting people. The results show that marriage hunting is based on the premise of a “competitive situation” and that people seeking a marriage partner require “analyzing” in order to win in this situation. However, the results indicate that marriage hunting becomes unsuccessful because, ironically, analyzing prevents people from behaving freely. Furthermore, the causes of their failure are attributed to them, thus giving rise to more analyzing. These findings suggest that the key to the future of marriage hunting is to free oneself from being governed by rules. The paper closes with a discussion of the importance of viewing marriage hunting as a relational effect.     

Regulatory mode and willingness to increase retirement savings contributions

This study examined how two self‐regulatory modes, locomotion and assessment, relate to the willingness to increase retirement savings. Locomotion is concerned with making things happen (“just do it”). Assessment is concerned with critical evaluation (“do the right thing”). We hypothesized that individuals who score high (vs. low) in locomotion, but not those who score high (vs. low) in assessment, would be more willing to increase their savings for retirement. In addition, because high (vs. low) assessment can lead to doing the right thing in terms of seeking to maximize economic returns, we hypothesized that combining high locomotion with high assessment would especially motivate willingness to increase retirement savings. We found support for both hypotheses from a survey of university employees.     

Personality Correlates of Workplace Anti-Social Behavior

La relation entre le comportement antisocial au travail (ASB) et des traits de personnalité généraux a étéétudiée sur un échantillon composé de 267 salariés coréens. L'ASB au travail a été conceptualiséà partir de deux dimensions, l'ASB dirigée contre les individues (ASBI) et l'ASB dirigée contre l'organisation (ASBO). La personnalité a étéévaluée grâce au Big Five et à un sixième facteur ≪honnêteté-humilité≫ ( Ashton & Lee, 2001 ). Les analyses de régression multiple indiquèrent que l'honnêteté-humilité et l'extraversion jouaient un rôle essentiel dans la prédiction de l'ASBI et de l'ASBO. De plus, Agreeableness était reliée à l'ASBI tandis que Conscientiousness l'était à l'ASBO. On parle aussi de la nécessité d'adopter un modèle optimal des traits de personnalité.
The relationship between workplace Anti-Social Behavior (ASB) and higher-order personality traits was investigated using a sample of 267 Korean employees. Workplace ASB was conceptualized as having two dimensions: ASB directed against individuals (ASBI) and ASB directed against the organization (ASBO). Personality was assessed using adjective measures of the Big Five factors and of a sixth factor, Honesty-Humility ( Ashton & Lee, 2001 ). Multiple regression analyses indicated that Honesty-Humility and Extraversion played prominent roles in predicting both ASBI and ASBO. Also, Agreeableness was related to ASBI, whereas Conscientiousness was related to ASBO. The importance of adopting an optimal framework of personality traits was discussed.     

Are spatial responses to visuospatial stimuli and spoken responses to auditory letters ideomotor-compatible tasks? Examination of set-size effects on dual-task interference

Previous studies have paired a visual-manual Task 1 with an auditory-vocal Task 2 to evaluate whether the psychological refractory period (PRP) effect is eliminated with two ideomotor-compatible tasks (for which stimuli resemble the response feedback). The present study varied the number of stimulus-response alternatives for Task 1 in three experiments to determine whether set-size and PRP effects were absent, as would be expected if the tasks bypass limited-capacity response-selection processes. In Experiments 1 and 2, the visual-manual task was used as Task 1, with lever-movement and keypress responses, respectively. In Experiment 3, the auditory-vocal task was used as Task 1 and the visual-manual task as Task 2. A significant lengthening of reaction time for 4 vs. 2 alternatives was found for the visual-manual Task 1 and the Task 2 PRP effect in Experiments 1 and 2, suggesting that the visual-manual task is not ideomotor compatible. Neither effect of set size was significant for the auditory-vocal Task 1 in Experiment 3, but there was still a Task 2 PRP effect. Our results imply that neither version of the visual-manual task is ideomotor compatible; other considerations suggest that the auditory-vocal task may also still require response selection.