Parental Choices and the Prospect of Regret: An Alternative Account

Is the question ‘will you regret it if you do (not do) this?’ helpful when people face difficult life decisions, such as terminating a pregnancy if a disability is detected or deciding to become a parent? Despite the commonness of the question in daily life, several philosophers have argued lately against its usefulness. We reconstruct four arguments from recent literature on regret, transformative experience and the use of imagination in deliberation. After analysis of these arguments we conclude that the prospect of regret remains a useful deliberative heuristic, provided four conditions are fulfilled. If the prospect of (the absence of) regret is arrived at via reflection on one’s values, in a non-coercive context, when well-informed about factual circumstances, and in a process of self-commitment, the question of what one will regret is a helpful device to get in touch with one’s deepest concerns that give reasons to act in a particular way.     

Innovation across cultures: Connecting leadership,identification, and creative behavior in organizations

Innovation is considered essential for today's organizations to survive and thrive. Researchers have also stressed the importance of leadership as a driver of followers' innovative work behavior (FIB). Yet, despite a large amount of research, three areas remain understudied: (a) The relative importance of different forms of leadership for FIB; (b) the mechanisms through which leadership impacts FIB; and (c) the degree to which relationships between leadership and FIB are generalizable across cultures. To address these lacunae, we propose an integrated model connecting four types of positive leadership behaviors, two types of identification (as mediating variables), and FIB. We tested our model in a global data set comprising responses of N = 7,225 participants from 23 countries, grouped into nine cultural clusters. Our results indicate that perceived LMX quality was the strongest relative predictor of FIB. Furthermore, the relationships between both perceived LMX quality and identity leadership with FIB were mediated by social identification. The indirect effect of LMX on FIB via social identification was stable across clusters, whereas the indirect effects of the other forms of leadership on FIB via social identification were stronger in countries high versus low on collectivism. Power distance did not influence the relations.     

The Effects of Family Type, Family Relationships and Parental Role Models on Delinquency and Alcohol Use Among Flemish Adolescents

This study focused on the effects of family type, family relationships and socialization on alcohol consumption and delinquent behaviour among Flemish adolescents. Data came from the second round of the Leuven Adolescents and Families Study and were collected in 2010 by paper-and-pencil questionnaires in 10 different secondary schools (N = 1,688). The results show that children living in non-intact families are more likely to be delinquent and to drink alcohol at an age it is not legally allowed (below 16 years old). High delinquent behaviour is found among boys in single parent families and among girls in stepfamilies. For alcohol use the reverse is true. A good relationship with the same-sex parent is negatively associated with delinquency. High interparental conflict increases delinquency for boys and alcohol use for girls. Parental role models are highly important, since drinking behaviour of parents, and especially the same-sex parent, are positively associated with externalising problems of children.     

Reliability and validity of the Leuven Perceptual Organization Screening Test (L‐POST)

Neuropsychological tests of visual perception mostly assess high‐level processes like object recognition. Object recognition, however, relies on distinct mid‐level processes of perceptual organization that are only implicitly tested in classical tests. Furthermore, the psychometric properties of the existing instruments are limited. To fill this gap, the Leuven perceptual organization screening test (L‐POST) was developed, in which a wide range of mid‐level phenomena are measured in 15 subtests. In this study, we evaluated reliability and validity of the L‐POST. Performance on the test is evaluated relative to a norm sample of more than 1,500 healthy control participants. Cronbach's alpha of the norm sample and test–retest correlations for 20 patients provide evidence for adequate reliability of L‐POST performance. The convergent and discriminant validity of the test was assessed in 40 brain‐damaged patients, whose performance on the L‐POST was compared with standard clinical tests of visual perception and other measures of cognitive function. The L‐POST showed high sensitivity to visual dysfunction and decreased performance was specific to visual problems. In conclusion, the L‐POST is a reliable and valid screening test for perceptual organization. It offers a useful online tool for researchers and clinicians to get a broader overview of the mid‐level processes that are preserved or disrupted in a given patient.     

The effects of different learning environments on students’ motivation for learning and their achievement

Background. Research in higher education on the effects of student‐centred versus lecture‐based learning environments generally does not take into account the psychological need support provided in these learning environments. From a self‐determination theory perspective, need support is important to study because it has been associated with benefits such as autonomous motivation and achievement. Aim. The purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of different learning environments on students’ motivation for learning and achievement, while taking into account the perceived need support. Sample. First‐year student teachers (N= 1,098) studying a child development course completed questionnaires assessing motivation and perceived need support. In addition, a prior knowledge test and case‐based assessment were administered. Method. A quasi‐experimental pre‐test/post‐test design was set up consisting of four learning environments: (1) lectures, (2) case‐based learning (CBL), (3) alternation of lectures and CBL, and (4) gradual implementation with lectures making way for CBL. Results. Autonomous motivation and achievement were higher in the gradually implemented CBL environment, compared to the CBL environment. Concerning achievement, two additional effects were found; students in the lecture‐based learning environment scored higher than students in the CBL environment, and students in the gradually implemented CBL environment scored higher than students in the alternated learning environment. Additionally, perceived need support was positively related to autonomous motivation, and negatively to controlled motivation. Conclusions. The study shows the importance of gradually introducing students to CBL, in terms of their autonomous motivation and achievement. Moreover, the study emphasizes the importance of perceived need support for students’ motivation.     

In dialogue with an avatar,language behavior is identical to dialogue with a human partner

The use of virtual reality (VR) as a methodological tool is becoming increasingly popular in behavioral research as its flexibility allows for a wide range of applications. This new method has not been as widely accepted in the field of psycholinguistics, however, possibly due to the assumption that language processing during human-computer interactions does not accurately reflect human-human interactions. Yet at the same time there is a growing need to study human-human language interactions in a tightly controlled context, which has not been possible using existing methods. VR, however, offers experimental control over parameters that cannot be (as finely) controlled in the real world. As such, in this study we aim to show that human-computer language interaction is comparable to human-human language interaction in virtual reality. In the current study we compare participants’ language behavior in a syntactic priming task with human versus computer partners: we used a human partner, a human-like avatar with human-like facial expressions and verbal behavior, and a computer-like avatar which had this humanness removed. As predicted, our study shows comparable priming effects between the human and human-like avatar suggesting that participants attributed human-like agency to the human-like avatar. Indeed, when interacting with the computer-like avatar, the priming effect was significantly decreased. This suggests that when interacting with a human-like avatar, sentence processing is comparable to interacting with a human partner. Our study therefore shows that VR is a valid platform for conducting language research and studying dialogue interactions in an ecologically valid manner.     

A Critical Examination of the Reliability and Validity of a Gender Role Attitude Scale in Flanders (Belgium): What Lessons Can be Learned?

Western societies have shifted toward more egalitarian gender role attitudes (GRA). Quantitative research on GRA has been critiqued for not having kept up with societal changes in GRA. GRA scales are claimed to lack discriminative power and not fully capture the diversity within non-traditional attitudes. The present study gives an overview of the theoretical critiques with regard to GRA scales and empirically assesses these critiques. A typical example of a GRA scale measuring adolescents’ GRA in Flanders (Belgium) is used to test the scale’s quality across three waves of surveys completed by 4063 early secondary school students. Our analysis identifies the drawbacks of this particular scale. First, a ceiling effect was found, with most respondents being egalitarian. Second, the representativeness of roles inquired about is restricted; relevant societal domains are not questioned and most roles are only questioned for one gender. Third, a gender-binary approach is dominant. Finally, our results confirm that adolescents demonstrate ambivalent feelings toward balancing female employment and motherhood; although paid employment is encouraged, childcare is prioritized. We recommend that other researchers critically examine the usability and quality of GRA scales in today’s society. Using outdated GRA scales might conceal the ambivalence that adolescents feel due to new gender inequities. Also, investing in structures and regulations supporting the work-family balance is key in further promoting gender equity.     

Interpreting Survey Questions About Sexual Aggression in Cross-Cultural Research: A Qualitative Study with Young Adults from Nine European Countries

Examining equivalence in the interpretation of survey items on sexual assault by participants from different cultures is an important step toward building a valid international knowledge base about the prevalence of sexual aggression among young adults. Referring to the theoretical framework of contextualism, this study presents qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 128 young adults from nine EU countries on their understanding of survey items from the Sexual Aggression and Victimization Scale (SAV-S). The measure had previously been used to collect quantitative data on the prevalence of sexual aggression perpetration and victimization in the same countries that had yielded substantial differences in the rates of victimization and perpetration between countries. Based on the methodological approach of a mixed research design, the current study was conducted as a follow-up to the quantitative study with a new sample to explore whether systematic differences in the interpretation of the survey items in the different countries might explain part of the variation in prevalence rates. The interviews showed that participants from the nine countries interpreted the items of the SAV-S in a similar way and as intended by the authors of the scale. Systematic differences between men and women in interpreting the survey items were revealed. Implications of the findings for conducting survey research on sexual aggression across cultures are discussed.     

The assessment of effortful control in childhood: Questionnaires and the Test of Everyday Attention for Children compared

A community sample ages 8–17 years completed questionnaire measures of effortful control (EC), the Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA-Ch) and measures of psychopathology. EC questionnaires showed sufficient construct validity and were significantly associated with TEA-Ch performance, the latter albeit only in younger children and for parent-reports of EC. EC questionnaires were stronger and more consistent predictors of psychopathology than TEA-Ch performance, especially for externalizing problems. EC questionnaires seemed to be more appropriate for use in broader age ranges than the TEA-Ch, due to the ceiling effects in the latter among older children and adolescents. Future studies should examine the concurrent validity of EC questionnaires using other performance-based tasks which differentiate well in older age groups.