Affect intensity and cardiac arousal.

Relationships between affect intensity and basal, evoked, and perceived cardiac arousal were investigated in 3 experiments. Affect intensity was assessed using Larsen and Diener's (1987) Affect Intensity Measure (AIM). Cardiac arousal was evoked with exercise in the 1st study and with mental arithmetic in the 2nd and 3rd. Perceived cardiac arousal was measured under optimal conditions using a standard heartbeat discrimination procedure. Women as a group scored higher on the AIM. Affect intensity was unrelated to basal or evoked cardiac arousal and was negatively related to perceived cardiac arousal in all 3 studies. Data suggest that affect intensity, although unrelated to actual physiological arousal, is negatively related to the accuracy with which individuals perceive their own arousal. Results are discussed within the context of an expanded arousal-regulation model (Blascovich, 1990).     

Boundary Management and Work-Nonwork Balance While Working from Home

Within the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, we investigate work-nonwork boundary management among workers who transitioned to remote work. Based on five waves of data and a sample of 155 remote workers, we find that the preference for segmentation was associated with greater work-nonwork balance. We also found that having a dedicated office space within the home and fewer household members was associated with greater work-nonwork balance. However, these variables did not moderate the relationship between segmentation preferences and work-nonwork balance as expected. We discuss implications for future research on boundary management processes and practices.     

Influence of Multiple Traumatic Event Types on Mental Health Outcomes: Does Count Matter?

The experience of potentially traumatizing events (PTEs) may be associated with conflicting outcomes: individuals may experience greater psychological distress (dose-response theory), or individuals may become more resilient against repeated PTEs (stress-inoculation theory). With limited empirical data comparing these theories, we examined the relationships between the count of lifetime PTE types and psychological outcomes [posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, impaired distress tolerance] using linear and quadratic regressions. A linear relationship would support the dose-response theory, and a quadratic relationship would support the stress-inoculation theory. We also explored whether there was a threshold number of PTE types fostering resiliency before an increase of distressing outcomes. The sample included 123 (68.30% female) treatment-seeking patients at a community mental health center participating in a larger study (Contractor et al. in Psychiatry Research, 252, 252215–252222, 2017). Linear regression results indicated number of PTE types significantly predicted increasing PTSD and depression severity and distress tolerance difficulties. Quadratic regression model results were not significant. ROC analyses indicated exposure to at least 3.5 PTE types predicted PTSD with moderate accuracy. In conclusion, the dose-response theory was supported, with results indicating there may be a threshold count of lifetime PTE types (> 3) influencing traumatic stress outcomes.     

Are Ethics Training Programs Improving? A Meta-Analytic Review of Past and Present Ethics Instruction in the Sciences

Given the growing public concern and attention placed on cases of research misconduct, government agencies and research institutions have increased their efforts to develop and improve ethics education programs for scientists. The present study sought to assess the impact of these increased efforts by sampling empirical studies published since the year 2000. Studies published prior to 2000 examined in other meta-analytic work were also included to provide a baseline for assessing gains in ethics training effectiveness over time. In total, this quantitative review consisted of 66 empirical studies, 106 ethics courses, 150 effect sizes, and 10,069 training participants. Overall, the findings indicated that ethics instruction resulted in sizable benefits to participants and has improved considerably within the last decade. A number of specific findings also emerged regarding moderators of instructional effectiveness. Recommendations are discussed for improving the development, delivery, and evaluation of ethics instruction in the sciences.     

Mild Affective Shifts and Creativity: Effects on Idea Generation,Evaluation, and Implementation Planning

This study investigated the impact of mild shifts in affective tone (i.e., pleasant vs. unpleasant) and arousal (i.e., high vs. low) on three creative processes. Undergraduates read short stories designed to induce affective shifts and then were asked to generate solutions to a complex business problem. Shifts in affective tone and arousal interacted to influence idea generation and implementation planning, but not idea evaluation. The strongest creative performance was exhibited by participants who experienced a stable and pleasantly toned, low-arousal (i.e., relaxed) state and by those who shifted to an unpleasantly toned, high-arousal (i.e., angry) state. In contrast, those who shifted to an unpleasantly toned, low-arousal (i.e., sad) state or a pleasantly toned, high-arousal (i.e., happy) state tended to exhibit poorer creative performance. These results demonstrate the need to revisit the popular conception that organizations should promote intense levels of pleasant affect to enhance employee creativity.     

The development and flexibility of gaze alternations in bonobos and chimpanzees

Infants’ early gaze alternations are one of their first steps towards a sophisticated understanding of the social world. This ability, to gaze alternate between an object of interest and another individual also attending to that object, has been considered foundational to the development of many complex social‐cognitive abilities, such as theory of mind and language. However, to understand the evolution of these abilities, it is important to identify whether and how gaze alternations are used and develop in our closest living relatives, bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Here, we evaluated the development of gaze alternations in a large, developmental sample of bonobos (N = 17) and chimpanzees (N = 35). To assess the flexibility of ape gaze alternations, we tested whether they produced gaze alternations when requesting food from a human who was either visually attentive or visually inattentive. Similarly to human infants, both bonobos and chimpanzees produced gaze alternations, and did so more frequently when a human communicative partner was visually attentive. However, unlike humans, who gaze alternate frequently from early in development, chimpanzees did not begin to gaze alternate frequently until adulthood. Bonobos produced very few gaze alternations, regardless of age. Thus, it may be the early emergence of gaze alternations, as opposed gaze alternations themselves, that is derived in the human lineage. The distinctively early emergence of gaze alternations in humans may be a critical underpinning for the development of complex human social‐cognitive abilities.     

Does the dark side of a calling exist? Examining potential negative effects

The present studies examined the potential dark side of perceiving and living a calling with diverse samples of employed adults. In Study 1, living a calling and life meaning were found to suppress the relation between perceiving a calling and life satisfaction, resulting in these variables being significantly, negatively related. This suggests that perceiving a calling may predict decreased well-being when it is not lived out and does not provide meaning. In Study 2, participants living a calling did not experience greater burnout, workaholism, or organizational exploitation. Additionally, counter to hypotheses, living a calling was found to be a significant buffer in the relation of burnout/exploitation and job satisfaction. Specifically, the slope of the relation between living a calling and job satisfaction was more pronounced with individuals experiencing high levels of burnout/exploitation. These findings suggest that living a calling may help individuals in difficult working conditions maintain job satisfaction.