Comparative assessment of handedness for a coordinated bimanual task in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) and orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)

Hand preferences for a coordinated bimanual task were assessed in a sample of 31 captive gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) and 19 captive orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) and were compared with chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) hand preferences in subjects that were matched on the basis of age, sex, and rearing history. The task required that the apes remove food from the inside edges of a symmetrical polyvinyl chloride pipe presented to them in their home cages. The results indicate significant species differences with chimpanzees showing population-level right-handedness and orangutans showing population-level left-handedness. The gorillas showed a nonsignificant trend toward right-handedness. The results are discussed in terms of possible ecological or biomechanical factors that may influence hand preferences in different ape species.     

WHEN COWORKERS AND MANAGERS QUIT: THE EFFECTS OF TURNOVER AND SHARED VALUES ON PERFORMANCE

We examined the relationship between work unit, direct management, and overall management turnover and performance improvement following an intervention in fifty work units in multiple organizations in eight countries. Direct management turnover was negatively related to performance improvement, while work unit and overall management turnover were not. We also investigated shared values as a moderator of the turnover-performance relationship and found that high shared values buffered the negative effect of overall management turnover on performance improvement. The results are noteworthy, as they point to the importance of examining turnover at different organizational levels and identifying moderators of the turnover-performance relationship.

The effects of a physical activity and nutrition intervention on body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, and weight concerns in pre-adolescents

The primary aim was to examine the effects of a physical activity and nutrition intervention on Body Dissatisfaction, Drive for Thinness, and Weight Concerns in pre-adolescents. Eighty-four 10–12 years old were studied as part of a larger trial of a family-based physical activity and nutrition intervention. Forty-nine children participated in the 8-week intervention (35 in control group) and completed Body Dissatisfaction, Drive for Thinness, and Weight Concerns measures at baseline and post-test. Participants in both groups showed positive but non-significant changes in body image and Drive for Thinness following the trial, but there were no significant between group differences. This was the first study to examine the effects of a physical activity and nutrition intervention on body image and related variables in pre-adolescents. Body Dissatisfaction, Drive for Thinness, and Weight Concerns were not positively or negatively influenced by the intervention.     

Domain-specific identity, epistemic regulation, and intellectual ability as predictors of belief-biased reasoning: a dual-process perspective

To explore the hypothesis that domain-specific identity development predicts reasoning biases, adolescents and young adults completed measures of domain-general and domain-specific identity, epistemic regulation, and intellectual ability and evaluated arguments that either supported or threatened their occupational goals. Biases were defined as the use of sophisticated reasoning to reject goal-threatening arguments and the use of cursory reasoning to accept goal-supportive arguments. Across two measures of bias, hierarchical regression analyses showed that domain-specific vocational identity and epistemic regulation best predicted reasoning biases. Neither age nor intellectual ability predicted significant variance in biases after vocational identity and epistemic regulation scores were entered into the regression equations. The results support the thesis that biases in specific domains can be explained both by domain-specific personality attributes and by domain-general metacognitive dispositions to monitor reasoning and decontextualize problem structure from superficial contents. A dual-process framework is proposed to explain the relationships among identity, epistemic regulation, age, intellectual ability, and reasoning biases.     

Maternal relationship instability and the school behavior of children from disadvantaged families

This longitudinal study examined the relation between the instability of maternal intimate relationships and the school behavior of 3rd-grade children from economically disadvantaged families. After ecological correlates were controlled, chronic relationship instability predicted externalizing behavior for boys and girls and internalizing behavior for girls, but not academic competence. In addition, past and recent instability had independent effects: Recent instability moderated the relation for past instability, and child adjustment in highly unstable families varied with verbal ability and aspects of the family ecology. The theoretical implications concern conceptualizations of the diverse and dynamic nature of family arrangements experienced by disadvantaged children.     

Barriers and Bridges to Intimacy and Mutuality: A Critical Review of Sexual Advice Found in Self-Help Bestsellers

Sexuality in a committed relationship is based ideally on both intimacy and mutuality. Gender socialization may limit women's and men's capacities in these two important areas of sexual relationships. This article describes the results of a content analysis of nine best-selling popular press books on the New York Times Bestseller List between 1988 and 1998 according to their advice related to sexual intimacy and mutuality. Books were analyzed to determine the degree to which they built barriers or bridges to the development of intimacy and mutuality. Results indicate that while most authors offered advice that built bridges to intimacy, several built barriers to the development of mutuality. Implications for therapists are discussed.     

What makes people happy? Decoupling the experiential-material continuum

Extant literature suggests that consumers derive more happiness from experiences (e.g., vacations) than from material possessions (e.g., furniture). However, this literature typically pits material against experiential consumption, treating them as a single bipolar construct of their relative dominance: more material or more experiential. This focus on relative dominance leaves unanswered questions regarding how different levels of material and experiential qualities each contribute to happiness. Four preregistered studies (N = 3,288), using hundreds of product categories, measured levels of material and experiential qualities using two unipolar items. These studies investigate recalled, evoked, and anticipated happiness. Results show a more nuanced view of the experiential advantage that is critical for future research and consumer theory: material and experiential qualities both have positive relationships with happiness. Further, there is no inherent trade-off between experiential and material qualities: consumers can enjoy consumption that is high on both (e.g., swimming pools and home improvements).     

Introspection on uncertainty and judicious help‐seeking during the preschool years

Little is known about the mechanisms underlying a ubiquitous behavior in preschoolers, help‐seeking. We tested the hypothesis that preschoolers' awareness of their own uncertainty is associated with help‐seeking. Three‐, 4‐, and 5‐year‐olds (N = 125) completed a perceptual identification task twice: once independently and once when they could request help from a confederate whose competence level was manipulated. Consistent with our hypothesis, participants sought help more frequently on trials for which, when required to answer independently, they expressed lower confidence. Children in the bad‐helper condition were slower to respond after receiving help than those in the good‐helper condition. Finally, females and children with more advanced theory of mind were more likely to seek help, identifying additional factors that relate to help‐seeking.     

Virtually Perfect: Image Retouching and Adolescent Body Image

Most studies of ideal-body media effects on body image focus on the extreme thinness of the models, not their idealness. In modern media, this idealness is often created or maximized via digital image editing. This experiment tested the effects of image editing outside the research-typical context of exclusive thinness. Original unretouched photographs were manipulated by a professional retoucher to produce unretouched and retouched image conditions. In a third condition (retouched-aware), the retouched images were explicitly labeled as retouched. Adolescents ( N = 393, average age 15.43) were randomly assigned to one of these conditions or a no-exposure control, and they completed a questionnaire following exposure. Objectified body consciousness increased and physical self-esteem decreased among male and female adolescents in the retouched-aware condition only. This boomerang effect of retouching awareness is explored in the discussion.