Unexpected improvement, decline, and stasis: a prediction confidence perspective on achievement success and failure

The authors hypothesized that reactions to performance feedback depend on whether one's lay theory of intelligence is supported or violated. In Study 1, following improvement feedback, all participants generally exhibited positive affect, but entity theorists (who believe that intelligence is fixed) displayed more anxiety and more effort to restore prediction confidence than did incremental theorists (who believe that intelligence is malleable). Similarly, when performance declined, entity theorists displayed more anxiety and compensatory effort than incremental theorists. However, when performance remained rigidly static despite a learning opportunity, incremental theorists evinced more anxiety and compensatory effort than entity theorists. In Study 2, this pattern was replicated when the entity and incremental theories were experimentally manipulated. Study 3 demonstrated that for both groups, theory violation impairs subsequent task performance. Taken together, these studies provide evidence that lay theory violation and damaged prediction confidence have significant and measurable effects on emotion and motivation. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for the literature on achievement success and failure.     

Evaluating Dialectical Structures

This paper develops concepts and procedures for the evaluation of complex debates. They provide means for answering such questions as whether a thesis has to be considered as proven or disproven in a debate or who carries a burden of proof. While being based on classical logic, this framework represents an (argument-based) approach to non-monotonic, or defeasible reasoning. Debates are analysed as dialectical structures, i.e. argumentation systems with an attack- as well as a support-relationship. The recursive status assignment over the arguments is conditionalised on proponents in a debate. The problem of multiple status assignments arising on circular structures is solved by showing that uniqueness can be guaranteed qua reconstruction of a debate. The notion of burden of proof as well as other discursive aims rational proponents pursue in a debate is defined within the framework.     

Division of Household Labor and Distress: The Role of Perceived Fairness for Employed Mothers

This study used a sample of 121 employed, married (or cohabitating) mothers with a high socioeconomic status (SES) primarily from the Midwest United States to examine the relationship between division of household labor, perceived fairness, and distress. Due to inconsistent findings in prior literature, perceived fairness was examined as both a mediator and moderator between division of household labor and distress. Analyses indicated that perceived fairness played a mediating (but not moderating) role, suggesting that an individual’s perceptions of fairness are one mechanism by which division of household labor influences marital and personal distress in married individuals. Post hoc analyses also indicated that increased marital distress may explain the link between perceived unfairness and personal distress. Although results must be interpreted with caution due to the selectivity of the sample, the present study provides additional support for the importance of perceived fairness in the link between division of household labor and distress.     

Stressed out over possible failure: The role of regulatory fit on claimed self-handicapping

The self-protective mechanism of self-handicapping appears to be motivated by the need to protect ability attributions in the face of concern about possible failure. Indeed, the present research finds a correlation between trait self-handicapping and chronic prevention focus. Moreover, the present research examines the role of “regulatory fit” on the use of claimed self-handicapping by exposing high and low trait self-handicappers to performance situations framed in prevention or promotion terms. Consistent with our regulatory fit hypothesis, high self-handicappers (HSHs) handicapped significantly more (by reporting higher levels of stress) when the task was framed in prevention focus rather than promotion focus terms, and did so even when the viability of the handicap was dubious. Self-handicapping in the prevention focus condition was mediated by elevated feelings of evaluative concern. The findings suggest that conditions of regulatory fit (i.e., HSHs under prevention focus) can lead to increased use of self-handicapping.     

Should I Confront Him? Men’s Reactions to Hypothetical Confrontations of Peer Sexual Harassment

This study investigated how men react to a hypothetical confrontation by a woman of a male sexual harasser. Participants were 250 male undergraduates from a Canadian university who read scenarios depicting sexual harassment that varied by type of harassment and style of confrontation. Findings suggest that men have more negative feelings and opinions of a female confronter, and would engage in more negative verbal behaviour if confronted about subtle versus overt harassment. Contrary to prediction, assertive/hostile confrontation styles were related to only limited negative reactions. Although this study found that men’s reported reactions were not markedly negative, we discuss the importance of these results for women in understanding what factors may increase the chance that men will react negatively.     

Infants use shared experience to interpret pointing gestures

We investigated whether 1‐year‐old infants use their shared experience with an adult to determine the meaning of a pointing gesture. In the first study, after two adults had each shared a different activity with the infant, one of the adults pointed to a target object. Eighteen‐ but not 14‐month‐olds responded appropriately to the pointing gesture based on the particular activity they had previously shared with that particular adult. In the second study, 14‐month‐olds were successful in a simpler procedure in which the pointing adult either had or had not shared a relevant activity with the infant prior to the pointing. Infants just beginning to learn language thus already show a complex understanding of the pragmatics of cooperative communication in which shared experience with particular individuals plays a crucial role.     

A novel technology for investigating the dynamics of infant perseverative reaching

We designed and tested a novel technology that enables us to capture the entire stream of behavior in perseverative reaching tasks. Beyond fitting the criteria of the conventional A-not-B task, the novel technology gives us better access to the core features of perseverative reaching, such as timing, behavior history, and reinforcement. The technology allows us to quantitatively manipulate reinforcement characteristics, to accurately program onsets, delays, and stimulus durations as well as locations and salience of the targets, and to automatically record the number of reaches to each target and compute timing. We did a validation study on this new technology, investigating the influence of a number of novel factors on perseverative reaching. We replicated the A-not-B phenomenon and associated developmental changes. In addition, results demonstrated that the new technology offers insights into infants' behavior beyond the first reaching action. Moreover, data collection is fully automated, yielding precise, quantitative data. Future studies using this technology will capitalize on the salient advantages of this technology to more precisely measure goal-directed actions and understand the development of reaching skill.     

Concurrent associations between anxiety sensitivity and perceived health and health disability among young adult daily smokers

The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the incremental validity of anxiety sensitivity (fear of arousal-related physical and psychological sensations) relative to health factors (smoking variables, alcohol use and exercise level), in predicting perceived health and disability among a sample of 225 young adult daily smokers (102 females; M(age) = 23.9 years, SD = 8.8). Consistent with prediction, anxiety sensitivity, relative to smoking-relevant variables, alcohol consumption (a single frequency by quantity composite) and exercise activity, predicted lower perceived general health and impairments in mental health and social functioning; no incremental effects were evident for anxiety sensitivity for predicting impairments in physical functioning, role functioning, or increased healthcare usage. These findings are discussed with respect to better understanding cognitive factors that affect perceptions of health status and functioning among daily smokers.     

Word lists for testing cognitive biases toward body shape among men and women

The present study developed word lists describing three categories of body build—fat, thin, and muscular— for use in investigating cognitive risk factors for body dissatisfaction. Fifty-one men and 51 women rated the categorization, valence, and familiarity of 284 body-related adjectives in order to develop the final lists. The normative frequency of each of the 284 words was determined using an index of American English. The final 19- to 26-item word lists were constructed so that the average number of syllables, word length, word frequency, and mean percentage of categorization agreement were comparable. The availability of these word lists will facilitate future cognitive research into a key risk factor for eating disorders.