Using Self-Determination Theory to Understand when and how Money Buys Happiness: a Cross-Sectional and Intervention Study

Applied Research in Quality of Life - The objectives of this article were twofold: (1) understand what motivates people to make money and how this impacts well-being and (2) explore whether it is...     

Can third-party observers detect the emotional rewards of generous spending?

Can others detect the emotional consequences of our personal choices? Here, we investigate whether third-party observers can detect the emotional benefits of two factors shown to influence self-reported happiness: the speed with which people make decisions and the generosity of spending choices. Participants were randomly assigned to purchase a goody bag either for themselves or for a sick child, and to choose the contents of this goody bag either as quickly as possible, or by taking as much time as needed. Then, participants reported their current emotional state and were rated for happiness by a research assistant blind to their spending condition. Analyses revealed that purchasing a gift for someone else not only improved participants’ self-reported mood, but that observers could detect these affective differences as well. Observers also rated participants who made their spending decision more quickly as happier, although participants did not report these emotional differences.     

Der Behandlungsbedarf bei jungen Straftätern (BB-JuSt)

The BB-JuSt is a newly developed standardized instrument used in juvenile correctional settings to document the results of the inital assessment of treatment and educational needs of young offenders. It is made up of 23 items with 5-point rating scales (with the exception of the item caring for a child) which refer to specific needs and responsivity factors relating to educational attainments and basic reading/writing and mathematic skills, alcohol/drug/gambling problems, criminogenic disposition (e.g., aggressiveness), psychological disorders, lifestyle and social environment (e.g. associates and family). To determine the interrater reliability of this instrument 42 young offenders were classified by professional prison staff as usual, and additionally by 2 external researchers. Whereas excellent agreement between the external researchers was achieved on all items, the comparison between staff and researchers showed only moderate correlations. These results indicate that the BB-JuSt is a reliable instrument that can be used for treatment planning decisions and for research purposes but extensive training is required for users.     

Losing face: impaired discrimination of featural and configural information in the mouth region of an inverted face

Given that all faces share the same set of features—two eyes, a nose, and a mouth—that are arranged in similar configuration, recognition of a specific face must depend on our ability to discern subtle differences in its featural and configural properties. An enduring question in the face-processing literature is whether featural or configural information plays a larger role in the recognition process. To address this question, the face dimensions task was designed, in which the featural and configural properties in the upper (eye) and lower (mouth) regions of a face were parametrically and independently manipulated. In a same–different task, two faces were sequentially presented and tested in their upright or in their inverted orientation. Inversion disrupted the perception of featural size (Exp. 1), featural shape (Exp. 2), and configural changes in the mouth region, but it had relatively little effect on the discrimination of featural size and shape and configural differences in the eye region. Inversion had little effect on the perception of information in the top and bottom halves of houses (Exp. 3), suggesting that the lower-half impairment was specific to faces. Spatial cueing to the mouth region eliminated the inversion effect (Exp. 4), suggesting that participants have a bias to attend to the eye region of an inverted face. The collective findings from these experiments suggest that inversion does not differentially impair featural or configural face perceptions, but rather impairs the perception of information in the mouth region of the face.     

Gender Identity Development and Career Decision-Making Process among High School Learners

Previous studies reveal an inconsistent picture of identity formation for both genders. This study investigated gender differences in identity formation (identity statuses) and career decision-making process among Black South African high school learners. A sample of 156 Grade 12 learners (males = 60, females = 96; mean age = 17.7) participated in the study. Participants completed the Revised Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (Bennion & Adams, 1986) and the Study Choice Task Inventory (Germeijs & Verschueren, 2006). Males and females were similar in identity formation and career decision-making process. Given that nowadays females are encouraged to consider both stereotypically female plus male paths of career development, gender appears to play less influential role in career decision making.     

BOOK REVIEWS

This paper deals with the traumatic departures of Jews from Morocco during the 1950s and 1960s. The issue is analyzed through a set of diverse oral narrations. The study is based on several interviews conducted both among Jews who left Morocco and Muslims still living in the city of Meknes. The repression of the memory by Muslims of two young Jews murdered in 1967 in Meknes is questioned. In fact, although the perceptions concerning the Jews' departure differs according to the interviewee's social class, a common feeling appears to be shared by different societal sectors regarding this specific issue, which still comes across as a sensitive one today. The representation of Jews traditionally depicted as “fearful” and “weak” turns into “courageous” and “strong” during the Six‐Day War. This new representation perturbed the Muslim population, which seemed to be unable to deal with the new status Jews were acquiring. In fact, emigration was commonly considered to betray a lack of virility. The paper argues that the unexpected departure of an historic component of Moroccan society has left an open wound in Morocco. Even the memory of the “events” by the Jewish population appears to be fragmented into ambiguous constructions, leading, on the one hand, to perceptions of fear and uncertainty and, on the other, to images of affectionate relationships and intense nostalgia.     

Engaging Environments Enhance Motor Skill Learning in a Computer Gaming Task

Engagement during practice can motivate a learner to practice more, hence having indirect effects on learning through increased practice. However, it is not known whether engagement can also have a direct effect on learning when the amount of practice is held constant. To address this question, 40 participants played a video game that contained an embedded repeated sequence component, under either highly engaging conditions (the game group) or mechanically identical but less engaging conditions (the sterile group). The game environment facilitated retention over a 1-week interval. Specifically, the game group improved in both speed and accuracy for random and repeated trials, suggesting a general motor-related improvement, rather than a specific influence of engagement on implicit sequence learning. These data provide initial evidence that increased engagement during practice has a direct effect on generalized learning, improving retention and transfer of a complex motor skill.     

Cyclical Role-Playing and Stigma: Exploring the Challenges of Stereotype Performance among Exotic Dancers

This article maintains that there is a cycle existent between common stereotypes about strippers and the images that strippers themselves put forth at work. Each of these elements reinforces the other. For some strippers, this cycle involves role-playing at work in order to put forth a profitable image, coupled with either additional role-playing outside of the club in the avoidance of stigmatization or the endurance of social maltreatment. The stigmatization that comes with common stereotypes is yet another form of disempowerment stemming from this profession.