Yes,But Are They Happy? Effects of Trait Self‐Control on Affective Well‐Being and Life Satisfaction

Does trait self‐control (TSC) predict affective well‐being and life satisfaction—positively, negatively, or not? We conducted three studies (Study 1: N = 414, 64% female, M_age = 35.0 years; Study 2: N = 208, 66% female, M_age = 25.24 years; Study 3: N = 234, 61% female, M_age = 34.53 years). The key predictor was TSC, with affective well‐being and life satisfaction ratings as key outcomes. Potential explanatory constructs including goal conflict, goal balancing, and emotional distress also were investigated. TSC is positively related to affective well‐being and life satisfaction, and managing goal conflict is a key as to why. All studies, moreover, showed that the effect of TSC on life satisfaction is at least partially mediated by affect. Study 1's correlational study established the effect. Study 2's experience sampling approach demonstrated that compared to those low in TSC, those high in TSC experience higher levels of momentary affect even as they experience desire, an effect partially mediated through experiencing lower conflict and emotional distress. Study 3 found evidence for the proposed mechanism—that TSC may boost well‐being by helping people avoid frequent conflict and balance vice‐virtue conflicts by favoring virtues. Self‐control positively contributes to happiness through avoiding and dealing with motivational conflict.     

Dutch adolescents' tolerance of Muslim immigrants: the role of assimilation ideology,intergroup contact,and national identification

This study set out to examine native Dutch adolescents' tolerance (N = 1,139) of Muslim immigrants in relation to the endorsement of assimilation, national identification, and contact with ethnic minority peers. The focus was on two dimensions of tolerance: the acceptance of practices by Muslim actors, and Muslims persuading co‐believers to engage in the same practices. Tolerance was found to be higher for the practices than for persuading others. Higher endorsement of assimilation was related to lower levels of tolerance, and this relation was stronger for higher compared to lower national identifiers. Assimilation mediated the positive relationship between intergroup contact and tolerance. These effects did not differ for the two dimensions of tolerance. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Stronger effects of self-generated than cue-induced expectations when verifying predictions in data graphs

Expectations can come in different forms when analyzing and presenting data. Prior studies have documented stronger effects (behavioral and electrophysiological) of self-generated predictions as compared to cues. While participants presumably cannot help but use their own predictions, they might sometimes ignore cues (of low validity). In two experiments we compared the impact of cues (verbal and visual) and self-generated predictions on the performance of participants checking their current prediction against a presented data graph (linear upward or downward trend). Different from prior studies, the setup allowed for within-experiment comparison of different cue formats and ensured that cues could not be ignored. Nevertheless we found that self-generated predictions had a stronger impact than cues. Verbal cues had a stronger effect than visual cues without verbalization. Responses to graphs with a linear upward trend were faster and were influenced more strongly by predictions, than the response to graphs with a downward trend.     

Comparing the effects of generating questions,testing, and restudying on students' long-term recall in university learning

We compared the long-term effects of generating questions by learners with answering questions (i.e., testing) and restudying in the context of a university lecture. In contrast to previous studies, students were not prepared for the learning strategies, learning content was experimentally controlled, and effects on factual and transfer knowledge were examined. Students' overall recall performance after one week profited from generating questions and testing but not from restudying. When analyzing the effects on both knowledge types separately, traditional analyses revealed that only factual knowledge appeared to benefit from testing. However, additional Bayesian analyses suggested that generating questions and testing similarly benefit factual and transfer knowledge compared with restudying. The generation of questions thus seems to be another powerful learning strategy, yielding similar effects as testing on long-term retention of coherent learning content in educational contexts, and these effects emerge for factual and transfer knowledge.     

„Intention to treat“ oder „treatment as received“ – Umgang mit Abbrechern in der Forschung zur Straftäterbehandlung

Lack of internal validity is a frequent problem in evaluation studies of offender treatment, as randomized controlled trials are difficult to implement and comparison groups in quasi-experimental studies are often not completely equivalent. Special matching procedures or statistical control of selection bias by using potentially interfering variables as covariates can provide a solution to some of these problems; however, a high dropout rate from offender treatment programs presents another problem, as the variables that cause attrition are often risk factors for reoffending. It is argued that a treatment-as-received (TR) approach which compares treatment completers with the comparison group may confound genuine treatment effects with selection effects. Particularly high recidivism rates in dropouts may be due to negative effects of attrition (e.g. stigmatization) but may more likely reflect a higher a priori risk for reoffending. Using data from some recent treatment studies, the authors show that alleged positive effects often disappear when a more adequate intention-to-treat (ITT) approach is used in which dropouts are retained in the treatment sample.     

Traumatische Erfahrungen und Posttraumatische Belastungsstörung bei Journalisten

A questionnaire study on work-related trauma of journalists was conducted on the internet. 61 journalists (22 women) provided information about the type and frequency of highly stressful assignments and traumatic life events, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PCL-C), depression (CES-D) and coping style (emotional competence, FAPK, 3; sense of coherence, SOC). 46% of the participants lived in the USA, 41% in Europe; their mean age was 37 years and they had an average job experience of 13 years. They reported an average of 81 assignments in which they had been confronted with seriously injured, dying or dead persons or had worked at the risk of their own life. 13% had developed a full and 15% a partial post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Compared to less disturbed individuals, the participants with (full or partial) PTSD reported significantly more often about violence in their original families, depressive symptoms and deficiencies in their emotional competence.     

Principle-Based Moral Judgement

It is widely acknowledged that moral principles are not sufficient to guide moral thought and action: they need to be supplemented by a capacity for judgement. However, why can we not rely on this capacity for moral judgement alone? Why do moral principles need to be supplemented, but are not supplanted, by judgement? So-called moral particularists argue that we can, and should, make moral decisions on a case-by-case basis without any principles. According to particularists, the person of moral judgement is a person of empathy, sensibility and virtue, rather than a person of principle. In this paper I argue that this is a false dichotomy. The person of good moral judgement is a person of principle. I propose that we think of moral principles as internalised long-term commitments that form our moral character and sensitivity, and, as such, are constitutive of moral judgement.