Power,Leadership, and Self‐Regulation

Power has been linked to both self‐regulatory success and failure. Power typically aids self‐regulation of task performance by making people motivated and goal‐oriented. However, because people’s self‐regulatory resources are limited, as powerful people exert effort on their focal tasks, they may fail to self‐regulate in other domains. This type of goal myopia may lead to detriments in impulse control. Wielding power, by making decisions and leading subordinates, can deplete people’s self‐regulatory resources, making subsequent acts of self‐control more difficult.     

The relative role of nicotine dependence and smoking-related cognitions in adolescents' process of smoking cessation

The present study evaluates the role of distinct components of nicotine dependence (craving, withdrawal, behavioural dependence) in comparison to smoking-related cognitions (attitudes, perceived social approval, self-efficacy) in adolescent smoking cessation. In the process towards smoking cessation, we distinguish between distinct behavioural transitions, respectively, short-term abstinence, reduction in smoking behaviour and prolonged cessation, to evaluate differences in cessation-related antecedents as a function of varying behavioural outcomes. A total of 850 adolescent smokers (age 14-16) participated in the present study. Smoking behaviour was assessed 1 year after baseline. Results showed that all dependence components had a distinct role in the prediction of behavioural change towards cessation. Furthermore, each behavioural transition was predicted by a distinct set of variables, indicating that contributions of cessation-related factors vary across the course towards cessation. Overall, our findings suggest that smoking-related cognitions are particularly relevant in the initiation of behavioural change, such as short-term abstinence, whereas nicotine dependence, craving in particular, becomes increasingly important in the prediction of maintained behavioural change, such as prolonged cessation. Implications encompass enhanced attention to the multidimensional nature of nicotine dependence and the value of comparing different behavioural outcomes in a comprehensive understanding of cessation-related factors.     

Separate but interacting recognition memory systems for different senses: the role of the rat perirhinal cortex

Two different models (convergent and parallel) potentially describe how recognition memory, the ability to detect the re-occurrence of a stimulus, is organized across different senses. To contrast these two models, rats with or without perirhinal cortex lesions were compared across various conditions that controlled available information from specific sensory modalities. Intact rats not only showed visual, tactile, and olfactory recognition, but also overcame changes in the types of sensory information available between object sampling and subsequent object recognition, e.g., between sampling in the light and recognition in the dark, or vice versa. Perirhinal lesions severely impaired object recognition whenever visual cues were available, but spared olfactory recognition and tactile-based object recognition when tested in the dark. The perirhinal lesions also blocked the ability to recognize an object sampled in the light and then tested for recognition in the dark, or vice versa. The findings reveal parallel recognition systems for different senses reliant on distinct brain areas, e.g., perirhinal cortex for vision, but also show that: (1) recognition memory for multisensory stimuli involves competition between sensory systems and (2) perirhinal cortex lesions produce a bias to rely on vision, despite the presence of intact recognition memory systems serving other senses.     

Automatic emotion regulation after social exclusion: tuning to positivity

Nine experiments tested competing hypotheses regarding nonconscious affective responses to acute social exclusion and how such responses may relate to positive mental health. The results strongly and consistently indicated that acute social exclusion increased nonconscious positive affect. Compared to nonexcluded participants, excluded participants recalled more positive memories from childhood than did accepted participants (Experiment 1), gave greater weight to positive emotion in their judgments of word similarity (Experiments 2 and 3), and completed more ambiguous word stems with happy words (Experiments 4a and 4b). This process was apparently automatic, as participants asked to imagine exclusion overestimated explicit distress and underestimated implicit positivity (Experiment 3). Four final experiments showed that this automatic emotion regulation process was found among participants low (but not high) in depressive symptoms (Experiments 5 and 6) and among participants high (but not low) in self-esteem (Experiments 7 and 8). These findings suggest that acute exclusion sets in motion an automatic emotion regulation process in which positive emotions become highly accessible, which relates to positive mental health.     

Is there a place for individual subjectivity within a social constructionist epistemology?

The epistemological turn towards social constructionism has become well established within the field of family systemic therapy. Social constructionism has provided therapists with a theoretical rationale for the concentration upon the social context within which individuals and families live their lives. This is a philosophical position that pushes to the margins the positivist premise that individuals have fixed and measurable personalities in favour of a discourse which proposes that the person is encountered differently within different social contexts. Prompted by the growing interest in systemic practice with individuals and by the rediscovery of the psychoanalytic canon within family therapy literature, the adequacy of this position is examined and an attempt is made to open up a space within social constructionist discourse for a theory of individual subjectivity. Findings from a research project are the starting point for this venture. These findings are understood through the lens of psychoanalytic theory, with particular reference to the work of Jacques Lacan.     

Learning correct responses and errors in the Hebb repetition effect: two faces of the same coin

In a serial recall task, the Hebb repetition effect occurs when recall performance improves for a sequence repeated throughout the experimental session. This phenomenon has been replicated many times. Nevertheless, such cumulative learning seldom leads to perfect recall of the whole sequence, and errors persist. Here the authors report evidence that there is another side to the Hebb repetition effect that involves learning errors produced in a repeated sequence. A learning measure based on past recalls (correct or incorrect) shows that the probability of a given response increases with the number of prior occurrences of that response. The pattern of results reveals another manifestation of the Hebb repetition effect and speaks to the nature of implicit learning.     

Free Will in Scientific Psychology

ABSTRACT— Some actions are freer than others, and the difference is palpably important in terms of inner process, subjective perception, and social consequences. Psychology can study the difference between freer and less free actions without making dubious metaphysical commitments. Human evolution seems to have created a relatively new, more complex form of action control that corresponds to popular notions of free will. It is marked by self-control and rational choice, both of which are highly adaptive, especially for functioning within culture. The processes that create these forms of free will may be biologically costly and therefore are only used occasionally, so that people are likely to remain only incompletely self-disciplined, virtuous, and rational.     

Two‐Step Testing in Employee Selection: Is score inflation a problem?

Unproctored Internet testing in employee selection has become increasingly popular over the past few years. However, there is a concern that cheating during unproctored administrations may influence the test results in terms of score inflation. The current research attempts to determine the extent of cheating on an unproctored Internet test of perceptual speed by analyzing data from a parallel version of the test administered in a proctored setting. Among a sample of 856 job applicants from nine European countries, there was no evidence that cheating occurred. In fact, evidence of an effect operating in the opposite direction was obtained. These results indicate that the use of unproctored Internet testing is appropriate for this type of test.