Unitization mitigates interference by intrinsic negative emotion in familiarity and recollection of associative memory: Electrophysiological evidence

Emotion exerts varied influences on memory. While task-relevant item memory is often enhanced by emotion, associative memory is generally impaired. Unitization is known to improve associative memory, but its effects and mechanisms in protecting associative memory from emotional interference are rather obscure. The current study investigated associative memory by employing experimental manipulation of unitization (vs. nonunitization) encoding strategy and stimulus emotion (neutral, intrinsic negative, and extrinsic negative), combined with event-related potential (ERP) signatures of familiarity (FN400 old/new effects) and recollection (parietal late positive component/LPC old/new effects) in memory recognition. Both behavioral and ERP indices of associative recognition from the nonunitization group confirmed emotional interference in associative memory. Importantly, it was primarily intrinsic (vs. extrinsic) emotion that impeded associative memory. Unitization encoding improved memory performance in general, accompanied by enhanced recollection process and induction of familiarity process, which is typically not involved in associative memory recognition and was indeed absent in the nonunitization group. Importantly, unitization helped to preserve behavioral performance (specifically, response speed though not recognition strength) from interference by intrinsic emotion while largely reversed the detriment of intrinsic emotion on ERP indices of familiarity and recollection processes. Interestingly, a synergy between intrinsic emotion and unitization encoding was observed, which could underpin the facilitation of familiarity process in associative recognition of emotional pairs. Overall, current findings highlight interference by intrinsic emotion in associative memory, which is nonetheless responsive to mitigation by unitization encoding.     

Linking Job Work Hours to Women’s Physical Health: The Role of Perceived Unfairness and Household Work Hours

Although the relationship between job work hours and women’s physical health has been examined, limited empirical research examines the family demand conditions that explain this relationship. Given the challenge of integrating work and family demands, we examine the boundary conditions under which job hours relate to women’s physical health by integrating the influences of household work hours, perceived unfairness of division of household labor, and traditional gender ideology. Using a large, multi-national archival dataset, our results show that women working long job hours are more likely to report decreased physical health and that this relationship is moderated by the hours and fairness perceptions of household labor: The lowest physical health was observed at high job hours and high household hours and also when women felt that they did less than their fair share of household labor. However, looking at the slopes of these relationships, the negative relationship between job hours and physical health was stronger when women worked lower household hours or felt that they contributed less than their fair share of household labor—suggesting that maintaining a contribution to household labor might be important for working women. Furthermore, these results suggest that policy and organizational interventions aimed at supporting women’s physical health could take their household labor contributions and fairness perceptions into account when assessing the negative impact of high job work hours.     

Peer Victimization and Substance Use in Early Adolescence: Influences of Deviant Peer Affiliation and Parental Knowledge

Being the target of peer victimization contributes to alcohol and cigarette use during early adolescence. This 1-year longitudinal study extended the current literature by investigating the potential links between peer victimization and alcohol and cigarette initiation among a sample of 723 youths recruited from three middle schools in Southern China. We proposed a moderated mediation model to examine whether peer victimization is indirectly related to substance use via deviant peer affiliation, and whether the strength of this mediation is moderated by the level of parental knowledge for both genders. All participants self-reported using questionnaires to assess peer victimization, deviant peer affiliation, parental knowledge, and substance use. The results revealed that peer victimization was indirectly associated with increased alcohol use via deviant peer affiliation for both genders. However, deviant peer affiliation mediated the impact of peer victimization on trying cigarettes for only boys. Moreover, parental knowledge acted as a protective role for increases in alcohol use for girls, but not for boys. These findings highlight the potential role of deviant peer affiliation to explain the relationship between peer victimization and substance use, and provide important implications for addressing the adverse consequences of peer victimization.     

Is there a role of depressive symptoms in the fear-avoidance model? A structural equation approach

The fear-avoidance (FA) model has gained widespread acceptance as a conceptual framework for investigating psychological factors such as FA beliefs and avoidance behavior, which contribute to chronic back pain and reduced functioning. Depressive symptoms are supposed to be related to FA beliefs and to foster avoidance behavior. This study aims to investigate the multivariate assumptions of the FA model with a focus on the role of depressive symptoms. A total of N = 360 patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain at admission of inpatient orthopedic rehabilitation participated in the survey. Measures included a numeric pain rating scale, Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire, Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale, Hannover Functional Ability Questionnaire and Patient Health Questionnaire. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), we construed a basic FA model and subsequently extended it by adding symptoms of depression as a covariate. The results of SEM indicated a good model fit for a basic FA model (χ²(263) = 431.069, p < .001, RMSEA = .042, CFI = .964, WRMR = .986). They confirmed the hypothesized relations and supported single mediations of the relationship between pain and functioning by FA beliefs and avoidance behavior. A second model including symptoms of depression as additional covariate (χ²(511) = 722.761, p < .001, RMSEA = .034, CFI = .956, WRMR = .949) showed a high impact of depressive symptoms on all FA model variables leading to a decrease of the FA mediations. The findings provide empirical support for the multivariate FA model and underline the importance of considering depressive symptoms in a multiple-target approach to understand the mechanisms of chronic pain.     

Belief in a just world lowers bribery intention

Corruption is rampant around the world and can be detrimental to social justice. We aim to understand whether and how belief in a just world to self (BJW‐self) influences individuals' intentions to become involved in bribery. We measured bribery intention using hypothetical scenarios. In Study 1 and Study 2, we consistently found that BJW‐self negatively predicted bribery intention, and this pattern was mediated by perceived punishment of getting involved in bribery. We further demonstrated the causal effect of BJW‐self on bribery intention in an experiment (Study 3). These results indicate that BJW as one lay belief can be important in suppressing people's bribery intention, and perceived punishment mediates the effect of BJW on rule‐breaking behaviours. Implications for anti‐corruption policies and future research are also discussed.     

Sources of Meaning in Life Among Chinese University Students

The current studies were designed to explore the structure of sources of meaning in life among Chinese university students. In Study 1, we content-analyzed 171 students’ answers to the question of what made their lives meaningful and derived 74 frequently mentioned ideas. Then, we composed a questionnaire based on these ideas and administered it to another sample of 523 university students in Study 2. Seven underlying dimensions were identified through exploratory factor analysis: Self-development (i.e., to accomplish one’s aspirations and actualize one’s potential), social commitment (i.e., to contribute to society and to adhere to moral principles), interpersonal relationships (i.e., relationships with family members, friends and others), secular pursuits (i.e., stable jobs, material possessions and social status), experiences in life (i.e., to experience all the joys and sorrows in life), civilization (i.e., reading, thinking, music and arts), and autonomy (i.e., to make decisions freely and take charge of one’s own life). Results are discussed in light of the philosophical influences in Chinese culture, especially those from Confucianism and Taoism.     

Consumers' attributions and brand evaluations in product‐harm crises: The role of implicit theories of personality

This study aims to examine the moderating role of implicit theories of personality in the relationship between corporate recovery strategy (i.e., support versus stonewalling) and consumers' attributions (and brand evaluations). It is suggested that consumers' implicit theories about the fixedness/malleability of personality can affect consumers' attributions and brand evaluations during a product‐harm crisis. In addition, corporate image (i.e., strong versus weak) can moderate the influence of the role of implicit theories of personality. Two experiments were conducted to examine the proposed hypotheses. Results of Experiment 1 show that consumers who endorse entity theory (i.e., entity theorists) are likely to attribute crisis as more internal, stable, and controllable, particularly when they do not have any prior knowledge about the firm. The entity theorists would have more negative brand evaluations than incremental theorists (who endorse incremental theory), when “support” strategy was used by the firm. Results of Experiment 2 show that entity theorists are prone to have more external (internal) and unstable (stable) attributions toward a firm with a strong (weak) corporate image. Furthermore, entity theorists would provide more positive brand evaluations than incremental theorists when “stonewalling” strategy was used by a firm with strong corporate image, but not when “support” strategy was used by a firm with weak corporate image. Managerial implications are provided to managers with regard to product‐harm crisis and recovery strategies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Loneliness and Negative Affective Conditions in Adults: Is There Any Room for Hope in Predicting Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms?

This study examined the role of hope in understanding the link between loneliness and negative affective conditions (viz., anxiety and depressive symptoms) in a sample of 318 adults. As expected, loneliness was found to be a significant predictor of both anxiety and depressive symptoms. Noteworthy, hope was found to significantly augment the prediction of depressive symptoms, even after accounting for loneliness. Furthermore, we found evidence for a significant Loneliness × Hope interaction effect in predicting anxiety. A plot of the interaction confirmed that the association between loneliness and anxiety was weaker among high, compared to low, hope adults. Some implications of the present findings are discussed.     

Confirmatory Factor Analyses of Self- and Parent- Report Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits in 8- to 10-Year-Olds

The factorial structure of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU; Frick 2004) has been inconsistent across various studies using different rater versions and samples. In this study the factorial structure of the self- and parent-report versions of the ICU was examined in a community sample of 340 boys and girls aged 8- to 10- years. A series of confirmatory factor analyses revealed that (1) for self-report ICU, a two-factor model comprising one Uncaring and one Callousness factor fit the data best; the factorial structure was invariant across sex, although boys showed higher scores than girls on the Uncaring factor; (2) for the parent-report ICU, a three-factor structure was supported, and boys and girls did not differ on factor structure or levels of the factors. For both versions, CU traits were positively associated with the count of Oppositional Defiant Disorder/Conduct Disorder and internalizing behavior symptoms, demonstrating ICU’s good convergent albeit unsatisfactory discriminant validity. Findings suggest further refinement of this instrument for the self-report and parent versions separately.