The fundamental need to belong: on the distinction between growth and deficit-reduction orientations

The need for belongingness (the universal need to form and maintain positive, stable interpersonal relationships) has led to much research over the past decade. Although such a need is universal, some qualitative differences exist in its orientation. Specifically, two belongingness need orientations are proposed: a growth orientation (a belongingness need directed toward interpersonal actualization) and a deficit-reduction orientation (a belongingness need directed toward interpersonal deficit reduction or repair). It is hypothesized that a deficit-reduction orientation to the need to belong is associated with lower levels of intrapersonal and interpersonal psychological functioning compared to a growth orientation. The results of a series of four studies supported the proposed hypotheses. Implications of the proposed model for future research on the need to belong are discussed.     

Contemporary theories of 1/f noise in motor control

1/f noise has been discovered in a number of time series collected in psychological and behavioral experiments. This ubiquitous phenomenon has been ignored for a long time and classical models were not designed for accounting for these long-range correlations. The aim of this paper is to present and discuss contrasted theoretical perspectives on 1/f noise, in order to provide a comprehensive overview of current debates in this domain. In a first part, we propose a formal definition of the phenomenon of 1/f noise, and we present some commonly used methods for measuring long-range correlations in time series. In a second part, we develop a theoretical position that considers 1/f noise as the hallmark of system complexity. From this point of view, 1/f noise emerges from the coordination of the many elements that compose the system. In a third part, we present a theoretical counterpoint suggesting that 1/f noise could emerge from localized sources within the system. In conclusion, we try to draw some lines of reasoning for going beyond the opposition between these two approaches.     

Navigating Public Prejudices: The Impact of Media and Attitudes on High-Profile Female Political Leaders

Predictions from the stereotype content model (SCM; Fiske et al. 2002) that suggest high-status career women are perceived as competent but cold were tested with a sample of college students in California (N?=?294; 51% female; M age?=?21.49). Participants completed measures of sexism and attitude extremity, read a positive or negative article about a female senator, and rated her warmth and competence. Results indicate positive media coverage counteracts the competent but cold prediction of the SCM. In the context of negative media, extreme hostile sexism predicted evaluations of low warmth and competence; however, males with less extreme sexist attitudes had greater warmth and competence evaluations. Results are discussed in relation to the SCM and worldview confirmation hypothesis.     

Test-retest reliability of the Frankfurt Complaint Questionnaire

Long-term reliability of the Frankfurt Complaint Questionnaire (FCQ) was investigated in two follow-up studies of participants with psychosis using a test-retest method. In the first study (N = 56), the duration of the follow-up ranged from 6 months to 2 years; Spearman rho was .62 for the abridged (18 items) Spanish version of the questionnaire. In Study 2 (N = 21), in participants with stable schizophrenia, the follow-up ranged from 8 to 11 years; test-retest Spearman rho was .83 for the French version of the questionnaire. Subjective experiences could constitute, in psychosis-prone people, traits or markers of psychotic vulnerability.     

The role of goal representation in preschoolers' flexibility and inhibition

This study addressed the role of goal representation in preschoolers’ inhibition and flexibility performance. A total of 56 4- and 5-year-olds were tested in an adapted version of the Shape School task where the difficulty of goal representation was manipulated by varying the degree of transparency of task cues. The findings showed that both age groups’ performance in the flexibility phase was increased when demands on goal representation were alleviated by using transparent cues instead of arbitrary cues. Furthermore, 4-year-olds performed more accurately on go trials in the inhibition phase with transparent cues than with arbitrary cues. These results confirm the critical role of goal representation in flexibility and reveal its influence in inhibition contexts. Altogether, this study suggests that goal representation is a key element for efficient executive function across a variety of settings involving different executive functions.     

Bus drivers' exposure to bullying at work: an occupation-specific approach

The present study employs an occupation-specific approach to examine bus drivers' exposure to bullying and their trait anger, job engagement, job satisfaction and turnover intentions. A total of 1,023 bus drivers from a large public transport organization participated in the study. The findings show that bus driving can be a high risk occupation with regard to bullying, since 70% of the bus drivers had experienced one or more acts typical of bullying during the last six months. As many as 11% defined themselves as victims of bullying, 33% of whom (i.e. 3.6% of the total sample) see themselves as victims of frequent bullying. Colleagues were most frequently reported as perpetrators. Exposure to bullying was negatively related to job engagement and job satisfaction and positively related to turnover intentions. Job engagement and job satisfaction mediated the relationship between bullying and intention to leave, respectively. Trait anger had an interaction effect on the relationship between bullying and turnover intentions. This study indicates that workplace bullying has context-specific aspects that require increased use of context-specific policies and intervention methods.     

How does it feel? Workplace bullying,emotions and musculoskeletal complaints

The present study examines experienced emotions among self-labelled victims of ongoing workplace bullying and tests whether emotions mediate the relationship between exposure to bullying and health in the form of musculoskeletal complaints. A total of 1,024 employees from a Norwegian public transport company participated in the study, in which 116 self-labelled victims were identified. Ten positive and 10 negative emotions were measured (PANAS). The results showed significant differences in emotional experiences between victims and non-victims regarding all 10 negative emotions and one out of 10 positive emotions. Victims felt less "interested" and more "afraid," "upset," "angry," "guilty," "nervous," "hostile," "frustrated," "ashamed," "scared" and "stressed" than did non-victims. Further, the results pointed to both positive and negative emotions as mediators of the relationship between exposure to bullying and musculoskeletal complaints. In particular the negative emotion "stress" acted as a significant mediator regarding this relationship. Hence, emotions seem to be central to understanding the detrimental effects of bullying on the victims' health.     

The influence of stimulus-set size on developmental changes in cognitive control and conflict adaptation

Cognitive control abilities substantially improve from early childhood to adulthood. The primary aim of this study was to examine the influence of stimulus-set size on developmental changes in cognitive control abilities such as task switching, interference control, and conflict adaptation. We assumed that a small stimulus set used in a task-switching paradigm would induce stronger task-stimulus priming that might increase the need for control, thereby amplifying age differences in cognitive control abilities. Therefore, we compared task-switching performance in a group of participants responding to a small stimulus-set (N=4) with a group responding to a large stimulus-set (N=96) in three age groups: kindergarten children (4.1-6.0 years of age), elementary school children (6.1-9.0 years of age), and young adults (21.0-28.0 years of age) on conflicting vs. non-conflicting trials (interference control) and following conflicting vs. non-conflicting trials (conflict adaptation). Results on the basis of error rates support the view that a small stimulus-set size during task switching (i.e., larger task-stimulus priming) increases the need for control as we found (a) worse conflict adaptation on task-repetition trials only for small but not for large set sizes and (b) larger interference costs under small than large set-size condition for elementary school children as compared with young adults. Kindergarten children were less sensitive to the set-size manipulation and showed major problems in interference control while being in a task-switching situation, even if no actual task switch was required, possibly reflecting their inability to represent complex higher-order task rules.