A novel approach to assessing achievement goals in the context of the 2 x 2 framework: identifying distinct profiles of individuals with different dominant achievement goals

In two studies, individuals' dominant achievement goals were assessed using a new, simple, and conceptually precise measure based on Elliot and McGregor's (2001) 2 x 2 framework. Next, the four groups were compared in terms of achievement-relevant variables, including need for achievement, perfectionism, perceived competence, interest, and graded performance. As expected, a very high percentage (approximately 85%) of people indicated they had a dominant achievement goal. Furthermore, the results suggest that individuals with different dominant achievement goals have clear, distinct profiles that can be characterized as positively valenced (mastery-approach), both positively and negatively valenced (performance-approach), negatively valenced (performance-avoidance), or neither positively nor negatively valenced (mastery-avoidance).     

Communal Orientation and the Burnout Syndrome Among Nurses: A Replication and Extension1

The present study focused on the distinction between two equity considerations in “people” jobs: the relationship with the recipients with whom one works and the exchange relationship with the organization for which one works. The sample consisted of nurses who were employed in one particular nursing home for mentally retarded patients. The results show that perceived inequity in both types of relationships is linked to emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment. As expected, individual differences in communal orientation differentiate when nurses feel inequitably treated in their relationships with their patients. Moreover, the results suggest that low communally oriented nurses restore equity in their relationships with patients by withdrawing emotionally (depersonalization). In contrast, nurses who felt inequitably treated in the employee-employer relationship reported a higher intent to quit. No direct link between burnout symptoms and the intention to quit was observed.     

Reducing color-color interference by optimizing selection for action

Color-color interference refers to the finding that the naming of a target color is hampered by the simultaneous presentation of an incongruent distractor color somewhere else in the visual field. This interference effect has been attributed to an imperfect input selection (selection-for-processing). We test an alternative account in which it is assumed that (a) target and distractor are identified in parallel without mutual interference, (b) the identified target color has to be selected to control the naming response (selection-for-action), and (c) this selection process takes more time and is less accurate in the incongruent condition than in the control conditions. Experiment 1 shows that color-color interference is obtained when a target color, presented at the point of fixation, is flanked by incongruent colors. In Experiments 2 and 3, the central target position is indicated by an additional exogenous selection cue. The results show that an abrupt-onset cue, presented at the central target position 160 ms after the onset of the target and distractors, reduces the interference effect. This finding is interpreted as supporting evidence for a selection-for-action account of color-color interference.     

Are criminals better lie detectors? Investigating offenders' abilities in the context of deception detection

The present research examined lie detection abilities of a rarely investigated group, namely offenders. Results of the studies conducted thus far indicated a better performance of offenders compared to non‐offenders when discriminating between true and false messages. With two new studies, we aimed at replicating offenders' superior abilities in the context of deception detection. Results of Study 1 (N = 76 males), in contrast, revealed that offenders were significantly worse at accurately classifying true and false messages compared to non‐offenders (students). Results of Study 2 (N = 175 males) revealed that offenders' discrimination performance was not significantly different compared to non‐offenders (clinic staff). An internal meta‐analysis yielded no significant difference between offenders and non‐offenders, questioning the generalizability of previous findings.     

Terror management and stereotyping: why do people stereotype when mortality is salient?

Three studies examine two routes by which mortality threats may lead to stereotyping. Mortality salience may activate both a comprehension goal and an enhancement goal. Enhancement goals are likely to be more active in situations where intergroup competition or conflict is salient. If this is not the case, then a comprehension goal will predominate. In line with a why-determines-how logic, when mortality salience activates a comprehension goal, both positive and negative stereotyping occur. In contrast, the activation of an enhancement goal only increases negative stereotyping.     

Imitative learning from a third-party interaction: relations with self-recognition and perspective taking

Young children’s ability to learn something new from a third-party interaction may be related to the ability to imagine themselves in the third-party interaction. This imaginative ability presupposes an understanding of self-other equivalence, which is manifested in an objective understanding of the self and an understanding of others’ subjective perspectives. The current study measured imitative learning of a novel action seen only in a third-party interaction, mirror self-recognition, and perspective taking in a group of 48 18- to 20-month-olds. Patterns of performance suggest that understanding self-other equivalence is related to third-party learning.     

The semantics of prosody: acoustic and perceptual evidence of prosodic correlates to word meaning

This investigation examined whether speakers produce reliable prosodic correlates to meaning across semantic domains and whether listeners use these cues to derive word meaning from novel words. Speakers were asked to produce phrases in infant-directed speech in which novel words were used to convey one of two meanings from a set of antonym pairs (e.g., big/small). Acoustic analyses revealed that some acoustic features were correlated with overall valence of the meaning. However, each word meaning also displayed a unique acoustic signature, and semantically related meanings elicited similar acoustic profiles. In two perceptual tests, listeners either attempted to identify the novel words with a matching meaning dimension (picture pair) or with mismatched meaning dimensions. Listeners inferred the meaning of the novel words significantly more often when prosody matched the word meaning choices than when prosody mismatched. These findings suggest that speech contains reliable prosodic markers to word meaning and that listeners use these prosodic cues to differentiate meanings. That prosody is semantic suggests a reconceptualization of traditional distinctions between linguistic and nonlinguistic properties of spoken language.     

Construct validation of the Zimbardo Time Perspectives Inventory

The aim of the present study was to validate the factorial structure and psychometric properties of the Zimbardo Time Perspectives Inventory (ZTPI) in a South African student sample. A total of 200 students completed the ZTPI. The sample comprised 58 0.8% female students. Of these, 61.1% were black students and 38.9% were white students. The average age for the sample was 21.59 years. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to examine the construct and discriminant validity of the ZTPI. The data suggest ZTPI to comprise four factors of Present-Fatalistic (PF), Present-Hedonistic (PH), Past-Negative (PN), and Past-Positive (PP). Many of the factors cross-loaded onto one or two others, suggesting poor differentiation in the study sample. Scores from the ZTPI were of acceptable reliability. The study results suggest the ZTPI is usable for research purposes in South Africa.     

Achievement goals and interpersonal behavior: how mastery and performance goals shape information exchange

The present research examines the impact of achievement goals on task-related information exchange. Studies 1 and 2 reveal that relative to those with mastery goals or no goal, individuals pursuing performance goals were less open in their information giving to exchange partners. Study 2 further clarifies this effect of achievement goals by showing that performance goals generate an exploitation orientation toward information exchange. Furthermore, relative to individuals with mastery goals or no goal, people pursuing performance goals enhanced their task performance by utilizing more high-quality information obtained from their exchange partner (Study 1) and protected their task performance by more rigorously disregarding received low-quality information (Study 2).     

Do individual differences in need strength moderate the relations between basic psychological need satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior?

An important theoretical debate in the literature on psychological needs concerns the potential moderating role of individuals’ need strength in the effects of basic psychological need satisfaction. The present study adds to the relatively small literature with inconsistent findings by examining whether the relations between work-related basic psychological need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and organizational citizenship behavior (i.e., constructive voluntary job performance) are enhanced when employees’ work-specific explicit need strength increases. Survey data from two samples of employees in the United States (N = 353; M_Age = 38.13) and in the Netherlands (N = 298; M_Age = 44.57) consistently showed that across the need domains, need satisfaction was positively associated with organizational citizenship behavior through work engagement. However, we only found minor evidence for a moderating role of need strength. These findings largely endorse core self-determination theory assertions, as they underscore the relevance of employees’ psychological need satisfaction rather than fit between high psychological need satisfaction and high need strength in the workplace.