License to sin: Self‐licensing as a mechanism underlying hedonic consumption

Hedonic overconsumption is often considered to be caused by impulsive factors. The current paper investigates whether self‐licensing, relying on reasons to justify subsequent gratification, can also be included as a significant contributor to hedonic consumption. Two studies were conducted to investigate whether self‐licensing can account for an increase in hedonic consumption while ruling out impulsive factors such as resource depletion, negative affect, and visceral state as alternative explanations. A pilot study indicated that perceiving oneself as having invested greater effort and thus having a self‐licensing cue did not lead to a decline in self‐control capacity compared with not having a self‐licensing cue. The main study employed the same procedure and established that having a licensing cue did lead to increased snack intake while controlling for impulsive factors. Together, these studies support the notion that self‐licensing is a separate mechanism leading to hedonic gratification independent of impulsive factors. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘Too black or not black enough’: Social identity complexity in the political rhetoric of Barack Obama

The election of the first African‐American President of the United States, Barack Obama, has been widely recognised as an extraordinary milestone in the history of the United States and indeed the world. With the use of a discursive psychological approach combined with central theoretical principles derived from social identity and self‐categorisation theories, this paper analyses a corpus of speeches Obama delivered during his candidacy for president to examine how he attended to and managed his social identity in his political discourse. Building on a social identity model of leadership, we examine specifically how Obama mobilises political support and social identification by building an identity for himself as a prototypical representative of the American people, notwithstanding the protracted public debate within both the White and Black American communities that had questioned and contested Obama's identity. Moreover, we demonstrate how Obama managed the dilemmas around his identity by actively crafting an in‐group identity that was oriented to an increasingly socially diverse America—a diversity that he himself exemplified and embodied as a leader. As an ‘entrepreneur’ of identity, Obama's rhetorical project was to position himself as an exceptional leader, whose very difference was represented as ‘living proof’ of the widely shared collective values that constitute the ‘American Dream’. Drawing on social identity complexity theory, we suggest that by providing more inclusive and complex categories of civic and national identity, Obama's presidency has the potential to radically transform what it means to be a prototypical in‐group member in America. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The multi-factor structure of the Brief Self-Control Scale: Discriminant validity of restraint and impulsivity

The Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS; Tangney, Baumeister, & Boone, 2004) was developed to assess dispositional self-control as it is conceptualized by contemporary theoretical perspectives; however, concerns regarding its unidimensionality and validity remain. This article addresses these concerns using three samples to define, confirm and test a multi-factor version of the BSCS. Results of Study 1 (n = 909) identified two factors of the BSCS: restraint and impulsivity. Results of Study 2 (n = 364) confirmed that the 2-factor structure fit the data well and performed better than 1-factor structures. Finally, results from Study 3 (n = 175) demonstrated the utility of the multi-factor BSCS in predicting self-reported affective and behavioral outcomes. Implications for research and theoretical development are discussed.     

The moderating role of empathy in the association between parental support and adolescent aggressive and delinquent behavior

The present two‐wave longitudinal study addressed the role of affective empathy and parental support in aggressive and delinquent behavior in a sample of 323 adolescents (158 boys, 165 girls). Self‐report questionnaires were used to assess affective empathy, perceived support from parents, delinquency, and aggression. Guided by theories on children's differential susceptibility to socialization, we expected adolescents with different levels of empathy to vary in their responsiveness to parental support. In agreement with our hypothesis, empathy moderated the relation of perceived parental support with aggressive and delinquent behavior. Controlling for the effect of gender and for the stability of aggression and delinquency, higher perceived parental support was predictive of lower levels of aggression at age 15, but only for adolescents high in empathy. Remarkably, adolescents low in empathy not only appeared to benefit less from parental support, but even showed more aggression and delinquency at age 15 when they perceived their parents to be more supportive at age 14. Aggr. Behav. 38:368‐377, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Neuronal deactivation is equally important for understanding emotional processing

In their analyses of the neural correlates of discrete emotionality, Lindquist et al. do not consider the numerous drawbacks to inferring psychological processes based on currently available cognitive neurometric technology. The authors also disproportionately emphasize the relevance of neuronal activation over deactivation, which, in our opinion, limits the scope and utility of their conclusions.     

On the relationship between implicit and explicit self-esteem: The moderating role of dismissing attachment

Recently, dual models of social cognition have distinguished the implicit (affective) and the explicit (propositional) levels of self-esteem. Many studies have found that implicit and explicit self-esteem are weakly or even not correlated. Concerning the moderating factors of such a relationship, other studies stressed the importance of emotional awareness in the translation of implicit self-evaluations into a propositional format. If so, the defensive strategy which characterizes dismissing attachment should determine a fictitious explicit self-image, by impairing the awareness of self-related emotional experiences. At the implicit level, instead, such defensive processes should not operate. We therefore hypothesized that dismissing attachment would increase the implicit-explicit self-esteem discordance. Participants were 145 university students with a mean age of 20.4 (SD = 2.75). Moderated multiple regression analyses were conducted to test for the interactive effects of the Self-Esteem Implicit Association Test and the Attachment Style Questionnaire scales on the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Findings revealed an interaction effect only for the relationships as secondary scale, confirming that dismissing style, but not other attachment dimensions, increases implicit-explicit self-esteem discordance.     

Controlling your environment and yourself: Implications for career success

Given the complex and rapidly changing nature of the current work environment, individuals' capabilities to effectively influence their environment and regulate their behavior may be critical to career success. Drawing from the model of emergent interactive agency (Bandura, 1989), the current research examines this perspective, focusing on proactive personality and self-control as predictors of extrinsic and intrinsic career success. Although some studies have investigated proactive personality as a predictor of success, less research has focused on factors involved in this relationship and very little work has examined self-control in the context of career success. Study 1 involved a cross-sectional design with 249 full-time employees who completed measures assessing personality and career-related variables. Study 2 involved a longitudinal design with 1568 individuals who were rated on self-control during childhood and completed career-related measures approximately 20 years later. Study 1 results indicated proactive personality and self-control related to extrinsic career success (salary and occupational prestige) through educational attainment. Study 2 results indicated self-control related to extrinsic career success (salary and occupational prestige) through educational attainment and intrinsic career success (career satisfaction) through occupational opportunity for achievement. These findings contribute to the knowledge base regarding career success by highlighting the relevance of active control tendencies that are externally focused (proactive personality) as well as those that are internally focused (self-control) and identifying key factors linking these traits to career success.     

Safety behavior can hamper the extinction of fear of movement-related pain: An experimental investigation in healthy participants

Excessive fear of movement-related pain (FMRP), and its associated avoidance behavior, is considered a major risk factor for disability in chronic musculoskeletal pain. The current study aimed to investigate whether engaging in safety behavior, conceptualized as an avoidance response, hampers the extinction of FMRP. In a differential conditioning paradigm, we used joystick movements as conditioned stimuli (CSs) and a painful electrocutaneous stimulus as the unconditioned stimulus (US). In the Safety group, participants received the opportunity to avoid the pain-US by pressing a safety button during the extinction phase, whereas in the Control group, this option was not included. In a subsequent test phase, this safety button was no longer available. In two experiments, results demonstrate successful acquisition and extinction. Retrospective FMRP ratings in both experiments revealed a return of fear of pain in the test phase in the Safety group, but not in the Control group. In Experiment 1, mean eyeblink startle reflex amplitudes partly corroborated the self-report findings on fear of pain. The present results suggest that performing safety behavior during cognitive-behavioral interventions, i.e., exposure, might increase the risk of a return of FMRP.