Optimism,goals, and threats: How to conceptualize self-regulatory processes in the adoption and maintenance of health behaviors

Abstract

How individuals control themselves and their health behaviors can be better understood by examining their self-beliefs in terms of threats and goals. The distinction between self-regulatory threat appraisals and self-regulatory goal attainment may help to explain when individuals fall prey to defensive optimism and when they are guided by functional optimism. To underscore the notion of process-specific self-beliefs, a further distinction is made between goal-setting self-efficacy, action self-efficacy, coping self-efficacy, and recovery self-efficacy.     

Self-efficacy as a moderator of the planning-behaviour relationship in interventions designed to promote physical activity

Individuals who lack perceived self-efficacy may benefit less from planning interventions because they fail to apply their plans when encountering situations that appear challenging. Thus, self-efficacy may operate as a moderator in relation to the effects of planning interventions on behaviour. This article reports from two experimental studies using cluster randomisation. Study 1 included 58 patients with diabetes who received a face-to-face action planning intervention to improve their physical activity levels. Study 2 targeted the roles of planning and self-efficacy for the maintenance of regular running and for relapse prevention in 187 active individuals over a 2-year period. The email-delivered intervention prompted specific goal setting and facilitated planning to mobilise social support to secure relapse prevention. Results of the two studies were consistent with a moderating effect of self-efficacy in relation to the planning-behaviour relationship. Individuals with high self-efficacy benefited from planning interventions. If a person lacks self-efficacy, planning may not effectively promote physical activity.     

Dissociation of acquisition and expression of fear conditioned responses under working memory load

Previously, it has been suggested that high working memory load (WML) prevents associative learning and, thus, conditioned responses (CRs) during differential-delay fear conditioning. However, previous studies did not distinguish between the effects of WML on the acquisition versus the expression of the CRs. In the present study, we reinvestigated this issue by manipulating WML during either acquisition or postconditioning and showed that the absence of a differential CR under high WML does not indicate the absence of the acquisition of this CR. Thus, a significant CR was observed during a task-free postconditioning phase, and there was no CR during the preceding acquisition phase with high WML. Conversely, a normally acquired CR was impaired by high WML during the postconditioning phase. The results suggest that high WML affects the expression of the CR. If they are not experimentally separated, the effects of WML on the acquisition and expression of the CR may occur together, and the findings may be erroneously interpreted as indicating a lack of associative learning.     

Saccadic facilitation by modulation of microsaccades in natural backgrounds

Saccades move objects of interest into the center of the visual field for high-acuity visual analysis. White, Stritzke, and Gegenfurtner (Current Biology, 18, 124-128, 2008) have shown that saccadic latencies in the context of a structured background are much shorter than those with an unstructured background at equal levels of visibility. This effect has been explained by possible preactivation of the saccadic circuitry whenever a structured background acts as a mask for potential saccade targets. Here, we show that background textures modulate rates of microsaccades during visual fixation. First, after a display change, structured backgrounds induce a stronger decrease of microsaccade rates than do uniform backgrounds. Second, we demonstrate that the occurrence of a microsaccade in a critical time window can delay a subsequent saccadic response. Taken together, our findings suggest that microsaccades contribute to the saccadic facilitation effect, due to a modulation of microsaccade rates by properties of the background.     

An exploratory study on self‐evaluated aggression and androgens in women

Healthy, premenopausal women completed the Buss‐Perry Aggression Questionnaire. Venous blood samples were taken at the mid‐cycle phase of the menstrual cycle to determine plasma androgen levels. Total and free testosterone, 5α‐dihydrotestosterone, androstenedione, and dehydroepiandrosterone were assessed. Path analyses were aimed at finding out which of the five circulating hormones might best predict a latent aggression construct derived from the four subscales of the Aggression Questionnaire. A significant correlation was found between free testosterone and physical and verbal aggression subscales. In addition, the results demonstrate for the first time in women a significant link between 5α‐dihydrotestosterone and anger. Thus, both testosterone and 5α‐dihydrotestosterone may affect, by separate pathways, the basal regulation of aggression‐proneness in women. Aggr. Behav. 28:273–280, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Working memory and intelligence--their correlation and their relation: comment on Ackerman, Beier, and Boyle (2005)

On the basis of a meta-analysis of pairwise correlations between working memory tasks and cognitive ability measures, P. L. Ackerman, M. E. Beier, and M. O. Boyle (2005; see record 2004-22408-002) claimed that working memory capacity (WMC) shares less than 25% of its variance with general intelligence (g) and with reasoning ability. In this comment, the authors argue that this is an underestimation because of several methodological shortcomings and biases. A reanalysis of the data reported in Ackerman et al. using the correct statistical procedures demonstrates that g and WMC are very highly correlated. On a conceptual level, the authors point out that WMC should be regarded as an explanatory construct for intellectual abilities. Theories of working memory do not claim that WMC is isomorphic with intelligence factors but that it is a very strong predictor of reasoning ability and also predicts general fluid intelligence and g.     

Predictors of subjective age before and after cataract surgery: conscientiousness makes a difference

This study contributes to research on subjective age by examining the interplay of felt age with health, functional limitations, and personality. Individuals undergoing cataract surgery (N=134; 38 to 92 years of age) provided data for an assessment period of 6 weeks surrounding their scheduled surgery. Conscientiousness and repeated measurements of health indicators, functional limitations, and felt age were included in the analyses. Results indicated that functional limitations may be more important to the construction of felt age than their underlying health-related causes. Moreover, conscientious participants felt younger before and after surgery. Their functional status was less dependent on health than the functional status of less conscientious participants. This moderator effect is discussed along with health-related pathways leading to felt age.     

Assessing and predicting supervisors' evaluations of psychotherapists – an empirical study

Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the dimensions used by supervisors to evaluate trainee therapists and to detect how supervisors' assessments are influenced by features of the case and of the therapist.

Method: Data from 226 patients with diverse mental and social disorders who had been treated by 22 trainee therapists under the supervision of 12 supervisors were analyzed by factor- and regression analyses. Supervision was implemented as part of a psychotherapy training program. After treatment, each supervisor was asked to evaluate the trainee by using a list of 38 items proposed by Kanfer, Reinecker and Schmelzer (1996 Kanfer, FH, Reinecker, H and Schmelzer, D. 1996. Selbstmanagement-Therapie, Berlin: Springer.  [Google Scholar]). Case characteristics and therapists' features were assessed by questionnaires and checklists and related to the supervisors' evaluations.

Results: The statistical analyses indicated that supervisors could not easily integrate the multitude of relevant aspects into a differentiated schema of evaluation. A two-factor model best fitted the data. The two factors focus on specific aspects of therapeutic behavior. The evaluations were mainly related to the experience of the trainee therapist and to therapy outcome. For trainee therapists with more experience, the standards of comparison were set higher resulting in less positive evaluations.

Discussion: The results are discussed with reference to a process-oriented view of supervision and therapist evaluation. It was concluded that supervisors of behavior therapy seem to weight therapist-related and case-related information differently. However, the way supervisors integrate these types of information into evaluations of trainee therapists still remains rather vague.     

Age as a modifier of sexually aggressive attitudes in men

Male attitudes and behaviours related to imagined sexual aggression were investigated in 99 Finnish men (mean age 24.3 years). Structural equation modelling suggested that imagined sexual aggression was directly predicted by hostile masculine ideologies and past antisocial acts, and indirectly by subject age (hostile masculinity decreased with age). For more detailed analyses of age effects on attitudes, the subjects were split into an older and a younger group. A small group of incarcerated rapists (n = 8; mean age 33.4 years) was included for comparative purposes; these were similar in age to the older group (n = 34; mean age 31.5 years) and were given the same attitude items. The younger men and the rapists expressed significantly more hostility toward women and acceptance of rape myths, and had a higher likelihood of committing rape than older men. Although younger men accepted interpersonal violence and sexual dominance, their attitudes were not necessarily reflected in past sexually aggressive behaviours, as they were in the rapists who differed from the younger men mainly in terms of their past antisocial activities.