Perfectionism,Shame, and Depressive Symptoms

The authors examined the relationship between depression, maladaptive perfectionism, and shame. Regression analyses were used to replicate a model in which maladaptive perfectionism was negatively associated with self‐esteem and positively associated with symptoms of depression, with self‐esteem mediating the effects of maladaptive perfectionism on depressive symptoms. Additional models showed that the path from maladaptive perfectionism to depression was partially mediated by shame, although these paths differed for men and women.     

Perfectionism and Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms

This study was designed to determine whether perfectionism, as assessed by the revised almost perfect scale (APS-R; R. B. Slaney, M. Mobley, J. Trippi, J. S. Ashby, & D. G. Johnson, 1996), was a significant predictor of obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms in a non-clinical sample of 308 university students. Perfectionistic discrepancy emerged as a general predictor of obsessive thought difficulties and compulsive checking behavior. Excessive concerns about making mistakes also emerged as a significant specific predictor of obsessive cognitive but not behavioral symptoms after other dimensions of perfectionism were controlled. An interaction effect indicated that students with high discrepancy but low standards were more likely to experience OC-related washing symptoms than other students. The general effects of perfectionism on OC symptoms, the specific effects of certain perfectionism dimensions over others, and other perfectionism research results, implicate APS-R discrepancy as a core dimension of maladaptive perfectionism and APS-R high standards as either benign or protective in the associations with OC symptoms.     

The Association Between Strength of Religious Faith and Coping with Daily Stress

Recent research has examined the positive relationship between religious faith and both physical and mental health. The current study investigated the association between strength of religious faith and the ability to cope with daily stress over a 7-day period. The participants consisted of 68 students and 64 faculty or staff from a Catholic, liberal arts university. Measures included the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire, the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, the Symptom Check List-90-Revised, the Weinberger Low Self Esteem Scale, and a 10-point daily stress, coping, and strength of faith scale. Results suggest that religious faith was not associated with coping with daily stress.     

Relation of rifle stock length and weight to military rifle marksmanship performance by men and women.

15 male and 13 female soldiers participated in a study to examine the effects of sex, rifle stock length 117.8 cm, 22.3 cm, and 26.2 cm), and rifle weight (3.2 kg vs 3.8 kg) on military marksmanship performance. The Noptel simulator was used to assess marksmanship accuracy (proximity of shots to the target center) and precision (proximity of shots to one another regardless of proximity to the target center). There were no significant differences in either measure of marksmanship performance as a function of sex. Marksmanship accuracy was significantly better with the shortest rifle stock, and marksmanship precision was significantly better with the lighter rifle. Regardless of the sex of the shooter, stock length and weapon weight should be considered in any new combat rifle design as these results indicate they significantly affect marksmanship.     

Using potential performance theory to test five hypotheses about meta-attribution

Based on I. Kant's (1991) distinction between perfect and imperfect duties and the attribution literature pertaining to that distinction, the authors proposed and tested 5 hypotheses about meta-attribution. More specifically, violations of perfect duties have been shown to arouse both more negative affect and stronger correspondent inferences than do violations of imperfect duties (e.g., D. Trafimow, I. K. Bromgard, K. A. Finlay, & T. Ketelaar, 2005). But when it comes to making meta-attributions-that is, guessing the attributions others would make-is the affect differential an advantage or a disadvantage? In addition to the null hypothesis of no effect, the authors proposed and tested additional hypotheses about how negative affect might increase or decrease the effectiveness of people's meta-attribution strategies and how even if there is no effect on strategy effectiveness, negative affect could increase or decrease the consistencies with which these strategies could be used.     

Effects of response bias and judgment framing on operator use of an automated aid in a target detection task

Automated diagnostic aids prone to false alarms often produce poorer human performance in signal detection tasks than equally reliable miss-prone aids. However, it is not yet clear whether this is attributable to differences in the perceptual salience of the automated aids' misses and false alarms or is the result of inherent differences in operators' cognitive responses to different forms of automation error. The present experiments therefore examined the effects of automation false alarms and misses on human performance under conditions in which the different forms of error were matched in their perceptual characteristics. Young adult participants performed a simulated baggage x-ray screening task while assisted by an automated diagnostic aid. Judgments from the aid were rendered as text messages presented at the onset of each trial, and every trial was followed by a second text message providing response feedback. Thus, misses and false alarms from the aid were matched for their perceptual salience. Experiment 1 found that even under these conditions, false alarms from the aid produced poorer human performance and engendered lower automation use than misses from the aid. Experiment 2, however, found that the asymmetry between misses and false alarms was reduced when the aid's false alarms were framed as neutral messages rather than explicit misjudgments. Results suggest that automation false alarms and misses differ in their inherent cognitive salience and imply that changes in diagnosis framing may allow designers to encourage better use of imperfectly reliable automated aids.     

On the Variability of Anger Cross-Culturally: An Assessment of General Strain Theory's Primary Mediator

This article assesses general strain theory's (GST) primary mediator, anger, as a process that exhibits important variability across cultures. It presents data from structured interviews and fieldwork in India and the United States that suggest variations in the understanding and experience of anger across three samples: Americans, lay Tibetans, and Tibetan Buddhist clergy. Findings suggest cultural differences in normative social approval of anger, perceived effects for self of becoming angry, reaction tendencies, and emotional memory. Future research should test and map variations in anger across and within populations and explore implications for macro-level GST in explaining cross-cultural differences in crime.