When do women respond against discrimination? Exploring factors of subtlety,form, and focus

We examined the personal‐group discrimination discrepancy (PGDD), the tendency for women to recognize that others encounter sexism while simultaneously minimizing their own personal experiences with sexism, and the degree to which it (a) applies to all manifestations of discrimination, and (b) extends beyond perceptions of discrimination to taking action against it. Our findings replicated the PGDD when it comes to perceptions of discrimination, but this effect was reversed for behavioral action such that women were more likely to take action against discrimination when it was directed at them personally. We also disentangled the factors of subtlety (subtle vs. overt) and form (formal vs. interpersonal) by showing that women can reliably distinguish between these factors when determining their reactions to discrimination.     

Individual-based relative deprivation (IRD) decreases prosocial behaviors

Five studies investigated the relationship between individual-based relative deprivation (IRD) and prosocial behaviors. Study 1 found that income satisfaction, a concept closely related to IRD, was negatively associated with prosocial values across cultures. Study 2 found a negative association between IRD and prosocial aspirations among a sample of Chinese university students. Study 3 revealed a negative association between IRD and volunteer behaviors. In Studies 4 and 5, we found that laboratory-induced IRD decreased undergraduate students’ prosocial values and behaviors. Moreover, Study 5 also found that the tendency to prioritize self-interest over others’ mediated the effect of IRD on prosocial behaviors. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Anxiety as a Barrier to Information Processing in the Event of a Cyberattack

As postindustrial societies become more dependent on technology, they also become encumbered by greater risk. With the mounting news reports of cyberattacks, a common reaction to these technology‐based hazards is anxiety. Whether anxiety enhances or erodes information processing is a topic of debate in previous literature, and equally uncertain is whether mass anxiety facilitates or hobbles the public's ability to contemplate current events. In light of three theoretical models in the basic research of anxiety, we hypothesized that (1) anxious participants are less able to recall the information in a news report of cyberattack than their nonanxious counterparts, (2) they become increasingly inept at recalling the details as the storyline unfolds, and (3) this impairment is unique to anxiety. Participants in Study 1 (130 college students) and Study 2 (392 American adults) viewed a news story of a cyberattack and then reported their emotional states and their levels of understanding of the various parts of the report—except that the anxiety in Study 1 was naturalistic, and in Study 2, experimentally manipulated. Results from both studies showed that anxiety undermined recall performance. In addition, Study 1 found that the recall was worse towards the middle and the end of the news story and that other emotions were not significantly associated with memory deficit. Anxiety is discussed as a barrier for the public to stay informed about cyberattacks.     

Online/offline self-disclosure to offline friends and relational outcomes in a diary study: The moderating role of self-esteem and relational closeness

Previous work suggests that the experiences of online and offline self-disclosure are heterogeneous among individuals. Yet little work has been done to identify the moderating role of individual characteristics and pre-existing relationship characteristics on the diverse relational outcomes. The present study using a 7-day diary design examined whether individuals' self-esteem level and relational closeness would moderate the relationships between online and offline self-disclosure to offline friends and two relational outcomes, that is, relationship satisfaction and trust in friendships. The analyses on 686 diary responses from 98 participants revealed that offline self-disclosure generally predicted greater relationship satisfaction and trust in friendships, whereas the role of online self-disclosure was not statistically significant. More importantly, self-esteem moderated the pattern associated with offline self-disclosure but not that with online self-disclosure. Specifically, offline self-disclosure predicted greater benefits to people with lower self-esteem relative to people with higher self-esteem. Moreover, pre-existing relational closeness moderated the relationship between offline self-disclosure and trust in friendships such that casual friendships benefited more from offline self-disclosure than close friendships did. The present study highlights the importance of personal characteristics and relationship characteristics in understanding the heterogeneous relational influence of different communication modes.     

Nostalgia motivates pursuit of important goals by increasing meaning in life

This research focused on existential and motivational implications of the emotion of nostalgia. Nostalgia (relative to control) increased meaning in life, which, in turn, galvanised intentions to pursue one's most important goal (Experiment 1) and to pursue one's most important, but not least important, goal (Experiment 2). The basic pattern held in two cultures (British and Danish) independently of positive affect. This is the first evidence that nostalgia has specific motivational consequences (i.e., pursuit of more, but not less, important goals) and transmits these consequences via meaning in life. Also, this is the first evidence that meaning is associated with specific motivational consequences. Discussion considers the relevance of the findings for the emotion and motivation literatures.     

Influence of emotional valence on perceived psychological distance depends on emotional intensity

Previous findings regarding the relationship between emotional valence and psychological distance were mixed. The current research examined whether emotional intensity moderates the influence of emotional valence on psychological distance. We manipulated intensity and valence by asking participants to describe a positive or negative event from either a high intensity or low intensity perspective. Studies 1 and 2 revealed that negative events were perceived to be more distant than positive events in the low‐intensity condition in two distinct cultural groups. Study 3 further proved that the obtained patterns were generalizable to different emotions. Finally, Study 4 found that a reduced alert level, but not perceived threats, mediated the interactive effects of valence and intensity on psychological distance. This research highlights the importance of considering the joint effect of different dimensions of emotion, thus advancing the understanding of complex processes of emotion.     

Cultural differences in distraction processing: influence of context at retrieval

Cultural differences in information processing affect perceptual judgment, attention, and memory. We investigated whether cultural differences in processing patterns, specifically East Asian participants’ tendency to encode holistically, compared to Western tendencies to process analytically, affect performance on an implicit memory test. First, participants completed a 1-back task on pictures with superimposed distracting words. After a delay filled with a computerised Corsi block task, they performed a word fragment task in which some fragments could be completed with the distracting words from the 1-back task. Critically, fragments were presented with the same pictures as previously seen (matched condition), with no pictures (control condition), or with pictures from other trials on the 1-back task (mismatched condition). Non-Asian Canadian participants showed virtually no priming for distraction, independent of the reinstatement of encoding context. East Asian Canadian participants showed superior priming for fragments that had been paired with their original pictures. They did not show evidence of a detriment for the mismatched, relative to control, condition.     

Are DSM-IV-TR Borderline Personality Disorder, ICD-10 Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder, and CCMD-III Impulsive Personality Disorder Analogous Diagnostic Categories Across Psychiatric Nomenclatures?

This study examined the validity of the borderline construct which encompasses diagnostic criteria from the DSM-IV-TR Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), ICD-10 Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD), and CCMD-III Impulsive Personality Disorder (IPD) in a sample of 1,419 Chinese psychiatric patients. Participants completed the Chinese Personality Disorder Inventory and the Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory-2 assessing various disordered personality features. Adequate internal consistency was found for the borderline construct (α = .83). Exploratory factor analysis revealed two components: (1) affective and cognitive disturbances, and (2) impulse dysregulation, which were replicated by confirmatory factor analysis. Item analysis indicated that the various borderline criteria displayed similar levels of diagnostic efficiency, which does not support the elimination of fear of abandonment and transient psychotic features from the EUPD and IPD criteria set. Findings of this study suggest that BPD, EUPD, and IPD may represent analogous diagnostic categories across classification systems.