Postactional goal pursuit: Consequences of task completion for thought content,affect, and behavioral intentions

Postactional goal pursuit remains an underexplored area of the mindset theory of action phases. According to the theory, individuals enter a postactional phase following the completion of an intention. This phase focuses on evaluating goal outcomes, answering questions such as: Was the goal completed successfully? Was it worth the effort? Contrasting postactional phase with predecisional and actional goal pursuit, the present research examines differences in cognitive orientation, affective responses to feedback, and functional benefits for adapting subsequent goal pursuit. Five experiments show that postactional goal pursuit engenders outcome-focused deliberation, more intense affect in reaction to the current state of goal pursuit, and increased readiness to adapt subsequent goal pursuit to experienced outcomes. Moving beyond conceptual arguments, the present work provides initial evidence that postactional goal pursuit provokes a mindset-like shift suitable for a phase-specific task of outcome evaluation.     

Religious Affiliation Influences on the Health Status and Behaviours of Students Attending Seventh-Day Adventist Schools in Australia

Students attending Seventh-day Adventist (Adventist) schools in Australia have been shown to have better health status and behaviours compared to secular norms, yet these schools cater for a high percentage of non-Adventist students. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of religious affiliation (Adventist/non-Adventist) on the health status and behaviours of students attending Adventist secondary schools in Australia. The sample included 1734 students who responded to a health and lifestyle survey that captured demographic details, self-reported height and weight, self-reported health status, mental health and select health behaviours. Students who identified themselves as Adventist reported significantly better health behaviours than the non-Adventist students in several behavioural domains, especially among the male students. However, this did not translate to a difference in health status. Further research is needed to understand the causal mechanisms responsible for the potential health advantage of Adventist students, which may include family or church religious influences.     

Surprise is predicted by event probability,outcome valence,outcome meaningfulness,and gender

The present research was designed to better understand how the magnitude of experienced surprise is affected by both individual difference variables as well as variations in surprise-eliciting stimuli. Eighty-five participants played 5 versions of a slot machine-like game. The five games only differed with respect to the probability of winning each trial—10 % (i.e., wins were highly unusual), 30, 50, 70, and 90 % (i.e., losses were highly unusual). Players were given a fictitious “bankroll” at the beginning of each game and played up to 25 trials of each game. On each trial, players selected their wager amount, “pulled” the handle, learned the outcome (win or loss), and reported their surprise level using a 1 (none) to 9 (extremely) Likert scale. Replicating past research, results revealed that self-reported surprise was inversely related to outcome probability and that wins were rated as more surprising than losses, even when wins and losses occurred at the same level of probability. Novel results include finding that larger wagers predicted greater felt surprise (regardless of outcome), and that women reported greater surprise to both wins and losses than men.     

Reformulating and testing the perfectionism model of binge eating among undergraduate women: a short-term, three-wave longitudinal study

The perfectionism model of binge eating (PMOBE) is an integrative model explaining why perfectionism is related to binge eating. This study reformulates and tests the PMOBE, with a focus on addressing limitations observed in the perfectionism and binge-eating literature. In the reformulated PMOBE, concern over mistakes is seen as a destructive aspect of perfectionism contributing to a cycle of binge eating via 4 binge-eating maintenance variables: interpersonal discrepancies, low interpersonal esteem, depressive affect, and dietary restraint. This test of the reformulated PMOBE involved 200 undergraduate women studied using a 3-wave longitudinal design. As hypothesized, concern over mistakes appears to represent a vulnerability factor for binge eating. Bootstrapped tests of mediation suggested concern over mistakes contributes to binge eating through binge-eating maintenance variables, and results supported the incremental validity of the reformulated PMOBE beyond perfectionistic strivings and neuroticism. The reformulated PMOBE also predicted binge eating, but not binge drinking, supporting the specificity of this model. The reformulated PMOBE offers a framework for understanding how key contributors to binge eating work together to generate and to maintain binge eating.     

Influences of cognitive complexity on the dimensions underlying perceptions of the work environment

The literature on cognitive processes suggests that individuals differ in the dimensions they use to describe the work environment and thus the behavioral implications they attach to characteristics of that environment. Using the technique described by Bem and Allen (1974), navy enlisted personnel were separated into subgroups with high, medium, and low cognitive complexity scores. Responses about perceived characteristics of the work environment produced six components for the high complexity group versus four for the low group. Questions about supervisor behaviors, role characteristics, and work group interactions yielded similar dimensions for all groups, although differences were found for responses about macroorganizational characteristics. Significant but low relationships were found between complexity scores and global indices of job performance.This article is Report Number 79-2, supported by Naval Medical Research and Development Command, Department of the Navy, under Research Work Unit MF58.524.022-0011. The views presented are those of the authors. No endorsement by the Department of the Navy has been given or should be inferred.     

Attitudes and adolescent nonmarital childbearing: evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

The 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) provided data for the analysis of the impact of self-esteem, locus of control, attitudes towards women's family roles, work, and school on the probability of a nonmarital birth. The study avoided methodological problems of prior studies by using a national data base with attitude measured before nonmarital childbearing occurs. No prior studies included these 5 factors. Previous research on attitudes and nonmarital childbearing is summarized. Theoretical models imply that self-esteem, high educational goals, and an internal locus of control are associated with a lower likelihood of a nonmarital birth. The conceptual model for this study is described. It does not include how attitudes develop or estimate the linkage between family background variables and attitudes. A reduced from approach was used and controls were included for 6 family background and personal variables. The sample of 1184 girls was restricted to those aged 14 or 15 years in 1979 who were never married or had a child. 16.9% of the sample had a nonmarital child by 19 years. Measurement of explanatory variables is indicated as the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale and the Rotter scale for internal-external locus of control. A 7-item scale measured women's roles, an 8-item scale measured attitudes toward school, and 3 items assessed views on the importance of improving one's employment prospects. Background control variables were race/ethnicity, mother's education, presence of welfare income, family income, family structure, and religiosity. The standard logistics technique was used to estimate the logarithm of the odds of having a nonmarital birth as a linear function of both attitude and family background variables. Models were estimated both with and without the educational expectation variable. The results appear to indicate that self-esteem and attitudes toward school are associated with nonmarital childbearing, as predicted by theory. Locus of control does not systematically affect the likelihood of nonmarital childbearing, nor do family and gender roles and attitudes toward work. Educational expectations are not associated, but may act as an intervening variable.     

Making judgments about ability: the role of implicit theories of ability in moderating inferences from temporal and social comparison information

Two studies examined the novel proposal that implicit theories of intelligence (C. S. Dweck & E. L. Leggett, 1988) moderate both the effects of performance trends on ability inferences and the perceived diagnosticity of temporal versus normative feedback. Results from 613 adolescents and 42 teachers confirmed that entity theorists perceived initial outcome as more diagnostic and inferred higher ability in another (Study 1) and in the self (Study 2) in a declining outcome condition; incremental theorists perceived last outcome as more diagnostic and inferred higher ability in an ascending condition. Experimental induction of beliefs about ability had similar effects. As predicted, self-appraisal was affected more by temporal feedback among incremental theorists and by normative feedback among entity theorists. Results help resolve prior mixed findings regarding order effects and responses to temporal and normative evaluation.     

Psychopathology of incarcerated sex offenders

The psychopathology and particularly the personality disorders of sex offenders were compared to general inmates of the Colorado Department of Corrections. Using the MCMI-III (Millon, 1994, 1997), sex offenders in general were found to have more varied types of personalities than general population inmates. Specifically, they were more schizoid, avoidant, depressive, dependent, self-defeating, and schizotypal. General population inmates had the more classically criminal personality characteristics of antisocial, narcissistic, and sadistic. Multivariate analysis showed the Dependent, Narcissistic, Antisocial, and Schizotypal scales to be the most differentiating. Sex offenders were also found to have more affective psychopathology such as anxiety, dysthymia, PTSD, and major depression. A similar trend was found when comparing child molesters to rapists. The child molesters were more neurotic, affective, and socially impaired than the rapists. Multivariate analysis showed the Dependent scale to be the most important in differentiating these two types of sex offenders.