What would Batman do? Self‐distancing improves executive function in young children

This experimental research assessed the influence of graded levels of self‐distancing – psychological distancing from one's egocentric perspective – on executive function (EF) in young children. Three‐ (n = 48) and 5‐year‐old (n = 48) children were randomly assigned to one of four manipulations of distance from the self (from proximal to distal: self‐immersed, control, third person, and exemplar) on a comprehensive measure of EF. Performance increased as a function of self‐distancing across age groups. Follow‐up analyses indicated that 5‐year‐olds were driving this effect. They showed significant improvements in EF with increased distance from the self, outperforming controls both when taking a third person perspective on the self and when taking the perspective of an exemplar other (e.g., Batman) through role play. Three‐year‐olds, however, did not show increased EF performance as a function of greater distance from the self. Preliminary results suggest that developments in theory of mind might contribute to these age‐related differences in efficacy. These findings speak to the importance of psychological distancing in the expression of conscious control over thought and action from a young age and suggest a promising new avenue for early EF intervention.     

From Failure to Flourishing: The Roles of Acceptance and Goal Reengagement

Two studies were conducted to examine the relationship between a proposed adaptive response to failure and subsequent flourishing. The cognitive/emotional level of the proposed adaptive response to failure, acceptance of negative emotions, is characterized by allowing negative emotions to surface without trying to control them. The behavioral level of response, goal reengagement, is characterized by reengaging with new, intrinsically meaningful goals. Study 1 (N = 50) was based on a community sample (age range 32–90 years) and consisted of semi-structured interviews coded for participants’ response to the biggest job-related failure ever experienced and current psychological flourishing. Study 2 (N = 101), an online study based on a different community sample (age range 18–73 years), further tested the proposed adaptive response to failure by using questionnaires to assess participants’ response to the biggest job-related failure ever experienced and current flourishing. Findings across both studies indicated that responding to failure by accepting negative emotions and reengaging with new, intrinsically meaningful goals was associated with greater subsequent flourishing, including more happiness and fewer depressive symptoms.     

Understanding the Relationship Between Religiousness, Spirituality, and Underage Drinking: The Role of Positive Alcohol Expectancies

Research has consistently found that religiousness and spirituality are negatively associated with underage drinking. However, there is a paucity of research exploring the mechanisms by which these variables influence this important outcome. With 344 underage young adults (ages 18–20; 61 % women), we investigated positive alcohol expectancies as a mediator between religiousness and spirituality (measured separately) and underage alcohol use. Participants completed the Religious Commitment Inventory-10, Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale, Alcohol Expectancies Questionnaire, and Drinking Styles Questionnaire. Results indicate less positive alcohol expectancies partially mediate the relationship between both religiousness and spirituality and underage alcohol use. This suggests religiousness and spirituality’s protective influence on underage drinking is partly due to their influence on expectations about alcohol’s positive effects. Since underage drinking predicts problem drinking later in life and places one at risk for serious physical and mental health problems, it is important to identify specific points of intervention, including expectations about alcohol that rise from religious and spiritual factors.     

Catching nonconscious goals in the act of decision making

Research has consistently found that goals triggered by environmental cues can influence decision making processes outside of conscious awareness. This lack of awareness led naturally to the presumption that decision makers could not report the activation level of nonconsciously primed goals. This paper shows that goal activation levels can be reported, so long as the report is made during the decision process on a continuous goal activation scale. These results indicate that default lack of awareness is less a limitation of the cognitive system and more a function of the method used to recover goals during a decision process.     

In the presence of conflicting gaze cues,fearful expression and eye-size guide attention

Humans are social beings that often interact in multi-individual environments. As such, we are frequently confronted with nonverbal social signals, including eye-gaze direction, from multiple individuals. Yet, the factors that allow for the prioritisation of certain gaze cues over others are poorly understood. Using a modified conflicting gaze paradigm, we tested the hypothesis that fearful gaze would be favoured amongst competing gaze cues. We further hypothesised that this effect is related to the increased sclera exposure, which is characteristic of fearful expressions. Across three experiments, we found that fearful, but not happy, gaze guides observers’ attention over competing non-emotional gaze. The guidance of attention by fearful gaze appears to be linked to increased sclera exposure. However, differences in sclera exposure do not prioritise competing gazes of other types. Thus, fearful gaze guides attention among competing cues and this effect is facilitated by increased sclera exposure – but increased sclera exposure per se does not guide attention. The prioritisation of fearful gaze over non-emotional gaze likely represents an adaptive means of selectively attending to survival-relevant spatial locations.     

Gender-Related Effects in the Job-Design–Job-Satisfaction Relationship: An Interactional Approach

In this study, we took an interactional approach to understanding how ethic of care opportunity and self-actualization opportunity, two job design variables, are related to job satisfaction. Ethic of care opportunity in a job is theorized to result in satisfaction when job incumbents have high relational self-definition. Self-actualization opportunity in a job is theorized to result in satisfaction when incumbents have low relational self-definition. To the extent that women are likely to develop high relational self-definition, and men are likely to develop low relational self-definition, we hypothesized that the relationship between ethic of care opportunity and satisfaction would be strongest for women with high relational self-definition. We also hypothesized that the relationship between self-actualization opportunity and satisfaction would be strongest for men with low relational self-definition. Hypotheses were tested in a sample of women (n = 119) and men (n =115) with diverse job titles, and were supported. Results are discussed in terms of the strength of the job-design–job-satisfaction relationship for women and for men.     

Narcissism, Perfectionism, and Self-Termination from Treatment in Outpatient Cocaine Users

This study examines perfectionism in individuals with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-IV, Text Revised [American Psychiatric Association, 2000. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Text revision (DSM-TV-TR). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association] diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder and a coexisting diagnosis of cocaine abuse or dependence. Participating clients were treated in outpatient settings that provided cognitive-behavioral therapy. Clients were administered Hewitt and Flett's (1991b) [Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 456-470] Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale prior to treatment. Scores for dimensions of perfectionism were compared with those obtained from cocaine abusers in treatment with diagnoses of Antisocial Personality or Affective Disorder. Clients with Narcissistic Personality Disorder were characterized by relatively higher levels of other-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism. Survival analysis suggests that self-termination from treatment by cocaine-abusing clients with a diagnosis of Narcissistic Disorder is related to high levels of other-oriented perfectionism. The clinical implications and limits of this study are discussed.     

Timing divided attention

Visual attention can be divided over multiple objects or locations. However, there is no single theoretical framework within which the effects of dividing attention can be interpreted. In order to develop such a model, here we manipulated the stage of visual processing at which attention was divided, while simultaneously probing the costs of dividing attention on two dimensions. We show that dividing attention incurs dissociable time and precision costs, which depend on whether attention is divided during monitoring or during access. Dividing attention during monitoring resulted in progressively delayed access to attended locations as additional locations were monitored, as well as a one-off precision cost. When dividing attention during access, time costs were systematically lower at one of the accessed locations than at the other, indicating that divided attention during access, in fact, involves rapid sequential allocation of undivided attention. We propose a model in which divided attention is understood as the simultaneous parallel preparation and subsequent sequential execution of multiple shifts of undivided attention. This interpretation has the potential to bring together diverse findings from both the divided-attention and saccade preparation literature and provides a framework within which to integrate the broad spectrum of divided-attention methodologies.