Oral Health-Quality of Life Predictors Depend on Population

In the framework of the development and evaluation of oral health interventions that take into account people’s oral health-related quality of life (OH-QoL), it is important to know what determinants and effects of OH-QoL are. Because the processes involved in the experience of OH-QoL may differ for different populations, this study mapped the relations of general health perception, social factors, dental anxiety and oral hygiene behavior on the one hand with OH-QoL on the other hand, in two different samples that mainly differed on the experience they had with dental care and dental pathology: In 112 patients of the Center for Dentistry and Oral Hygiene and in 339 first year psychology students. The relations of three of the four variables with OH-QoL differed in both samples. Although not all relations could be interpreted unequivocally in this cross-sectional design, the data illustrate that the main difference between both samples (i.e., patients indicated for oral treatment versus students outside treatment) influenced the psychological processes involved in OH-QoL. This implicates that oral health interventions directed at increasing OH-QoL may have to be adapted to populations.     

Word recognition in child second language learners: Evidence from cognates and false friends

We studied how Dutch children learned English as a second language (L2) in the classroom. Learners at different levels of L2 proficiency recognized words under different task conditions. Beginning learners in primary school (fifth and sixth grades) and more advanced learners in secondary school (seventh and ninth grades) made lexical decisions on words that are similar for English and Dutch in both meaning and form (“cognates”) or only in form (“false friends”). Cognates were processed faster than matched control words by all participant groups in an English lexical decision task (Experiment 1) but not in a Dutch lexical decision task (Experiment 2). An English lexical decision task that mixed cognates and false friends (Experiment 3) led to consistently longer reaction times for both item types relative to controls. Thus, children in the early stages of learning an L2 already activate word candidates in both of their languages (language-nonselective access) and respond differently to cognates in the presence or absence of false friends in the stimulus list.     

How social context moderates the self-evaluative emotions experienced due to health risk behaviour

When people are confronted with the potential negative physical outcomes of their own health risk behaviour, they experience a self-threat. This threat is felt as negative self-evaluative emotions. We hypothesise that the threat will lead to more private self-evaluative emotions (e.g. regret) in a private social context, whereas more public self-evaluative emotions (e.g. embarrassment) will be felt in a public social context with negative norms. Consistent with our hypotheses, we show that participants anticipate feeling more private self-evaluative emotions when confronted with the negative consequences of their unhealthy behaviour when alone, and more public self-evaluative emotions when in a group (Study 1). They further anticipate more public self-evaluative emotions in response to a health self-threat when the group norm is negative, and more private self-evaluative emotions when the group norm is lenient (Study 2). Finally, in a cross-sectional study amongst smokers, we show that private but not public negative self-evaluative emotions concerning their own smoking habits are positively correlated with the intent to quit smoking (Study 3). These studies show that a distinction needs to be made between public and private self-evaluative emotions, in terms of their antecedents and effects. Theoretical implications and further lines of research are discussed.     

Social comparison orientation as related to two types of closeness

Two studies examined the relationship between social comparison orientation (SCO) and two types of closeness (dimensional closeness and psychological closeness) in the context of appearance-related comparisons among women. A pilot study showed that these two types were relatively independent constructs, and provided evidence for the differential validity of the constructs. Consistent with our expectations, women high in SCO perceived more dimensional closeness with other women in terms of appearance (Study 1, n = 94) and perceived more psychological closeness with other women (Study 2; n = 126) than women low in SCO. Overall, women, but especially women high in SCO, reported most dimensional closeness in response to the most attractive women and most psychological closeness in response to women of medium levels of attractiveness.     

Deliberation versus intuition: Global versus local processing in judgment and choice

Decisions and judgments made after deliberation can differ from expert opinion and be more regretted over time than intuitive judgments and decisions. We investigated a possible underlying process of this phenomenon, namely global versus local processing style. We argue that deliberation induces a local processing style. This processing style narrows conceptual attention and can have detrimental effects on judgment and decision-making. Study 1 showed that intuitive judgments of quality of modern paintings were more accurate than were more deliberate, reasoned judgments. Study 2 showed that local versus global processing style is associated with accuracy of quality judgments of paintings, and Study 3 replicated this finding with an experimental manipulation of processing style. Finally, Study 4 showed that the effect of intuitive versus deliberative decision mode on quality judgments of poems is mediated by processing style.     

An experimental test of the relationship between voice intonation and persuasion in the domain of health

Objective: In the process of behaviour change, intonation of speech is an important aspect that may influence persuasion when auditory messages are used. In two experiments, we tested to what extent different levels of intonation are related to persuasion and whether for some recipients the threat posed by the message information might become too strong to face.

Design: In Study 1, 130 respondents listened to a health message with either a low, moderate or high level of intonation. In Study 2 (N?=?143), the same manipulations of intonation were applied but half of the respondents were affirmed before they listened to the persuasive message. Intention to increase fruit and vegetable intake was used as a dependent variable.

Results: Both studies showed that high intonation led to a significant drop in intention among respondents who perceived their own health as good. After self-affirmation, persuasion was increased.

Conclusion: A high level of intonation seems to induce self-regulatory defences in people who do not see the necessity to change their health behaviour, whereas people with poor perceived health might perceive potential to change. The use of a normal level of intonation in auditory health messages is recommended.     

The persuasive effects of framing messages on fruit and vegetable consumption according to regulatory focus theory

According to Regulatory Focus theory (RFT), outcomes in persuasive messages can be framed in four different ways, as gains, non-gains, losses or non-losses. In study 1, the persuasiveness of all four frames was compared and the presence/absence effect that was expected on the basis of the feature-positive effect was verified: Statements about present outcomes (gain, loss) were more persuasive than those about absent outcomes (non-gain, non-loss). However, this study failed to support the prediction that a gain-framed message would be more persuasive than a loss-framed message when promoting a prevention behaviour. Study 2 was designed to examine the latter finding. It was hypothesised that the threat posed by the loss-framed message in study 1 was too low to elicit a defensive reaction. Therefore, in study 2, the personal relevance of the gain and the loss framed message was manipulated. Consistent with predictions, the gain-framed message was more persuasive than the loss-framed message, but only when the message was personalised to increase self-relevance. Moreover, the effect was due to a significant drop in persuasion in the loss condition, probably caused by a defensive reaction. These data shed a new light on the findings of past framing studies.