Implementation intentions do not enhance all types of goals: The moderating role of goal difficulty

Three studies tested whether Gollwitzer and Brandstätter’s (1997) failure to find an implementation effect for easy goals was due to a ceiling effect, to the moderating effect of previously formed habits, or to a moderating effect of earlier implementation intentions. The studies strongly indicated that easy goals did benefit from forming implementation intentions (i.e., specifying where or when one would perform the action). This suggests that Gollwitzer and Brandstätter’s failure to find significant implementation effects for easy goals was due to a ceiling effect and not to other moderating effects. However, in the three experiments, we found no positive effect of implementation intentions for the enactment of goal-related behavior corresponding to a certain type of difficult goal. More specifically, when the focus was on the outcome of goal-directed action rather than on the goal-directed actions themselves, implementation intentions specifying when or in what conditions the relevant actions were to be performed did not enhance enactment. When the focus was on the goal-directed actions, we replicated the positive effect of forming implementation intentions. We argue that specifying when or where a goal-directed action should be enacted does not enhance enactment when the actor is not aware of the actions that are required to reach the goal. Possibly, implementation intentions specifying what one should do (rather than where or when) might be more helpful to enhance enactment rates of this type of goal.     

Defensiveness and attempted thought suppression of negative material

High and low defensive individuals engaged in attempted thought suppression and non‐suppression after viewing an emotionally stressful piece of film. As a function of suppression and non‐suppression instructions, high and low defensive individuals differed from each other in the number of reported film‐related thoughts. Suppression instructions had greatest effects on low defensive individuals in reducing the number of reported film‐related thoughts. The effects of suppression instructions were not significant in reducing the number of film‐related thoughts for high defensive individuals. High defensive individuals also reported more neutral thoughts under the suppression condition compared with the non‐suppression condition. Low defensive individuals reported similar numbers of neutral thoughts under the two conditions. Effects of suppression instructions were investigated in a subsequent cognitive task that measured the level of interference produced by attempted suppression. Suppression instructions did not significantly effect the cognitive processing of participants. Theoretical and methodological implications for understanding the possible cognitive structures underlying attempted suppression are discussed in terms of the effects of defensiveness. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Problems and results for logics about imperatives

Deviating from standard possible-worlds semantics, authors belonging to what might be called the ‘imperative tradition’ of deontic logic have proposed a semantics that directly represents norms (or imperatives). The paper examines possible definitions of (monadic) deontic operators in such a semantics and some properties of the resulting logical systems.     

Postmodern Implications for Theoretical Integration of Counseling Approaches

Theoretical integration refers to the conceptual unification of diverse counseling approaches. Past attempts at theoretical integration have not yielded a broad conceptual framework that seamlessly integrates counseling approaches with varied foundational assumptions. The author contends that the failure of these integrative attempts is a by‐product of the modernistic epistemic context in which the systems were considered and proposes an examination of common narrative features of counseling approaches in a postmodern epistemic context to achieve integration. These features are specified, elaborated, and conclusions are drawn.     

The Wakonse Conference on College Teaching

A Wakonse Conference on College Teaching is a week-long retreat that provides renewal and support for college teaching. Offered in a secluded environment away from campus, it engages faculty from various colleges in demonstration and discussion of what makes teaching effective and rewarding. Wakonse is a grassroots movement within the academy to bring teaching to the forefront and make it central to the mission of higher education. Support for what makes Wakonse effective can be found in much of the student development literature.     

Unification of psychophysical phenomena: The complete form of Fechner’s law

Many of the laws and empirical observations of fundamental psychophysics can be unified with a single equation, which has been called the complete form of Fechner’s law. It can be shown that this law embraces both of the commonly used forms: Stevens’s and Fechner’s laws. It assumes one or the other form with appropriate values of the parameters. However, the complete equation confers an advantage beyond simply containing the classical laws. It offers greater flexibility in the representation of experimental data. It is shown that psychophysical phenomena may be represented by any number of triplets of quantities: subjective magnitude of stimulus, subjective just noticeable difference (jnd), and differential threshold. Each of the preceding quantities are functions of the physical magnitude of the stimulus. The investigator has the license to choose two of these quantities in the form he or she thinks is best; the third quantity is determined by the choice of the first two. Thus, for example, different forms of the law of sensation and different forms of the mathematical function for differential threshold may coexist with equal validity.     

中国和荷兰高智商与一般智商儿童自我概念比较研究

用瑞文测验和自我描述问卷对中国和荷兰2000多名10—15岁儿童进行调查．发现智商对自我概念有明显的影响,但中国和荷兰儿童表现出不同的特点。两国间在自我概念方面有显著性差异,中国儿童在大多数方面都显著性地低于荷兰儿童、中国高智商组儿童在学业自我概念方面与荷兰高智商组儿童的差异更为明显。     

EXTENSION DE LA PERSPECTIVE TEMPORELLE FUTURE EN RELATION AVEC LA FRUSTRATION*

By means of Nuttin's Motivational Induction Method, the intentions, plans and goals of subjects from Rwanda were collected. These motivational objects of 71 frustrated subjects (non-admitted to the university) were compared with those of 47 non-frustrated subjects (admitted to the university) regarding extension of their future time perspective (FTP). As hypothesized, FTP of frustrated subjects was more restricted than that of non-frustrated subjects (the mean extension score, in number of years, and the proportion of number of references to the near future to the number of references to the distant future). No difference was found before the occurrence of the frustrating situation. An additional analysis based on subjective frustration demonstrates that a significant relationship exists between intensity of experienced frustration and extension of FTP.