Is It Possible to Prepare the Second Component of a Movement Before the First One?

Experiment 1 utilized a choice reaction time paradigm to examine whether advance information about the second component of a movement has similar effects upon movement initiation and execution as advance information about the first component. Four stimuli were assigned to four goal keys. Subjects responded with the index finger of their preferred hand. They had to press one of two intermediate keys before pressing the assigned stimulus goal key. Advance information signaled one pair of goal keys in such a way that either the first or the second movement component was unequivocally specified before the response signal appeared. Shorter reaction times resulted when the first component was precued. Further control conditions showed that advance information about the second movement component could not be utilized for movement preparation. Experiment 2 ruled out a perceptual interpretation of this effect. Experiment 3 showed that preparation time for two-component movements are longer than for one-component movements. The study permits the conclusions that speeded two-component movements are controlled by motor programs and that advance information about the first movement component is required before the second movement component can be programmed.     

Social judgment of aggressive language: Effects of target and sender sex on the evaluation of slurs

We investigated the influence of the sex of the target and the sex of the sender on the judgment of slurs (verbal derogation). From previous research, we selected and clustered slurs into seven categories and respondents rated their degree of perceived insult in two consecutive questionnaire surveys (N = 281 and N = 224, respectively). Results confirm that slurs are generally judged as being more insulting when directed towards females than towards males. In comparison, differences in sex of sender were small. When directed towards females, slurs referring to “being loose” were rated as the most insulting. For both target sexes, remarks referring to homosexuality and physical unattractiveness were among those rated as the most insulting. Least insulting were slurs referring to unethical acts, lack of intelligence and cowardliness. A sex of respondent effect was found, suggesting that women rated slurs generally more insulting than men. The pattern of results showed considerable stability across surveys attesting for the reliability of the method for measuring the social evaluation of slurs.     

Differences in How Trait Emotional Intelligence Predicts Life Satisfaction: The Role of Affect Balance Versus Social Support in India and Germany

In this study, we assessed cross-cultural differences in the extent to which general emotional intelligence is linked to life satisfaction and analyzed mediators of this relationship. We used data from an individualistic culture (Germany) and a collectivistic culture (India) and had university students respond to self-report measures of life satisfaction, positive and negative affect, emotional intelligence, perceived social support, and independent and interdependent self-construals. In line with our hypotheses, we found that Indian students reported less subjective well-being and emotional intelligence than German students. Emotional intelligence was associated with life satisfaction to a higher degree in Germany than in India. In Germany, independent but not interdependent self-construal was related to emotional intelligence; in India, both independent and interdependent self-construals were significantly associated with emotional intelligence. Results of structural equation modeling provided support for our hypotheses regarding mediational models in that the effect of emotional intelligence on life satisfaction was fully mediated by affect balance in Germany and by perceived social support in India.     

Der Therapiewunsch und die Realität der Vollzugsanstalt

The author describes the practical problems which have arisen from the implementation of the new legal regulations on preventive detention from the perspective of the director of a large prison full of tradition and using graphic examples. This process initiates a much more intensive conversion from imprisonment with a priority for security aspects to a permissive preventive custody with a prioritized orientation to treatment which must be implemented into a continuously ongoing prison system. In this situation it is unknown which effects the necessary relaxation of security aspects will have. It is also open as to what extent the inmates under preventive detention will show interest in therapy and whether they can be forced to become motivated. Additionally, in the coming years the judiciary will determine to which rights and amenities the inmates are entitled. On the side of the penal system there will always be an interest to use the critical situation as well as the situation as a whole to improve the methods of dealing with offenders.     

Bizarreness effects in verbal tasks and subject-performed tasks

Abstract

Recognition and cued recall of ordinary action phrases (e.g. “open the book”) and bizarre ones (e.g. “plant the hammer”) were compared under two encoding conditions: in verbal tasks (VTs), subjects learned the phrases by simply listening to them; in subject-performed tasks (SPTs), subjects learned the phrases by performing the denoted actions (without real objects). Memory performance was better after SPTs than after VTs in recognition and cued recall. In addition to this already established finding, it was observed that recognition was better for bizarre phrases than for ordinary ones after VTs and that bizarreness was unrelated to recognition after SPTs. Cued recall, on the other hand, depended on bizarreness after VTs as well as after SPTs and, in contrast to the recognition findings, ordinary phrases were recalled better than bizarre phrases. This pattern of findings was explained by the assumptions that lexical and conceptual information is encoded after VTs and motor information is additionally encoded after SPTs, and that different kinds of information are used in recognition and cued recall, and after VTs and SPTs.     

A Tailored Policy‐capturing Study on PO Fit Perceptions: The ascendancy of attractive over aversive fit

Job‐seekers are attracted to organizations if they perceive fit between their personal values and those of an organization. It is often assumed that people's person–organization (PO) fit perceptions reflect an overall comparison between the person and the organization: fits on values that are personally attractive, aversive, or relatively neutral are weighed equally. In this study, we questioned this assumption. Based on regulatory focus theory and construal level theory, we proposed that fit on values that are personally attractive would especially contribute to the perception of PO fit. Four policy‐capturing studies indeed showed that job‐seekers do not weigh all value fits equally. Rather, they weigh fit on personally attractive values more heavily than fit on personally aversive and neutral values. Thus, job‐seekers perceive high PO fit particularly when information about a prospective organization supports values that are personally attractive to them. Theoretical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Being Called a ‘Streber’: The Roles of Personality and Competition in the Labelling of Academically Oriented Students

The current research investigated a phenomenon that has received little attention so far: the labelling of students who are characterised by a strong academic orientation. We analysed whether personality predicts being labelled a ‘Streber’ (literally a person who strives for success; German origin, similar to the English word ‘nerd’) and labelling others as Strebers. Besides individual characteristics, we examined the impact of the classroom context. In Study 1 (N = 317), eighth‐grade students nominated classmates who were considered to be Strebers and provided self‐ratings on how often they had labelled others as Strebers. In Study 2 (N = 358), using a round robin design, we had students rate each of their classmates on the extent to which the students perceived their classmates to be Strebers. Results showed that being labelled was associated with introversion and conscientiousness. Labelling others was related to extraversion, low conscientiousness and low agreeableness. Furthermore, the labelling and the expected relation between individual characteristics and labelling were stronger in high‐achieving than in low‐achieving classes. Results are discussed with respect to personality traits as potential risk factors in peer stigmatisation and the impact of the classroom context. Copyright © 2012 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Positive Self‐regard and Claim to Leadership: Two Fundamental Forms of Self‐evaluation

The present article examines the common factor structure of various self‐evaluative personality constructs. Consistent with previous research, we found considerable redundancy between constructs. Two basic forms of self‐evaluation could be distinguished: Positive Self‐regard (PSR) reflects people's contentedness with themselves in comparison with their own standards. Constructs such as depression, self‐esteem and neuroticism have very high loadings on this factor. In contrast, Claim to Leadership (CTL) reflects the subjective conviction that one is called to take charge and lead others. This conviction is often called ‘narcissism’. PSR mainly reflects an intra‐personal kind of self‐evaluation, whereas CTL reflects an inter‐personal kind. Both forms of self‐evaluation independently predict intellectual self‐enhancement, but only one of them (PSR) also predicts self‐reported mental health. Moreover, the two forms of self‐evaluation are differentially associated with self‐reported and peer‐reported inter‐personal traits (Dominance and Affiliation). Finally, the concepts of ‘Grandiosity’ and ‘Vulnerability’ from narcissism research may easily be reframed in terms of CTL and PSR. The two‐dimensional framework may help overcome the conceptual confusion that exists around different forms of self‐evaluation and streamline the field for future research. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology