Emotional Policy: Personal Sadness and Anger Shape Judgments about a Welfare Case

When making decisions about a welfare case, it is reasonable for one's thoughts and feelings about the potential welfare recipient to influence the decision. It is less reasonable for one's "incidental" feelings (e.g., sadness or anger arising from an event in one's personal life) to influence such decisions. In two studies, however, data reveal that incidental anger and sadness do in fact carry over, shaping welfare policy preferences. Study 1 found that incidental anger decreased the amount of welfare assistance participants recommended providing relative to neutral emotion, whereas sadness increased the amount recommended. Study 2 replicated the results and found that limiting participants' cognitive resources eliminated the difference between sadness and anger, thus implying that differences in depth-of-thought drove the effects. In sum, the results reveal ways in which: (a) personal emotions carry over to shape preferences for public policies, (b) emotions of the same valence have opposing effects, and (c) differential depth-of-cognitive-processing contributes to such effects.     

Balance in Life and Declining Marginal Utility of Diverse Resources

Declining marginal utility (DMU) describes the reduced value that additional units of money or consumer goods have in comparison to units acquired earlier. We extend this idea to social resources and activities such as socializing time, free time, and number of children, suggesting that most resources will show DMU as the person experiences more of them. In Study 1, participants reported how many years of adult life they would sacrifice to have increasingly more of each resource or activity. Income showed declining marginal utility, but other goods showed an ideal-level pattern in which they were valued less after an optimal amount. In Phase 2 of Study 1, we assessed the mix of activities people most prefer. Participants rated the desirability of various combinations of time spent in different activities. Spending all of one’s free time in a pleasant activity was not as desirable as spending some of the time in other desirable, but less enjoyable, activities. In Study 2, we used a representative sample of the world to assess people’s affect balance (positive minus negative moods) on the previous day, along with how much time they spent in activities such as socializing with family and friends. The most popular activity was socializing with family and friends, but even here there was DMU for more hours of this behavior. We also analyzed several forms of well-being in reference to household income. Income showed a clear DMU pattern using daily moods as the outcome, as well as for life evaluations and satisfaction with standard of living. The results of the two studies explain why people do not pursue happiness by spending all of their time in the most pleasant activities, such as socializing, but instead choose a mixture of activities. A desire for balance in human activities and resources has important implications for the structure of the workplace, leisure time, work hours, and other important domains of life.     

Rethinking barriers: a novel conceptualization of exercise barriers in cancer survivors

Previous research suggests different types of barriers may demonstrate different relationships with intention to engage in health behaviors. This study explored global, practical, and health-related barriers’ relationships with exercise intention and behavior among cancer survivors. The mediating role of intention in the barriers-behavior relationships was also evaluated. Cancer survivors (N = 152) completed self-report measures of exercise barriers, intention, and behavior at baseline and of exercise behavior two months later. Global barriers were negatively related (p < .01) and practical and health-related barriers were unrelated (ps ≥ .07) to exercise intention. Global and practical barriers were negatively related (ps < .01) and health-related barriers were unrelated (p = .48) to subsequent exercise behavior. Exercise intention did not mediate any barriers-behavior relationships. Results suggest that global and practical barriers should be targeted in barriers reduction interventions and highlight the intention-behavior gap problem. Future research should explore multidimensionality of barriers for other health behaviors.     

Community-Clinic-Based Parent Intervention Addressing Noncompliance in Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

The current study tested whether an abbreviated version of Defiant Children (Barkley, 1987), an efficacious parent training program to address the behavioral noncompliance often associated with disruptive behavior disorders, could be implemented successfully within a community mental health clinic setting by master's-level therapists. Ethnically and socioeconomically diverse parents of 16 children (ages 4 to 12 years old) completed a 6-session active treatment group emphasizing the use of differential attending skills, effective time-out strategies, and a structured reinforcement schedule to increase child compliance. Pre- and posttreatment measures of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder (CD) symptom level were administered, as well as a measure tapping the contextual breadth (i.e., number of settings) and severity of disruptive behaviors. Parent satisfaction with the treatment was also assessed. Analyses indicated large treatment effects on all measures except CD behavior. Results are discussed in the context of implementing empirically supported therapies in settings where “treatment as usual” is the norm.     

Inside Criminal Minds: Offenders' Strategies when Lying

This study aimed at extending the deception literature by examining lie‐telling strategies given by persons with criminal experience. In interviews taking place in prisons, offenders (n = 35) provided lie‐telling strategies in a free narrative style. In an inductive content analysis, we coded both all strategies provided as well as one principal strategy for each participant. In total, 13 strategies were identified, which were grouped into three broader category groups: general verbal, general nonverbal, and specific interview strategies. The most often stated strategies were Close to truth, Eye contact, and No strategy. The most often stated principal strategies were Close to truth, Not giving away information, and No strategy. Some participants provided strategies, such as not giving away information at all in interviews/interrogations, which showed a sophisticated understanding of the police interview situation and the task of the police and prosecutor. Overall, the participants showed great diversity in preferred lie‐telling strategy. The results are partly in line with previous research from student samples and provide new insights into the criminally experienced individuals' lie‐telling strategies. The results are discussed with regard to impression and information management and police interrogation practice. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Risk and protective factors associated with patterns of antisocial behavior among nonmetropolitan adolescents

This study used latent class analysis (LCA) to identify patterns of antisocial behavior (ASB) in a sample of 1,820 adolescents in a nonmetropolitan region of the Northeast. Self-reported ASBs including stealing, fighting, damaging property, and police contact were assessed. LCA identified four classes of ASB including a non-ASB class, a mild, a moderate, and a serious ASB class. Multinomial logistic regression indicated that parent-child relationships served as a protective factor against engaging in ASB and peer, school, and community risk and protective factors differentiated mild patterns of ASB from more intense patterns of involvment. These findings suggest utility in using the LCA to better understand predictors of adolescent ASB to inform more effective prevention and intervention efforts targeting youth who exhibit different patterns of behavior.