Maintenance Cardiac Rehabilitation Exercise Adherence: Effects of Task and Self-Regulatory Self-Efficacy

The purpose of this study was to examine whether self-efficacy functions as a determinant and outcome of maintenance cardiac rehabilitation exercise adherence. Specifically, the purpose of this prospective observational study was to examine which types of self-efficacy–task or self-regulatory–predicted maintenance exercise attendance. In addition, the relative contribution of self-efficacy to the prediction of perceived exercise intensity was examined. Self-regulatory self-efficacy was operationalized as confidence to schedule and manage exercise sessions, while task self-efficacy concerned confidence to perform aspects of the exercise session and to walk for increasing durations. Sixty-four maintenance cardiac rehabilitation participants completed social cognitive measures and provided attendance data for 4 weeks prior to and 4 weeks following assessment. Results indicated that scheduling and walking self-efficacy significantly predicted cardiac rehabilitation exercise attendance. Task self-efficacy was the best predictor of perceived exercise intensity. Past exercise attendance significantly predicted all 3 dimensions of self-efficacy. Findings are discussed with respect to self-efficacy theory and applications to the maintenance of cardiac rehabilitation exercise adherence.     

Good Guys Can Finish First: How Brand Reputation Affects Extension Evaluations

This research investigates how consumer evaluations of brand extensions are affected by two distinct types of brand reputation: a reputation for social responsibility built through commitments to societal obligations, versus a reputation for ability developed by delivering quality offerings. Through six studies, we establish that while the two reputation types equivalently influence high fit brand extensions, a reputation for social responsibility (vs. ability) leads to more favorable responses toward low fit brand extensions by inducing a desire to support and help the company that has acted to benefit consumers. Furthermore, the facilitative effect of social responsibility on low fit brand extension evaluations is more prominent among consumers who value close relationships and caring for one another's well‐being (i.e., those with high communal orientation), and tends to dissipate when social responsibility initiatives are tainted with self‐serving motives (i.e., when these initiatives are aligned with the brand's core offering).     

A phenomenology of political apathy: Scheler on the origins of mass violence

In his criticisms of the German youth movement and the emergence of fascism across Europe during the early 1920s, Max Scheler draws a distinction between the different senses of political apathy that give rise to mass political movements. Recent studies of mass apathy have tended to treat all forms of apathy as the same and as a consequence reduced the diverse expressions of mass violence to the same, stripping mass movements of any critical function. I show in this paper that Scheler’s distinction provides the means by which to locate the various origins of mass violence and the practical means by which to address this violence that preserves the liberating potential of collective political movements.

Does peace have a prayer? The effect of mortality salience, compassionate values, and religious fundamentalism on hostility toward out-groups

Religious fundamentalism has been shown to be associated with higher levels of prejudice, ethnocentrism, and militarism, in spite of the compassionate values promoted by the religious faiths that most fundamentalists believe in. Based on terror management theory, we hypothesized that priming these compassionate values would encourage a shift toward less support for violent solutions to the current Middle Eastern conflict, especially when they are combined with reminders of one’s mortality. Study 1 demonstrated that among Americans, religious fundamentalism was associated with greater support for extreme military interventions, except when participants were reminded of their mortality and primed with compassionate religious values. The combination of mortality salience and compassionate religious values led to significant decreases in support for such interventions among high but not low fundamentalists. Study 2 replicated this finding and showed that it depends on the association of the compassionate values with an authoritative religious source; presentation of these values in a secular context had no effect on fundamentalists. Study 3 replicated these effects in a sample of Iranian Shiite Muslims: although a reminder of death increased anti-Western attitudes among participants primed with secular compassionate values, it decreased anti-Western attitudes among those primed with compassionate values from the Koran.     

VERB™ Summer Scorecard: Findings from a Multi-level Community-based Physical Activity Intervention for Tweens

The benefits of physical activity for adolescents are well established. Multi-level interventions may be especially effective in establishing and sustaining health-enhancing behaviors. This study explored the influences of a multi-level community intervention aimed at increasing physical activity among tweens (youth 9–13). Two Florida school districts far apart served as intervention and comparison sites in a quasi-experimental post-test design. Youth in grades 5 through 8 in the intervention community (n = 1,253) and comparison community (n = 866) completed an anonymous post-intervention survey. An intent-to-treat analysis did not show any statistically significant group differences for the physical activity outcomes examined. However, a subset analysis revealed that students who reported participating in the intervention were more likely to be physically active than youth in the comparison group, as well as youth in the intervention community who reported not participating. Participating in the intervention was significantly related to meeting recommendations for vigorous physical activity (OR = 2.08, P = 0.0259), being physically active on weekends (OR = 1.84, P = 0.0017), and reporting more days of trying a new game or sport (OR = 1.49, P = 0.046) after controlling for grade, gender, race/ethnicity, and SES. These findings support the efficacy of multi-level interventions to create effective health behavior change, especially when linkages among community, media, schools, and the home are present.     

On the communication of information by displays of standard errors and confidence intervals

A survey of practices regarding the presentation of information about reliability of means in psychological research publications over the last century reveals some advance in quality of communication, greater for tabular presentations than for graphic presentations, but also substantial room for improvement. In this article, problems of interpretation and communication associated with presentations of standard errors and confidence intervals in research reports are examined from both statistical and psychological perspectives. Four general principles of effective communication are proposed and illustrated in application to presentations of data from common psychological research designs, with special attention to problems arising in connection with repeated measures.     

Efficacy of awareness of strategy and overt verbalization for recall by kindergarten students.

Two prevailing models for teaching memory strategies for remembering were compared for two kindergarten classes (45 boys, 30 girls). A third class provided a control. One class received instruction in specific and efficacious strategies for recall on three discrete tasks: sequential memory, paired-associate memory, and clustering recall. The second class received the same instruction embedded in an overt verbalization procedure adapted form Bash and Camp (1985). The control class received as much practice as the two instructional groups but no instruction on strategy or overt verbalization. Significant gains in memory were made on paired associates at posttest for both the strategy-only group and the overt-verbalization group. Overt verbalization inhibits recall on paired associates at delayed posttest and its effect on sequential memory at posttest remains equivocal.     

Self-punishment as a regulation strategy in borderline personality disorder

Studies using the Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ; Wells & Davies, 1994) suggest that the tendency to use self-punishment (e.g., shouting at oneself) in order to control unpleasant internal experiences (e.g., cognitive and emotional) is associated with psychopathology. To evaluate the role of self-punishment in borderline personality disorder (BPD), we first examined whether TCQ scales, including Self-Punishment, were different among adults with BPD (n = 31) when compared to those with other personality disorders (OPD; n = 24), elevated symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD; n = 24), and healthy controls (n = 105). Findings indicated that Self-Punishment was elevated in the BPD group relative to other groups. Next, Self-Punishment was examined as a potential mediator in the relationship between negative affectivity and BPD symptom severity in all participants. Results indicated that Self-Punishment did not mediate this relationship, but did account for significant variance in BPD symptoms over and above negative affectivity. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Heightened sensitivity to facial expressions of emotion in borderline personality disorder

Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) have been hypothesized to exhibit significant problems associated with emotional sensitivity. The current study examined emotional sensitivity (i.e., low threshold for recognition of emotional stimuli) in BPD by comparing 20 individuals with BPD and 20 normal controls on their accuracy in identifying emotional expressions. Results demonstrated that, as facial expressions morphed from neutral to maximum intensity, participants with BPD correctly identified facial affect at an earlier stage than did healthy controls. Participants with BPD were more sensitive than healthy controls in identifying emotional expressions in general, regardless of valence. These findings could not be explained by participants with BPD responding faster with more errors. Overall, results appear to support the contention that heightened emotional sensitivity may be a core feature of BPD.