Reexamination of the Five‐Factor Model and College Students' Treatment‐Seeking Attitudes

This study was an attempt to replicate and extend the previous research by Puma ( 1996 ) and Kakhnovets ( 2011 ) on the relationships between the 5‐factor model of personality (FFM) and college students' attitudes toward seeking counseling. With a sample of 458 undergraduate students, the authors found that participant sex, prior treatment experiences, and 3 of the FFM factors (openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) predicted college students' attitudes toward counseling, but there was no evidence of moderator effects.     

Modeling of emotion elicitation conditions for a cognitive-emotive architecture

To cater to the need of embodying emotional behavior in an autonomous agent, there is a need for modeling computationally apt definitions of emotions. A number of emotion theories have been developed that provide an understanding of human psychology and their emotional behaviors, but it is difficult to directly decipher a theory into a computational model of emotion. Nevertheless, these theories together can serve as the theoretical foundation for designing a model for emotion-eliciting conditions. In this study, the salient features of OCC, Scherer, and Roseman theories of emotions are identified, which complement each other. The features are unified and standardized to bring consistency in deriving the computationally apt definition of five emotions viz. Happiness/Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Surprise. The objective of this hybridization is to set a ground framework for appraising the emotion-triggering cues (e.g., an event) for a simple, flexible and tolerant computational model of emotions. The underlying emotion-eliciting processes are designed using Fuzzy Logic. Fuzzy rules are framed to model the conditions behind emotion elicitation. Furthermore, the ISEAR data set and the real test-case scenarios are used to validate the accuracy of emotion prediction and rule fulfillment respectively.     

The semantic pointer theory of emotion: Integrating physiology,appraisal, and construction

Emotion theory needs to explain the relationship of language and emotions, and the embodiment of emotions, by specifying the computational mechanisms underlying emotion generation in the brain. We used Chris Eliasmith’s Semantic Pointer Architecture to develop POEM, a computational model that explains numerous important phenomena concerning emotions, including how some stimuli generate immediate emotional reactions, how some emotional reactions depend on cognitive evaluations, how bodily states influence the generation of emotions, how some emotions depend on interactions between physiological inputs and cognitive appraisals, and how some emotional reactions concern syntactically complex representations. We contrast our theory with current alternatives, and discuss some possible applications to individual and social emotions.     

Can affective atmospheres justify megaprojects? A case study of the ‘Asia New Bay Area’ in Kaohsiung,Taiwan

This article examines how affective atmospheres are constituted and used to sustain regeneration megaprojects. I argue that certain affective atmospheres engendered in particular urban contexts are essential to facilitating transformation in contemporary urban areas. Through the convergence of affective encounters, spatial imaginations and common goals in performative ways, affective atmospheres are forged and circulated to legitimise political decisions and urban policies. Moving beyond the conventional approach to examining waterfront regeneration, this paper attempts to capture the inherent relationship between affective dynamics and spatial practices that characterises megaprojects and dominates public opinion.The key claim of this article is that regeneration projects are emotionally mediated and sustained on the foundations of affective atmospheres in which myriad affects underlying everyday life are assembled to enhance municipal power and direct pubic concerns. The presented case study shows that the Asia New Bay Area (ANBA) project activated an affective atmosphere in a context-specific way, in which affective sensations situated in place experiences are assembled to challenge the physical and political landscape. It demonstrates that unfolding the city's affective, emotional and atmospheric resonances is critical to grasping how the megaproject can be justified and, furthermore, the orientation and rationale of spatial practices. Finally it outlines pragmatic suggestions for policy reform that address regeneration megaprojects in socially meaningful ways.     

Employer Treatment of Employees During a Community Crisis: The Role of Procedural and Distributive Justice

This study applies organizational justice principles to human resource decisions made during a crisis situation. Three-hundred and sixty-six working individuals of ice storm affected households responded to a telephone survey that included measures of interactional, procedural and distributive justice, organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Confirmatory Factor Analysis suggested collapsing the interactional and procedural justice measures into one measure of procedural treatment. Overall, there was considerable support for the relevance of procedural justice and its interaction with distributive justice in predicting the work attitudes of employee following a disaster. Multiple regression analyses revealed that perceptions of procedural justice most strongly predicted job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Consistent with existing theory, an interaction between distributive and procedural was found to predict job satisfaction. The predicted interaction was not detected for organizational commitment.We would like to acknowledge the capable research assistance of Paula Warnholtz and the financial assistance from the Senate Research Committee at Bishop’s University.     

刻板解释偏差测量

刻板解释偏差(Stereotypic Explanatory Bias,SEB)是测量内隐态度的一种指标,它反映了个体对某社会群体的刻板印象在信息加工过程中发生的作用。比较SEB与其他内隐态度测量方法后,发现SEB具有结合情境、自然反映内隐态度、预测性良好等特点。     

Searching for Common Ground between Supporters and Opponents of Affirmative Action

Supporters and opponents of affirmative action are often characterized as debating about a single, consensually understood type of affirmative action. However, supporters and opponents instead may have different types of policies in mind when thinking about affirmative action and may actually agree on specific manifestations of affirmative action policies more than is commonly believed. A survey conducted using a student sample and a sample from the broader Chicago-area community showed that affirmative action policies can be characterized into merit-violating versus merit-upholding manifestations. Supporters of affirmative action in general were more likely to think of affirmative action in its merit-upholding manifestations, whereas opponents were more likely to think of the merit-violating manifestations. However, both supporters and opponents showed more support for merit-upholding rather than merit-violating manifestations of affirmative action. The same pattern of results was upheld even when splitting the samples into those who endorsed negative racial attitudes versus those who did not, suggesting that even those who may be considered racist will endorse affirmative action policies that uphold merit values. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of clarifying the political discourse about what affirmative action is and what it is designed to do.     

Social Support and the Association of Type 2 Diabetes and Depressive and Anxiety Disorders Among Low-income Adults Seen in Primary Care Clinics

This study examined the association of social support (SS) and affective disturbance among low-income primary care patients with no chronic illnesses vs. those with type 2 diabetes vs. those with other chronic illnesses. The sample was predominantly middle aged (47.2 years old), African American (74%) and female (80%), with an average individual monthly income of approximately $500. Participants (N = 326) were administered the Diagnostic Interview Schedule, IV and the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List. Logistic regression results indicated that each standard deviation decrease in SS, increased the odds of having a depressive or anxiety disorder diagnosis by .618 OR (CI .472, .808, p < .000) for all study participants; .438 OR (95% CI .195, .987, p = .046) for those with hypertension, asthma and/or arthritis; and .326 OR (95% CI .141, .755, p = .009) for those with type 2 diabetes. Results suggest that SS may serve an important role in the association between stress and depression/anxiety diagnoses among low-income, primary care patients. This paper was awarded the Lifescan Diabetes Research Award at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.     

The effects of anxiety upon attention allocation to affective stimuli

Pictures of emotionally aversive, neutral, and pleasant scenes were presented for 500 ms, followed by a probe presented in the same location (valid trials) or an alternate location (invalid trials) as the picture. Response-times to the probes were recorded in low (N=20) and high (N=27) trait anxious participants. Results revealed an overall negative cue validity effect of shorter reaction times (RTs) on invalid than valid trials, suggestive of an inhibition of return effect. Moreover, high trait anxious females showed a reduced negative cue validity effect for aversive pictures in comparison with neutral and pleasant pictures, suggestive of selective interference by the unpleasant material. By contrast, low trait anxious females showed an enhanced negative cue validity effect for aversive pictures relative to neutral and pleasant pictures, suggestive of attentional avoidance of the aversive content. The emotional content of picture cues did not significantly affect RTs in males, regardless of anxiety status. The results suggest that biased attention processes for aversive stimuli may contribute to the greater female propensity for anxiety disorders.     

The Relations of Cognitive Triad, Dysfunctional Attitudes, Automatic Thoughts, and Irrational Beliefs with Test Anxiety

Previous research has highlighted the important role of cognition in anxiety, including test anxiety. The present study explores the role of cognitive distortions and irrationality in test anxiety by studying the relationships among cognitive triad (core beliefs), dysfunctional attitudes (intermediate beliefs), negative automatic thoughts, irrational beliefs, debilitating test anxiety, and facilitating test anxiety in 138 undergraduates. Multiple regression analyses showed that only the cognitive triad as a whole was a significant predictor of debilitating anxiety. Specifically, negative view of self was a significant predictor of debilitating anxiety. The results supported an expansion of the current cognitive conceptualizations of test anxiety to include the importance of negative self-view. Other implications are also discussed.