Does Monitoring Performance Eliminate the Ego-depletion Phenomenon and Influence Perception of Time?

This study evaluated whether monitoring performance against an objective measure eliminated ego-depletion and enhanced the accuracy of one's temporal perception. Two independent variables, depletion level and monitoring status, were manipulated in 83 undergraduates (71% female, median age = 21.2 years), who were then measured for persistence on a series of anagram puzzles (first dependant variable) and subjective time perception estimates (second dependant variable). While depleted participants in the nonmonitoring condition exhibited significantly less persistence than those in the performance-monitoring or low-depleted conditions, no differences in time perception scores were detected among the four groups. It appears monitoring behavior against an objective measure is a robust tool to improve self-control ability in depleted individuals; however, this effect is unrelated to perception of time.     

Effects of occupational future time perspective on managing stressful work situations

According to the socioemotional selectivity theory (SST; Carstensen, 2006), older adults perceive their future time as increasingly limited, which motivates them to focus more on emotional goals and prefer passive emotion‐focused strategies. This study aims to investigate the effect of occupational future time perspective (OFTP) on the use of problem‐solving strategies in stressful work situations and to examine the effectiveness of these strategies on psychological well‐being. A sample of 199 Chinese clerical workers responded to a structured questionnaire on problem‐solving strategy use in relation to hypothetical work scenarios. Results revealed that relative to those with limited OFTP, workers with expansive OFTP preferred problem‐focused and proactive strategies in both low‐ and high‐emotionally salient scenarios. Workers with limited OFTP consistently preferred passive strategies irrespective of emotional salience. OFTP moderated the effect of problem‐focused strategies on psychological distress. In particular, there was a significant negative relationship between problem‐focused strategies and psychological distress among workers with expansive OFTP, but such pattern of relationship was not observed among workers with limited OFTP. Findings of this study inform the training strategies employed by practitioners to fit the developmental goals of workers in order to maximise their strengths at work.     

The sunk cost effect across species: A review of persistence in a course of action due to prior investment

The sunk cost effect is the bias or tendency to persist in a course of action due to prior investments of effort, money or time. At the time of the only review on the sunk cost effect across species (Arkes & Ayton, 1999), research with nonhuman animals had been ecological in its nature, and the findings about the effect of past investments on current choice were inconclusive. However, in the last decade a new line of experimental laboratory‐based research has emerged with the promise of revolutionizing the way we approach the study of the sunk cost effect in nonhumans. In the present review we challenge Arkes and Ayton's conclusion that the sunk cost effect is exclusive to humans, and describe evidence for the sunk cost effect in nonhuman animals. By doing so, we also challenge the current explanations for the sunk cost effect in humans, as they are not applicable to nonhumans. We argue that a unified theory is called for, because different independent variables, in particular, investment amount, have the same influence on the sunk cost effect across species. Finally, we suggest possible psychological mechanisms shared across different species, contrast and depreciation, that could explain the sunk cost effect.     

Character Development within Youth Development Programs: Exploring Multiple Dimensions of Activity Involvement

We examined links among three dimensions of youth involvement (intensity, duration, and engagement) in Boy Scouts of America (BSA), an international out‐of‐school time (OST) youth development program designed to promote moral and performance character in boys. Using data from 737 youth and their parents who participated in one of 40 BSA program sites (commonly referred to as “packs”), we first considered how individual‐ and pack‐level measures of program involvement were differentially linked with character development. Next, we examined whether pack‐level involvement characteristics moderate individual‐level involvement characteristics, hypothesizing that highly involved packs would serve to further enhance the positive effects of high levels of individual involvement. Results indicated engagement was the strongest, most frequent predictor of increases in both moral and performance character. Although there were no direct effects of pack‐level intensity, duration, or engagement, the effects of individual‐level engagement were moderated by pack‐level engagement, suggesting that the largest increases in moral and performance character occurred among highly engaged youth who were enrolled in highly engaged packs. These results highlight the need to examine multiple dimensions of OST program involvement simultaneously, and suggest that strengthening youth engagement in programming may provide a means for enhancing the positive effects of high‐quality youth programming.     

Non-mereological pluralistic supersubstantivalism: an alternative perspective on the matter/spacetime relationship

In both the historical and contemporary literature on the metaphysics of space (and, more recently, spacetime), a core dispute is that between relationism and substantivalism. One version of the latter is supersubstantivalism, according to which space (or, again, spacetime) is the only kind of substance, such that what we think of as individual material objects (electrons, quarks, etc.) are actually just parts of spacetime which instantiate certain properties. If those parts are ontologically dependent on spacetime as a whole, then we arrive at an ontology with only a single genuinely independent substance, namely the entire spacetime manifold. This is monist supersubstantivalism. A view on which the parts of spacetime are ontologically prior to the whole has been called pluralistic supersubstantivalism. As currently formulated, supersubstantivalism (in either its monist or pluralistic forms) carries significant advantages and encounters major difficulties. I argue that some of the latter motivate an alternative formulation, non-mereological pluralistic supersubstantivalism, according to which spacetime is a real substance, but what we think of as material objects are also real substances, irreducible to and numerically distinct from that larger spacetime manifold and any of its parts. Yet, the underlying nature of those material objects is ultimately the same type as that of spacetime: at bottom, a particle is just a smaller quantity of spacetime embedded in or contained by or co-located with the larger whole that we would normally think of as ‘spacetime,’ capable both of genuine movement within/across the larger spacetime manifold and (at least in principle) independent existence from it.     

SECULARIZING DEMONS: FUNDAMENTALIST NAVIGATIONS IN RELIGION AND SECULARITY

Since the turn of the millennium, theologians and secular scholars of religion have increasingly begun exploring the relationship between transhumanism and religion. However, analyses of anti‐transhumanist apocalypticisms are still rare, and those that exist are situated mainly among broader explorations of religious and secular bioconservatism. This article addresses this lack of specificity by drawing analyses of transhumanism and religion into dialogue with explorations of contemporary demonology through a close study of the beliefs of the evangelical conspiracist Thomas Horn and the anti‐transhumanist milieu around him. Exploring the milieu's multifaceted demonology of the secular world in light of genealogies of religion and secularity, the article situates Horn's demonology as one attempt to negotiate these genealogies, using what Sean McCloud terms a “‘supernatural’ hermeneutics of suspicion” that sees spiritual forces as the structural base of reality. It argues that, while fringe, milieus like Horn's illuminate broader cultural tensions and genealogical relations surrounding the place of religion in a secular(izing) world.     

Eye Movements Reveal Mental Looking Through Time

People often make use of a spatial “mental time line” to represent events in time. We investigated whether the eyes follow such a mental time line during online language comprehension of sentences that refer to the past, present, and future. Participants' eye movements were measured on a blank screen while they listened to these sentences. Saccade direction revealed that the future is mapped higher up in space than the past. Moreover, fewer saccades were made when two events are simultaneously taking place at the present moment compared to two events that are happening in different points in time. This is the first evidence that oculomotor correlates reflect mental looking along an abstract invisible time line during online language comprehension about time. Our results support the idea that observing eye movements is likely to “detect” invisible spatial scaffoldings which are involved in cognitively processing abstract meaning, even when the abstract meaning lacks an explicit spatial correlate. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Short-term and long-term relationships between reflection and performance in teams: evidence from a four-wave longitudinal study

Previous theory and research suggest that team reflection is beneficial for team performance. We argue that results remain inconclusive because prior studies have not accounted for the dynamic nature of this relationship. This paper addresses this research gap by examining time-specific relationships among variables and the intra-team variability of changes across time. In a four-wave longitudinal field study with 97 teams (N = 453 team members) performing a business simulation task, short-term (i.e., autoregressive, cross-lagged effects) and long-term (i.e., latent trajectories) relationships between team reflection and performance were explored. We found evidence that reflection had negative autoregressive effects and that there were direct positive short-term relationships between reflection and performance. Reflection trajectories were seen to decline across time and performance trajectories to increase across time. In addition, teams with either low initial reflection or low initial performance showed higher increases in reflection across time, whilst higher increase in reflection was negatively related to change in performance. Findings are discussed with respect to how they extend the previous literature and what directions they suggest for future research.     

“时间贫穷”对跨期决策和前瞻行为的影响及其认知机制

紧张的社会节奏使人们感觉时间正在变少,从而产生时间匮乏的心理感知和思维模式,这一现象概括为"时间贫穷"。"时间贫穷"会对个体认知判断、情绪和行为控制力产生重要影响。通过行为科学和认知神经科学相结合的研究方法,从行为反应-心理机制-神经机制三个层面研究时间贫穷对跨期决策和前瞻行为的影响。研究分为3个部分:(1)时间贫穷对个体认知判断、情绪和行为控制力的影响;(2)时间贫穷对跨期决策的影响;(3)组织中时间贫穷对前瞻行为的影响。通过系列研究,拟解决3个关键问题:(1)时间贫穷如何影响人们的认知判断,导致非理性决策行为?(2)时间贫穷影响认知判断和跨期决策的神经机制究竟是什么?(3)时间贫穷对管理决策带来哪些挑战?对这些问题的深入探讨,不仅对行为决策理论的发展有重要贡献;而且对组织如何进行有效的管理制度设计,避免个体和组织陷入"时间贫穷陷阱",同样有很强的实践意义。     

Stressful life events and predictors of post-traumatic growth among high-risk early emerging adults

Stressful life events (SLEs) may elicit positive psychosocial change among youth, referred to as post-traumatic growth (PTG). We assessed types of SLEs experienced, degree to which participants reported PTG, and variables predicting PTG across 24 months among a sample of high-risk, ethnically diverse, early emerging adults. Participants were recruited from alternative high schools (n = 564; mean age = 16.8; 65% Hispanic). Multi-level regression models were constructed to examine the impact of environmental (SLE quantity, severity) and personal factors (hedonic ability, perceived stress, developmental stage, future time orientation) on a composite score of PTG. The majority of participants reported that positive changes resulted from their most life-altering SLE of the past two years. Predictors of PTG included fewer SLEs, less general stress, having a future time perspective, and greater identification with the developmental stage of emerging adulthood. Findings suggest intervention targets to foster positive adaptation among early emerging adults who experience frequent SLEs.