Self-denial and the role of intentions in the attribution of agency

The ability to distinguish between our own actions and those of an external agent is a fundamental component of normal human social interaction. Both low- and high-level mechanisms are thought to contribute to the sense of movement agency, but the contribution of each is yet to be fully understood. By applying small and incremental perturbations to realistic visual feedback of the limb, the influence of high-level action intentions and low-level motor predictive mechanisms were dissociated in two experiments. In the first, participants were induced to claim agency over movements that were subject to large perturbations and to deny agency over self-produced unperturbed movements despite the application of motor corrections by low-level mechanisms. A control experiment confirmed that if reaches met with their intended goal then they were more likely to be attributed to the agent, regardless of the discrepancy between the actual and seen positions of the limb.     

小学生的社会技能与友善—敌对型教师互动风格、社交归因的关系

以武汉市343名小学三至六年级的儿童为被试,考察儿童友善—敌对型教师互动风格与社交归因、社会技能之间的关系。结果显示:友善型、理解型教师互动风格与小学生成功内部归因、环境、自我、任务行为技能呈显著正相关,与成功外部归因呈显著负相关;理解型教师互动风格与人际行为技能呈显著正相关;不满型和训诫型教师互动风格与小学生成功和失败外部归因因呈显著正相关,与成功和失败内归因、四种行为技能呈显著负相关;成功内部归因与四种行为技能呈显著正相关;失败内部归因与人际、自我、环境行为技能呈显著正相关;成功与失败外部归因与四种行为技能呈显著负相关。社交成功的外部归因分别在不满型教师互动风格和环境、人际、自我、任务行为技能间起部分中介作用。不满型教师互动风格对成功内部归因、社会技能的预测效应显著,通过成功内部归因的中介效应不显著。     

企业员工工作倦怠研究:归因的视角

运用问卷调查法从归因视角对企业员工工作倦怠进行探讨,结果表明:(1)采用安戈夫(Angof)f方法得到倦怠标准的界定分数,其中情绪耗竭维度为21分,玩世不恭维度为14分,成就感低落维度为19分;(2)归因的物质环境、人际关系与价值感因子均与情绪耗竭、玩世不恭呈显著正相关,与成就感低落呈显著负相关,而归因的生活态度因子仅与个人成就感低落呈显著负相关;(3)人际关系与价值感因子对情绪耗竭有显著的正向预测作用;价值感因子对玩世不恭有显著的正向预测作用;物质环境与生活态度因子对成就感低落有显著的负向预测作用。     

知觉流畅性对判断和决策的影响

流畅性是个体对加工信息难易程度的一种主观体验, 它分为知觉流畅性、概念流畅性、提取流畅性等。研究者通过操纵刺激与背景的颜色对比度、刺激的字体类型、清晰程度等因素来控制知觉流畅性, 发现知觉流畅性会影响一系列判断和决策任务, 如命题真实性、类别判断、偏好、熟悉性等。知觉流畅性既可以作为判断的直接线索也可以通过选择不同线索和认知策略来间接影响判断和决策。     

The Federal Face of Voting: Are Elected Officials Held Accountable for the Functions Relevant to Their Office?

Federalism is designed to enhance democratic representation because it gives citizens the opportunity to shape policymaking at multiple levels of government. This design feature is premised on the assumption that individuals make distinctions in the responsibilities that pertain to different levels of government and link these distinctions to their voting decisions. Citizens are expected to sanction politicians for those policy decisions over which their level of government has responsibility. This paper draws on work in both political and social psychology to develop a theoretical framework consistent with the federalist view of democratic representation to explain how people make voting decisions. Individuals who were able to vote in elections at all three levels of government (national, state, and local) in 2002 were surveyed, allowing a full test of the federalist voting model. Findings show that while citizens do make distinctions among levels of government when evaluating issues, they only link these distinctions to their voting decisions if those issue attitudes are highly accessible. Implications for democratic representation and future research are discussed.     

Applicability increases the effect of misattribution on judgment

Feelings and cognitions influence judgment through attribution. For instance, the attribution of positive feelings and cognitions to a stimulus leads to a positive judgment of that stimulus. We examined whether misattribution is moderated by the applicability of a distractor to the judgment question. For instance, when are people more likely to attribute to a target person the affective and cognitive experiences triggered by a kitten – when trying to judge the person’s cuteness or trustworthiness? The kitten triggers experiences specifically relevant to cuteness, but people might more easily suspect the kitten’s potential influence when judging cuteness rather than trustworthiness. Using the Affect Misattribution Procedure, we found that applicability increases the effect of misattribution on valenced judgments. The results emphasise the importance of specific information (rather than only general valence) in attribution and suggest that high applicability of distractors to the judgment question does not elicit effective correction.     

Attributions for physical activity in very old adults: predicting everyday physical activity and mortality risk

Objectives: Although physical activity is recognised as a health-promoting behaviour for older adults, notable barriers exist that may reduce physical activity in this age group. Limited research has explored causal beliefs (attributions) as a barrier to physical activity. Our study assessed associations between older adults’ attributions about physical activity and objective health outcomes. Methods: We examined the role of attributions as a predictor of everyday physical activity (EPA) and subsequent mortality risk over a 10-year period (2006–2016) in a sample of older adults (M_age?=?87, N?=?261). Results: OLS and Cox proportional hazard regression analyses revealed older adults who endorsed more internal and uncontrollable attributions for limited activity (physical incapacity) when feeling unwell had lower subsequent EPA (β?=??0.18), and higher 10-year mortality risk (HR?=?1.46). Other attributions with different dimensional properties (e.g. internal and controllable) were not associated with EPA or mortality. Discussion: Findings suggest that causal beliefs older adults have about their physical activity can influence their future behaviour and longevity. Psychological treatments designed to discourage maladaptive attributional thinking for older populations who face barriers to physical activity may be an important avenue for future research.     

结伴购物情境下消费者冲动购买行为发生机理

冲动性购买是生活中的常见现象, 也是消费者行为研究的重要子领域。围绕单人购物情境下的冲动购买研究成果较多, 而对结伴购物情境下的冲动购买行为研究明显不足。聚焦结伴购物情境下消费者的冲动购买现象, 基于“欲望-意志力”模型, 在情绪感染理论、归因理论等理论基础之上, 采用焦点访谈法、实验法、问卷调查法等研究方法, 从欲望和意志力两个方面, 深入探讨结伴购物消费者冲动购买行为发生的内部决策机理。研究结论将丰富现有结伴购物情境下的冲动购买行为研究内容, 也为企业营销实践、个人冲动购买行为管理以及政府部门开展消费者教育提供理论指导。     

工作场所不文明行为受害者向实施者反转的机制

梳理和归纳了导致工作场所不文明行为的受害者反转为实施者的组织事件, 包括团队层次的不作为领导行为和领导不文明行为以及个体层次的同事不文明行为。借助事件系统理论对受害者反转为实施者的认知过程进行了说明, 如果组织事件的强度足够引起受害者的控制化信息加工, 则其可能改变自己的原有行为进而实施工作场所不文明行为; 根据社会信息加工理论, 受害者的控制化信息加工可以通过三条路径实现, 即学习过程, 归因过程和道德判断过程。建议未来研究进一步探讨情绪和认知两者在不文明行为受害者角色反转中的作用, 以及工作领域之外的因素在其中的作用, 并且能够使用日记研究法进行验证; 未来研究还可以探讨工作场所不文明行为的旁观者反转为实施者的机制。     

Hidden consequences of the group-serving bias: Causal attributions and the quality of group decision making

A long stream of research in attribution theory suggests that groups are biased toward attributing their success to factors that are internal to their group. However, the existing research has confounded two types of attributions that are both internal to the group, but theoretically distinct: (1) attributions that differentiate between the contributions made by each individual group member and (2) attributions that focus on the group as a whole. This dichotomy is important because, drawing on theories of social influence, we predict that different types of attributions will have different consequences for the quality of group decision making. In Experiment 1, individually focused attributions for past success caused groups to consider more divergent alternatives prior to making a shared decision. In Experiment 2, individually focused attributions for past success facilitated the sharing of unique information and improved decision accuracy. These findings suggest that the group-serving tendency to internalize success may have important consequences for group performance that have not yet been considered in current research.