自发社会比较中的威胁效应及自我平衡策略

个体通常利用社会比较进行自我评价, 而比较对象的选择及其对个体自我的影响是一个内隐的过程, 研究基于选择通达理论, 通过三个实验考察了个体自发比较时威胁效应的来源及其消解, 结果表明：(1)威胁效应来源于自主条件下比较对象的选择。个体在比较后的自我评价过程中激活了周围优秀人物的信息, 比较后自我评价水平降低, 引发社会比较的威胁; (2)中国文化背景下的个体在比较后存在威胁“泛化”现象, 不论操作任务是否与自我相关, 均会出现社会比较的威胁效应; (3)与周围优秀人物进行比较所导致的威胁效应, 可以通过自我肯定策略得以缓解, 使个体的整体自我系统重新恢复平衡。     

Creativity and experience of a creative task: Person and environment effects

We examined the effects of a person factor (general causality orientation) and an environment factor (threat of evaluation) on creativity and personal experience of a creative collage-making task. Ninety college students completed questionnaires and made a collage under conditions of expected evaluation or no-evaluation. Creativity was a function of participants’ characterizations of themselves as artistic, and among men, of the interaction between environment and person factors. Task experience was affected by environment factors and, marginally, by the interaction of environment and person factors, with participants feeling less competent at the task under threat of evaluation, and exerting the greatest effort when they were under evaluation threat and were higher on control orientation. These findings may have implications for future motivation for creative tasks.     

Lessons Learned in Developing a Research Partnership with the Transgender Community

The challenge facing the authors was to develop a relationship with members of the Transgender community in a large urban city in order to develop research that would benefit this group. The situation is presented from the differing perspectives of the three women involved (one Transgender woman and two biological women); they provide their accounts of a meeting with key members of the Transgender community where the challenge became apparent. During the meeting, the issue of representation arose resulting in a discussion of whether the research agenda should be focused on a specific subgroup under the Transgender umbrella or be open to all members of this diverse and underserved group. Reflections on what was learned about the diversity of individuals under the Transgender umbrella and the lessons that helped them respond to the challenge are discussed.     

Assessing adolescents who threaten homicide in schools

Psychoanalytic and psychiatric perspectives on children who threaten to kill others are reviewed in the context of the need for an interdisciplinary approach to the problem. Converging technologies derived from a psychoanalytically informed social systems model are compared to law enforcement approaches, psychoanalytic understanding of the individual dynamics of the child, and empirical research on conduct disordered adolescents. The interdisciplinary orientation of a broadly trained community psychoanalyst allows a unique contribution when trying to distinguish adolescents who make a threat from those who pose a threat. Case vignettes are used to illustrate the hypotheses.     

Relationship between heart rate variability and cognitive function during threat of shock

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between resting heart rate variability (HRV) and cognitive functions during threat of shock. A Continuous Performance Task and a Working Memory Task were used to measure cognitive functions. Sixty-five male participants from the Royal Norwegian Navy participated. HRV was measured during baseline, test conditions and recovery. Participants were randomly assigned into non-threat and threat groups. Based on the median split of the high frequency (HF) spectral power, groups were divided into two additional groups. Overall, the high HRV participants showed superior performance on cognitive tasks independent of non-threat or threat conditions. During threat condition the low HRV group showed improved performance. Thus, individuals with high HRV were more stress tolerant and resilient in the face of environmental changes. The results from the study might have implications with regard to performance in operational settings, but also for other fields of psychological research such as individual differences, anxiety and coping.     

Dreading the boards: stress response to a competitive audition characterized by social-evaluative threat

The capacity of psychosocial stressors to provoke the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis has been demonstrated to vary depending upon a number of psychological factors. Laboratory stressors characterized by social-evaluative threat are proposed to be the most efficacious in the elicitation of a cortisol stress response. Salivary cortisol, cardiovascular, and subjective responses of 16 healthy adults facing a naturalistic stressor characterized by social-evaluative threat (competitive performance auditions) were examined. Audition exposure was sufficient to provoke significant cortisol, arterial blood pressure (systolic and diastolic), and subjective stress responses. Cortisol response reactivity (area under the curve with respect to increase [AUCi]) also correlated with participants' subjective rating of social-evaluative threat. The competitive performance audition context is therefore considered a promising context in which to further explore cortisol responsivity to social-evaluative threat.     

Gender differences in loss of psychological resources following experimentally-induced vicarious stress

Abstract

The present research focuses on gender differences in resource loss, perceived threat, and negative affective reactions induced by experimental manipulation of vicarious stress. Israeli students (54.7% women) were randomly allocated to one of two conditions: (1) Threat Condition (n=98), in which participants were exposed to a video film depicting terror attacks and (2) Control Condition (n=30), in which participants viewed a video film depicting a series of non-emotive news broadcasts. Participants also completed measures of mastery, optimism, and self-esteem. The data indicated that whereas under the Threat Condition women scored lower on psychological resources and higher on perceived threat than men, no significant gender differences were observed under the Control Condition. A path analysis revealed that gender was directly related to perceived threat and resource loss, which, in turn, were related to negative affect. In addition, a greater sense of mastery was related to lower resource loss. Overall, these experimental findings suggest that gender and mastery bear prominent effects on cognitive and emotional reactions to vicarious life threat.     

公正世界信念——重建公正的双刃剑

公正世界信念即相信所处的世界是公正的,人们得其所应得,所得即应得.然而在现实生活中这一信念常常受到各种不公正事件的威胁,公正世界信念可以帮助人们应对威胁、重建公正.这种重建可能是行动上的也可能是认知上的,认知公正重建往往导致对不公正现状的合理化以及对受害者的贬损责怪.同时对于各种不公正的受害者或见证者,公正世界信念充当着重要的个人资源或是心理缓冲,帮助个体应对不公正事件,维护心理健康,并遵循公正原则追求其长远目标.公正世界信念的多维结构是解释其双重功能的基础.     

老化刻板印象研究现状及展望

老化刻板印象是人们对老年人所持有的观念与预期,它能显著影响老化刻板印象持有者的生理功能、认知功能和行为结果。现有研究主要集中在老化刻板印象的机制、影响因素和中介变量方面。研究发现,老化刻板印象是通过内化形成的,刻板印象威胁理论和自我刻板化是解释老化刻板印象的两种作用机制。认知加工过程中的抑制能力、情境和文化差异是影响老化刻板印象的主要因素,而老化自我知觉和刻板期望则是老化刻板印象影响效果变量的中介因素。未来研究除了要继续探讨意识水平、情境因素、个体特征对老化刻板印象的影响以及老化刻板印象对不同年龄群体影响的特点以外,还应关注中介和干预研究,并进一步加强跨文化研究。