Acting with Feeling from Duty

A central claim in Kantian ethics is that an agent is properly morally motivated just in case she acts from duty alone. Bernard Williams, Michael Stocker, and Justin Oakley claim that certain emotionally infused actions, such as lending a compassionate helping hand, can only be done from compassion and not from duty. I argue that these critics have overlooked a distinction between an action's manner, how an action is done, and its motive, the agent's reason for acting. Through a range of examples I demonstrate how an emotion can determine an action's manner without also serving as the motive. Thus, it is possible for an agent to act compassionately from duty alone. This distinction between the manner and the motive of an action not only restores a central claim in Kantian ethics but it also allows for an expanded role of emotions in moral action.     

Emotion Regulation Across the Life Span: An Integrative Perspective Emphasizing Self-Regulation,Positive Affect,and Dyadic Processes

In this commentary, we build upon the papers featured in this 2-part special issue to advance an integrative perspective on emotion regulation that emphasizes the developmentally specific goal-contexts of emotional phenomena. We highlight the importance of (1) multilevel longitudinal investigations of interactions among biological, affective, cognitive, and behavioral processes with respect to emotion regulation; (2) the integration of emotion-regulation processes with self-regulatory processes across the life course; (3) the dynamic relationship between positive and negative affect and their respective influence on regulatory processes; and (4) greater consideration of the dyadic context of emotion-regulation processes. From this perspective, the optimal developmental outcome with respect to emotion regulation is not affective homeostasis, but rather a dynamic flexibility in emotional experience, the ability to pursue and prioritize different goals, and the capacity to selectively and proactively mobilize emotions and cognitions in the service of context-specific and developmentally specific goals.     

Integrating Diverse Developmental Perspectives on Emotion Regulation

Emotion regulation has been studied in diverse ways within different subdisciplines of psychology—most notably social development, personality and individual differences, social psychophysiology, interpersonal relationships, and stress and coping. The goal of this Special Issue is to demonstrate the value of integrating these diverse approaches for building multilevel, lifespan models of emotion regulation. We review each of the contributions to this special issue, highlighting recurring themes and previewing our own perspective on directions for future theory and research.     

Impulsive responses to positive mood and reward are related to mania risk

Bipolar disorder is characterised by impulsivity, and recent research suggests it is important to consider more specific forms of impulsivity. In two student samples, we examined associations of self-reported impulsivity with mania risk (Hypomanic Personality Scale, HPS). We hypothesised that mania risk would relate to impulsivity in the context of opportunities for rewarding activities (Delaying Gratification Inventory, DGI), reward pursuit (Fun-Seeking subscale of the Behavioural Activation Scale, BAS), and when experiencing positive affect (Positive Urgency Measure, PUM). In Study 1 (N=823), the HPS was uniquely related to Fun-Seeking and PUM scores. Study 2 (N=482) replicated the correlation of HPS scores with PUM while documenting positive associations between PUM and trait-like responses to positive affect. Findings across both studies stress the importance of considering the role of positive emotion in driving the impulsivity among persons at risk for mania. These findings have implications for refining our understanding of the aetiology of bipolar disorder and for treatment development.     

个人目标相关性对非临床抑郁者未来想象的影响

通过两个实验考查了非临床抑郁者未来想象的异常是否受到个人目标相关性的调节。实验1采用未来想象任务, 实验2采用可能性评估范式, 两个实验一致发现, 抑郁倾向者想象未来积极事件的异常, 受到了与个人目标相关性的调节：相对于非抑郁倾向者, 抑郁倾向者对未来与个人目标相关的积极事件的预期减弱, 而对未来与个人目标无关的积极事件的预期则没有表现出异常; 同时还发现, 抑郁倾向者表现出了对未来消极预期的普遍增强, 不受与个人目标相关性的影响。     

The Match Between Recruiters’ Perceptions of Organizational Climate and Personality of the Ideal Applicant for a Management Position

The relationship between recruiters’ perception of the ideal applicant for a managerial position and their perception of organizational climate was examined in real selection procedures. Recruiters (n = 124) from 83 organizations in three sectors of industry participated in this study. They assessed the ideal applicant for the vacant managerial position with personality attributes derived from the Abridged Big Five Circumplex (Hofstee et al. 1992). Furthermore, they described the existing organizational climate with 14 climate scales based on the Competing Values framework of Quinn (1988). Results indicate that recruiters’ perceptions of goal oriented climate dimensions are related to the sector of industry. These perceptions influence the way in which recruiters perceive the ideal manager regarding conscientiousness and compliance. Recruiters’ perceptions concerning other dimensions of organizational climate are not related to the sector of industry and the personality profile of the ideal manager. Homogeneity of personality in organizations will exist for only some personality attributes.     

Weigh(t)ing for Awareness

We wished to learn if weight perception can be extinguished by studying two patients with right hemisphere brain damage. When lifting weights simultaneously, a patient with right frontal damage was not biased in her judgments of which weight was heavier. By contrast, a patient with right parietal damage reported left-sided weights as being lighter than those on the right. Psychophysical power functions revealed that her awareness of increasing weights on the left was dampened compared to the right when lifting weights individually on each side. Strikingly, her awareness of weight changes on the left was completely abolished when she lifted weights in both hands simultaneously. She demonstrated an unusual split in awareness, being motorically aware of and actively engaged with left-sided weights while being unaware of their incremental changes.     

The Relation of ERP Components to Complex Memory Processing

The relation between various ERP components generated during encoding of a word and its subsequent recall were investigated using a “rote” serial-order and an “elaborative” category memory task. Words (flashed separately) were time-locked to EEG recordings from 21 cortical sites. ERP components from the five subjects having the highest recall scores were compared to the five lowest scoring subjects. Results based on the P200 peak amplitude data as well as the N400 and late positive component peak amplitude and latency data suggest that anterior and posterior distributional differences are elicited during encoding of words for rote and elaborative memory tasks. Furthermore, strong individual differences in these patterns were found as a function of task. A tentative argument was made that the obtained anterior and posterior differences may index different word feature selection and encoding processes, which are differentially utilized by high and low recallers.     

Source Monitoring: ERP Evidence for Greater Reactivity to Nontarget Information in Older Adults

Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were collected concurrently with stimulus presentation during a source monitoring task. Younger adults were less likely than older adults to make source monitoring errors and their ERP records showed far greater discrimination between target stimuli and familiar but nontarget foils. Older adults not only made more source errors but produced high amplitude late positivities to the nontarget foils even when these foils were correctly rejected. Under divided attention conditions, younger adults performance was similar to that of the older adults both behaviorally and electrophysiologically. These data illustrate the role that attentional resources play in the ability to inhibit response tendencies and suggest that age differences in source monitoring may be more related to attentional control than inefficiencies in the encoding of contextual information. As well, they suggest that the ERP late positivity may represent a more general response to item salience rather than serve as an index of recollection as is the current view.     

Social-Psychological Interventions for Intergroup Reconciliation: An Emotion Regulation Perspective

Intergroup reconciliation is a requirement for lasting peace in the context of intergroup conflicts. In this article, we offer an emotion regulation perspective on social-psychological interventions aimed at facilitating intergroup reconciliation. In the first section of the article, we conceptualize intergroup reconciliation as an emotion-regulation process involving positive affective change and offer a framework that integrates the emotion regulation and intergroup reconciliation literatures. In the sections that follow, we review social-psychological interventions that involve changes in beliefs and identity and assess their effects on specific intergroup emotions pertinent for intergroup reconciliation. More specifically, we focus our discussion on specific reconciliation-oriented intervention strategies and their relation to emotions pertinent for facilitating reconciliation, including intergroup hatred, anger, guilt, hope, and empathy. In the final section, we consider key implications and growth points for the field of intergroup reconciliation.