What’s Your Style? Preliminary Validation of the Gaming Styles Questionnaire

Within-group differences amongst gamers must be considered when studying the psychological correlates of gameplay. A conceptual framework, whereby gaming may be treated as a means to other ends—such as coping with boredom or bonding with friends—or as an end in itself, was the basis upon which the Gaming Styles Questionnaire was developed. Factor analysis and criterion-group validity, based on data obtained from a heterogeneous sample of gamers, offered support to a continuum of gamers, ranging from those for whom gaming is a means to other ends to those for whom gaming is an end in itself. Although age did not correlate with gaming style, men’s endorsement of gaming as an end in itself was stronger than women’s.     

The Importance of Emotional Intelligence and Cognitive Style in Institutionalized Older Adults' Quality of Life

Despite previous evidence showing a positive relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and quality of life (QoL), associating older adults' emotional processing with several health indicators, few studies have explored both the IE and the a mechanisms through which they affect QoL. This cross-sectional study analyzes the mediator role of optimistic and pessimistic cognitive styles in the relationship between perceived EI (PEI) and QoL in 115 institutionalized older adults from Southern Spain. Regression analyses showed, after controlling for cognitive style, that PEI predicted a significant percentage of variance in: Health (β = .25, p < .01), Functional abilities (β = .20, p < .05), Activity and leisure (β = .17, p < .05) and Life satisfaction (β = .21, p < .05). Additionally, multiple mediation analysis revealed that cognitive style partially mediated the relationship between PEI and Health, Activity and leisure and Life satisfaction. Thus, PEI could promote personal but not external or environmental QoL aspects, highlighting the importance of developing emotional skills for healthy aging.     

高中生感恩与心理一致感的关系:积极情感与积极应对的中介效应

采用整群抽样法对449名高中生进行了感恩,积极情感,积极应对以及心理一致感的测量,通过结构方程模型分析了积极情感与积极应对在感恩与心理一致感之间的中介作用,结果如下:(1)感恩既对心理一致感有直接预测作用,占总效应的46%,又可以通过积极情感与积极应对间接作用于心理一致感,占总效应的54%,总中介效应要大于直接效应;(2)感恩到积极应对作用路径的差异值临界比(CRD)存在性别差异,男生的路径系数(γ=.43,p.01)显著高于女生(γ=-.01,p.05)。     

Achievement motivation and attributional style as mediators between perfectionism and subjective well-being in Chinese university students

This study examined both the mediation effects of achievement motivation and attributional style on the relationship between perfectionism and subjective well-being in a sample of Chinese university students. Four hundred ninety-three participants with an age range of 18–24 (206 males and 287 females) completed the Hewitt and Flett Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (HMPS), the Achievement Motivation Scale (AMS), the Multidimensional–Multiattributional Causality Scale (MMCS) and the General Well-Being Schedule (GWB). Correlation analysis indicated that perfectionism was positively correlated with subjective well-being. Structural equation modeling exhibited the partial mediation effects of attributional style and achievement motivation on the relationship between perfectionism and subjective well-being. Moreover, a multi-group analysis indicated that the mediation model was not moderated by gender. These findings contribute to the complex nature of the association between perfectionism and subjective well-being. This study’s implications for future research and limitations of the present findings are discussed.     

Giving and receiving autonomy support in a high-stakes sport context: A field-based experiment during the 2012 London Paralympic Games

ObjectiveRecognizing that high-stakes competitions tend to pressure coaches toward a maladaptive controlling motivating style, we sought to evaluate the capacity of an intervention to help coaches adopt a more autonomy-supportive style as they and their athletes prepared for the 2012 London Paralympic Games.DesignWe adopted a coach-focused experimental research design that longitudinally assessed coaches' and athletes' self-report, rater-scored, and objective dependent measures.MethodWe randomly assigned 33 coaches and their 64 athletes from 10 sports into either an experimental or control group and assessed their motivation and functioning longitudinally.ResultsIn the control group, athletes and coaches both showed a significant longitudinal deterioration in all measures of motivation, engagement, and functioning. In the experimental group, none of the measures of motivation, engagement, and functioning deteriorated but, instead, were generally maintained. In terms of performance, athletes of coaches in the experimental group won significantly more Olympic medals than did athletes in the control group.ConclusionEnacting an autonomy-supportive coaching style within the context of a high-stakes sports competition functioned as an antidote to coaches' otherwise situationally-induced controlling style.     

Too much anticipation? Large anticipatory adjustments of grasping movements to minimal object manipulations

When humans grasp objects, the grasps foreshadow the intended object manipulation. It has been suggested that grasps are selected that lead to medial arm postures, which facilitate movement speed and precision, during critical phases of the object manipulation. In Experiment 1, it has been tested whether grasp selections lead to medial postures during rotations of a dial. Participants twisted their arms considerably before grasping the dial, even when the upcoming dial rotation was minimal (5°). Participants neither assumed a medial posture at any point during a short rotation, nor did they assume any of the postures involved in short rotations in the opposite direction. Thus, grasp selections did not necessarily lead to specific postures at any point of the object manipulation. Experiment 2 examined the effect of various grasps on the speed of dial rotations. A medial initial grasp resulted in the fastest dial rotations for most rotation angles. Spontaneously selected grasps were more excursed than necessary to maximize dial rotation speed. This apparent overshot might be explained by participants’ sensitive to the variability of their grasps and is in line with the assumption that grasps facilitate control over the grasped object.     

大学生自我同一性状态与同一性风格、亲子沟通的关系

采用问卷法对594名大学生进行调查,结果发现,大学生自我同一性状态的人数分布中,延缓状态占67.5%,其余三种同一性状态各占10%左右;大学生在四种同一性状态的人数分布上不存在年级差异和性别差异;与其他同一性状态相比,获得状态的大学生在信息风格上得分最高,早闭状态的大学生在规范风格上得分最高,扩散状态的大学生在扩散风格上得分最高;亲子沟通中的开放性和问题既对同一性状态有直接预测作用,又以三种同一性风格为中介间接影响同一性状态。     

Interviewing asylum seekers: A vignette study on the questions asked to assess credibility of claims about origin and persecution

The aim of the current vignette study is to map the style, type, and themes of questions that are asked when assessing the credibility of asylum seekers' claims. Sixty‐five officials from the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket ), were asked to respond to one out of four different vignettes that contained fictitious asylum narratives. Each vignette presented the types of problems often encountered by officials at the migration board. Two of the vignettes contained no evidence of the origin of the asylum seeker. The other two contained no evidence for the claim of persecution. The asylum officials were asked to formulate five questions that would help them to assess the veracity of the applicant's claim. Our analyses showed that they mainly formulated open questions in an information gathering style. A thematic analysis of the questions revealed that when a claim about origin was assessed, asylum officials mostly asked questions about life in the country of origin, identity documents, and the flight to Europe. When the claim about persecution was assessed, in contrast, asylum officials mostly formulated case‐specific questions (e.g., how the applicant was arrested). Hence, when the credibility of claims about origin is assessed, there seems to be a typical set of questions that asylum officials use. The asylum officials seem to assume that if the applicant is truly originating from a specific country or area, he or she should have ample knowledge about that area, its customs, and frequently encountered objects.     

Sleep deprivation impairs object recognition in mice

Many studies in animals and humans suggest that sleep facilitates learning, memory consolidation, and retrieval. Moreover, sleep deprivation (SD) incurred after learning, impaired memory in humans, mice, rats, and hamsters. We investigated the importance of sleep and its timing in an object recognition task in OF1 mice subjected to 6h SD either immediately after the acquisition phase (0-6 SD) or 6h later (7-12 SD), and in corresponding undisturbed controls. Motor activity was continuously recorded with infrared sensors. All groups explored two familiar, previously encountered objects to a similar extent, both at the end of the acquisition phase and 24h later during the test phase, indicating intact familiarity detection. During the test phase 0-6 SD mice failed to discriminate between the single novel and the two familiar objects. In contrast, the 7-12 SD group and the two control groups explored the novel object significantly longer than the two familiar objects. Plasma corticosterone levels determined after SD did not differ from time-matched undisturbed controls, but were significantly below the level measured after learning alone. ACTH did not differ between the groups. Therefore, it is unlikely that stress contributed to the memory impairment. We conclude that the loss of sleep and the activities the mice engaged in during the SD, impaired recognition memory retrieval, when they occurred immediately after acquisition. The delayed SD enabled memory consolidation during the 6h when the mice were allowed to sleep, and had no detrimental effect on memory. Neither SD schedule impaired object familiarity processing, suggesting that only specific cognitive abilities were sensitive to the intervention. Sleep may either actively promote memory formation, or alternatively, sleep may provide optimal conditions of non-interference for consolidation.