The Effect of Effort and Weight Controllability on Perceptions of Obese Individuals

We examined the impact of offset controllability (capability of losing weight) and offset effort (efforts to lose weight) on judgments of an obese target. Participants (n = 216) read about an obese person whose body weight was controllable/uncontrollable, and who did/did not put in effort to eat healthily and exercise. Effort played a more important role than controllability in evaluations of the target. Targets who put in effort to be healthy were ascribed fewer obesity stereotypes, evoked less disgust, and were considered to have a more acceptable lifestyle. These findings extend attribution theory and have implications for strategies to reduce weight bias.     

Looking back and falling further behind: The moderating role of rumination on the relationship between organizational politics and employee attitudes,well-being,and performance

The current study tested the theoretically relevant, yet previously unexamined, role of rumination on the relationship between politics perceptions and a variety of threat responses. Drawing from Response Styles Theory, it was argued that rumination amplifies the effects of politics by enhancing the influence of negative information on cognition, interfering with problem-solving, and undermining sources of social support. The work stress literature, along with extant politics research, served to identify four variables – job satisfaction, tension, depressed work mood, and employee effort/performance – that served as study outcomes. Across three unique samples, hypothesized relationships were strongly supported, indicating that politics perceptions negatively affected work outcomes of high ruminators, but demonstrate little influence on those who engage in less rumination. Moreover, the nonlinear influences of the focal constructs were considered and the results confirmed atypical relational forms. Contributions, implications for theory and practice, strengths and limitations, and future research directions are described.     

Top Ten Questions Male Sexual Abuse Survivors Want to Know from Health Care Research

Sexual abuse is an often overlooked public health issue for boys and men. Given its prevalence and well-documented connection to mental and physical health disorders, the relevance of male survivor input and engagement in health care research is profound. Using a community-based participatory research design, an in-person focus group with male survivors of sexual abuse and researchers was conducted. This paper describes the top ten research questions male sexual abuse survivors would like to have answered. Survivors were most interested in knowing how sexual abuse and assault impact men’s emotional and sexual functioning, what factors are involved in preventing and treating sexual assault-related emotional distress, and what can be done to prevent sexual abuse of boys and men. The fact that some of the questions survivors expressed an interest in knowing about have actually previously been investigated by researchers suggests a disconnect in translating evidence-based findings. Clinical and research implications include designing outreach interventions and gender-specific psychoeducation to increase engagement and access to care for men.     

Stress perçu et santé physique des doctorants dans les universités françaises

Few studies have focused on PhD students in France despite the fact that this population appears to be particularly vulnerable to stress and often faces precariousness. This research investigated associations between socio-demographic factors, health behaviours, perceived stress and physical health in a wide sample of PhD students (n = 1923) in order to have a better understanding of this population's specificities. Our results indicated that stress is a critical issue among PhD candidates. Predictors of perceived stress were: gender, age, satisfaction with supervision, sleep quality and sports practice. Findings from this study confirm the relevance of the transactional model to investigate students’ health issues and suggest that physical activity and stress management should be encouraged through health promotion programs.     

急性心理应激影响记忆效果：心理韧性的调节作用

研究选取56名大学生被试,通过特里尔社会应激测验、记忆和心理韧性测验来探究急性心理应激对大学生记忆效果的影响,以及心理韧性在二者关系中的调节作用。结果表明相对于非应激组,应激组大学生的整体记忆成绩更差,且应激组中的高应激反应大学生的记忆成绩比低应激反应者的记忆成绩更差;心理韧性可以调节应激反应与记忆成绩之间的关系,表现为高心理韧性者的记忆成绩显著好于低心理韧性者。研究进一步从认知加工资源分配与再分配的视角讨论了心理应激、心理韧性与记忆功能三者间的关系与启示。     

儿童版特里尔社会应激测试对儿童唾液皮质醇、唾液α-淀粉酶和情绪的影响

研究以150名五、六年级的学生为被试,考察儿童版特里尔社会应激测试（TSST-C）对儿童客观生理反应（唾液皮质醇和唾液α-淀粉酶）和主观情绪反应的影响。结果发现,TSST-C引起了儿童显著的应激反应,包括皮质醇和唾液α-淀粉酶水平的升高,以及主观消极情绪（如焦虑和紧张）的增加,这表明TSST-C在中国儿童中的适用情况良好,能够有效诱发儿童的应激反应。同时,研究也发现,皮质醇反应和唾液α-淀粉酶反应不存在相关,生理反应和情绪反应之间也不存在相关。     

Perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns interact to predict negative emotionality: Support for the tripartite model of perfectionism in Canadian and Chinese university students

For most individuals, perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns coexist to varying degrees. While there is agreement that within-person combinations of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns produce meaningful “subtypes”, the number and characterization of these within-person combinations is still debated. The two most prominent person-centered perfectionism models (the tripartite model and the 2 × 2 model) offer differing characterizations of how perfectionistic strivings effects perfectionistic concerns’ relationship with psychological outcomes. According to the 2 × 2 model, perfectionistic strivings buffers against the negative effects of perfectionistic concerns. The 2 × 2 model thus claims the most deleterious within-person combination of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns is low strivings and high concerns. In contrast, according to the tripartite model, perfectionistic strivings exacerbates the maladaptive effects of perfectionistic concerns. The tripartite model thus claims the most maladaptive within-person combination of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns is high strivings and high concerns. The present study tested these competing claims in a group of English speaking Canadians and a group of Mandarin speaking Chinese. Results support the tripartite model of perfectionism.     

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.     

Goal Motives, Well-Being, and Physical Health: Happiness and Self-Realization as Psychological Resources Under Challenge

An integrative model of goal motives, well-being, and physical health was tested within three studies. Study 1 demonstrated that pursuing autonomous goals was positively associated with both happiness and self-realization, whereas pursuing controlled goals was negatively associated with self-realization, but unrelated to happiness. Study 1 further revealed that self-realization was negatively associated with physical symptoms, whereas happiness was unrelated to the symptoms. Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1 while showing that academic stress mediated the relationship between self-realization and physical symptoms. Finally, Study 3 replicated the findings of Studies 1 and 2 and additionally demonstrated that academic coping mediated the relationship between self-realization and academic stress. These findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications and directions for future research are proposed.