The Emotional Foundation of Political Cognition: The Impact of Extrinsic Anxiety on the Formation of Political Tolerance Judgments

Common sense recognizes emotion's ability to influence judgments. We argue that affective processes, in addition to generating feeling states, also influence how political cognition is manifested. Drawing on the theory of affective intelligence, we examine the role that anxiety plays in how and when people rely on predispositions and when they rely on contemporaneous information in making political tolerance judgments. We report on two experimental studies to test our arguments. In the first study we find that extrinsic anxiety generates a resistance response among subjects who hold a strong predisposition and a receptive response among those who do not. In the second study we present subjects with explicit "frames" exposing them to a pro- or anti-free speech message. We find that extrinsic anxiety enhances responsiveness to frames while an absence of anxiety diminishes the impact of these frames. Taken together these results show that affective processes shape how people make political judgments.     

The Automaticity of Affect for Political Leaders, Groups, and Issues: An Experimental Test of the Hot Cognition Hypothesis

We report the results of three experimental tests of the "hot cognition" hypothesis, which posits that all sociopolitical concepts that have been evaluated in the past are affectively charged and that this affective charge is automatically activated within milliseconds on mere exposure to the concept, appreciably faster than conscious appraisal of the object.
We find support for the automaticity of affect toward political leaders, groups, and issues; specifically:

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  Most Ss show significantly faster reaction times to affectively congruent political concepts and significantly slower response times to affectively incongruent concepts;

       

When Is More Better?

Abstract— We examine three determinants of the relationship between the magnitude of a stimulus and a person's subjective "value" of that stimulus: the process by which value is assessed (either by feeling or by calculation), the evaluability of the relevant magnitude variable (whether the desirability of a given level of that variable can be evaluated independently), and the mode of evaluation (whether stimuli are encountered and evaluated jointly or separately). Reliance on feeling, lack of evaluability, and separate evaluation lead to insensitivity to magnitude. An analysis invoking these factors provides a novel account for why people typically become less sensitive to changes in the magnitude of a stimulus as magnitude increases.     

Affect, Curiosity, and Socialization-Related Learning: A Path Analysis of Antecedents to Job Performance

This study examined the influence of affect, curiosity, and socialization-related learning on job performance, with 233 service industry employees from a diverse variety of occupations completing surveys at their places of work. Both state and trait curiosity and socialization-related learning (learning associated with employee socialization) were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between affect (operationalized as state and trait anxiety and anger) and job performance. Structural equation analyses indicate that the data are consistent with the theoretical models proposed. As expected, anxiety negatively influences curiosity, socialization-related learning, and job performance; conversely, anger positively influences curiosity, socialization-related learning, and job performance. Overall, the findings suggest that affects indeed predict perception of job performance, but through the mediation of curiosity and the learning associated with the socialization process. These results highlight the importance of the complex interplay between affect, curiosity, and learning when thinking about successful employee socialization and best possible job performance.     

Between the confusion of tongues and the gift of tongues Or working as a psychoanalyst in a foreign language1

The author worked as a psychoanalyst for 5 years in Germany. In this paper, he attempts to answer the question ‘How was it possible that, in spite of his imperfect knowledge of German, notwithstanding a deepening understanding of the language during his residence in the country, he was able to successfully treat so many patients?’ He starts by putting forward some distinctions between the activity of interpretation as translation of the unconscious with the patient in session and the activity of translation of texts. After a brief exegetic review of the myths of Babel and Pentecost, he suggests that the analyst working in a foreign language moves between ‘the confusion of tongues’ and the ‘gift of tongues’, that is, between Babel and Pentecost. He presents some vignettes to illustrate typical situations he encountered in his practice. Finally, he draws some conclusions from this experience of psychoanalytic polyglotism, mainly on the basis of the communicative function that modern infant research assigns to affect attunement and verbal language.     

Stop and start control: A distinction within self‐control

A theoretical distinction within self‐control, between stop control and start control, was investigated in two studies. Study 1 consisted of a pilot study in which expert ratings of existing self‐control items were used to distinguish between stop and start control items and a confirmatory factor analyses of these items using a student sample (N = 474). Also, stop and start control were related to overall affect and behavioural outcomes. Stop control was negatively related to negative affect, whereas start control was positively related to positive affect. Study 2 (N = 226) replicated some of these findings; stop control was the best predictor (?) of smoking and alcohol consumption whereas start control was the best predictor (+) of exercising and studying. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Work–family interpersonal capitalization: Sharing positive work events at home

In a 3-week experience-sampling study of 52 full-time employees, the authors investigated the within-individual relationships among positive work events, affective states, and job satisfaction. They also examined the influence of work–family interpersonal capitalization (sharing work events with one’s spouse or partner at home) on employees’ job and relationship satisfaction. Results revealed that positive events influenced job satisfaction through positive affect, and work–family interpersonal capitalization on the most positive work event of the day positively impacted job satisfaction over and above the effects of the event’s pleasantness and of the number of other positive work events experienced that day.     

青少年气质对其情绪调节的影响：教师情感能力的作用

青少年情绪调节近年来受到越来越多研究的关注,但环境变量是如何通过个体内变量对情绪调节施加影响还不清楚,我们现在采用多层线性模型探索教师情感能力在青少年学生气质影响其情绪调节中的作用。研究选取7-12年级1385名男女学生,和对应的36名班主任,分别施测学生问卷--情绪调节问卷、青少年早期气质问卷和教师情感能力问卷。结果表明：在学生水平,认知重评与气质维度的努力控制和亲和性正相关,与激情负相关;抑制只和负性情感正相关。在教师水平,教师的情感管理减弱了激情和亲和性对认知重评的影响,而教师的情感沟通增加了亲和性对认知重评的影响;教师的情感管理增强了负性情感对抑制的作用,反而教师情感理解降低了负性情感对抑制的作用。因此,气质的不同维度对学生情绪调节的影响不同,教师情感能力的不同方面对这种影响发挥着不同的调控作用。提示在开展情感教学过程中,对不同气质学生选择不同的情感策略有利于提高学生情绪调节的效果。     

Does identification predict community involvement? Exploring consequences of social identification among the Jewish minority in Poland

Previous research indicated that people who strongly identify with their own group are more involved in the group's actions. The current study examines the relation between three dimensions of group identification (affect, ties, centrality) and forms of community involvement among members of the Jewish minority in Poland. The strength of ingroup ties predicted involvement in the ethnic minority community. The link between identification and involvement was mediated by the cultural dominance. The reported study was the first quantitative survey of the Jewish community in post‐War Poland. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.