Evaluating video modeling and video modeling with video feedback to enhance the performance of competitive dancers

This study evaluated the use of video modeling and video modeling plus video feedback to enhance four adolescents' performance of a dance movement. Intervention was evaluated in a multiple baseline across participants design. This study found that video modeling enhanced performance from baseline, but the addition of video feedback produced further increases. For one participant, improvement was dependent on the perspective of the video model. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Emotion Regulation and Empathy: Which Relation with Social Conduct?

A shared consensus among researchers deals with the positive association between the ability to effectively regulate and manage one's emotion and the engagement in empathic behavior and morally desirable actions. This study was designed to investigate how dispositional reliance on suppression and reappraisal differently impacted on the cognitive and affective components of empathy and on social conduct, distinguishing among prosocial, internalizing, and externalizing behaviors. Two hundred nineteen middle adolescents were enrolled and fulfilled self-reports assessing emotion regulation strategies, empathy, and social behaviors. The results suggest that there are important distinctions among the emotion regulation strategies and the components of empathy as they relate to one another and to prosocial behavior and problem conduct. Specifically, cognitive reappraisal was related to prosocial behavior through empathic concern. While internalizing behavior was associated with emotion regulation strategies, externalizing behavior was only related to perspective-taking ability. Delimitations and practical implications were discussed.     

Selfhood triumvirate: From phenomenology to brain activity and back again

Recently, a three-dimensional construct model for complex experiential Selfhood has been proposed (Fingelkurts, Fingelkurts, & Kallio-Tamminen, 2016b,c). According to this model, three specific subnets (or modules) of the brain self-referential network (SRN) are responsible for the manifestation of three aspects/features of the subjective sense of Selfhood. Follow up multiple studies established a tight relation between alterations in the functional integrity of the triad of SRN modules and related to them three aspects/features of the sense of self; however, the causality of this relation is yet to be shown. In this article we approached the question of causality by exploring functional integrity within the three SRN modules that are thought to underlie the three phenomenal components of Selfhood while these components were manipulated mentally by experienced meditators in a controlled and independent manner. Participants were requested, in a block-randomised manner, to mentally induce states representing either increased (up-regulation) or decreased (down-regulation) sense of (a) witnessing agency (“Self”), or (b) body representational-emotional agency (“Me”), or (c) reflective/narrative agency (“I”), while their brain activity was recorded by an electroencephalogram (EEG). This EEG-data was complemented by first-person phenomenological reports and standardised questionnaires which focused on subjective contents of three aspects of Selfhood. The results of the study strengthen the case for a direct causative relationship between three phenomenological aspects of Selfhood and related to them three modules of the brain SRN. Furthermore, the putative integrative model of the dynamic interrelations among three modules of the SRN has been proposed.     

The observing self: Diminishing egocentrism through brief mindfulness meditation

Reflecting the egocentrism that permeates contemporary society, people often believe they stand out in the eyes of others (i.e., the spotlight effect), a conviction that is entirely misplaced. Although considerable efforts have focused on elucidating the consequences of the spotlight effect, much less is known about factors that may attenuate this illusory perception. Accordingly, the current study explored the possibility that, via shifts in perspectives on the self (i.e., first person vs. third person), brief mindfulness‐based meditation may reduce a future‐oriented variant of this bias. The results revealed that, compared with responses in the control conditions (i.e., control meditation or no mediation), brief mindfulness‐based meditation fostered the adoption of a third‐person vantage point during mental imagery and diminished perceptions of personal salience.     

Vantage perspective during encoding: The effects on phenomenological memory characteristics

The vantage perspective from which a memory is retrieved influences the memory’s emotional impact, intrusiveness, and phenomenological characteristics. This study tested whether similar effects are observed when participants were instructed to imagine the events from a specific perspective. Fifty student participants listened to a verbal report of car-accidents and visualized the scenery from either a field or observer perspective. There were no between-condition differences in emotionality of memories and the number of intrusions, but imagery experienced from a relative observer perspective was rated as less self-relevant. In contrast to earlier studies on memory retrieval, vantage perspective influenced phenomenological memory characteristics of the memory representation such as sensory details, and ratings of vividness and distancing of the memory. However, vantage perspective is most likely not a stable phenomenological characteristic itself. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Can we distinguish an “I” and “ME” during listening?—an event-related EEG study on the processing of first and second person personal and possessive pronouns

Theoretically, stimuli can be related to the self as subject (“I”) or object (“ME”) of experience. This event-related brain potential (ERP) study investigated whether listening to personal and possessive pronouns elicits different modes of self-processing regarding time-course and neural sources. Going beyond previous research, first (1PP) and second person (2PP) pronouns were included to determine the specificity of self-processing. Participants listened passively to German pronouns while the electroencephalogram was recorded. Modulation of ERPs revealed a processing advantage for the 2PP personal pronoun “du” (“you”) already in early time windows. Regarding possessive pronouns, N1 amplitudes indicated increased attention orientation to the 1PP pronoun “mein” (“my”), whereas during later time windows, processing of 1PP and 2PP possessive pronouns did not differ but differed from the third person pronoun “sein” (“his”). ERP source imaging suggests that primary sensory brain regions (auditory cortex), the insula and cortical midline structures are differentially involved into these two processing modes. The results support the idea of distinct self-processing modes (“I” and “ME”) and confirm their dynamic nature. Moreover, they demonstrate that on a neural level neither “I” or “ME” are invariantly tied to the first person, in line with the hypothesis that self-processing is relational and context-dependent.     

Empowering public service workers to face bystander conflict: Enhancing resources through a training intervention

Public service employees work in occupations that are accompanied with high psychosocial risks. Police, firefighters, and paramedics are increasingly being confronted with argumentative, conflicting bystanders that frustrate them in executing their task. We developed a resource‐enhancement intervention and tested its usefulness for securing employees’ effective functioning and well‐being in bystander conflict. In a simulation‐based pre‐test post‐test control group design, paramedics in the intervention condition received training about how to increase their resources in terms of conflict management efficacy, perspective taking, task support, and emotional support. For those in the control condition, no such training was provided. Comparing pre‐ and post‐test measures (n = 81) of the participants in the intervention and control groups, we found evidence that the intervention successfully increased employees’ resources over time. Moreover, we found considerable support for a positive link between these resources and employees’ affective well‐being and job dedication. Thus, our study suggests that a resource‐enhancing intervention can serve as an important means to protect public service employees against the deleterious effects of bystander conflict.

Practitioner points

• A resource‐enhancing intervention can protect public service employees against the deleterious effects of bystander conflict.
• Resources related to dealing with a hindering bystander, as well as resources facilitating the continuation of the primary task, are positively associated with employees’ affective well‐being, job dedication, and job performance.