The effects of team strategic orientation on team process and information search

We tested the effects of team strategic orientation on team member perceptions, work strategy and information search. In Experiment 1, 80 teams worked on a hidden profile decision-making task. A defensive team strategic orientation increased members’ perceptions of the problem’s scope, leading to a more process-focused work strategy and broader information search compared to an offensive team strategic orientation. When teams needed critical information from the environment, defensive teams outperformed offensive teams; offensive teams performed better when critical information resided within the team. In Experiment 2, these findings were replicated with 92 teams performing a different decision task. When making a second decision, half of the teams were led to change their strategic orientation; teams shifting from offense to defense altered their information search behavior more readily than did teams shifting in the opposite direction, suggesting an asymmetric adaptation effect.     

Achievement emotions in elementary,middle, and high school: How do students feel about specific contexts in terms of settings and subject‐domains?

The present work investigates students' representation of achievement emotions, focusing in context‐specific situations in terms of settings and subject‐domains, as a function of grade level. We involved 527 fourth‐, seventh‐, and eleventh‐graders, who evaluated ten discrete emotions through questionnaires, with reference to verbal language and mathematics, and different settings (class, homework, tests). Confirmatory multitrait‐multimethod analyses indicated higher salience of subject‐domains rather than settings for all the emotions; however, complexity of reality was best explained when also settings were accounted for. Analyses of variance revealed higher intensity of positive emotions for younger students, and the opposite pattern for older students; significant differences for most of the emotions based on the evaluative nature of settings, moderated by class levels; more intense positive emotions for mathematics and more intense negative emotions for Italian. Results are discussed considering their theoretical and applied relevance, corroborating previous literature on domain‐specificity.     

Prediction of toddlers’ expressive language from maternal sensitivity and toddlers’ anger expressions: A developmental perspective

Despite evidence for the importance of individual differences in expressive language during toddlerhood in predicting later literacy skills, few researchers have examined individual and contextual factors related to language abilities across the toddler years. Furthermore, a gap remains in the literature about the extent to which the relations of negative emotions and parenting to language skills may differ for girls and boys. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate the associations among maternal sensitivity, children's observed anger reactivity, and expressive language when children were 18 (T1; n = 247) and 30 (T2; n = 216) months. At each age, mothers reported on their toddlers’ expressive language, and mothers’ sensitive parenting behavior was observed during an unstructured free-play task. Toddlers’ anger expressions were observed during an emotion-eliciting task. Using path modeling, results showed few relations at T1. At T2, maternal sensitivity was negatively related to anger, and in turn, anger was associated with lower language skills. However, moderation analyses showed that these findings were significant for boys but not for girls. In addition, T1 maternal sensitivity and anger positively predicted expressive language longitudinally for both sexes. Findings suggest that the relations between maternal sensitivity, anger reactivity and expressive language may vary depending on the child's developmental stage and sex.     

Changes in the affect of infants before and after episodes of crying

This study examined the affect of infants just before the onset of crying and just after crying stopped. Two infants (between 7 and 14 months old) were observed longitudinally. In total, 102 crying episodes were analyzed. The infants displayed negative affect almost always just before starting to cry and soon after crying terminated. However, there were exceptions. Positive affect was observed. These were crying behaviors that the mother identified as “fake crying” or “emergence of fake crying”. These data indicate that, although normally infant affect just before and right after crying is negative, infants also can exhibit positive affect when they show fake crying. Infants who are capable of fake crying might communicate successfully with their caregivers.     

社会认同对集体行动的作用：群体情绪与效能路径*

为探究多元社会认同如何通过群体情绪、自我和群体效能路径,影响现实或网络集体行动参与,研究者分别以中日撞船事件、利比亚事件和就业性别歧视现象为背景蓝本,开展问卷调查和实验研究,结果发现：群体愤怒情绪主要对现实集体行动有显著影响,效能感对现实和网络集体行动皆有显著影响;与事件相关的、更大范畴的社会类别认同,通过情绪路径或效能路径影响集体行动参与,与集体行动组织方的认同则只通过效能路径影响集体行动参与;两类社会认同与两条路径之间是调节而非中介关系。不同事件背景与不同行动场域下的综合分析表明网络集体行动参与决策更具工具理性特征。     

真实火灾和模拟火灾情境下小鼠的逃生决策比较*

探讨并比较真实火灾和模拟火灾情境下小鼠是否采用直觉性逃生决策。研究包括一个预备训练和两个主实验。预备训练的目的：首先训练小鼠获得有关迷宫路线及出口的经验,然后再经过遗忘处理使它们遗忘相关经验。两个主实验均采用3(情境：真实火灾,模拟火灾,普通情境)×2(记忆：遗忘前和遗忘后)混合实验设计,因变量均为逃生决策。实验组被试为72只经过训练的小鼠,控制组为24只未经过训练的小鼠。通过考察小鼠在不同情境和不同记忆条件下的逃生时间和对逃生出口的选择探测并比较真实火灾和模拟火灾情境下小鼠的逃生决策差异。主要结果：(1)实验组在真实火灾情境下的逃生时间无论遗忘前后都明显比模拟火灾情境下短;(2)实验组在真实火灾和模拟火灾情境下的逃生时间都明显比控制组短;(3)当熟悉和陌生出口均开启同时熟悉出口处有烟雾条件下,真实火灾组在遗忘前后均倾向于选择熟悉出口逃生,其他两组则倾向于选择陌生出口离开。结论：真实火灾和模拟火灾情境下小鼠的逃生决策存在明显差异：真实火灾情境下受过训练的小鼠倾向于直觉性逃生决策;模拟火灾情境下受过训练的小鼠不倾向于直觉性逃生决策。     

Negotiating safer sex: A detailed analysis of attitude functions,anticipated emotions,relationship status and gender

Objective : Because interpersonal discussion about condom use can encourage subsequent condom use, this project aims to examine the psychological antecedents of intentions to discuss or request the use of condoms with a sexual partner.

Method : The data were collected from 849 heterosexual college students in the USA through an online survey. The survey contained several measures related to attitude functions (i.e. motivations), efficacy, norms and intentions to discuss condom use with a sexual partner.

Results : Participants’ attitude functions weakly predicted intentions to discuss condom use. Communication efficacy was a more important predictor of intentions for females (vs. males) and for those in other relationships or not in a relationship (vs. long-term monogamous relationships). Anticipated negative emotions were a stronger predictor of intentions for those in long-term monogamous relationships (vs. other relationships or not in a relationship).

Implications : Future research needs to consider more detailed attitude functions and anticipated emotions. Furthermore, background variables (e.g. gender and relationship status) can be moderators in addition to being distal predictors.     

What do people think about changes in health behaviors? Differential perceptions of consequences of increases and decreases in health behaviors

Most health decision-making models posit that cost-benefit analyses underlie decisions to make changes in health-related behavioral practices. In a series of studies, participants imagined either increasing or decreasing the frequency of a variety of health behaviors and estimated the consequences of those changes. In Studies 1 and 2, individuals consistently estimated that increasing a health behavior produced greater consequences than did decreasing the behavior by an equivalent amount. The results of Study 3 demonstrated that this effect is due to differences in how individuals judge the impact of health behavior changes which involve not engaging in the behavior at all versus other types of changes. Taken together, these findings suggest that perceptions of the outcomes afforded by health behavior changes depend on both the behavioral frequency and direction of changes in behavior an individual is considering. This asymmetry has the potential to help explain patterns of behavior in a range of important health domains and may impact the effectiveness of behavior change interventions.     

The role of self-aspects in emotions elicited by threats to physical health

In two studies, we examined the relationship between self-aspects and socially engaging and socially disengaging emotions elicited by imagined and real physical health problems. In Study 1, participants imagined themselves experiencing a health problem described in a hypothetical scenario and rated the extent to which they would experience a list of emotions. The experience of socially engaging emotions such as shame and embarrassment was predicted by the endorsement of collective self. In Study 2, participants recalled a past health problem and emotions they experienced during its course. Again, collective self predicted the extent to which people mentioned socially engaging emotions in their free recall of emotions. Independent self was not related to the imagined experience of socially disengaging emotions in Study 1 or the recollection of such emotions in Study 2.     

Predictors of interest in direct-to-consumer genetic testing

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing is an increasingly available option among individuals searching for information about their health risk factors and ancestry. This study is one of the first to examine predictors of interest in DTC genetic testing. Participants read one of the three types of information about DTC genetic testing (positive only, negative only or both) and reported perceptions of and intentions to pursue testing. The information which people read, their perceptions of the benefits of testing, their perceptions of the barriers to testing and anticipated regret predicted intentions to undergo testing. Interestingly, people who read both positive and negative information did not differ from people who read only negative information in their intentions to pursue testing. We discuss the implications of these findings for predicting interest in this relatively new type of genetic testing and for designing interventions to encourage (or discourage) testing.