Rejection Sensitivity and Executive Control: Joint predictors of Borderline Personality features

Two studies tested the hypothesis that rejection sensitivity (RS) and executive control (EC) jointly predict borderline personality (BP) features. We expected high RS to be related to increased vulnerability for BP features specifically in people who also had difficulties in executive control (EC). Study 1 tested this hypothesis using a sample of college students (N = 379) whereas Study 2 (N = 104) was conducted using a community sample of adults. Both studies operationalized EC by a self-report measure. For a subsample in Study 2 (N = 80), ability to delay gratification at age 4 was also used as an early behavioral precursor of EC in adulthood. In both studies, high RS was associated with increased BP features among people low in self-reported EC. Among those high in self-reported EC, the relationship between RS and BP features was attenuated. Study 2 found parallel findings using preschool delay ability as a behavioral index of EC. These findings suggest that EC may protect high RS people against BP features.     

Delay discounting: Interactions between personality and cognitive ability

Delay discounting describes the extent to which the value of a reward decreases as the delay to obtaining that reward increases. Lower discounting rates predict better outcomes in social, academic, and health domains. The current study investigates how personality and cognitive ability interact to predict individual differences in delay discounting. Extraversion was found to predict higher discounting rates at the low end of the cognitive distribution, while emotional stability was found to predict lower discounting rates at the high end of the cognitive distribution. These findings support recent models of discounting behavior and suggest that personality and cognitive ability interact in shaping decision making.     

Foregoing the labor for the fruits: The effect of just world threat on the desire for immediate monetary rewards

Previous theorizing and research suggest that the need to believe in a just world develops when children begin to understand the benefits of foregoing their immediate gratifications for more desirable, long-term outcomes. Drawing on this previous work, we propose that an extant just world threat may induce a desire for smaller, immediate rewards at the expense of larger, delayed rewards. Participants were exposed to the suffering of an innocent or non-innocent victim and then, in a different context, completed a temporal discounting task that assessed, across six time delays, their preferences for smaller, immediate monetary rewards versus a constant, larger, delayed reward. Consistent with our reasoning, participants exposed to the suffering of an innocent versus non-innocent victim more steeply discounted the value of the delayed reward—that is, they were willing to accept smaller immediate rewards in place of the larger, delayed reward. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

大学生未来取向与学习自主性的关系研究:学业延迟满足和时间管理倾向的多重中介作用

本研究旨在探讨未来取向和学习自主性的关系,分析学业延迟满足、时间管理倾向的作用.采用问卷法对731名大学生进行调查,研究表明:(1)大学生未来取向、学业延迟满足、时间管理倾向和学习自主性之间均存在显著相关;(2)大学生学业延迟满足、时间管理倾向在未来取向和学习自主性间存在中介效用,即未来取向直接影响大学生的学习自主性,...     

Influence of Generational Status and Financial Stress on Academic and Career Self‐Efficacy

The importance of a college degree is underscored by higher unemployment rates of individuals who have not completed college (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014 ). Academic and career self‐efficacy influence students' completion of college, and 1st‐generation college students and those under financial strain may experience decreased self‐efficacy (Wohlgemuth et al., 2007 ). Participants in this study (N = 383) were college students at a 4‐year university. Results from a 2 × 3 multivariate analysis of variance and discriminant function analysis revealed significant differences in academic and career self‐efficacy based on financial stress, but not generational status.     

Performance in a computerized self-control task by rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta): The combined influence of effort and delay

The variables of delay and effort have been found to influence self-control predictably and in similar fashion when tested independently, but it is unclear how they influence self-control interactively. In the present study, I tested these two variables simultaneously to gain better understanding of their combined influence on self-control. A computerized task was employed in which monkey participants could sequence 1 or more digital images before “cashing-out,” after which they would receive their accumulated rewards. Delay was manipulated by adjusting the speed of the cursor used to select images. Cognitive effort was manipulated by presenting image sets that appeared in either a constant or a randomized configuration. For most monkeys, an interaction was found between the effects of delay and effort on the number of images selected before cashing-out. The results suggest that, when combined, these two variables have a complex influence on self-control.     

中国儒家传统金融伦理思想初探

本文试图探讨儒家的金融伦理思想。文章认为:儒家由人性自利的基础出发,强调金融合理的自然主义立场;由此进一步导出仁义为本的民本主义;智勇兼重的理性精神;礼让为先的合作精神等主要金融伦理原则。这些原则与诚信原则、互利互惠原则、节俭原则等一起构造了中国古代金融伦理体系。我们应该积极有效地从这些资源中吸取养料,在改造发展的原则下为建设适应社会主义市场经济制度的崭新的金融体系而努力。     

Financial aspirations,financial success,and overall life satisfaction: who? and how?

Nickerson et al. (2003, Psychological Science 14, pp. 531–536) demonstrated in a longitudinal study that the negative relation between aspirations for financial success and subjective well-being found by other researchers was mitigated by high household income. The present study first refined the analysis in Nickerson et al. (2003) and then explored two additional issues: (a) who aspires to financial success? and (b) how is financial success achieved? Analysis indicated that individuals with strong financial aspirations are socially inclined, confident, ambitious, politically conservative, traditional, conventional, and relatively less able academically, but not psychologically distressed. Financial success is achieved via the job and, for women only, via marriage. Financial aspirations influence job income both by influencing choice of occupation and by influencing job income within occupation; however, achieving financial success depends on having the personal resources to do so. Women with strong financial aspirations tend to marry for money (or money-making potential) regardless of their work status; men with strong financial aspirations do not.     

个体与群体情境下3～5岁幼儿延迟满足的实验研究

采用实验法以90名3~5岁的儿童为被试,探讨其在个体和群体情境中延迟满足的特点。研究结果表明:3~5岁幼儿的延迟满足能力存在着显著的年龄差异,随着年龄的增长而不断提高;3岁幼儿延迟满足能力较弱,而4、5岁的幼儿在这种能力上有了较明显的发展,但从整体上来看,幼儿阶段的延迟满足能力仍然很低;3~5岁幼儿的延迟满足能力在不同的情境、不同性别中不存在显著的差异。     

Role of maternal affect and regulatory strategies in toddlers’ emotion and behavior regulation

Using a moment-to-moment multilevel approach, we examined the relative effectiveness of (a) toddlers’ lagged (i.e., previous-interval) regulatory strategies and toddlers’ lagged expression of negative emotion, as moderated by maternal affect, and (b) maternal lagged regulatory strategies, on toddlers’ current-interval (1) expression of negative emotion, and, (2) ability to delay gratification during a wait task. Two-level random coefficient models, with twelve repeated-measurement occasions (10 s-intervals) of observed behaviors (N = 1571) nested within 134 mother-toddler dyads from low-income families (67 girls; M_age = 25.77 months, SD_age = 1.60) were examined. Cross-level interactions revealed that maternal positive affect buffered severity of toddlers’ expression of negative emotion between lagged and current-intervals, while maternal negative affect disrupted toddlers’ effective utilization of lagged regulatory strategies on current-interval expression of negative emotion. However, regardless of maternal affect, toddlers who displayed higher expression of negative emotion and utilized more regulatory strategies in lagged-intervals displayed greater delay of gratification in current-intervals. Also, as mothers displayed greater minimization of toddlers' emotional distress, higher physical restraint, and used fewer distractions, toddlers displayed more intense expression of negative emotion in subsequent intervals. Similarly, as mothers used higher physical restraint and fewer distractions, toddlers were less able to wait in subsequent intervals. Results illustrate the disruptive roles of maternal negative affect and unsupportive regulatory strategies on toddlers' emotion and behavior regulation. Together, these findings point to targeting maternal positive affect in combination with supportive regulatory strategies to promote toddlers’ transition from external- to internal-regulation.