Cognitive Flexibility and Pro‐environmental Behaviour: A Multimethod Approach

While cognitive flexibility has been hypothesized to relate to adaptive, long‐term‐oriented behaviour, empirical support for such a relationship is scarce. In the present article, we examine the role of cognitive flexibility as a correlate of long‐term‐oriented behaviour in the domain of environmental conservation. In a first study (N = 143), we explored potential associations between multiple self‐report scales and performance‐based measures of cognitive flexibility and pro‐environmental behaviour. Based on its results, we conducted a pre‐registered confirmatory study (N = 264) focusing on the most promising correlations found in our exploratory study. This study generated conclusive support for a positive medium‐sized correlation between cognitive flexibility and pro‐environmental behaviour. Exploratory hierarchical regression analyses further revealed that cognitive flexibility accounted for a small portion of variance in pro‐environmental behaviour above and beyond the Big Five. While appearing robust on the level of self‐reports, the relationship between cognitive flexibility and pro‐environmental behaviour did not reliably extend to the level of performance tasks, possibly because of their relatively specific scope. These results illustrate the contribution of cognitive flexibility to understanding individual differences in long‐term‐oriented, pro‐environmental behaviour. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Recent advances in the psychology of creativity / Avances recientes en psicología de la creatividad

Abstract

This introduction to Studies in Psychology presents a collection of theoretical and empirical works covering various areas of research into the psychology of creativity. This issue contains five articles that present theories or review evidence regarding various approaches to creativity and three articles that are empirical reports. The articles cover a broad range of topics related to the psychology of creativity. Thus, this collection of articles highlights the fact that research into creativity expands our basic understanding of the functioning of the mind, has an impact on other related areas of psychological research and has an increasing number of applications.     

Special Treatment? Flexibilities in the Politics of Regenerative Medicine’s Gatekeeping Regimes in the UK

ABSTRACT

Emerging flexibilities are apparent in gatekeeping regimes applicable to regenerative medicine products, raising issues about the extent to which and forms in which such flexibilities might promote emerging products as a sector warranting special treatment, in the context of recent policy developments in the UK and wider European Union. Concepts of ‘gatekeeping’, ‘gatekeeping regimes’ and ‘gateways’ can point to the ways in which regulatory institutions, health technology assessment organisations, and national planners and purchasers of health services together define and control entry to the medical product marketplace and the adoption of products into the public health-care system. Flexibilities in existing regimes and new gateways are a way of maintaining ‘connection’ between gatekeeping regimes and technoscientific innovation in order to steer innovation pathways. The gateways concept has affinity with that of Callon’s ‘obligatory passage points’. A wide set of recent policy documents show that the measures promoted exhibit a range of alternative gateways that are being constructed around central, legal, restrictive gatekeeping regimes. However, it would be easy to overestimate the significance of these developments as relaxations that would favour innovative producers and their products on a large scale with wide public health impacts. The concepts of gatekeeping regimes and gateways enable understanding of hybrid developments of exceptions and exemptions to dominant regimes which bridge across the arenas of market regulation, health technology assessment and health-care system planning. These arenas are being drawn closer together as a means of politically managing stakeholders’ aims in the UK, EU and other innovating biomedical health systems globally.     

Optimising daily diary questionnaires about fatigue,psychological flexibility and well-being: perspectives of people with rheumatic disease

Objectives: The aim of this study was to understand the perspectives of people with rheumatic disease have about completing a pilot daily diary questionnaire on fatigue and well-being, with the objective of incorporating these perspectives into future daily studies.

Methods: Twenty-two participants with experience of rheumatic disease-related fatigue attended a focus group and/or an individual interview. Before the focus group or interview, participants completed a one-off quantitative diary about their fatigue and well-being that day. In the focus groups and interviews, participants were asked about their experience completing the questionnaire. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis.

Results: Three themes were identified. ‘Concerns about Misinterpretation and Ambiguity’ addressed the elements of the diary questionnaire that were confusing or unclear to participants. ‘Desire to Provide Useful and Accurate Information’ outlined participants’ uncertainty about how to report complex daily experiences. ‘Gaining Personal Insight through Diaries’ revealed the personal benefits participants gained, particularly the development of insight into their fatigue.

Conclusions: People with rheumatic disease are willing to complete a daily diary questionnaire, but emphasise it is important for diary questionnaires to have clear instructions, questionnaire items and response scales. Addressing these concerns will ensure the reliability and validity of quantitative diary data.     

Enhancing Interpretability in Factor Analysis by Means of Mathematical Optimization

Abstract

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) is a widely used statistical technique to discover the structure of latent unobserved variables, called factors, from a set of observed variables. EFA exploits the property of rotation invariance of the factor model to enhance factors’ interpretability by building a sparse loading matrix. In this paper, we propose an optimization-based procedure to give meaning to the factors arising in EFA by means of an additional set of variables, called explanatory variables, which may include in particular the set of observed variables. A goodness-of-fit criterion is introduced which quantifies the quality of the interpretation given this way. Our methodology also exploits the rotational invariance of EFA to obtain the best orthogonal rotation of the factors, in terms of the goodness-of-fit, but making them match to some of the explanatory variables, thus going beyond traditional rotation methods. Therefore, our approach allows the analyst to interpret the factors not only in terms of the observed variables, but in terms of a broader set of variables. Our experimental results demonstrate how our approach enhances interpretability in EFA, first in an empirical dataset, concerning volumes of reservoirs in California, and second in a synthetic data example.     

Stable same‐sex friendships with higher achieving partners promote mathematical reasoning in lower achieving primary school children

This study was designed to investigate friend influence over mathematical reasoning in a sample of 374 children in 187 same‐sex friend dyads (184 girls in 92 friendships; 190 boys in 95 friendships). Participants completed surveys that measured mathematical reasoning in the 3rd grade (approximately 9 years old) and 1 year later in the 4th grade (approximately 10 years old). Analyses designed for dyadic data (i.e., longitudinal actor‐partner interdependence model) indicated that higher achieving friends influenced the mathematical reasoning of lower achieving friends, but not the reverse. Specifically, greater initial levels of mathematical reasoning among higher achieving partners in the 3rd grade predicted greater increases in mathematical reasoning from 3rd grade to 4th grade among lower achieving partners. These effects held after controlling for peer acceptance and rejection, task avoidance, interest in mathematics, maternal support for homework, parental education, length of the friendship, and friendship group norms on mathematical reasoning.     

The effects of a short-term mindfulness meditation intervention on coping flexibility

Background and objectives: Mindfulness meditation (MM) training promotes health and well-being. One potential mechanistic link between MM and health may be coping flexibility, (e.g., the ability to monitor and modify coping strategies based on situational needs and strategy effectiveness). We hypothesized that MM training would increase coping flexibility and also explored whether gains in coping flexibility continued to increase after training, or whether they were maintained or lost with time.

Methods and design: One hundred thirteen students (71 female, M_age?=?18.97) were randomly assigned to a waitlist control or MM condition. Participants in the MM condition were trained by a certified MM instructor and given guided recordings for one-week of at-home practice. Participants provided reports of coping flexibility over a three-week span.

Results: Results from multilevel modeling indicated that MM increased coping flexibility among those in the MM condition and among those who spent relatively more time meditating. Results further suggested that the gains in coping flexibility that were evident at post-test were not only maintained but increased in the two weeks after the intervention.

Conclusions: This study provides preliminary support for the assertion that MM increases the ability to monitor and modify coping strategies during times of stress.     

"易卦"的序结构数学模型在对策理论中的应用

通过分析人类的基本行为元素,并借助于"卦象"序结构数学模型的建立,从而初步讨论了一般谋略方法的产生和起源,以及谋略对策的系统核心元素结构;最后讨论了它们在应用中的初步分类.     

Rigidity and flexibility of gender stereotypes in childhood: developmental or differential?

Previous research has shown that the early learning of male–female categories is characterized by rigid beliefs about stereotypic differences, but that once gender knowledge is well established, the beliefs become more flexible. Because most studies are cross‐sectional, it is not known if the early rigidity represents a normative transitional developmental stage that passes, or if early individual differences in rigidity continue into later childhood. To answer that question, analyses were performed on longitudinal data of 64 children who had been questioned about their gender concepts yearly from ages 5 to 10 years. Supporting a cognitive‐developmental approach, the findings showed that the period of rigidity was short‐lived whether rigidity began early or late or whether the level of peak rigidity was high or low. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Executive functions in early childhood: The role of maternal and paternal parenting practices

We investigated the association between mothers' and fathers' harsh parenting and sensitive parenting practices and child's executive functions (EF) in early childhood in 607 families. We focused on three broad dimensions of child EF: Emergent metacognition, inhibitory self‐control, and flexibility measured with the parent‐reported Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function‐Preschool Version. Less sensitive parenting of the mother and harsher parenting of the father were related to lower scores of emergent metacognition and inhibitory self‐control. Parenting was not associated with child flexibility. This study extends previous research on the association between parenting and EF by the focus on the role of the father and demonstrates independent effects of mother and father on child EF.