Mood-congruent false memories persist over time

There are two contrasting hypotheses that attempt to explain how emotion perception might be organised in the brain. One suggests that all emotions are lateralised to the right hemisphere whereas the other suggests that emotions may be differently lateralised according to valence. Here these two theories are contrasted, in addition to considering the role of emotional intensity in explaining possible differences in strength of lateralisation across emotions. Participants completed a Chimeric Faces Test for each of the six basic emotions: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise. All emotions showed significant lateralisation to the right hemisphere, however, differences in strength of lateralisation within the right hemisphere were found. Stronger patterns of right hemisphere lateralisation were found for positive emotions and for emotions of higher intensity. The results support the right-hemisphere hypothesis, but suggest that there may be variability in organisation within the right hemisphere across different types of emotion.     

Making sense of “resistance”: Responses to organizational change in a private nursing home for the elderly

Abstract

This article reports a study of resistance to change amongst organizational employees. It focuses on the introduction of skill development programmes to give staff nationally recognized qualifications. Resistance to the innovation is interpreted in light of the values of staff and how they are consistent or inconsistent with the value base of the innovation.     

Brief Intervention of Alcohol Problems in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review

The purpose of this review was to identify and assess studies that have described and quantified brief interventions of alcohol problems in sub-Saharan Africa. PubMed, Google scholar, CAB Abstracts and article references were searched to identify studies published in English between 1980 and 2009. Twenty-one eligible studies were described in detail and information on study characteristics extracted. All of the identified studies were conducted either in east or southern Africa and varied substantially in terms of study design, population and alcohol use definitions. Overall, brief intervention of alcohol problems in health care settings showed positive results but were difficult to integrate into routine practice. Brief interventions (ranging from a few to 12 sessions) in school settings showed mixed results. In individual or group format in community settings, brief interventions combined with HIV risk reduction counselling showed promising short term results. The findings of this review of sub-Saharan African research strongly support the possible impact of brief interventions of alcohol problems in various settings.     

Psychological interventions for carers of people with dementia: A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative evidence

Rationale: Carers of people with dementia experience significant levels of stress in their everyday role. The National Dementia Strategy in England identifies the key role that carers play in supporting people with dementia living at home, often to the detriment of their social, emotional and physical health. Aims: To add to the substantive knowledge‐base by combining search criteria used by Pinquart and Sörensen (2006) and Gallagher‐Thompson and Coon (2007) to update the literature on psychological interventions for carers of people with dementia published between 2005 and 2011. Method: Following the study inclusion criteria, comprehensive searches were conducted using the electronic databases Medline, PsycINFO, ERIC, and PubMed. Twenty studies were identified, graded and synthesised into the reported systematic review with both quantitative and qualitative studies included to maximise practice application. Results: Consistent with previous findings, three categories of psychological intervention were identified: (i) psychoeducational‐skill building (n=8); (ii) psychotherapy‐counselling (n=1); (iii) multicomponent (n=6). Our review also identified a fourth intervention category, (iv) technology‐based (n=5). The majority of studies in the updated review examine the constructs of depression, burden, social support and well‐being. The development of focused interventions for carers, whether individually tailored interventions or group interventions around a common issue, was significant for developing practice. Future studies across all categories should continue to embed supervision arrangements within their psychological intervention protocols.     

青少年与成人不同情绪刺激调节效应的差异

旨在探究增强调节和减弱调节调节效应量的年龄差异。通过两个实验系统考察青少年和成人对不同情绪刺激使用不同调节策略时,调节效应的差异。实验一采用“情绪反应性—调节图片任务（REAR-I Task）”考察了35名青少年和35名成人情绪调节的效应量。实验二进一步对情绪图片的唤醒度进行分组（高唤醒/低唤醒）,考察了59名青少年和59名成人情绪调节的效应量。结果验证了研究假设：整体而言,对不同效价和唤醒度情绪刺激采用增强调节或减弱调节时,成人的调节效应量均大于青少年,对正性情绪的减弱调节方面尤为明显。     

The impact of mindfulness on well-being and performance in the workplace: an inclusive systematic review of the empirical literature

Work can be demanding, imposing challenges that can be detrimental to the physical and mental health of workers. Efforts are therefore underway to develop practices and initiatives that may improve occupational well-being. These include interventions based on mindfulness meditation. This paper offers a systematic review of empirical studies featuring analyses of mindfulness in occupational contexts. Databases were reviewed from the start of records to January 2016. Eligibility criteria included experimental and correlative studies of mindfulness conducted in work settings, with a variety of well-being and performance measures. A total of 153 papers met the eligibility criteria and were included in the systematic review, comprising 12,571 participants. Mindfulness was generally associated with positive outcomes in relation to most measures. However, the quality of the studies was inconsistent, so further research is needed, particularly involving high-quality randomized control trials.     

Constructing a positive narrative for African sport consumerism

Sport consumerism is a burgeoning field of practice and serves both the utilitarian and behaviouristic goals. The utilitarian aspects are aligned to derivatives of value generated through the sport consumption effort. Behaviourism in the consumer context suggests a communal narrative, informed through observable actions which, in totality, construe social phenomena. This article applied social exchange theory to understand the utilitarian and behavioural functions sub-served by sport consumer psychology in the African context. An evaluation of literature from regional studies is made and the theory is explored with the view of putting forward research themes for the future.     

Socioeconomic status as a moderator between social cognitions and physical activity: Systematic review and meta-analysis based on the Theory of Planned Behavior

BackgroundHealth inequalities are to a substantial degree due to socioeconomic status (SES) related differences in health behaviors such as physical activity. However, little is known about the role SES plays in the self-regulation of physical activity.PurposeThis systematic review with meta-analysis examines whether a comprehensive set of indicators of SES (income, education, occupational status) impacts on the behavioral self-regulation by moderating the relationships between social cognitions in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and physical activity.MethodsA systematic literature search identified 99 studies from 88 articles that provided information on sample SES and correlations between TPB variables and physical activity. Random-effects meta-analyses were used to pool correlations corrected for sampling and measurement error. Random-effects meta-regression was used to examine moderating effects of study-level SES on these correlations.ResultsEducation moderated the relationship between intentions and physical activity, such that studies with better educated samples reported stronger intention-physical activity relationships.ConclusionsThese results suggest that education might play a major role in the self-regulation of physical activity, with better educated samples more likely to translate intentions into behavior. This can both help to explain heterogeneity in the relation between intentions and physical activity as well as support the development of more effective interventions targeting intentions and physical activity.     

Direct evaluative conditioning in brand placement: The impact of scene valence and prominence on brand placement repetition effects

Whereas previous studies investigated the affect transfer from one specific affective stimulus of the brand placement context (such as an artist or the genre) to the brand, this research study investigates the effect of the valence of various scenes in which the brand is repeatedly placed on brand attitude. Direct evaluative conditioning theory suggests that pairing a brand repeatedly with various positive (negative) stimuli positively (negatively) affects brand attitude. The results of 2 experimental studies indicate that when a brand is repeatedly and prominently placed in different affective scenes of the same valence (a series of either positive or negative scenes), the affect aroused by those scenes influences explicit and implicit brand attitudes. In addition, whereas previous research found negative effects of brand prominence on brand evaluations, this study found that prominence positively moderates the affect transfer from the valence of various scenes on brand attitude. This implies that by placing the brand in various positive scenes, prominent brand placements can have a positive effect on recall and recognition and on brand attitude, which transcends the previously declared paradox of prominent placement.