Listening, not watching: situational familiarity and the ability to detect deception

In 4 experiments, the authors investigated the influence of situational familiarity with the judgmental context on the process of lie detection. They predicted that high familiarity with a situation leads to a more pronounced use of content cues when making judgments of veracity. Therefore, they expected higher classification accuracy of truths and lies under high familiarity. Under low situational familiarity, they expected that people achieve lower accuracy rates because they use more nonverbal cues for their veracity judgments. In all 4 experiments, participants with high situational familiarity achieved higher accuracy rates in classifying both truthful and deceptive messages than participants with low situational familiarity. Moreover, mediational analyses demonstrated that higher classification accuracy in the high-familiarity condition was associated with more use of verbal content cues and less use of nonverbal cues.     

The interplay of math anxiety and math competence for later performance

Social Psychology of Education - Math anxiety’s negative effects on performance are well-documented. The interplay of math anxiety and mathematical competence regarding later performance is...     

Psychodynamische Kurzzeittherapie bei dependenter und vermeidender Persönlichkeitsstörung

Although dependent and avoidant personality disorders are frequent in patient populations, there are only few studies in which the efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions for these two personality disorders was reviewed. The purpose of this study was to examine whether psychodynamic short-term therapy based on the model of the cyclic maladaptive pattern (CMP) is effective for reducing the mental impairment of patients diagnosed with a dependent or an avoidant personality disorder. Data were collected via a self-report scale (Symptom-Checklist, SCL) and expert ratings by therapists [Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale and Severity of Impairment-Score (Beeinträchtigungsschwere-Score, BSS)]. In the study 20 patients received 25 sessions of outpatient therapy. Mental impairment decreased significantly from the beginning to the end of the therapy; moreover this decrease remained stable over a 2-year period following completion of the therapy. The findings show that psychodynamic short-term therapy can lead to an enduring improvement in the mental health of patients with a dependent or an avoidant personality disorder.     

“Of course I will ...”: The combined effect of certainty and level of expectancies on persistence and performance

The importance of performance expectancies for the prediction of regulation of behavior and actual performance has long been established. Building on theories from the field of social cognition, we suggest that the level of performance expectancies, as well as the certainty of the expectancy, have a joint influence on an individual’s beliefs and behavior. In two studies (one cross sectional using a sample of secondary school students and one longitudinal using a sample of university students) we found that expectancies more strongly predicted persistence, and subsequent performance, the more certain the expectancy was. This pattern was found even if prior performance was controlled, as in Study 2. The data give an indication that it may be useful to include certainty as an additional variable in expectancy models.     

The case of Pinocchio: teachers’ ability to detect deception

In a study with 365 teacher students, 447 teacher trainees, and 123 teachers, the ability to detect students’ deception was tested. Participants judged the credibility of videotaped students who were accused of academic dishonesty (having cheated in a test). Half of these messages were actually true (students had not cheated on the test) and half of them were deceptive (students had cheated on the test). As expected and in line with findings on the influence of expertise on the ability to detect deception from other fields, we found that the overall accuracy rate of teachers was not higher than that of teacher trainees and teacher students. Moreover, we found no effect of teaching experience (years working as a teacher) on overall detection of deception accuracy. Interestingly, teachers were found to have a stronger truth bias and therefore had a lower accuracy in detecting deceptive messages than teacher students and teacher trainees (veracity effect). While teacher characteristics accounted for very little variance, senders’ opportunity to prepare and their gender had strong effects. Detection accuracy was higher for messages where the student had no chance to prepare before being accused of cheating. Overall, independent, or experience, participants hold inaccurate beliefs about deception.     

Regulatory Fit in Self-Enhancement and Self-Protection: Implications for Life Satisfaction in the West and the East

This online study examined whether regulatory focus and culture moderate the links between self-enhancement/self-protection and life satisfaction. The study assessed promotion and prevention foci, manipulated self-enhancement or self-protection, and measured self-reported life satisfaction in both Western participants (127 English-speaking individuals; 73 female, 50 male, 4 unspecified; M _age = 29.01, SD _age = 10.26) and Chinese participants (141 Zhanjiang Normal University members; 88 females, 53 males; M _age = 22.18, SD _age = 3.14). Promotion-focused individuals experienced higher life satisfaction when engaging in self-enhancement strivings, whereas prevention-focused individuals experienced equal levels of life satisfaction when engaging in self-protection strivings, in both Western and Chinese participants. Furthermore, Western participants manifested higher levels of life satisfaction when employing self-enhancement strivings independently of regulatory focus. On the other hand, Chinese participants experienced equivalent levels of life satisfaction when engaging in self-enhancement and self-protection strivings. The findings establish regulatory focus and culture as independent moderators of the association between self-enhancement/self-protection and life satisfaction.     

Toward a tripartite model of intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation (IM) refers to engaging in an activity for the pleasure inherent in the activity. The present article presents a tripartite model of IM consisting of IM to know (i.e., engaging in an activity to experience pleasure while learning and trying to understand something new), IM toward accomplishment (i.e., engaging in an activity for the pleasure experienced when attempting task mastery), and IM to experience stimulation (i.e., engaging in an activity for feelings of sensory pleasure). The tripartite model of IM posits that each type of IM can result from task, situational, and personality determinants and can lead to specific types of cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes. The purpose of this research was to test some predictions derived from this model. Across 4 studies (Study 1: N = 331; Study 2: N = 113; Study 3: N = 58; Study 4: N = 135), the 3 types of IM as well as potential determinants and consequences were assessed. Results revealed that experiencing one type of IM over the others depends in part on people's personality styles. Also, each type of IM was found to predict specific outcomes (i.e., affective states and behavioral choices). The implications of the tripartite model of IM for motivation research are discussed.     

On passion and moral behavior in achievement settings: The mediating role of pride

The Dualistic Model of Passion (Vallerand et al. in J Person Soc Psychol 85:756–767, 2003) distinguishes two types of passion: harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP) that predict adaptive and less adaptive outcomes, respectively. In the present research, we were interested in understanding the role of passion in the adoption of moral behavior in achievement settings. It was predicted that the two facets of pride (authentic and hubristic; Tracy and Robins in J Person Soc Psychol, 92:506–525, 2007) would mediate the passion-moral behavior relationship. Specifically, because people who are passionate about a given activity are highly involved in it, it was postulated that they should typically do well and thus experience high levels of pride when engaged in the activity. However, it was also hypothesized that while both types of passion should be conducive to authentic pride, only OP should lead to hubristic pride. Finally, in line with past research on pride (Carver et al. in J Res Person 44:698–703, 2010; Tracy et al. in Self Identity 8:196–213, 2009), only hubristic pride was expected to negatively predict moral behavior, while authentic pride was expected to positively predict moral behavior. Results of two studies conducted with paintball players (N = 163, Study 1) and athletes (N = 296, Study 2) supported the proposed model. Future research directions are discussed in light of the Dualistic Model of Passion.     

Faces elicit different scanning patterns depending on task demands

Eye movements were recorded while participants discriminated upright and inverted faces that differed with respect to either configural or featural information. Two hypotheses were examined: (1) whether featural and configural information processing elicit different scanning patterns; (2) whether fixations on a specific region of the face dominate scanning patterns. Results from two experiments were compared to examine whether participants’ prior knowledge of the kind of information that would be relevant for the task (i.e., configural vs featural) influences eye movements. In Experiment 1, featural and configural discrimination trials were presented in random order such that participants were unaware of the information that would be relevant on any given trial. In Experiment 2, featural and configural discrimination trials were blocked and participants were informed of the nature of the discriminations. The results of both experiments suggest that faces elicit different scanning patterns depending on task demands. When participants were unaware of the nature of the information relevant for the task at hand, face processing was dominated by attention to the eyes. When participants were aware that relational information was relevant, scanning was dominated by fixations to the center of the face. We conclude that faces elicit scanning strategies that are driven by task demands.     

Repetition of educational AIDS advertising affects attitudes

In educational AIDS campaigns, initiators often use advertisements to warn about the threat of AIDS. The present Internet study (N = 283) tested the assumption of an inverted U-shaped relationship between the number of educational AIDS advertisements in a magazine and the perceived threat of AIDS among different groups (i.e., homosexual men and heterosexual men and women). This expectation was primarily based on signaling theory, which assumes that recipients use repetition frequency as a cue for judgments about the message. Results provided support for the expected inverted U-curve.