Dimensions of affective experience in three age groups.

The dimensions by which adults of differing ages experience emotion were studied by self-administering questionnaires administered to older adults (n = 828) recruited from Elderhostel programs, middle-aged (ages 30-59) children of Elderhostel attenders (n = 231), and young adult (ages 18-29) subjects recruited from college classes or through Elderhostel participants (n = 207). Elders were higher in emotional control, mood stability, and emotional maturity through moderation and leveling of positive affect and lower in surgency, psychophysiological responsiveness, and sensation seeking. These findings are consistent with the hypothesized increase in self-regulatory capacity with age. These cross-sectional differences cannot, however, be distinguished from cohort-related explanations; they require considerable replication across different types of subjects and further characterization of the dimensions in terms of their functions for self-regulation.     

Walking the tightrope between feeling good and being accurate: mood as a resource in processing persuasive messages

Three studies investigated the influence of mood states on the processing of positive and negative information regarding caffeine consumption and on the impact of this information on one's mood, attitudes, and intentions. The results were consistent with the predictions of the mood-as-a-resource hypothesis: First, the induction of positive mood in high (compared with low) caffeine consumers enhanced recall of negative information about caffeine consumption. Second, processing information about caffeine consumption undermined the positive mood of high (but not low) caffeine consumers. Third, the induction of positive mood enhanced the impact of negative information about caffeine on high (compared with low) caffeine consumers' attitudes and intentions toward caffeine consumption.     

The Effectiveness of a Spiritually-Based Intervention to Alleviate Subsyndromal Anxiety and Minor Depression Among Older Adults

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a spiritually-based intervention in the alleviation of subsyndromal anxiety and minor depression in an elderly population. Twenty-two residents of six continuing care communities diagnosed with minor depression participated in this study. There was a significant decrease in anxiety and a trend toward decreased depression. In addition, participants who continued to use the Prayer Wheel had a decrease in depression scores, while those who did not had an increase in depression scores. These findings suggest that use of the Prayer Wheel may promote psychological well-being among older adults.     

Sadness as Pleasure-Seeking Prime and Anxiety as Attentiveness Prime: The “Different Affect–Different Effect” (DADE) Model

According to popular interpretations of both the mood repair and affect-as-information theories, affective states of the same valence should have equivalent influences on behavior. We propose, instead, the Different Affect–Different Effect (DADE) model. Building on cognitive and psychoevolutionary theories of affect, we predict that while sadness leads to seeking pleasurable stimuli (consistent with mood repair predictions), anxiety leads to becoming more attentive (consistent with affect-as-information predictions). These predictions are tested using consumption stimuli and, across two experiments, results were consistent with our hypotheses. This research helps resolve apparent discrepancies among our findings and those found in previous mood repair and affect-as-information literatures. Specifically, we suggest that in previous demonstrations of mood repair through seeking pleasurable stimuli, the mood-state in question was most closely related to that of sadness. Likewise, we argue that in previous demonstrations of sadness leading to greater attentiveness, the procedure used to evoke sadness is also likely to have evoked anxiety.     

Neural network applications in consumer behavior

This article introduces the concepts and terminology of artificial neural networks. The approach is demonstrated on data that represent a domain of interest to the consumer psychologist. ANNs are mathematical models that are commonly used in business applications to model relationships between variables. A key strength of ANNs is their flexibility, i.e. their ability to easily accommodate linear and non-linear relationships without any a priori functional form specification. They can easily be used to study topics of interest to consumer psychologists such as persuasion, influence, segmentation etc and can offer distinct advantages over traditional statistical techniques such as ANOVA and regression. We demonstrate the application of ANNs in three different areas: regression, non-linear principal component analysis and classification.     

The interplay between feelings and beliefs about condoms as predictors of their use

Objective: Negative feelings about condoms are a key barrier to their use. Using the behavioural affective associations model, we examined the joint effects of affective associations and cognitive beliefs about condoms on condom use.

Design: In Study 1 (N = 97), students completed measures of their affective associations and cognitive beliefs about sex and condoms, sexual activity and condom use. In Study 2 (N = 171), a measure of behavioural intentions and condom selection task were added.

Main outcome measures: Condom use measured in Study 1 as (1) current condom use, and (2) willingness to use condoms; in Study 2 as: (1) behavioural intentions, (2) number of condoms selected.

Results: Affective associations with sex and condoms were behaviour-specific, were directly associated with the respective behaviour, and mediated the relations of cognitive beliefs to behaviour, ps < .05. In Study 2, affective associations were associated with behavioural intentions and the number of condoms selected, ps < .05; cognitive beliefs were indirectly associated with these outcomes through affective associations, indirect effects: ps < .05.

Conclusions: Affective associations are a behaviour-specific and proximal predictor of condom use, mediating the effect of cognitive beliefs, suggesting they may be a particularly viable intervention target.     

A New Heterogeneous Multidimensional Unfolding Procedure

A variety of joint space multidimensional scaling (MDS) methods have been utilized for the spatial analysis of two- or three-way dominance data involving subjects’ preferences, choices, considerations, intentions, etc. so as to provide a parsimonious spatial depiction of the underlying relevant dimensions, attributes, stimuli, and/or subjects’ utility structures in the same joint space representation. We demonstrate that care must be taken with respect to a key assumption in existent joint space MDS models such that all estimated dimensions are utilized by each and every subject in the sample, as this assumption can lead to serious distortions with respect to the derived joint spaces. We develop a new Bayesian dimension selection methodology for the multidimensional unfolding model which accommodates heterogeneity with respect to such dimensional utilization at the individual subject level for the analysis of two or three-way dominance data. A consumer psychology application regarding the preference for Over-the-Counter (OTC) analgesics is provided. We conclude by discussing the practical implications of the results, as well as directions for future research.     

Promotions Spontaneously Induce a Positive Evaluative Response

Research has suggested that conscious cognitive processes mediate positive responses to promotions. In contrast, we find that exposure to promotional stimuli evokes a positive evaluative reaction spontaneously and that this reaction generalizes to products that are evaluated subsequently. Three experiments support our predictions and rule out alternative possibilities. Specifically, we find that promotions spontaneously evoke positive evaluative responses and that these responses mediate liking for a target product. Our findings also identify conditions under which promotion‐generated evaluative responses are transferred to products unrelated to the promotion and indicate the type of product categories that are likely to produce this effect. The theoretical and substantive implications of this research are discussed.     

Differences in the cognitive accessibility of action and inaction regrets

This paper investigates the temporal pattern of experienced regret and provides insight into the underlying factors leading to differential cognitive accessibility of actions and inactions over time. Across three studies, we find increased cognitive accessibility of inactions in the long term with no difference in the accessibility of actions and inactions in the short term. We find support for the depth of impact, breadth of impact, and frequency of thought as explanations for this differential accessibility.