Intrinsic enjoyment and boredom coping scales: Validation with personality,evoked potential and attention measures

This paper reports the validation of brief, self-report measures of intrinsic enjoyment and boredom coping. Intrinsic enjoyment is characterized by intense involvement, interest and absorbed concentration; boredom coping is designed to reflect the disposition to restructure one's perceptions and participation in potentially boring activities so as to decrease boredom. Both traits are hypothesized to reflect the capacity for good attentional control across a variety of situations. Reliability was established by test-retest correlation and by an inter-item consistency measurement. Construct validity was established by comparison with previously-validated personality tests, real-life measures (such as Random Activities Experiential Sampling, which involves repeated self-report measures in daily life), as well as with laboratory measures of attention (including the averaged visual evoked potential (EP) and the Continuous Performance Test). Intrinsic enjoyment is significantly correlated with an independent measure of intrinsic involvement (low wish to be elsewhere in one's daily life), the affective experience of potency, self-reports of concentrating well with ease, high ego development, an internal locus of control, lack of boredom susceptibility and certain EP indices of attentional change and ‘cortical’ augmenting. Boredom coping is associated with a higher percent of time actually spent alone, high continuous performance task measures of attentional capacity, and low MMPI and Research Diagnostic Criteria indices of psychopathology.     

Promotion orientation explains why future-oriented people exercise and eat healthy: evidence from the two-factor consideration of future consequences-14 scale

The authors extended research linking individual differences in consideration of future consequences (CFC) with health behaviors by (a) testing whether individual differences in regulatory focus would mediate that link and (b) highlighting the value of a revised, two-factor CFC-14 scale with subscales assessing concern with future consequences (CFC-Future) and concern with immediate consequences (CFC-Immediate) proper. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the revised CFC-14 scale supported the presence of two highly reliable factors (CFC-Future and CFC-Immediate; αs from .80 to .84). Moreover, structural equation modeling showed that those high in CFC-Future engage in exercise and healthy eating because they adopt a promotion orientation. Future use of the two-factor CFC-14 scale is encouraged to shed additional light on how concern with future and concern with immediate consequences (proper) differentially impact the way people resolve a host of intertemporal dilemmas (e.g., health, financial, and environmental behavior).     

The mediating role of feelings of guilt in the relationship between burnout and the consumption of tobacco and alcohol

Earlier studies have shown that feelings of guilt appear to be involved in the burnout process. However, the exact nature of the relationship between burnout, feelings of guilt, and tobacco and alcohol use is unclear. The purpose of this study was to analyze the role of feelings of guilt in the relationship between burnout and the consumption of tobacco and alcohol. Role conflict, Role clarity, and Feedback were included as predictors of burnout. The sample of this cross‐sectional study consisted of 260 Chilean administration and customer service workers. Hypotheses were tested using a path model. The hypothesized model (i.e., Indolence to guilt to tobacco/alcohol use) showed an adequate data fit, including a mediator role of feelings of guilt in the relationship between burnout and alcohol use. The results of this study recommending taking into consideration the evaluation of feelings of guilt as a symptom of burnout in order to develop a more reliable diagnosis of burnout syndrome and its consequences.     

Unusual visual symptoms and Ganser-like state due to cerebral injury: a case study using (18)F-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography

Bizarre visual symptoms and absurd verbal responses to questions, in a 32-year-old man recovering from a severe asthma episode, suggested a possible conversion disorder with Ganser-like symptoms. Positron Emission Tomography (PET)revealed bilateral lesions involving occipital association cortex and posterior temporal and parietal lobes, most likely infarcts from hypoxia. PET permitted correlation of the patient's specific cortical lesions with his unusual perceptual, cognitive, and speech symptoms, including Ganser-like state, to a degree not previously possible in such cases.     

Selective attention, inhibition for repeated events and hemispheric specialization

When two visual events appear consecutively in the same spatial location, our response to the second event is slower than to the first. This inhibition for repeated events may reflect a bias toward sampling novel locations, a bias useful for exploring visual space. It has been shown that the left hemisphere is more specialized in selective attentional processes than the right one. The aim of the present experiment was to test if this hemispheric specialization for selective attention may also affect the inhibition for repeated events. For this purpose, we asked 11 normal subjects to perform an identity-based discrimination task in which the target to be detected could appear alone or surrounded by flanking letters, in the left or in the right visual field. Results show that inhibition for repeated events is present only when selective attention is required and when the task is performed in the right specialized visual field.     

Human (Homo sapiens) responses to the pig (Sus scrofa) sex pheromone 5 alpha-androst-16-en-3-one

Previous studies have suggested that the pig sex pheromone 5 alpha-androst-16-en-3-one may function as a human sex pheromone. Two hundred male and female college students were assigned to one of four odor conditions (androstenone, methyl anthranilate, skatole, and a no-odor control) and were asked to rate photographs of a male stimulus and to rate their own mood in the presence of each odorant. There was a significant overall sex by treatment condition interaction. Men in the androstenone condition rated the stimulus male as more passive, and women in the androstenone condition rated themselves as less sexy; these effects were specific to the androstenone condition.     

Fluency breaks in older speakers: Implications for a model of stuttering throughout the life cycle

In order to test a model describing the occurence of fluency breaks throughout the life cycle, spontaneous speech samples of 40 nonstutterers and 4 stutterers above the age of 50 were perceptually analyzed. Fluency breaks were classified into categories of formulative or motoric breaks. The results supported research, noting an increase in formulative fluency breaks (especially fillers and interjections) for older speakers. There was, however, a significant decrease in the occurence of formulative fluency breaks during the final years of late adulthood. No change was found in the occurence of motoric fluency breaks in the nonstuttering speakers. Stuttering speakers had significantly less formulative breaks and significantly more motoric breaks than nonstuttering speakers.     

A comparison of Holland's model using constructs measured by two different methods

The relationship was studied between the set of constructs specified by Holland's 1973 theory (viz, Realistic, Intellectual, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional) measured by an Adjective List (AL) derived from Holland's theory and the same set of constructs as measured by the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI). The correspondence of the two measures of Holland's model compared the distances between the constructs as measured by the AL and the constructs measured by the VPI in factor space using an adaptation of a model testing procedure reported by Wakefield and Doughtie 1973. The subjects were 174 undergraduates at a state university. The correspondence between the two separate measures of Holland's model was significant (p < .01). These results provide further support of the construct validity of Holland's theory and offer evidence that the relationships hypothesized by the theory are not tied to any one particular method of measurement.