Reflective and reflexive action control in patients with frontal brain lesions

Two types of action control derived from the model of action phases (H. Heckhausen & P. M. Gollwitzer, 1987) were analyzed in patients with frontal lesions, patients with nonfrontal lesions, and university students. In Study 1, reflective action control in terms of goal selection was assessed, and impaired deliberation was found in patients with frontal lesions. Study 2 assessed reflexive action control in terms of automatic action initiation as a result of forming implementation intentions (P. M. Gollwitzer, 1999). All participants sped up their responses to critical stimuli by forming implementation intentions. Moreover, lesion patients with weak performances on the Tower of Hanoi (TOH) task did worse than patients with strong TOH performances in Study 1 but better than control participants in Study 2. Findings are interpreted as a functional dissociation between conscious reflective action control and automatic reflexive action control.

Comparative expression of hedonic impact: affective reactions to taste by human infants and other primates

This study examines behavioral affective reactions elicited by tastes from eight newborn human infants, and from 27 other infant or adult primates. Non-human primates belonged to 11 species: three great apes (chimpanzee, orangutan, gorilla), three Old World monkeys (rhesus monkey, greater spot-nosed monkey, and red-capped mangabey), four New World monkeys (golden-handed tamarin, cotton-top tamarin, white tufted-ear marmoset, and Humboldt's night monkey), and one lemur (mongoose lemur). The taste of sucrose elicited homologous positive hedonic patterns of facial affective reactions from humans and other primates, whereas quinine elicited homologous aversive or negative affective patterns. The degree of similarity between human and other primate affective reaction patterns appeared to be strongly indicative of their phylogenetic relatedness. For example, affective reaction patterns of human infants and great apes were more similar to each other than either were to Old World monkeys or New World monkeys. Certain affective reaction components were found to be shared by humans and all primates, whereas other components were restricted to particular taxonomic groups. Finally, allometric timing parameters for the duration of components indicated that the 'same' affective reaction could have different durations in species of different size. These results show that both positive/negative valence and intensity of affective reaction may be quantitatively assessed in human and non-human primates, and indicate that taste-elicited affective reaction patterns of human infants are related systematically to those of other primate species.

A influência da atividade física regular sobre o autoconceito

Foi objetivo desta pesquisa estudar a influência da atividade física regular de homens e mulheres de mais de 40 anos sobre o seu autoconceito. A Escala Fatorial de Autoconceito foi administrada a 200 sujeitos, metade deles praticando algum tipo de atividade física regular no momento da pesquisa e a outra metade sendo sedentários. A Anova 2X2 revelou efeito principal da atividade física regular e do gênero sobre vários fatores do autoconceito. Os escores foram superiores em autoconfiança, autocontrole e self somático para o grupo experimental e no self ético-moral para as mulheres. Conclui-se que a atividade física regular tem impacto benéfico sobre o autoconceito.

Working Hard to Achieve Self-Defining Group Goals: A Social Identity Analysis

Summary: A social identity model of effort exertion in groups is presented. In contrast to most traditional research on productivity and performance motivation, the model is assumed to apply to groups of all sizes and nature, and to all membership contingent norms that specify group behaviors and goals. It is proposed that group identification renders behavior group-normative and encourages people to behave in line with group norms. The effect should be strengthened among people who most need consensual identity validation from fellow members, and in intergroup contexts where there is inescapable identity threat from an outgroup. Together these processes should encourage people to exert substantial effort on behalf of their group.

On the Impact of Mood on Behavior: An Integrative Theory and a Review

Empirical evidence for effects of moods (both naturally occurring and experimentally manipulated) on behavior is reviewed in terms of an integrative theory: the mood–behavior model (MBM). It is posited that moods can influence behavior via 2 processes: (a) by informational effects on behavior-related judgments and appraisals, which in turn will result in behavioral adjustments (i.e., the informational mood impact on behavior), and (b) by influencing behavioral preferences and interests in compliance with a hedonic motive (i.e., the directive mood impact on behavior). The strength of the informational mood impact depends on moods' effective informational weight for behavior-related judgments and on mood-primed associations. The strength of the directive mood impact is predicted to be jointly determined by 2 variables: the strength of a hedonic motive and the instrumentality of possible acts for affect regulation.

On the Elusive Search for Motivation Gains in Groups: Insights from the Collective Effort Model

Summary: Although motivation losses in groups have been fairly easy to document and replicate, the search for motivation gains in groups has been far more elusive. Recently, we developed and tested various aspects of the Collective Effort Model (CEM; Karau & Williams, 1993 ) that we believe successfully accounts for prior research on social loafing and provides many useful clues as to conditions that may produce motivation gains in groups. In this article, we provide an overview of the CEM, illustrate its usefulness in guiding and understanding social compensation research, explain how it accounts for other motivation gains established in the literature, and highlight its implications for uncovering additional situations that may be conducive to motivation gains in groups.

Radiation-induced genomic instability: a paradigm-breaking phenomenon and its relevance to environmentally induced cancer

The existing paradigm governing radiobiology which is fundamental to the estimation of environmental radiation risk, cannot explain the phenomena of radiation induced genomic instability and the bystander effect. Both effects can, however, be understood in terms of the dynamical genome concept, qualitatively described herein. The dynamical genome concept may find further application in better understanding other aspects of biology, most notably the cancer process in general and the consequences of genetic modification.

Multilevel integrative analyses of human behavior: social neuroscience and the complementing nature of social and biological approaches

Social and biological explanations traditionally have been cast as incompatible, but advances in recent years have revealed a new view synthesized from these 2 very different levels of analysis. The authors review evidence underscoring the complementing nature of social and biological levels of analysis and how the 2 together can foster understanding of the mechanisms underlying complex behavior and the mind. Specifically, they review the utility of considering social influences on biological processes that are often viewed as outside the social domain including genetic constitution, gene expression, disease, and autonomic, neuroendocrine, and immune activity. This research underscores the unity of psychology and the importance of retaining multilevel integrative research that spans molar and molecular levels of analysis. Especially needed in the coming years is more research on the mechanisms linking social and biological events and processes.

The relationship context of human behavior and development

The influence of social relationships on human development and behavior is receiving increased attention from psychologists, who are central contributors to the rapidly developing multidisciplinary field of relationship science. In this article, the authors selectively review some of the significant strides that have been made toward understanding the effects of relationships on development and behavior and the processes by which relationships exert their influence on these, with the purpose of highlighting important questions that remain to be answered, controversial issues that need to be resolved, and potentially profitable paths for future inquiry. The authors' thesis is that important advances in psychological knowledge will be achieved from concerted investigation of the relationship context in which most important human behaviors are developed and displayed.

Das Setzen und Verwirklichen von Zielen

Zusammenfassung: Die historischen Wurzeln des Zielkonzepts werden im Behaviorismus, im Mentalismus sowie in der deutschen Willenspsycholgie gesucht. Es wird darauf hingewiesen, daß die Psychologie des Zielstrebens in den letzten 20 Jahren eine Wiederbelebung erfahren hat. Die moderne Zielpsychologie beschäftigt sich mit Phänomenen der Zielsetzung und der Zielverwirklichung. In Hinblick auf die Zielsetzung werden sowohl inhaltstheoretische Ansätze als auch selbstregulatorische Ansätze diskutiert. Die inhaltstheoretischen Ansätze versuchen, erfolgreiche Zielsetzung aufgrund von prägnanten Zielmerkmalen vorherzusagen (z. B. fremdgesetzte versus selbstgesetzte Ziele, konkrete versus abstrakte Ziele, Ideal- versus Sollziele, Leistungs- versus Lernziele). Die selbstregulatorischen Ansätze dagegen untersuchen Prozesse, die eine erfolgreiche Zielsetzung begünstigen (z. B. mentale Kontrastierung von Zukunft und Realität, Stärkung von Selbstwirksamkeitserwartungen). Schließlich kommt die Verwirklichung von Zielen zur Sprache. Auch hier werden inhaltliche oder strukturelle Zielmerkmale (z. B. materielle versus ideelle Ziele, proximale versus distale Ziele, Annäherungs- versus Vermeidungsziele) einerseits und selbstregulatorische Prozesse (z. B. planende Bewußtseinslage, Vorsatzbildung, Handlungskontrollstrategien, Anstrengungssteigerung, Diskrepanzreduktion) andererseits identifiziert. Abschließend werden zielpsychologische Phänomene diskutiert, die bislang in der Psychologie des Zielstrebens weitgehend unberücksichtigt geblieben sind (z. B. Zielkonflikte, das Aufgeben von unpassenden Zielen).

Five-factor model of personality and transformational leadership

This study linked traits from the 5-factor model of personality (the Big 5) to transformational leadership behavior. Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, and Agreeableness were hypothesized to predict transformational leadership. Results based on 14 samples of leaders from over 200 organizations revealed that Extraversion and Agreeableness positively predicted transformational leadership; Openness to Experience was positively correlated with transformational leadership, but its effect disappeared once the influence of the other traits was controlled. Neuroticism and Conscientiousness were unrelated to transformational leadership. Results further indicated that specific facets of the Big 5 traits predicted transformational leadership less well than the general constructs. Finally, transformational leadership behavior predicted a number of outcomes reflecting leader effectiveness, controlling for the effect of transactional leadership.

Effects of evaluative (in-)consistency and perceived self-efficacy on attitude formation *This research was supported by Grant Jo 182/2 from the “Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)”. The present experiments were conducted in partial fullfilment of the first author's requirements for a doctoral degree at the University of Tübingen, under the direction of the other two authors. We would like to thank Jörg Conzelmann, Denis Fischer, Anja Rüther, Mechthild Weber, and Felix Weichholt for carrying out the experiments, Diana Raysz, and several anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper

In accordance with dual-process theories of attitude change, we predict that attitude judgments about unfamiliar objects are affected by the evaluative inconsistency of relevant attributes. Drawing upon self-efficacy theory, we further predict that individuals' perceived self-efficacy moderates the effect of inconsistency on attitude latencies: Individuals with high perceived self-efficacy in regard to systematic processing are expected to persist in their judgmental process and to show deliberative processing when information is inconsistent but not when it is consistently positive or consistently negative. Evaluatively consistent information should lead to an elimination of or even a reversal of this difference between high- and low-efficacy individuals. The results of two experiments are supportive of these hypotheses.

Gender-linked personality traits predict mental health and functional status following a first coronary event

Three gender-linked traits were examined with respect to adjustment to a coronary event: agency, a focus on the self; communion, a focus on others; and unmitigated communion, an extreme focus on others to the exclusion of the self. Participants (n = 65) were interviewed 1 week and 4 months after a 1st coronary event. Hypotheses were that agency should predict improved health, communion should be unrelated to health, and unmitigated communion should predict worse health over time. Outcomes included depression, anxiety, and well-being (as measured by the Profile of Mood States; D. McNair, M. Lorr, & L. Droppleman, 1971); mental and physical functioning (SF-36; J. E. Ware, K. K. Snow, M. Kosinski, & B. Gandek, 1993); and cardiac symptoms. Results confirmed hypotheses. In addition, unmitigated communion was linked with poor health behavior and negative social interactions, which partly explained the link of unmitigated communion with depression and cardiac symptoms.

Experienced Ambivalence as a Moderator of the Consistency Between Attitudes and Behaviors

Summary: Two studies were conducted to test the hypothesis that stronger degrees of ambivalence attenuate the attitude-behavior correspondence. We also tested the hypothesis that the weaker attitude-behavior correspondence at higher levels of ambivalence may be due to the lower temporal stability of highly ambivalent attitudes. To ensure that these hypotheses be adequately tested, both studies had a prospective design. After assessing their attitudes toward certain behaviors and ambivalence, participants recorded how often they performed these behaviors during the subsequent 14-day period. The investigated behaviors included everyday behaviors such as consuming fast food, preparing classes, and watching entertaining programs on TV. To assess attitudinal stability, attitudes were measured again after the 14-day period. As the results show, the expected moderating effect of experienced ambivalence on the attitude-behavior correspondence was obtained, however, only for a minority of the investigated behaviors. As predicted, experienced ambivalence was related to decreased attitudinal stability in each of these cases. A meta-analytic summary of the two studies revealed that, across different behaviors, a weak but reliable moderating effect of ambivalence on attitude stability and the correspondence between attitudes and behaviors exists.

Prosocial foundations of children's academic achievement

The present longitudinal research demonstrates robust contributions of early prosocial behavior to children's developmental trajectories in academic and social domains. Both prosocial and aggressive behaviors in early childhood were tested as predictors of academic achievement and peer relations in adolescence 5 years later. Prosocialness included cooperating, helping, sharing, and consoling, and the measure of antisocial aspects included proneness to verbal and physical aggression. Prosocialness had a strong positive impact on later academic achievement and social preferences, but early aggression had no significant effect on either outcome. The conceptual model accounted for 35% of variance in later academic achievement, and 37% of variance in social preferences. Additional analysis revealed that early academic achievement did not contribute to later academic achievement after controlling for effects of early prosocialness. Possible mediating processes by which prosocialness may affect academic achievement and other socially desirable developmental outcomes are proposed.

Sexual offenders' implicit planning: a conceptual model

In recent years empirical research, clinical observation, and theoretical models about sexual offending have emphasized the importance of problem solving and decision making throughout different phases in the offense chain. This work suggests that sometimes offense planning is explicit, systematic, and analytical, while at other times it appears to be implicit and intuitive. The latter style of decision making has been called seemingly unimportant decisions. We attempt to provide an explanation of offenders' implicit decision making and suggest two social cognitive mechanisms capable of generating these types of decisions. We believe that implicit decision making in offenders has the appearance of automaticity, that is, decision making that is implicit, fast, relatively autonomous, frequently associated with a lack of control, effortless, and occurring without conscious awareness. Drawing from diverse theoretical sources, we hypothesize that these types of decisions are generated by underlying automatic goal dependent action plans. More specifically, we suggest that there are at least two types of automatic goal dependent plans evident in offenders' decision making: offense scripts and mental simulations. We draw implications for generating future hypotheses and provide suggestions for future research.

EPA2000: a multilingual, programmable computer assessment of off-line metacognition in children with mathematical-learning disabilities

EPA2000 is a program for the assessment of off-line measured metacognitive skills and arithmetical performances in primary school children with mathematical-learning disabilities. The program is designed as a script engine. The concept makes it possible to modify and translate the test into different languages without reprogramming. A user-friendly script editor is built-in, with which all of the parameters of the test can be modified and translated in different languages.

Action-state orientation: construct validity of a revised measure and its relationship to work-related variables

Data from 6 studies (N = 945) were combined to examine the factor structure and construct validity of J. Kuhl's (1994a) measure of action-state orientation, the Action Control Scale (ACS). Initial confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of 4 models showed poor fit with the data. Items that did not perform well were dropped, and the 4 CFA models were retested, resulting in support for a 3-factor solution corresponding to the Preoccupation, Hesitation, and Volatility subscales. Regression analyses demonstrated that the revised ACS subscales measure a construct distinct from cognitive ability and personality. The revised subscales showed differential statistically significant relationships with (a) self-regulatory and self-focus variables and (b) job attitudes and ratings of job performance. The authors conclude that action-state orientation is a construct relevant to applied settings and that future research should further examine this construct.

Einstellungsbildung: Erlebte Ambivalenz, subjektive Schwierigkeit und Antwortlatenz bei evaluativ inkonsistenten, konsistenten und neutralen Informationen

Zusammenfassung. Ambivalenz gegenüber Einstellungsobjekten resultiert aus simultan positiven und negativen Bewertungstendenzen (z. B. Thompson, Zanna & Griffin, 1995 ). Demnach entstehen ambivalente Einstellung zu unvertrauten Objekten, wenn relevante Informationen evaluativ inkonsistent sind ( Jonas, Diehl & Brömer, 1997 ). In der hier vorgestellten Untersuchung soll gezeigt werden, daß bei evaluativer Inkonsistenz mehr Zeit für die Bildung neuer Einstellungen benötigt wird als bei positiver, negativer oder neutraler Information und daß dieser Effekt der Ambivalenz durch die subjektive Schwierigkeit der Einstellungsbildung vermittelt wird. Ferner sollte Need to Evaluate ( Jarvis & Petty, 1996 ), d. h. die Tendenz, spontan Einstellungen zu bilden, die Höhe der Ambivalenz, die subjektive Schwierigkeit und die Antwortlatenzen moderieren. Die Hypothesen werden in einem 6-stufigen Within-Design überprüft (N = 30), in dem ein unvertrautes Objekt entweder durch stark, moderat oder schwach evaluativ inkonsistente Informationen oder durch positive, negative oder neutrale Informationen charakterisiert wird. Es werden Unterschiede und Bezüge zur Eindrucksbildung diskutiert.