Psychological Reports

The use of Facebook and other social media sites has increased to the point that some consider it to be a behavioral addiction. Previously, research has used the Approach–Avoidance Task to measure implicit approach and withdrawal tendencies in response to a variety of stimuli, including alcohol, desserts, cigarettes, spiders, and cannabis. When responding to these types of stimuli, individuals typically evidence an approach bias toward appetitive images and a withdrawal bias in response to undesirable and/or fearful stimuli. The present study was designed to test the validity of an adapted version of the Approach–Avoidance Task by investigating how self-reported Facebook addiction tendencies, measured via the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale, predicted automatic approach tendencies toward Facebook-related stimuli using the Facebook-Approach–Avoidance Task. Participants with higher self-reported tendencies of Facebook addiction tended to approach Facebook-related stimuli faster. The present study is the first to indicate a relationship between self-reported Facebook addiction tendencies and implicit approach motivation using a behavioral measure. This finding provides initial support for the use of the Facebook-Approach–Avoidance Task as a measure of Facebook addiction, and further validation could lead to the development of additional assessment and training paradigms in the future.

In a novel pilot study, we investigated how emotional state is related to inflammatory responses to acute pain among women with rheumatoid arthritis. Nine women completed four 5-hour visits that varied only by manipulation of emotion (anger, sadness, happiness, vs. control); in each visit, acute pain was elicited, with blood draws at baseline, 10 minutes, 60 minutes, and 100 minutes post-pain. We examined the effects of within-subjects factors on circulating inflammatory biomarkers interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor-α, C-reactive protein, and cortisol. There was a main effect of state anger on IL-6, with higher reported anger associated with higher IL-6 across conditions. Further, there were several interactions between state emotion and condition. For example, when individuals reported higher state anger in the sadness condition compared to their own average, they showed higher levels of IL-6 and cortisol. Findings are discussed within a larger literature suggesting that mixed emotional states can contribute to psychological stress and inflammatory responses.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between perceived parental negligence and reliance on mobile phone usage among youth in vulnerable social groups, and whether peer attachment mediates this association. Specifically, we aimed to provide in-depth information on the relationship between perceived parental negligence and mobile phone dependency by examining the mediating effects of three subfactors of peer attachment: communication, trust, and isolation. For this purpose, we analyzed the longitudinal data of 485 elementary school students in grades 4 to 6 who were attending a community children’s center. The results were as follows: (1) parental negligence had a statistically significant positive effect on all subfactors of peer attachment; (2) while communication and trust were not significantly related to mobile phone dependency, isolation was related to mobile phone dependency; and (3) while perceived parental negligence did not have a direct effect on mobile phone dependency, it did have an indirect effect via isolation (a dimension of peer attachment).

In the present study, the effect of group hope therapy on labor pain and mental health of pregnant women was investigated, in consideration of the Iranian health policy’s emphasis on encouraging women to have a healthy delivery. The research plan was a semiexperimental pretest–posttest design with a control group. A total of 36 pregnant women were assigned to the treatment and control group using a random procedure. General Health Questionnaire and a Visual Analog Scale were used to collect data about dependent variables. For the analysis of hypotheses, independent samples t test and covariance analysis were used. The findings showed that hope therapy had a significant effect on labor pain (t = 5.17; P < 0.001) and mental health (F = 28.21; P < 0.001). In general, the findings of the present study confirm the application of group hope therapy in relieving labor pain and increasing the mental health of pregnant women. This therapeutic approach can simultaneously reduce the labor pain, generate positive emotions in women, and turn the experience of delivery into a pleasant one.

The present study investigates the utility of psychological hardiness as well as the differences between rumination and worry. Undergraduate students completed questionnaires assessing hardiness, worry, rumination, mindfulness, neuroticism, anxiety, somatization, coping, and health. Correlations and partial correlations controlling for neuroticism were examined. Hardiness was negatively correlated with neuroticism, rumination, worry, and anxiety and positively correlated with mindfulness, coping, and health. When neuroticism was statistically controlled, the relationships between hardiness and rumination, health, and coping became nonsignificant, and the relationships between hardiness and worry, mindfulness, and anxiety, although attenuated, remained significant. Rumination and worry were positively correlated, but when neuroticism was statistically controlled, this relationship became nonsignificant. The results suggest that hardiness is better conceptualized as a personality style that contributes to psychological well-being. Furthermore, our findings suggest that rumination and worry are distinct cognitive processes.

Scant research has investigated emotion regulation strategies in somatization disorder, despite its high comorbidity with depression and the growing interest in this topic in depression. The present study investigated emotion regulation strategies in patients with major depression and somatization disorder using clinical samples to examine common vulnerability factors and to provide evidence for difficulties in emotion regulation as transdiagnostic factors in these disorders. Patients with major depressive disorder (n = 30) and patients with somatization disorder (n = 30) completed measures of putatively adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategy use. Patients with somatization disorder showed higher scores on measures of regulatory strategies, as measured by the sum of adaptive strategies in the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire as well as the following subscales: positive refocusing, positive reappraisal, and refocusing on a plan. After controlling for levels of current depression, the significant effects remained for positive refocusing. Depression symptom severity was significantly and negatively correlated with most adaptive strategies and positively correlated with most maladaptive strategies. The current results provide preliminary data for a similar pattern of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies usage in these two disorders. The results also contribute to theories of psychopathology and our understanding of critical cognitive and emotional processes.

In considering that body image-related perceptions may be associated with weight trainers’ exercise dependence, the purpose of this study was to examine the (a) relationship between body dissatisfaction and drive for muscularity and (b) drive for muscularity as a mediator of the body dissatisfaction–exercise dependence relationship. In sum, 278 male weight trainers (M_age =29.03 years, SD = 7.83) residing in a southern city of Taiwan completed scales of body dissatisfaction, drive for muscularity, and exercise dependence. Pearson correlation analysis found that body dissatisfaction, drive for muscularity, and exercise dependence were all correlated. Further, the indirect mediation model with bootstrapping found that drive for muscularity partially mediated the body dissatisfaction–exercise dependence relationship (c path: β = .51, SE = 0.07, p=.001: c′ path: β = .13, SE = 0.80, p = .03). We concluded that male weight trainers’ body image-related perceptions influence exercise behavior and suggested that body image-related perceptions might be considered in studying exercise dependence.

The aims of this study were twofold: (i) to investigate the prevalence of social anxiety disorder and body dysmorphic disorder in a nonclinical, Brazilian population and (ii) to examine the effects of selected factors such as sociodemographic characteristics (sex, age, marital status, workload, education, and income), body mass index, current diet, physical activity, and use of aesthetic treatment. A total of 428 adults (279 women and 149 men) aged 18 to 60 years (M = 31.51, SD = 10.73) participated in the study. Social anxiety disorder was measured using a Brazilian version of the Social Phobia Inventory (Osório, Crippa, & Loureiro, 2009). Body dysmorphic disorder by using a body dysmorphic symptoms scale validated for the Brazilian population (Ramos & Yoshida, 2012). The main results showed that 28.7% of the sample reported symptoms of social anxiety disorder. Body dysmorphic disorder was more prevalent among women, individuals who had sought aesthetic treatment and individuals who were physically inactive. Moreover, lower levels of social anxiety disorder were observed in physically active individuals who had sought aesthetic treatment compared with physically inactive individuals who had sought aesthetic treatment. Social anxiety disorder was negatively correlated with age, daily workload, and income, while body dysmorphic disorder was positively associated with body mass index and negatively with income. These results show that social anxiety disorder and body dysmorphic disorder are differentially influenced by the selected factors investigated in this study.

In the present research, the aim was to develop, implement, and examine the effectiveness of an education program for mothers for the prevention of child neglect. In the study, the “Mother Education Program to Prevent Child Neglect” was initially designed for implementation and a quasi-experimental design involving pretest/posttest, and one-month follow-up test was implemented to examine the effectiveness of the trial procedure. The study group of the research consisted of 24 mothers (12 mothers in the intervention group and 12 mothers in the comparison group) who agreed to participate in the study. In order to collect the sociodemographic information about the children and their mothers, an “Individual Information Form” was administered. In order to assess the neglectful behaviors of the mothers, the Parent Form of the Multidimensional Neglectful Behavior Scale-Parents Form was used. As a result of the study, a significant difference was found between the pretest and posttest scores of the mothers in the intervention group (p<.05). The cognitive neglect and the total neglect scores of the mothers in the intervention group were found to significantly decrease after the completion of the education program. The results of the follow-up test also revealed that the effect of the education program for mothers was sustained after one month. Resultantly, suggestions related to the prevention of child neglect have been made for parents, professionals, institutions, and researchers working on the subject.

Meeting other people involves the importance to share their experiences and to understand their perspectives or, more simply, to empathize with them. Empathy research distinguishes two main dimensions of empathy, the affective sharing and the cognitive understanding. In the present study, we focus on the impact of cognitive load on empathy to pain, fear, happiness, and neutral facial emotions. Participants had to judge the intensity of the emotion when looking to facial expressions (empathize group), or with an additional eight-digit memory task (cognitive load group). While we assumed that cognitive load would reduce empathy, inconsistently with previous findings, our results did not show any significant effect of group. Interestingly, regression analyses showed that perspective-taking and empathic concern were positively related to pain, fear, and happiness ratings within the cognitive load group. These results reveal that when judging empathy under high cognitive load, dispositional empathic concern and perspective-taking could allow individuals to override the supposed deleterious cognitive load effect on empathy.

The current study examines relations between individual differences in attention measured in laboratory and real-world settings. In-laboratory computer-based assessments of orienting, phasic alertness, and executive attention as well as self-report measures of temperament and attention-related problems were administered to 111 undergraduate participants. Participants later completed a walking tour of a multistory building while wearing video recording glasses. The recordings were subsequently coded for orientation and capture of overt attention. Overt attention was correlated with attention-related traits only in high-demand walking conditions (stairways). Our findings suggest that individual differences should be a more important consideration in attention research. The novel methodology piloted here may be especially practical for studying overt attention in social settings.

We propose an integrative framework, advancing attachment as a vital factor in the development and maintenance of meaning throughout life. First, early attachment experiences provide a foundation for recognizing patterns and acquiring a sense of order and coherence. Furthermore, interactions with sensitive attachment figures stimulate mentalization capacities and exploration of the inner and outer environment, enabling the formation of complex representations of self, others, and the world, ultimately also molding how individuals appraise meaning in their lives. Second, attachment security can serve as an enduring and powerful resource for handling threats to meaning. When confronted with disruptions to meaning, secure attachment provides a coherent set of representations to fall back on and maintain or regain a firm sense of order and meaning under challenging circumstances. Moreover, by promoting cognitive openness and tolerance of ambiguity, secure attachment facilitates flexible and realistic adjustment of meaning representations when encountering discrepant information.

Extant research regarding humor appreciation in individuals with autism spectrum disorder has been equivocal. This study aims to clarify the relationship between the severity of autism spectrum disorder characteristics and humor appreciation in typically developing individuals. We hypothesized that the severity of autistic traits would have a U-shaped linear relationship with humor appreciation. Eighty typically developing undergraduates between the ages of 18 and 22 years (M_age = 20.20; SD_age = 1.08) were recruited for this study. They were asked to answer 24 statements, devised to measure humor appreciation, in response to a joke stimulus comprising 12 typically funny daily life occurrences (two statements per episode). The participants also responded to the Japanese version of the Autism-Spectrum Quotient. A significant U-shaped relationship was observed between the severity of autistic traits and appreciation of humor. A similar significant U-shaped relationship was seen between humor appreciation and the Autism-Spectrum Quotient subscales of attention switching, communication, and imagination. Humor appreciation showed no significant U-shaped relationship with the Autism-Spectrum Quotient subscales of social skills and local details. This study identified ways that autistic traits may influence how people appreciate humor. These findings are discussed in relation to cognitive processes underlying humor appreciation.

Prior research on the endowment effect has tended to focus on decisions made by individuals acting on their own account rather than on others’ behalf. This article reports on three experiments that modeled this “for-self” versus “for-others” distinction and measured its effects on prices. Specifically, our participants who were asked to make trading decisions for other people subsequently reported decreases in the endowment effect. We concluded that, in the context of the trading of goods, perceived ownership and differences in focus on the traded products’ positive and negative features mediated the diminished endowment effect our experiments identified.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether contact with future possible selves impacts individuals’ outcome expectancies, intended behaviors, and long-term outcomes with regard to academic performance. Specifically, we investigated whether having college students attempt to connect with an academically successful or unsuccessful future possible self through a message composition activity would impact their perceived likelihood of getting a good grade point average, intended academic engagement (i.e., intentions to attend class, study, etc.), and academic performance as measured by grade point average over two subsequent semesters. The study was novel in that we considered the role of temporal position—that is, the current self contacting a future possible self or a future possible self contacting the current self. Results found that students who composed a message from an academically unsuccessful future possible self to their current self had lower outcome expectancies—that is, they believed that they had less chance of obtaining a good grade point average—and lower intended academic engagement than a control group that composed a message to a friend; however, the groups did not vary in academic performance. It is possible that contact with a future possible self that was academically unsuccessful introduced a form of learned helplessness in those participants.

Past research found that similar appreciation for humor exists between spouses, but it is not certain whether this similarity between spouses also exists in kindhearted or malicious humor. The present study investigated the similarity of Taiwanese married couples’ humor styles. Participants included 239 couples (mean age = 42.9 years) who had been married to each other for at least 10 years. We used a traditional Chinese edition of the Humor Styles Questionnaire to measure the humor style and clustered participants’ humor styles in order to examine the similarity between spouses. The results show that husbands have higher tendencies toward aggressive (Cohen’s d = 0.29, p < .01) and self-defeating (Cohen’s d = 0.35, p < .01) humor styles than wives. Results from multilevel modeling indicate that spouses’ aggressive (p < .001, confidence interval = .17, .41) and self-defeating (p < .01, confidence interval = .05, .30) humor styles acting as a valid predictor to the other spouses’ negative humor styles. Furthermore, the results show that personal humor styles could be categorized into four clusters: positive humor endorsers, negative humor endorsers, general humor endorsers, and humor deniers. According to the clusters within spouse pairs, results show that similarities in humor styles exist between spouses (χ² = 16.73, p = .01). The current study finds that most couples have similar humor styles and that a high proportion of married couples share the same humor clusters.

The purpose of this study was to examine the cross-cultural differences in vocational identity between American and Korean university students using the Vocational Identity Status Assessment. A total of 881 university students in both the United States and South Korea were sampled in this study assessing vocational identity. We compared means of latent variables (six dimensions of Vocational Identity Status Assessment in the present study) using latent mean analysis. The results indicated that Korean students showed higher scores on Career Self-doubt and Career Flexibility, whereas American students showed higher scores on In-breadth Exploration, In-depth Exploration, Commitment Making, and Commitment Identification. These results indicated the components of vocational identity that should be considered while providing career guidance to college students from diverse backgrounds. Implications for understanding the cultural differences of college students’ vocational identity and the need for conducting cross-cultural comparison studies to provide insights about the vocational development of college students in cross-cultural settings are discussed.

This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ-CN) in a sample of Chinese middle school students (N = 420; 52.14% boys and 47.86% girls). Iterated principal factor analysis and multiple-group principal components cluster analysis supported a six-factor model with 42 items out of 58 items in the ASQ-CN. The internal consistency was from .82 to .90. Girls reported lower stress levels in one subscale, Stress of romantic relationship, whereas no gender differences were found in the other five subscales. Compared with other studies of the ASQ in Westernized countries, the ASQ-CN showed a distinct factor structure that may be explained by cross-cultural differences. Scales constructed from factor analysis related negatively to measures of mindfulness and positively to a measure of behavioral problems, suggesting that they were valid for Chinese adolescent stress. The study did not support a higher order construct of the ASQ-CN. Altogether, our findings suggest that the ASQ-CN is adequate for assessing stressors in Chinese adolescents.

The field of neurobiology of learning and memory has demonstrated that interhemispheric activation plays an important role in subserving episodic memory function. A common behavioral technique to induce interhemispheric activation includes saccadic eye movements, with a common behavioral marker being the degree of handedness. Importantly, however, the field of exercise neurobiology has yet to consider these behavioral techniques and markers in exercise-based studies. This review highlights the effects of these techniques and markers on episodic memory function and discusses the implications of this for exercise studies. We discuss the physiological and neurological mechanisms of interhemispheric activation on memory. We also discuss the role this may play in cardiorespiratory exercise studies. Our understanding of the role of both exercise and interhemispheric activation on memory function is improving. The interplay between these two factors on memory, however, is unknown. We discuss these implications and provide recommendations for future research.

The brain has been described as very resistant to change. However, why it does this has not been fully explained. In this paper, I propose that resilience to the disruption of consolidated memory is at the heart of the brain’s resistance to change, and this resilience is a consequence of its energy efficiency evolutionary adaptations. I discussed the implications of this energy efficiency adaptation on dogmatism, close-mindedness, and artificial intelligence.

Decision science is an area of enquiry that crosses many disciplines, from psychology to economics, each with their own perspective of decision-making. Traditionally, mathematicians have envisaged decision-making as a purely rational endeavor, whereas psychologists and behavioral economists have critiqued this narrative and suggested that cognitive short cuts are the real mechanisms behind how decisions are made. However, contemporary dual process theorists argue that two systems of the mind exist: system 1 (intuitive decision-making) and system 2 (rational decision-making). The current review will present a relatively new metaphor for decision-making: the unified threshold model. This model is a global approach to decision-making which allows both intuitive and rational decision-making processes to be explained in a more flexible manner than the dual process model. This review will introduce the reader to different types of threshold models (counter and diffusion), their assumptions, and their ability to explain decision-making behavior. Implications and future research will also be discussed. In summary, the aim of this review is to highlight that a rather than the unified threshold model of decision-making may give a more adequate explanation of decision-making data in comparison to previous models and theories.