Increased attentional control for emotional distractors moderates the use of reflective pondering in times of life stress: a prospective study

According to the response styles theory, rumination is a cognitive response to a stressor with repetitive and self–focused attention on a negative mood state. The attentional disengagement theory highlights that attentional processes are critical, underlying individual differences in ruminative thinking, such as reflective pondering and depressive brooding. Using a prospective design, the current study sought to determine whether attentional control for negative material was differently associated with brooding and reflection upon life stress. Spanning a period of three months, 76 never depressed undergraduate students completed a baseline measurement of attentional bias by using an emotional modification of the exogenous cueing task (T1) and subsequently, six weeks after T1, completed Internet questionnaires during their final examinations at four weekly fixed moments (T2–T5). Data were analysed with a series of multilevel regression analyses. Results revealed that the relation between stress and the use of reflective pondering is stronger when participants allocate less attention to emotional information (negative and positive stimuli). On the other hand, attentional control did not moderate the relation between stress and depressive brooding. On the basis of the current research findings, it might be important to train attentional control to disengage from emotional distractors, which in turn may increase the use of more self–controlling thinking in response to stress. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd. </jats:p

Self-Consistent Electron-Nucleus Cusp Correction for Molecular Orbitals

We describe a method for imposing the correct electron-nucleus (e-n) cusp in molecular orbitals expanded as a linear combination of (cuspless) Gaussian basis functions. Enforcing the e-n cusp in trial wave functions is an important asset in quantum Monte Carlo calculations as it significantly reduces the variance of the local energy during the Monte Carlo sampling. In the method presented here, the Gaussian basis set is augmented with a small number of Slater basis functions. Note that, unlike other e-n cusp correction schemes, the presence of the Slater function is not limited to the vicinity of the nuclei. Both the coefficients of these cuspless Gaussian and cusp-correcting Slater basis functions may be self-consistently optimized by diagonalization of an orbital-dependent effective Fock operator. Illustrative examples are reported for atoms (\ce{H}, \ce{He} and \ce{Ne}) as well as for a small molecular system (\ce{BeH2}). For the simple case of the \ce{He} atom, we observe that, with respect to the cuspless version, the variance is reduced by one order of magnitude by applying our cusp-corrected scheme.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figure

On the integration of need-related autobiographical memories among late adolescents and late adults : the role of depressive symptoms and self-congruence

Within self–determination theory, integration denotes the process through which people accept past and present experiences and harmonize these experiences within their sense of self. We investigated associations between indicators of successful and poor integration of need–related memories and memory–related affect. We also examined the role of depressive symptoms and self–congruence as antecedents of these indicators. Moreover, we investigated whether late adults, compared with late adolescents, were better capable of integrating need–frustrating memories through higher levels of self–congruence. Participants were 132 late adolescents (Mage = 17.83) and 147 late adults (Mage = 76.13), who reported on their level of depressive symptoms and self–congruence. Next, participants generated a need–satisfying and need–frustrating memory and reported on the memories‘ integration (in terms of acceptance, connection and rumination) and associated affect. Whereas depressive symptoms related mainly to the poor integration of need–frustrating memories, self–congruence related positively to the integration of both need–satisfying and need–frustrating memories. In turn, integration was related to more positive and less negative affect. Late adults scored higher than late adolescents on the integration of need–frustrating memories, an effect that was partly accounted for by late adults‘ elevated self–congruence. Results suggest that self–congruence, depressive symptoms and age play a role in the integration of need–based autobiographical memories. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology </jats:p

Is sexism a gender issue? A motivated social cognition perspective on men’s and women’s sexist attitudes toward own and other gender

The present research investigated the antecedents of ambivalent sexism (i.e., hostile and benevolent forms) in both men and women toward own and other gender. In two heterogeneous adult samples (Study 1: N = 179 and Study 2: N = 222), it as revealed that gender itself was only a minor predictor of sexist attitudes compared to the substantial impact of individual differences in general motivated cognition (i.e., Need for closure). Analyses further showed that the relationship between Need for closure and sexism was mediated by social attitudes (i.e., right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation), which were differently related to benevolent and hostile forms of sexism. In the discussion it is argued that sexism primarily stems from individual differences in motivated cognitive style, which relates to peoples? perspective on the social world, rather than from group differences between men and women

The gatekeeper: individual differences are key in the chain from perception to behaviour

A basic assumption in mainstream social cognition is that the path from perception to behaviour is often automatic and direct, as supported for example by several experimental studies showing that priming can lead directly to a congruent behaviour without any need of conscious awareness of the process. However, we argue that the priming of a goal or an object activates individual differences in automatic evaluations at the associative level that in turn are the key predictors of action (gatekeeper model). A study (n = 90) on the American stereotype is presented to support the model. The results show that individual differences of the American stereotype as assessed with the IAT predicts a relevant action (essay evaluation) but only under condition of priming. Broader implications for predictive validity of implicit measures are also discussed

Perfectionism and self-conscious emotions in British and Japanese students: Predicting pride and embarrassment after success and failure

Regarding self-conscious emotions, studies have shown that different forms of perfectionism show different relationships with pride, shame, and embarrassment depending on success and failure. What is unknown is whether these relationships also show cultural variations. Therefore, we conducted a study investigating how self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism predicted pride and embarrassment after success and failure comparing 363 British and 352 Japanese students. Students were asked to respond to a set of scenarios where they imagined achieving either perfect (success) or flawed results (failure). In both British and Japanese students, self-oriented perfectionism positively predicted pride after success and embarrassment after failure whereas socially prescribed perfectionism predicted embarrassment after success and failure. Moreover, in Japanese students, socially prescribed perfectionism positively predicted pride after success and self-oriented perfectionism negatively predicted pride after failure. The findings have implications for our understanding of perfectionism indicating that the perfectionism–pride relationship not only varies between perfectionism dimensions, but may also show cultural variations

Neuroticism and responses to social comparison among cancer patients

The present study examined how the effects of three audiotapes containig different types of social comparison information on the mood of cancer patients depended on the level of neuroticism. On the procedural tape, a man and woman discussed the process of radiation therapy, on the emotion tape, they focussed on emotional reactions to their illness and treatment, while on the coping tape they focussed on the way they had been coping. A validation study among 115 students showed that the tapes were perceived as they were intended. The main study was conducted among 226 patients who were about to undergo radiation therapy. Compared to patients in the control group, as patients were higher in neuroticism, they reported less negative mood after listening to the procedural and the coping tape. Furthermore, as patients were higher in neuroticism, they reported less negative mood after listening to the coping tape than to the emotion tape. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Utopia becoming dystopia? Analyzing political trust among immigrants in Sweden

This paper aims to increase our knowledge on the political trust of immigrants’ in established democracies. Utilising Swedish survey data, based on a large oversample of respondents with a foreign background, we show that immigrants from countries more plagued by corruption place significantly higher trust in political institutions in Sweden in comparison with both immigrants from more auspicious institutional settings and with the native population. However, we also find that an initially bright view of the Swedish institutional qualities tend to attenuate over time, as immigrants from countries of high corruption develop more critical viewpoints. In con-trast to reasonable expectations, we nonetheless find that this decrease in trust is not explained by experiences of discrimination. Overall, the hypotheses elaborated and tested in this paper may be regarded as a more general contribution to a theory on how political trust is related to experiences and expectations of political institutions.political trust of immigrants’; Swedish survey data; experiences and expectations of political institutions