Psychological bulletin最新文献

Influential theories in psychology, neuroscience, and economics assume that the exertion of mental effort should feel aversive. Yet, this assumption is usually untested, and it is challenged by casual observations and previous studies. Here, we meta-analyze (a) whether mental effort is generally experienced as aversive and (b) whether the association between mental effort and aversive feelings depends on population and task characteristics. We meta-analyzed a set of 170 studies (from 125 articles published in 2019-2020; 358 different tasks; 4,670 unique subjects). These studies were conducted in a variety of populations (e.g., health care employees, military employees, amateur athletes, college students; data were collected in 29 different countries) and used a variety of tasks (e.g., equipment testing tasks, virtual reality tasks, cognitive performance tasks). Despite this diversity, these studies had one crucial common feature: All used the NASA Task Load Index to examine participants' experiences of effort and negative affect. As expected, we found a strong positive association between mental effort and negative affect. Surprisingly, just one of our 15 moderators had a significant effect (effort felt somewhat less aversive in studies from Asia vs. Europe and North America). Overall, mental effort felt aversive in different types of tasks (e.g., tasks with and without feedback), in different types of populations (e.g., university-educated populations and non-university-educated populations), and on different continents. Supporting theories that conceptualize effort as a cost, we suggest that mental effort is inherently aversive. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Stress generation posits that (a) individuals at-risk for psychopathology may inadvertently experience higher rates of prospective dependent stress (i.e., stressors that are in part influenced by their thoughts and behaviors) but not independent stress (i.e., stressors occurring outside their influence), and (b) this elevated dependent stress, in some measure, is what places these individuals at-risk for future psychopathology. In recognition of 30 years of stress generation research, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis using frequentist and Bayesian approaches (102 articles with 104 eligible studies, N = 31,541). Generally strong support was found for psychopathology predicting dependent stress (e.g., ds_{Overall psychopathology} = 0.36-0.52, BF₁₀ = 946.00 to 4.65 × 10¹⁸). Moderator analyses for dependent stress revealed larger effects for briefer assessments periods, shorter follow-ups, and self-report measures than for interviews. Among risk factors, depressogenic cognitive styles (ds = .26-.50, BF₁₀ = 47.50 to 1.00 × 10⁵) and general interpersonal vulnerability (ds = .26-.44, BF₁₀ = 2.72 to 2708.00) received the strongest support as stress generation mechanisms, and current evidence is modest for protective factors predicting dependent stress. Overall, larger effects were generally found for prospective prediction of dependent stress than independent stress. Evaluations of mediation in the research literature were relatively few, limiting the current review to qualitative analysis of the mediation component of stress generation. General support was found, however, for dependent stress as a mediator for psychopathology and associated risk factors in relation to subsequent psychopathology. The current review ends with recommendations for future research and integration of stress generation within minority stress frameworks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Research on unconscious fear responses has recently been translated into experimental paradigms for reducing fear that bypass conscious awareness of the phobic stimulus and thus do not induce distress. These paradigms stand in contrast to exposure therapies for anxiety disorders, which require direct confrontation of feared situations and thus are distressing. We systematically review these unconscious exposure paradigms. A Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses-based search yielded 39 controlled experiments based on 10 paradigms that tested whether exposure without awareness can reduce fear-related responses. In randomized controlled trials of phobic participants, unconscious exposure interventions: (a) reduced behavioral avoidance (weighted mean d = 0.77, N = 469) and self-reported fear (d = 0.78, N = 329) during in vivo exposure to feared situations; (b) reduced neurobiological indicators of fear and enhanced such indicators of fear regulation (d = 0.81, N = 205); (c) had significantly stronger effects on reducing symptomatic behaviors and enhancing neurobiological indicators of fear regulation than did conscious exposure (d = 0.78, N = 342); and (d) produced these effects without inducing subjective fear. In fear-conditioned participants, unconscious exposureinduced extinction learning (d = 0.80, N = 420), even during sleep, and yielded somewhat stronger extinction learning than conscious exposure did (d = 0.44, N = 438). We organize these findings within a neuroscientific framework and evaluate alternative mechanisms for unconscious exposure. The use of incommensurate outcome measures across exposure paradigms and nonreporting of relevant statistics limited meta-analyses. Despite steps taken to address publication bias, 25.6% of included studies came from a single laboratory. We propose potential clinical applications of these findings. Future research should clarify underlying mechanisms, use common outcome measures, and explore effects on other anxiety disorders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Seventy years of research on intergroup contact, or face-to-face interactions between members of opposing social groups, demonstrates that positive contact typically reduces prejudice and increases social cohesion. Extant syntheses, however, have not considered the full breadth of contact valence (positive/negative) and have treated self-selection as a threat to validity. This research bridges intergroup contact theory with sequential sampling models of impression formation to assess contact effects across all valences. From the premise that positive versus negative contact instigates differential resampling of outgroup experiences when self-selection is possible, we advance and meta-analytically test new predictions for the moderation of valenced contact effects and negativity bias as a function of people's opportunity and motivation to self-select in and out of contact. Our random-effects synthesis of positive and negative intergroup contact studies (238 independent samples, 936 nested effects; total N = 152,985) found significant valenced contact effects: Positive contact systematically associates with lower prejudice, and negative contact associates with higher prejudice. Critically, the detrimental effect of negative contact is significantly larger than the benefit of positive contact. This negativity bias is particularly pronounced under conditions in which one can self-select, is motivated to avoid contact, among male-dominated and prejudiced samples, in contact with stigmatized, low status, low socioeconomic status outgroups, along nonconcealable stigma, with nonintimate contact partners in informal settings and in collectivistic societies. Considering individuals' motivation and opportunity to self-select, together with contact valence, therefore offers a more nuanced and integrated platform to design contact-based interventions and policies across varied contact ecologies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Most theories predict, and most studies demonstrate, that men have a higher sex drive than women do. A spirited debate has emerged surrounding the origins of gender differences in sex drive; Frankenbach et al. (2022) commented on this controversy in the context of their impressive meta-analysis. We provide a different interpretation of these findings: Specifically, women get worse sex than men do. We argue that if the differences between the sex that women get and the sex that men get were accounted for, gender differences in sex drive would be reduced or eliminated completely. We focus more specifically on two factors that should be accounted for in future meta-analyses-narrow definitions of "sex" as penile-vaginal intercourse, and gender disparities in sexual violence-and additional factors that should be acknowledged when interpreting meta-analytic results-gendered cultural messages, respect from heterosexual partners, and sexual stigmatization. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).