Current Opinion in Psychology最新文献

We summarize theory and research testing a mechanistic explanation for the trait self-control-health behavior relationship. Specifically, social cognition constructs summarizing individuals' utility, normative, risk, and capacity beliefs with respect to future health behavior performance are proposed to mediate the self-control-health behavior relationship. The effect represents the informational function of self-control in decision making. We also specify a mechanism wherein trait self-control moderates the intention-behavior relationship such that ‘good’ self-control affords effective intention-to-action translation. Both effects have pervasive support in the extent literature. We propose ongoing meta-analyses expected to provide further robust support for these mechanistic effects and the need for research employing designs enabling better directional and causal inferences in the effects, including experimental or types of cross-lagged panel design.

Team diversity holds promises and challenges for team performance. The promise of diversity lies in synergy generated from exchange and integration of diverse perspectives; the challenge lies in social categorization processes that give rise to biases favoring similar others over dissimilar others that disrupt team collaboration. I discuss theory capturing these paths to synergetic and disruptive effects and their contingencies as well as the evidence in research in team diversity and performance. I conclude that the evidence is consistent with the theory, but increasingly suffers from proliferation of moderators and mediators without integrative efforts to consolidate accumulating insights. I also identify theoretical parallels between the study of diversity and demographic dissimilarity as opportunity to develop integrative theory.

Psychological research on self-control—the forgoing of immediate rewards in favor of global goals—focuses largely on how people monitor and control their thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Comparatively less work has examined the regulation of motivational states. This is surprising given the motivational roots of self-control dilemmas: people desire an immediate reward on the one hand, but also recognize that this reward precludes the ability to attain higher-priority concerns on the other. We describe an emerging perspective that highlights the monitoring and control of one's motivational states; i.e., metamotivation. We distinguish this approach from similar approaches (e.g., cognitive control, emotion regulation) and review initial supporting empirical results. Studying metamotivation is essential if we are to gain a comprehensive understanding into the questions of who, when, and why people succeed or fail at self-control.

Social decision-making is guided by a complex set of social norms. Computational modeling can play a significant role in enriching our understanding of these norms and how precisely they direct social choices. Here, we highlight three major advantages to using computational modeling, particularly models derived from Utility Theory, in the study of social norms. We illustrate how such models can help generate detailed processes of decision-making, enforce theoretical precision by delineating abstract concepts, and unpack when, and why, people adhere to specific social norms. For each benefit, we discuss a recent study which has employed modeling in the service of assessing the role of norms in decision-making, collectively revealing how computational modeling enables better prediction, description, and explanation of important social choices.

Popular conceptions hold that effort is costly and aversive, causing people to generally avoid effort unless justified. We critically discuss evolutionary, phenomenological, and behavioral arguments supporting this “law of least effort”, proposing that people may approach effort without direct extrinsic benefits. First, a “need for effort” is functional for health and learning. Second, experiencing contingency of effort and reward in the context of broader goals may lead to effort-seeking behavior. Moreover, beliefs with implications for the meaning of effort (e.g., as signaling difficulty or lack of talent) predict effort preferences. Thus, evolutionary, developmental, and social-cognitive factors may drive the pursuit of challenging goals that lie beyond life necessities but are essential for improvement and long-term development.

Robust associations of self-control with successful goal pursuit have been amply demonstrated. Much less is known about the psychological processes that occur when people grapple with self-control conflicts and that may contribute to successful goal pursuit. Influenced by the neighboring fields of emotion regulation and coping, self-regulatory flexibility has been identified as one of such potential processes. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of selected models of regulatory flexibility, empirical evidence on associations with self-regulatory success, and to identify avenues for future research.

The relationship between self-control and happiness is often considered antithetical because self-control would require effortful discipline precluding the experience of pleasure. However, recent research reveals a robust (but moderate) association with all parameters that are seen as relevant in happiness research: satisfaction with life, positive affect, and the experience of meaning in life. Factors moderating this relationship suggest a significant role for strategies that are employed during the early stages of a self-control conflict and, to a lesser extent, making (some) progress towards one's goals. Together, this calls for a different understanding of self-control with more emphasis on adaptive routines and strategically avoiding conflicts which, in turn, leaves more room for attending to what one finds important in life.

In this article, we review and summarize key findings from a growing literature exploring how nudges can facilitate efforts to diversify organizations. Nudges are psychologically-informed interventions that change behavior without restricting choice or altering incentives. We focus on two types of nudges to enhance organizational diversity: (1) nudges that target organizational processes directly or the decision makers who oversee them to increase the diversity of those hired and promoted and (2) nudges that target the underrepresented candidates themselves to increase the diversity of those applying for organizational roles. We categorize nudges designed to enhance organizational diversity, both by their target and based on the psychology they leverage to improve outcomes for women and racial minorities.

This paper focuses on recent advances in research on strategies that support self-control in everyday life. No one strategy or set of strategies appears to be effective at all times and in all situations. To understand effective self-control, we must expand our understanding of how strategies fit the situation and the person. To this end, we propose researching unexplored aspects of situations, how self-control strategies develop in the first place, and the role of emotion regulation in self-control strategy effectiveness. We also highlight methodological blind spots and offer ways to correct them and introduce new methodological approaches to best capture self-control strategies in everyday life.