Acta Psychologica最新文献

One of the persistent problems faced by the university education system is the dropout rate. The main aim of this research was to identify the profile characteristics of those students who drop out of their studies, seeking in-depth knowledge of the reality behind the issue. The responses to a questionnaire of 149,837 students from three Spanish universities (La Laguna, Zaragoza and Huelva) who had dropped out of their undergraduate studies were analysed. The outcomes enabled us to identify a number of features associated with the likelihood of dropping out of university studies. Specifically, it was found that the university of study, sex, age, study branch, entry qualification, scholarship or grant, nationality and job are predictors of dropout. The results obtained have an important transfer value, with a view to implementing actions for the adaptation of students and to avoid university dropout.

Action-imagery-practice refers to the repetitive use of action imagery to improve subsequent performance leading to partially different representation types than action-execution-practice (AEP). This study explored the representation types in kinesthetic action-imagery-practice (K-AIP) and visual action-imagery-practice (V-AIP) in a serial reaction time task using the crossed hand transfer paradigm. 169 participants (age M ± SD = 25.2 ± 3.9) were randomly assigned to AEP, K-AIP, V-AIP, or control-practice (CP), practicing with uncrossed hands on ten consecutive days. Tests involved the same sequence, a mirror sequence, a shifted sequence, and a shifted mirror sequence, each with uncrossed and crossed hands. With crossed hands, sequence-specific transfer effects indicated only little evidence for effector-independent representations in late stages of learning in AEP and V-AIP. Performance in the same sequence with uncrossed hands indicated the acquisition of stimulus-response location associated effector-dependent sequence-specific representations in AEP, K-AIP and V-AIP, but not in CP. These visual-spatial effector-dependent representations were stronger after AEP than after AIP. Overall, no important differences between both AIP groups were observed, and both groups reported similar focus on kinesthesis and vision, suggesting that irrespective of the instructions, rather than focusing on one single modality, AIP always involves a combination of both modalities - vision and kinesthesis - that promote motor learning.

Background: On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. During the virus's spread and subsequent lockdowns, older adults faced heightened risks and significant mental health challenges.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Shandong Province, China, using a custom-designed demographic questionnaire, a COVID-19-related survey, and the Symptom Checklist-90 Revised (SCL-90-R). Correspondence analysis and multiple linear regression models were employed to examine factors influencing the mental health of older adults.

Results: Among 3363 older adults, the total SCL-90-R score was 153.11 ± 36.98, with an average score of 1.70 ± 0.41. Both scores were lower than the Chinese norm and pre-pandemic levels. Factors significantly affecting older adults' mental health included place of residence, age, educational attainment, marital status, fear of COVID-19, understanding of COVID-19 transmission routes, and awareness of preventive measures.

Conclusions: Greater attention is needed to address the mental health of older adult males, individuals of advanced age, employed individuals, those with lower educational backgrounds, and those without a spouse. Policymakers should implement targeted policies and interventions to enhance mental health support for older adults.

This study investigates whether one person's experience of perceived discrimination at work can lead to someone they know exhibiting ineffectual silence in their own job. Data were collected using Study Response, an online panel, from focal employees and their paired participants who know them well (N = 296 pairs). Data were analyzed using moderated hierarchical linear analysis in SPSS 26. It was predicted and found that perceived age discrimination reported by someone an employee knows well is positively associated with that employee's silence at work. Moreover, this relationship is stronger the closer the employee is in age to the person who reported the age discrimination. These findings are consistent with spiral of silence theory, which states that when people feel uncertain about public sentiments and views around them and are unsure of whether they will be supported by others in their own environment, they remain silent. The study shows that silence is contagious across organizations because knowing someone who has experienced age discrimination at work makes the paired person silent in their own job, especially if they are of similar age.

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the influence of customer satisfaction on brand loyalty within Pakistan's safety luxury automobile sector, featuring Toyota Indus, Honda, and Suzuki as key players.

Methods: Employing a quantitative approach, the research collected data from 275 customer questionnaires. The study examined the relationships between customer expectations, perceived quality, perceived value, and brand loyalty.

Originality: This study contributes original insights by exploring the unique dynamics of brand loyalty within Pakistan's safety luxury automobile sector. It sheds light on the specific challenges faced by major players in this market and emphasizes the critical role of effective customer communication and the strategic use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) data to enhance the customer experience and promote brand loyalty. These findings offer valuable perspectives in a sector integral to Pakistan's economic development.

Findings: The research uncovered significant associations between customer expectations, perceived quality, perceived value, and brand loyalty. Despite their market dominance, these companies faced challenges in cultivating brand loyalty due to issues such as subpar quality, high pricing, and inadequate service.

Practical implications: This study emphasizes the pivotal role of effective customer communication. It suggests that leveraging Customer Relationship Management (CRM) data can enhance the customer experience, ultimately fostering brand loyalty. These insights are particularly relevant in the context of a sector that plays a crucial role in Pakistan's economic development.

The rise of social media has enabled unrestricted information sharing, regardless of its accuracy. Unfortunately, this has also resulted in the widespread dissemination of misinformation. This study aims to provide a comprehensive scientometric analysis under the PRISMA paradigm to clarify the repetitive trajectory of misinformation on social media in the current digital age. In this study, 3724 publications on social media misinformation from the Web of Science between January 2010 and February 2024 were analyzed scientifically and metrically using CiteSpace software. The findings reveal a sharp increase in annual publication output starting from 2015. The United States of America and China have made more significant contributions in publication volume and global collaborations than other nations. The top five keywords with high frequency are social media, fake news, information, misinformation, and news. In contrast to a brief review of existing articles, this study provides an exhaustive review of annual scientific research output, journals, countries, institutions, contributors, highly cited papers, and keywords in social media misinformation research. The developmental stages of social media misinformation research are charted, current hot topics are discussed, and avenues for future research are suggested.

Binge-watching is often studied in research, and discussed in lay writings, under the assumption that it is a maladaptive and problematic behavior. However, as with all media use, there are circumstances in which binge-watching may be functional for an individual. This paper explores the role of intentionality-defined as the extent to which a viewing session was planned and executed as planned-in differentiating problematic from unproblematic binge-watching behavior. We present results from a survey (n = 180) in which the participants randomly were asked to think about a recent viewing session in which they'd either intentionally or unintentionally watched multiple episodes of television in a row. The results suggest that intentional binge-watching sessions are generally associated with positive mood states and satisfaction, while unintentional sessions often lead to negative outcomes such as goal conflict and guilt. Moreover, motivations for binge-watching, such as social interaction and enrichment, were more pronounced in intentional sessions, while unintentional sessions were driven more by situational factors like cliffhangers and curiosity. Intentionality is thus a useful boundary condition for the definition of binge-watching as a problematic vs. non-problematic behavior when studying its antecedents and consequences.

In uncertain environments, individuals often use external cues to guide their judgments and decisions. Anchoring refers to the finding that numerical judgments often gravitate towards previously considered standards. Although an extremely robust effect, prior research on anchoring largely focused on single-anchor paradigms. The present study instead investigated how multiple anchors affect numerical judgments. In Experiment 1, participants exposed to both a low and high anchor provided judgments that were between judgments made by participants exposed solely to low or high anchors. However, anchors that were encountered first exerted a disproportionate influence on subsequent judgments. Experiment 2 replicated this primacy effect both when anchors were plausible or implausible standards. Finally, Experiment 3 demonstrated that this primacy effect was reduced to non-significance by inserting a secondary distraction task following the exposure to each anchor. Implications of the current multiple-anchor results for various theories of anchoring effects are discussed.

Interest in kawaii-ness is growing day by day around the world. However, the relationship between the brain and kawaii-ness remains unclear. Previous studies have revealed how adults' brains respond to infants, but there is little research into the relationship between non-infant objects that have kawaii-ness and the brain, particularly its structure. Therefore, in this study, using data from 182 healthy men and women, including 90 participants from a toy manufacturer's fan community (TMFC), we analyzed the relationship between the adoption of kawaii-ness and the gray matter volume (GMV) of region of interest (ROI). The results showed that the adoption of kawaii-ness was significantly and positively related to the GMV of the putamen, insula, frontal gyrus (FG), and rectus in the TMFC sample in an analysis that controlled for demographic data. Of these, the significant relationships between putamen and FG and adoption survived multiple comparisons. This is the first study to clarify the relationship between adoption of kawaii-ness and brain structure.

Affective Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to understand other peoples' emotional states and feelings. Several studies showed impaired affective ToM abilities in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, most studies tested this ability by using single-stimulus modality tasks (visual cues). The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether affective ToM abilities are impaired in PD using multiple stimulus modalities and whether they are related to disease duration and cognitive/emotional abilities. Twenty mid-stage, non-demented people with PD and 20 matched controls were evaluated by means of two tasks requiring subjects to infer others' mental states from the eyes' expression - the Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME) test, and from the emotional prosody - a modified version of the Reading the Mind in the Voice (RMV) test. In people with PD, cognitive function and emotional processes were assessed through cognitive tasks and batteries of facial and prosodic emotion recognition tests. Compared to controls, the PD group showed significantly impaired performances in both RME and RMV tests (p < 0.0001). Affective ToM abilities in people with PD were not correlated with cognitive function or disease duration. Visual recognition of anger and auditory recognition of fear were positively correlated with RME (p = 0.0028) and RMV (p < 0.0001) test scores, respectively. Cross-modal impairment of affective ToM abilities is a non-motor feature of PD, unrelated to disease stage or cognitive status. A dysfunctional amygdala-centred network might represent the shared bases for impairments in fear and anger recognition and affective ToM abilities in PD.