Acta Psychologica最新文献

The literature presents contradictory evidence regarding the influence of supervisor negative gossip on work behaviors of targeted employees. By regarding supervisor negative gossip as a stressor that triggers targeted employees' self-regulatory processes, this study investigates the roles of targeted employees' cognitive appraisal and regulatory focus in the relationship between supervisor negative gossip and their proactive/withdrawal behavior. Results from a scenario-based experiment and a time-lagged field study showed that: (1) supervisor negative gossip elicits both challenge and hindrance appraisals among targeted employees; (2) supervisor negative gossip has an indirect positive effect on targeted employees' proactive behavior and an indirect negative effect on their withdrawal behavior via challenge appraisal, and this indirect effect is significantly strengthened by promotion focus; (3) supervisor negative gossip also has an indirect negative effect on targeted employees' proactive behavior and an indirect positive effect on their withdrawal behavior via hindrance appraisal, and this indirect effect is significantly weakened by prevention focus. This study highlights that the impact of supervisor negative gossip on targeted employees' proactive/withdrawal behaviors depends on their cognitive appraisal and regulatory focus. It also clarifies the self-regulatory mechanism underlying targets' behavioral responses to supervisor negative gossip.

The role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in tourism education is pivotal in preparing students for a digitally driven industry. While ICT tools enhance learning through online platforms, simulations, and data analytics, students differ markedly in their willingness to engage with these tools. This study examines how ICT self-efficacy influences undergraduate tourism students' intention to use ICT, with ICT knowledge acquisition as a mediator and organizational ICT support as a moderator. Drawing on Social Cognitive Theory, we employed a quantitative design and analyzed survey data from 450 tourism students at a Chinese university using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that ICT self-efficacy has both direct and indirect positive effects on use intention through ICT knowledge acquisition, and that perceived organizational ICT support strengthens the links between self-efficacy and both knowledge acquisition and use intention. The structural model explains 54% of the variance in use intention, indicating substantial explanatory power. These findings highlight the joint importance of psychological resources and institutional support in fostering ICT adoption in tourism education and suggest targeted strategies for building students' digital competencies.

In the EFL context, learning engagement, as a crucial factor for students' academic achievement and future development, has garnered sustained scholarly attention. Although perceived teacher support is widely recognized as a key external predictor, the internal psychological mechanisms through which it affects learning engagement remain underexplored. Therefore, based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, this study explores the effects of perceived teacher support on learning engagement, with a focus on the mediating roles of second language (L2) grit and foreign language (FL) enjoyment. Using survey data from 489 EFL students at two Chinese colleges, the study applied Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) for analysis. Results indicated that perceived teacher support directly and positively predicted learning engagement, L2 grit, and FL enjoyment. Moreover, L2 grit and FL enjoyment played both independent and chain mediating roles between perceived teacher support and learning engagement. The findings not only offer a theoretical framework that explains a motivational-affective pathway through which perceived teacher support affects learning engagement, but also provide practical implications for designing targeted supportive teaching interventions.

Population aging, re-employment post-retirement, and the allocation of higher education resources constitute increasingly salient domains. Existing research has focused on examining career motivations of pre-service teachers and the determinants of re-employment among older adults outside of education. However, the motivational drivers underlying the mobility of retired teachers to support from prestigious to less prestigious universities remain systematically reported. This phenomenon, situated within the distinctive context of China, presents a valuable empirical case for addressing this research gap. We developed an integrated motivational framework encompassing cultural memes, policy environments, educational emotions, and self-realization. Guided by a qualitative research paradigm, semi-structured interviews were conducted to ensure methodological coherence with the exploratory nature of the research questions. Twelve retired teachers from eight prestigious universities in China were recruited as interviewees. The analysis revealed that post-employment in traditional cultural, institutionalized national policies, educators' pedagogical commitment, and the self-realization collectively elucidated the underlying motivations. Overall, this study proposes a contextualized motivational model that integrates 'culture, policy, occupation, and life' in the Chinese context. The findings offer practical insights for facilitating post-retirement knowledge transfer and optimizing the spatial distribution of academic talent within higher education systems. Furthermore, practical and policy insights for facilitating re-employment knowledge transfer and optimizing the spatial distribution of academic talent within higher education systems.

English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers working in rural areas encounter various emotional impediments, and the failure to effectively regulate these emotions may ultimately result in attrition. In light of the 'complexity turn' in affect research, the present study adopts complex dynamic systems theory to trace the emotional labour trajectories of two senior high school EFL teachers during their initial employment in rural China. An analysis of retrospective interviews, narrative frames and researcher field notes revealed that critical incidents (CIs) acted as perturbations, propelling the participants out of stability and redirecting their emotional labour trajectories along alternative paths. Four categories of CIs were identified: dissatisfaction with the rural environment, challenges in EFL teaching, difficulties in managing interpersonal relationships and limited opportunities for professional advancement. Turnover intention emerged through a cumulative process as the participants negotiated emotional labour, with CIs acting as significant catalysts. The findings underscore the urgent need for enhanced support mechanisms for rural teachers.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming a central strategic concern for military powers. Understanding public attitudes toward its use in defense may be critical for predicting acceptance or rejection, underscoring the need for validated assessment tools in empirical research. In the present research, we aimed to validate the French version of a newly developed scale in English to assess Attitudes toward AI in Defense (the AAID scale; Hadlington et al., 2023). The original AAID scale captures positive (anticipated benefits) and negative (anticipated harms) attitudes toward using artificial intelligence in defense. After translating the scale into French with a back-translation procedure, we administered the scale to an online sample of 844 French-speaking participants, along with sociodemographic questions. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized two-factor structure (positive and negative outcome dimensions) and showed satisfactory internal reliability. Sociodemographic variables such as gender and age were associated with attitudes. These findings suggest that the French version of the AAID scale is a valid tool to assess both positive and negative attitudes toward uses of AI in defense. The publicly available dataset we used, obtained prior to recent shifts in public and political discourse on military rearmament, can additionally serve as a reference point for future research documenting changes in these attitudes over time. More broadly, the availability of the AAID scale in French may facilitate the study of attitudes toward AI in defense within French-speaking populations and across cultural contexts and support the development of socially acceptable AI policies and applications.

Socio-cultural influences play a critical role in shaping children's self-regulation, a key variable for cognitive, social, and academic success. Self-regulation receives increasing attention from fields of developmental, educational, and psychological research because of its significant impact on academic outcomes and long-term developmental paths for children. The fragmentation of empirical work in the socio-cultural dimension in studies related to children's self-regulation represents a critical limitation in the literature. Without an integrated synthesis of how social-cultural factors have been addressed, it becomes challenging to pinpoint existing knowledge deficiencies, track the evolution of theoretical perspectives, and develop culturally responsive practices and interventions. Through the bibliometric approach, this study examines 690 research publications between 1993 and 2025 indexed in Web of Science to provide a comprehensive mapping of the current research landscape related to children's self-regulation and its socio-cultural influences. The bibliographic coupling analysis reveals five distinct thematic clusters that elucidate key factors namely parenting styles on self-regulation, family structures on self-regulation, educational environments on self-regulation, socio-economic conditions on self-regulation, and motivational foundations related to the development of self-regulation. The research reveals that self-regulation development exists as a multifaceted process which generates both cross-cultural and intra-cultural diversity in relation to distinct socio-cultural systems. The study provides critical directions for future investigations aimed at deepening the current understanding of how socio-cultural dynamics influence the development of self-regulatory skills in children.

Background and purpose: Different motor imagery perspectives may optimize how children learn open and closed basketball skills. This study aimed to investigate the effects of internal visual imagery (IVI) and external visual imagery (EVI) on the acquisition of open (jump shot) and closed (free throw) basketball skills in boys aged 9-12 years.

Methods: Seventy-two novice elementary school boys (11.33 ± 0.98 years old) were randomly divided into six groups: IVI-closed skill, IVI-open skill, EVI-closed skill, EVI-open skill, Control-closed skill, and Control-open skill. After initial skill acquisition (6 sessions), a pre-test was held, and then participants completed a 8-session intervention consisting of 15 min of motor imagery (or math practice for controls) followed by 20 trials of basketball practice three times weekly. Finally, a post-test was administered, and after a one-week interval, a 10-trial retention test was administered. Data were analyzed using mixed ANOVA, one-way ANOVA, and Tukey's post-hoc test in SPSS version 27 at a significance level of 0.05.

Results: The results showed that there was no significant differences between the groups in acquisition phase (p = .25). However, in the retention test, the EVI group performed better for open skill (p = .01), whereas the IVI group showed advantages for closed skills.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that various imagery perspectives have varying effects on children's acquisition of skills, with EVI particularly enhancing the long-term retention of open skills. This study highlights the importance of motor imagery perspectives in basketball training programs.

Focusing on relevant and ignoring irrelevant information is crucial for navigating ever-changing environments. This ability can be studied using conflict tasks in which the relevant and irrelevant information in a trial either align or compete. In this cross-sectional study conflict processing and adaptation were investigated across different contexts and developmental stages. In three experiments, three groups of participants (6-7-year-olds, 9-10-year-olds, adults; N = 273) processed pairs of conflict tasks. The context similarity of the tasks was manipulated based on whether they shared relevant and irrelevant dimensions. Performance was assessed using mouse-tracking measures of latency (movement time, initiation time) and trajectory (maximum absolute deviation, changes of direction). Contrary to predictions, congruency effects and within-task conflict adaptation effects generally increased or remained stable with age (with an exception in one experiment in latency measures). Across-task conflict adaptation showed a complex pattern that only partially aligned with predictions based on context similarity. Adults demonstrated across-task adaptation primarily in high-similarity contexts, while children showed evidence of across-task adaptation even across dissimilar tasks. These results provide first evidence of across-task conflict adaptation in children as young as 6 years when sensitive mouse-tracking measures are employed. Overall, conflict adaptation effects are small and appear to be influenced by context. Results are interpreted with respect to modes of control and the predictability of upcoming tasks. Furthermore, the age-related variation across mouse-tracking measures, with trajectory measures capturing the effects in children more consistently than latency measures, underscores the value of assessing various mouse-tracking variables when investigating conflict processing.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected the psychological well-being of young people, yet the underlying mechanisms linking fear to maladaptive outcomes remain underexplored, particularly in developing countries. Addressing this gap, the present study investigates two parallel mediation models to explain how fear of COVID-19 translates into emotional (negativity) and behavioral (panic buying) outcomes among youth in Pakistan.

Method: A correlational descriptive study was conducted using a purposive sampling technique to collect data in a district of Punjab, Pakistan. We selected 387 literate, knowledgeable, and young students with cognitive and necessary literary skills to understand and accurately respond to the study. Data were analyzed using the PROCESS macro for SPSS (parallel mediation model 4) to examine the mediating roles of intolerance of uncertainty, COVID-19 stress, negativity, and death anxiety.

Results: Results found a substantial positive relationship between study variables. Parallel mediation examination indicated a positive direct effect of fear of COVID-19 on intolerance of uncertainty, COVID-19 stress, and negativity. Moreover, intolerance of uncertainty and COVID-19 stress mediated the positive relation between fear of COVID-19 and negativity. The second model exposed a positive direct impact of fear of COVID-19 on negativity, panic buying, and death anxiety. Negativity and death anxiety mediated a positive relation between the fear of COVID-19 and panic buying.

Conclusion: This study shows how perceptions and attributions of experiences can create substantial psychological distress. fear, stress, and intolerance of uncertainty often lead to negativity and panic buying. The study recommends training relevant stakeholders in active listening, empathy, and reassurance, which may help them provide immediate support, relief, and comfort to distressed individuals. Governments and policymakers should prioritize mental health as part of their pandemic response.

Clinical trial number: not applicable.