British journal of psychology最新文献

A tendency to procrastinate has previously been linked to low attentional control and poor emotion regulation skills. Building upon these findings, in the present study we investigated whether the relationship between procrastination and attention can be corroborated and explained by emotion dysregulation and dispositional spontaneous mind-wandering. University students completed questionnaires along with the Attentional Networks Test for Interactions and Vigilance – executive and arousal components. The results showed that trait procrastination is inversely related to some indices of executive and arousal vigilance. Interestingly, the direct effects between trait procrastination and vigilance scores disappeared when emotion dysregulation or dispositional spontaneous mind-wandering were included in the model. Obtained findings suggest that difficulties in managing emotional reactions and poor control over the focus of one's thoughts might explain the relationship between low attentional control and increased chronic procrastination.

Insecure parent–child attachment is often observed in adolescents with depressive symptoms. However, the directionality of the association between insecure parent–child attachment and depressive symptoms, as well as the potential mechanisms of family support, is not clearly understood. This study investigated the reciprocal longitudinal associations between insecure parent–child attachment (i.e. attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety), perceived family support, and depressive symptoms. A total of 1535 Chinese adolescents (52.6% being boys; baseline M_age = 13.19 years, SD = 0.51) participated in a four-wave longitudinal study with 6-month intervals. Random intercept cross-lagged panel models were employed to disentangle the between- and within-family effects. The results indicated that there was a vicious cycle in which attachment avoidance and depressive symptoms reinforced each other. Furthermore, an increase in depressive symptoms significantly predicted a decrease in perceived family support over time, subsequently leading to higher levels of both attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety. These findings suggest the coexistence of emotion-driven processes (from depressive symptoms to attachment avoidance) and relationship-driven processes (from attachment avoidance to depressive symptoms). Additionally, psychotherapists and family therapists are advised to enhance adolescents' perceived family support to nip depressive symptoms in the bud, therefore preventing subsequent insecure parent–child attachments.

Populism refers to a political style that describes society as a struggle between corrupt elites versus noble people and occurs across the political spectrum. What explains the appeal of populist leaders? In the present contribution, we tested the hypothesis that entertainment appraisals predict support more strongly for populist than non-populist leaders. Four preregistered studies conducted among US participants supported this hypothesis, comparing appraisals of existing politicians between parties (Trump vs. Biden; Study 1) and within parties (Trump vs. Romney, Study 2a; Sanders vs. Biden, Study 2b). Furthermore, we experimentally exposed participants to a populist versus non-populist speech of an unknown politician in a fictitious society (Study 3). Of importance, all studies also showed that the link between general populist attitudes and support was mediated by entertainment appraisals, but only for the relatively populist politicians. We conclude that to some extent, populism is a form of ‘popcorn politics’: Support for populist leaders depends on how entertaining people find them, more so than support for non-populist leaders.

The extent to which latent profiles of psychopathy manifest across the full spectrum of psychopathy (i.e., general population) is unknown. The present study sought to address this gap by subtyping adults based on psychopathic features and exploring whether these profiles differ based on external correlates: motivational tendencies, impulsivity, triarchic psychopathy, anxiety/depression and personality traits. A demographically representative sample of US adults (N = 446; M_age = 46.10; 51% female; 78.0% White) completed measures of four-factor psychopathy, motivational tendencies, impulsivity, anxiety/depression and personality traits. We identified four latent profiles of psychopathy that were conceptually similar to profiles reported in male offender samples. The impulsive-antisocial profile (i.e., high antisocial behaviour, erratic lifestyle; comparatively lower interpersonal manipulation, callous affect) was characterized by lack of premeditation, sensation seeking, low behavioural inhibition and reduced reward responsiveness when compared to the non-antisocial psychopathic profile (i.e., high interpersonal manipulation, callous affect, erratic lifestyle; comparatively lower scores on antisocial behaviour). Overall, we found evidence in favour of the suitability of self-reported psychopathy to profile individuals in the general population and its ability to distinguish between these subtypes on theoretically relevant external variables.

This study aims to explore how learning performance differs for non-diagnosed adults with high and low levels of autistic traits (ATs) for positive versus negative feedback delivered via social and nonsocial stimuli. College student participants were tested on their ability to learn novel words (i.e., Korean characters) in a simple memory experiment incorporating either positive or negative feedback. A 2 (positive feedback vs. negative feedback) × 2 (ATs: high vs. Low) between-subject design was adopted in both Experiments 1 and 2. Social feedback stimuli were used in Experiment 1 and nonsocial feedback stimuli were used in Experiment 2. The results revealed that individuals with both high and low levels of ATs showed learning for both types of feedback (success and failure) using social and nonsocial stimuli (Experiments 1 and 2, respectively). However, individuals with low levels of ATs learned less from failure than from success, whereas individuals with high levels of ATs showed equivalent learning for failure and success, for both social and nonsocial stimuli. These results suggest that for college students, a benefit of having high levels of ATs is increased resilience and an ability to continue to learn in the face of failure.

A high level of parental expressed emotion is thought to play an important role in the development and course of mental disorders in offspring. This study investigates expressed emotion among primary caregivers to 11-year-old children at familial high risk of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and population-based controls, and whether potential differences in expressed emotion are related to child psychopathology. Expressed emotion was assessed with the Five-Minute Speech Sample and a total of 440 audio files from primary caregivers were collected. Child psychopathology was assessed with the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children. Primary caregivers from families with a parental diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum disorder or bipolar disorder were classified as high on expressed emotion significantly more often than population-based controls. Between-group differences remained significant after adjusting for any current axis I child diagnosis indicating that high expressed emotion is not solely attributable to the presence of child psychopathology. These findings underline the importance of assessing the emotional climate in families with parental schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

What makes someone attractive has been examined for faces, in terms of common preferences, and for opposite-sex interactions. We expanded on this by considering also other non-verbal modalities, personal preferences and same-sex interactions. We presented the face, body motion, voice and body odour from 61 non-verbal agents (34 women) as stimuli in an attractiveness rating to 71 perceivers (37 women). Our results showed that the modalities were differently attractive and that some correlated more than others. Specifically, body odours were least and audio–video stimuli most attractive. Voice/looks as well as body odour/movement showed fairly robust positive associations. Both common and personal preferences accounted for variance in the data. Most effects compared between opposite- and same-sex ratings, with only a few exceptions, including that only same-sex ratings showed a clear dominance of personal over common preferences. We conclude that the different non-verbal modalities are equally relevant for attraction but differ in absolute attractiveness and redundancy, likely due to their different suitability for communicating stable (e.g. genetic) versus variable (e.g. hormonal) person characteristics. Beauty excites agreement and disagreement; it matters not only in encounters with the other sex but in social interactions more broadly.

Existing theory of mind (ToM) measures for children meet challenges from three perspectives. Developmentally, they lack items covering the entire spectrum of ToM abilities, namely, the early, basic and advanced levels. Dimensionally, most measures are unidimensional, not distinguishing between cognitive and affective ToM. Practically, most measures rely heavily on verbal abilities or lack engaging formats. This study aimed to address these critical issues by developing a Theory of Mind Assessment (ToMA). The items were generated based on classical scenarios spanning all developmental levels. The responses from 574 neurotypical children aged 37 to 194 months were analysed using the multidimensional Rasch model. Ten items showed satisfactory model fits when classified into cognitive (4 items) and affective (6 items) domains, with 16 misfit items excluded. Two items seemed easier for girls and two for boys, and the item difficulties were adjusted. The mean Rasch person reliabilities were 0.78 and 0.81. The scores exhibited small and high correlations with subjective and objective criteria. The newly developed measure may offer reliable, valid and sex-unbiased assessments while satisfying developmental, multidimensional and practical requirements. It seems promising for application in clinical and research settings and is worthy of future refinement and validation to provide high-quality ToM assessment.

Emotion ensemble judgement refers to the cognitive process by which individuals extract the general emotional tone of a busy visual scene. This study investigated whether emotion ensemble judgement can be changed through cognitive training. Two groups of participants underwent interpretation and visual attention training towards positivity, respectively, while the third group served as the control (total n = 102). All three groups participated in an emotion ensemble-rating task where they rated the overall emotion of a set of facial expressions three times (pre-training, immediately post-training and 7-days post-training). The results demonstrated the malleability of perceptual judgement of an emotion ensemble. The interpretation-training group exhibited a shift towards positivity, particularly for fearful ensembles. Similarly, the attention-training group also showed a positive shift, along with increased eye movements towards happy stimuli immediately after training. These findings help shed light on the formation and correction of biases in emotion perception and judgement.

Letting someone else know that you value their presence, characteristics, effort or activities is central to building and maintaining human relationships. We investigated whether deliberate memory display is an effective means to convey such value. We examined these questions in the context of a simulated job interview (Experiments 1, 2 and 3, total N = 404) and a simulated ‘ice breaker’ exercise between new acquaintances (Experiment 4, total N = 156). Across experiments, results consistently indicated that memory display was not only an effective method of conveying value, but that memory display made other efforts to convey value more effective. Moreover, without external prompting, participants underutilized memory display despite its efficacy. These findings document the efficacy of memory display in the deliberate communication of value and suggest that deliberate memory display might be an underutilized strategic asset in the management of human relationships.