Self-control involves the inhibition of behavior motivated by short-term reward. Self-control is generally considered to be critical to health and well-bring. However, from an evolutionary ...standpoint, inhibiting short-term reward may not always be functional. We suggest that the functionality of maintaining or ceasing inhibitory self-control is highly context-dependent. We have elsewhere proposed the dual component theory of inhibition regulation (DCTIR). The DCTIR proposes a functional processing mechanism that determines whether to continue or cease inhibitory self-control. According to the DCTIR, the functionality of continued application of inhibition is conditional on the availability of resources and stability of the environment. To test these predictions, we developed an online game called "Food Quest," in which participants are asked to imagine that they are on a journey. They are faced with the decision of whether or not to engage in a behavior with a short-term reward but with a long-term cost. The game environment is manipulated by varying game lifespan as well as the distribution and prevalence of resources. Results were consistent with predictions from the DCTIR that self-control was more functional in environments characterized by longevity and plentiful resources, but not in more dangerous, highly variable environments. Implications and future directions are discussed.
American Indian researchers and scholars have emphasized the importance of identifying variables that promote resilience and protect against the development of psychopathology in American Indian ...youth. The present study examined the role of self-regulation, specifically goal characteristics (i.e., goal self-efficacy, goal specificity, intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation, and goal conflict) and dispositional optimism, as well as cultural identity and self-reported academic grades in the depressive experiences of American Indian youth from a North American plains tribe. One hundred and sixty-four participants (53 % female) completed measures of goal representations, cultural identity, dispositional optimism, academic performance, and depressive symptoms. Results supported a model in which higher goal self-efficacy, American Indian cultural identity, grade point average, and dispositional optimism each significantly predicted fewer depressive symptoms. Moreover, grade point average and goal self-efficacy had both direct and indirect (through dispositional optimism) relationships with depressive symptoms. Our findings underscore the importance of cognitive self-regulatory processes and cultural identity in the depressive experiences for these American Indian youth and may have implications for youth interventions attempting to increase resiliency and decrease risk for depressive symptoms.
The recent formulation of guidelines for the management of concussion in sports adopted by the American Academy of Neurology specifically calls for the development of a standardized, systematic ...sideline evaluation for the immediate assessment of concussion in athletes. The present study involved the preliminary investigation of the feasibility and clinical validity of a standardized version of a brief sideline examination complied in accordance with these guidelines. This examination, intended for use by athletic trainers, was administered by three trainers to 141 nonconcussed high school football players at three separate schools. All players suspected of suffering a concussion (N = 6) during the fall 1995 season were also tested immediately following their injury. The examination was easily administered and scored. The concussed players as a group scored significantly below the nonconcussed controls and below their own baseline (pre-injury) performance, despite their all having been considered by the trainers to have suffered mild, grade 1 concussions. Although preliminary, these data suggest that a standardized sideline examination of this type can be useful in detecting concussion and determining fitness to return to play.
Lipid peroxidation of marine fish diets can affect the nutritional value of the diet and consequently fish health, especially in the absence of adequate amounts of anti-oxidants. In this study, diets ...with different levels of oxidized oil and dietary vitamin E were fed to juvenile Atlantic halibut for 16 weeks and the effects on the acute stress response were investigated after this period. Fish were fed diets containing either non-oxidized (POV=0.6 meq kg−1, diet A, control) or oxidized fish oil (POV=7.5 meq kg−1, diets B and C; 15 meq kg−1, diets D and E). Diets A, C and E were supplemented with vitamin E (300 IU kg−1). Following this period, Atlantic halibut were subjected to a 1-h heat shock (HS; from 12 to 18 °C). Plasma cortisol and glucose, and red blood cells (RBC) heat shock protein 70 (hsp70) levels were measured prior to, 0 (immediately after), 6, 12, and 24 h after stress. Two-way ANOVA, using dietary treatment and sampling point as main factors, was performed. In all experimental groups, Atlantic halibut showed increased plasma cortisol levels immediately after (0 h) heat shock, however these returned to pre-stress levels by 6 h. Similarly, plasma glucose level increased significantly immediately after heat shock and decreased to pre-stress levels by 6 h. Dietary treatment had a significant effect on plasma glucose levels. Fish fed the highly oxidized diet (diet E) showed lower overall plasma glucose levels than fish fed less or non-oxidized diets (diets A, B, and C). RBC hsp70 was detected in all treatment groups. However, no significant changes in hsp70 levels were observed after exposure to heat shock. The overall results indicate that juvenile halibut fed diets containing oxidized fish oil up to a peroxide value of 15 meq kg−1 were able to cope with temperature stress, regardless of dietary vitamin E content. The glucose results, however, suggest that highly oxidized diets decrease the overall glucose levels. Furthermore, plasma cortisol and glucose, but not hsp70, seemed to be adequate indicators of heat shock stress in juvenile halibut.
"I Know You Self-Handicapped Last Exam" Hirt, Edward R; McCrea, Sean M; Boris, Hillary I
Journal of personality and social psychology,
01/2003, Letnik:
84, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Past research has shown that self-handicapping involves the trade-off of ability-related attributional benefits for interpersonal costs. Study 1 examined whether perceiver or target sex moderates ...impressions of self-handicapping targets. Although target sex was not an important factor, female perceivers were consistently more critical of behavioral self-handicappers. Two additional studies replicated this gender difference with variations of the handicap. Study 3 examined the motives inferred by perceivers and found that women not only view self-handicappers as more unmotivated but also report greater suspicion of self-handicapping motives; furthermore, these differences in perceived motives mediated sex differences in reactions to self-handicappers. Implications for the effectiveness of self-handicapping as an impression management strategy are discussed.
The purpose of our study was to investigate the association between prior head injury and the likelihood of being diagnosed with clinical depression among retired professional football players with ...prior head injury exposure.
A general health questionnaire, including information about prior injuries, the SF-36 (Short Form 36), and other markers for depression, was completed by 2552 retired professional football players with an average age of 53.8 (+/-13.4) yr and an average professional football-playing career of 6.6 (+/-3.6) yr. A second questionnaire focusing on mild cognitive impairment (MCI)-related issues was completed by a subset of 758 retired professional football players (50 yr and older).
Two hundred sixty-nine (11.1%) of all respondents reported having prior or current diagnosis of clinical depression. There was an association between recurrent concussion and diagnosis of lifetime depression (chi2=71.21, df=2, P<0.005), suggesting that the prevalence increases with increasing concussion history. Compared with retired players with no history of concussion, retired players reporting three or more previous concussions (24.4%) were three times more likely to be diagnosed with depression; those with a history of one or two previous concussions (36.3%) were 1.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with depression. The analyses controlled for age, number of years since retirement, number of years played, physical component score on the SF-36, and diagnosed comorbidities such as osteoarthritis, coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes.
Our findings suggest a possible link between recurrent sport-related concussion and increased risk of clinical depression. The findings emphasize the importance of understanding potential neurological consequences of recurrent concussion.
Predicting crime remains a central issue for social science research. Perspectives that consider the role of self-control have added greatly to our ability to explain and predict criminal behavior. ...However, this approach has been narrowly focused on the role of individual differences in trait self-control, limiting the potential of this approach to integrate a range of findings in the literature. To realize the full potential of the self-control construct to explain criminal behavior, we use the Dual Component Theory of Inhibition Regulation (DCTIR). We discuss how the model can account for a number of findings, including patterns of recidivism, age differences, and the role of socioeconomic factors in crime. The DCTIR provides a framework for integrating these findings, generating new predictions, and ultimately better predicting criminal behavior.
People are motivated to process threatening information in a defensive manner. For instance, in self-reports, group members consistently reject threatening outgroup criticism compared with the same ...criticism from the ingroup (intergroup sensitivity effect). Because self-reports are a poor proxy for actual behavior, it remains unknown whether this defensiveness motivates hostile actions. We fill this gap in the literature: Five experiments (total N = 787) show that group members pay to punish critical outgroup comments, exclude outgroup commenters from a subject pool, and reject ultimatum bargaining offers from outgroup commenters compared with ingroup commenters voicing the same criticism. These defensive behaviors represent hostile actions and are robust in a meta-analysis across our 5 studies. Intergroup sensitivity thus motivates hostile defensive actions. We discuss potential consequences for intergroup relations.
Alexander Luria's model of the working brain consisting of three functional units was formulated through the examination of hundreds of focal brain-injury patients. Several psychometric instruments ...based on Luria's syndrome analysis and accompanying qualitative tasks have been developed since the 1970s. In the mid-1970s, JP Das and colleagues defined a specific cognitive processes model based directly on Luria's two coding units termed simultaneous and successive by studying diverse cross-cultural, ability, and socioeconomic strata. The cognitive assessment system is based on the PASS model of cognitive processes and consists of four composite scales of Planning-Attention-Simultaneous-Successive (PASS) devised by Naglieri and Das in 1997. Das and colleagues developed the two new scales of planning and attention to more closely model Luria's theory of higher cortical functions. In this paper a theoretical review of Luria's theory, Das and colleagues elaboration of Luria's model, and the neural correlates of PASS composite scales based on extant studies is summarized. A brief empirical study of the neuropsychological specificity of the PASS composite scales in a sample of 33 focal cortical stroke patients using cluster analysis is then discussed. Planning and simultaneous were sensitive to right hemisphere lesions. These findings were integrated with recent functional neuroimaging studies of PASS scales. In sum it was found that simultaneous is strongly dependent on dual bilateral occipitoparietal interhemispheric coordination whereas successive demonstrated left frontotemporal specificity with some evidence of interhemispheric coordination across the prefrontal cortex. Hence, support for the validity of the PASS composite scales was found as well as for the axiom of the independence of code content from code type originally specified in 1994 by Das, Naglieri, and Kirby.
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