Self-control allows people to align their behaviour with intention in the face of a motivational conflict. Lay beliefs about self-control are associated with self-control performance. However, previous research has focused on whether self-control is seen as a limited resource in the short term and mostly ignored beliefs about whether self-control is malleable in the long term. We examined these two aspects of lay beliefs in two preregistered questionnaire studies with adult UK participants (n1 = 182, n2 = 199). In both studies, beliefs about the limitedness and malleability of self-control were relatively independent of each other. Moreover, limitedness beliefs varied depending on the self-control domain. Self-control beliefs were related to but relatively distinct from self-esteem, self-efficacy, and trait self-control. Beliefs about the malleability of self-control were moderately associated with beliefs about the malleability of overall personality, but not with beliefs about intelligence. Our results support a multidimensional and domain-specific approach when measuring self-control beliefs.

With the increasing accessibility of digital technologies, problematic gaming behaviors, including Gaming Disorder (GD) and Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD), have become growing public health concern among adolescents. These behaviors are shaped by a complex interplay of demographic, psychosocial, and environmental factors. This study examined the prevalence and correlates of GD and IGD among school-going adolescents in Bangladesh. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in the Kurigram district using stratified cluster sampling. A total of 1097 participants were assessed for GD and 1053 for IGD using the Gaming Disorder Test (GDT-4) and Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form (IGDS9-SF), respectively. Analyses were performed using SPSS version 27.0. The mean GD score was 6.14 ± 2.77, and the mean IGD score was 10.68 ± 4.38. Significant group differences in gaming scores were found by gender, age, substance use history, parental supervision, parent-child understanding, bullying, truancy, loneliness, and screen time. Multiple linear regression revealed that male gender, substance use, poor parental monitoring, poor parent-child relationships, bullying, loneliness, and daily internet use were significantly associated with gaming scores. The regression models explained a modest but meaningful proportion of variance (adjusted R2 = 0.111 for GD; adjusted R2 = 0.123 for IGD), indicating that additional unmeasured factors may contribute to gaming-related problems. These findings highlight the multifactorial nature of problematic gaming and highlight the need for multi-level interventions targeting family dynamics, digital behavior regulation, and peer interactions. Tailored prevention strategies addressing these modifiable risk factors may help mitigate gaming-related harms and promote healthier digital use among adolescents, particularly in low-resource settings.

In a time of rapid technological change, enhancing technical workers' taking charge behavior is critical for improving organizational competitiveness and sustainability. Drawing on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, we developed and tested a model to examine the positive impact of coaching leadership on employees' taking charge behavior. We conducted a multi-wave, multi-source survey study among technical workers in a large Chinese innovative manufacturing company, and finally collected data from 351 leader-employee dyads. The results show that coaching leadership promotes technical workers' taking charge behavior by enhancing their task crafting. In addition, task difficulty positively moderates the effect of coaching leadership on task crafting, thereby increasing taking charge behaviors among technical workers. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the study.

This study investigated how perceived gains and losses relate to goal orientation (striving for gains, maintenance, or loss avoidance) in adulthood and examined the role of control beliefs (measured as perceived constraints in control) as a potential mediator. Data were collected from 404 US adults (18-78 years; 51.0% female) via an online survey measuring these variables in four life domains (happiness, physical fitness, life experiences, and monetary savings). Multilevel path analysis was applied to analyze the data. Regarding direct and total effects, perceived gains positively related to all three types of goal orientation, while perceived losses positively related to loss-avoidance orientation only. Regarding indirect effects, both perceived gains (contrary to our expectation) and losses positively related to perceived constraints in control, and such constraints negatively related to gain orientation and positively related to maintenance/loss-avoidance orientation. These pairwise associations were strong enough to partially account for the relationship between perceived gains/losses and goal orientation, consistent with mediation models with perceived constraints in control as potential mediators. However, alternative explanations cannot be excluded due to the cross-sectional nature of the study. Age moderated the relationships of perceived gains/losses with perceived constraints in control, but not with goal orientation. Most of these relationships exhibited minimal variation across life domains. Overall, this study replicates previous research on the links between gains/losses and goal orientation in a cross-sectional adult sample. It also provides initial evidence for the potential mediating role of control beliefs in these links.

Researchers have found that psychological well-being is independently correlated with both optimism and flow. Although the flow-optimism-well-being structure has been studied empirically, there hasn't been much concentrated synthesis on optimism's particular mediating mechanism. This review conducts a thorough analysis of peer-reviewed research on optimism as a specific mediator between flow and psychological health in adults between the ages of 18 and 65. PRISMA 2020 guidelines were adhered to in this systematic review. To find studies published between 2015 and 2025, six databases were searched: PsycINFO, Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, and ERIC. The following criteria must be met for inclusion: statistical mediation analysis of optimism between flow and well-being, adult samples, empirical research, and English language proficiency. To evaluate quality, the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was employed. All of the updated inclusion criteria were met by three studies. However, generalizability is constrained by measurement and design heterogeneity. With indirect effects ranging from .15 to.23, these studies consistently showed that optimism serves as a mediator in the relationship between flow and psychological well-being particularly. Although the majority of the included studies used cross-sectional designs, the evidence was especially strong in longitudinal and daily diary designs. Hence, the review reveals a consistent but moderate mediation effect where optimism acts as a significant psychological mechanism through which flow experiences enhance well-being.

The reliability of test scores is not a fixed property of an instrument but may vary across populations and testing conditions. Evaluating how a scale performs across different samples is essential for understanding the extent of measurement error and generalizing psychometric properties. In the present study, Bandura's Self-Efficacy for Self-Regulated Learning Scale (SESRLS) was examined using a reliability generalization meta-analysis to assess the generalizability of Cronbach's alpha across studies. A random-effects model was employed to compute the pooled mean reliability coefficient. In addition, meta-regression was conducted to investigate the impact of study characteristics-both substantive and methodological-on reliability. Moderator variables included categorical factors (age group, mode of administration, test language, region, item type) and continuous variables (mean age, age standard deviation, percentage of females, sample size, number of response options, and number of items). The analysis synthesized 78 alpha coefficients derived from a total sample of 32,116 participants. Bonett's transformation was applied to stabilize sampling variances associated with bounded reliability estimates. Results revealed that mean raw alpha was .85 (95% CI [.837-.857]) and pooled mean alpha was .869 (95% CI [.857-.884]) for transformed scores. Substantial heterogeneity was detected (I2 = 97.6%). Of all moderators examined, only test language significantly predicted reliability coefficients (β = -0.221, p = .047), with slightly higher values reported in non-English versions. No other moderator variables were found to exert a significant influence. These findings support the generalizability of the SESRLS's reliability estimates across diverse demographic and methodological contexts, while highlighting the need to consider the rigor and quality of the adaptation process in reliability reporting.

Self-based mental time travel - the ability to remember past events and imagine future events on a personal timeline - is well-characterized in cognitive science. A similar, but less-understood, ability is that of collective memory and collective future thinking, termed collective mental time travel (CMTT). To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the episodic richness of collective memory and future thoughts using an in-person laboratory paradigm. In two studies (UK and Turkey), we examined the effect of Event Type (collective, personal; between-groups) and Temporal Orientation (past, future; within-groups) on quantities of episodic and non-episodic details. Results show that personal events contained more episodic detail compared to collective events, and past events were associated with more episodic detail than future events. The distinction between personal and collective events was more pronounced in the UK than in Turkish sample, hinting at an influence of cross-cultural context on the episodicity of collective memories and future thoughts. Additionally, we observed a relationship between the episodicity of the past and the future exclusively in the UK population and for personal events, partially supporting the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis. These findings initiate a deeper understanding of the underlying cognitive processes that enable humans to engage in collective mental time travel.

Integral empathy (that stems from and is intrinsic to the outgroup) has been extensively studied in intergroup relations. In contrast, incidental empathy (that stems from factors unrelated and is extrinsic to the outgroup) still needs to be explored. In Study 1, we tested the effects of incidental empathy on outgroup perception, while in Study 2, we verified if the effects of incidental empathy on outgroup perception may be due to integral empathy felt toward it. Results show that evoking incidental empathy improves outgroup perception, which is perceived as more competent and sociable. Moreover, the positive effects of incidental empathy are partially due to the integral empathy felt toward the outgroup.

In everyday situations, individuals encounter emotionally demanding or challenging situations that are remembered and subsequently retrieved in similar emotional contexts. Consequently, although emotion is unavoidable in everyday life, specific situations can enhance its impact, leading to serious consequences. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the false memories produced by two types of tests (recall and recognition) utilizing Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) lists of emotional valences (negative, positive, or neutral). Sixty-six healthy participants were presented with four lists of emotional valences (positive, negative, or neutral), each containing ten words, and were instructed to retrieve them through recall and recognition tests. The percentage proportion of false memories to true memories was assessed by the number of critical lures and true target words recalled and recognized. A mixed factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to examine the differences in emotional valence between recall and recognition for studied and critical lure words. The main effect of test type [F (1,63) = 6.49, p = .013, η2 = .09] and emotional valence [F (2, 63) = 3.32, p = .04, η2 = .09] was found to be significant for critical lure words. However, the interaction between test types and emotional valence was non-significant [F (2, 63) = 1.38, p = .25, η2 = .04] for critical lure words. The current study concludes that recognition tests may reveal greater susceptibility to emotional false memories than recall tests. Moreover, emotional valence independently affects false memory performance, particularly for negative content. There was no significant interaction between test type and valence, indicating that test type and emotional valence may independently contribute to the formation of false memories rather than affecting each other.

Procrastination is a self-regulatory failure in which important tasks are delayed despite the knowledge that this is unhelpful; episodic future thinking is the process of constructing detailed mental simulations of possible future events. High trait procrastination has been linked to reduced sensory-perceptual detail when simulating future events based on experimenter prompts, yet it remains unclear if this extends to events reflecting achievement of one's personal goals. The present investigation aimed to establish the relations between trait procrastination and attributes of short-term (<1month) and long-term (>6months) personal goals and goal achievement simulations. High procrastination was expected to predict high self-reported likelihood of goal avoidance, especially for long-term goals (due to associated delay sensitivity); reduced sensory-perceptual detail in achievement simulations; and heightened anticipatory anxiety when contemplating goal failure. Multilevel models controlling for other goal attributes showed a positive predictive effect of procrastination on avoidance likelihood for long- and short-term goals; no effects on sensory-perceptual detail of achievement simulations; and a positive predictive effect on anticipatory anxiety which was most pronounced for short-term goals. Exploratory analyses further showed that neither goal importance nor achievement simulation characteristics (autonoetic consciousness, anticipated emotions) were sensitive to procrastination levels. These findings suggest that a tendency to procrastinate, though disruptive, does not imply deficits in goal setting; and further, that its effects on future simulation may not extend to personally important goal-related events. Finally, results on anticipatory anxiety highlight a potential mechanism by which high procrastinators are drawn into focussing on short-term goals at the expense of more important long-term priorities.