Action Tendencies Research Articles

The generation and function of moral emotions in teams: An integrative review.

By considering moral emotions in light of a team context, we offer a new way of thinking about the socially embedded nature of moral emotions and how they influence various types of ethical behaviors in teams. To achieve this goal, we review the key literature on moral emotions within teams. We integrate this literature with Bandura's (1991, 2002, 2008) theory of moral thought and action, coupled with the social functional account of emotions (Keltner & Haidt, 1999) to examine how team norms are connected, through their influence on individual team members' moral emotions, to ethical behavior within team contexts. This review and integration highlights how team norms regarding moral approbation and moral perspective taking influence members' proscriptive (e.g., fear, guilt, shame, embarrassment) and prescriptive (e.g., sympathy/compassion, pride) moral emotions. In turn, each of these moral emotions has unique action tendencies linked to 1 or more of 3 different types of ethical behaviors witnessed in teams: compliance behaviors, humanistic behaviors, and supererogatory behaviors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Early Approach and Avoidance Tendencies can be Goal-Directed: Support from a Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study.

Dual-process models with a default-interventionist architecture explain early emotional action tendencies by a stimulus-driven process, and they allow goal-directed processes to intervene only in a later stage. An alternative dual-process model with a parallel-competitive architecture developed by Moors, Boddez, and De Houwer (Emotion Review, 9(4), 310-318, 2017), in contrast, explains early emotional action tendencies by a goal-directed process. This model proposes that stimulus-driven and goal-directed processes often operate in parallel and compete with each other, and that if they do compete, the goal-directed process often wins the competition. To examine these predictions, we set up a goal-directed process in an experimental group by rewarding participants for avoiding positive stimuli and for approaching negative stimuli and punishing them for the opposite behavior. We expected this process to compete with a potentially preexisting stimulus-driven process in which positive stimuli are associated with approach and negative stimuli with avoidance. We compared the elicited action tendencies of participants in this group with a control group in which only the stimulus-driven process could operate. Early approach and avoidance tendencies were assessed via motor evoked potentials (MEP) measured in the finger muscles previously trained to approach or to avoid stimuli after single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) delivered at 400 ms. Results confirmed that positive/negative stimuli led to stronger avoidance/approach tendencies in the experimental group but not to approach/avoidance tendencies in the control group. This suggests that goal-directed processes are indeed able to determine relatively early emotional action tendencies, but it does not show that goal-directed process can defeat stimulus-driven processes.

Approach bias for erotic stimuli among heterosexual female college students who use pornography

Repeated engagement in addictive behaviors may lead to relatively automatic action tendencies whereby individuals approach rather than avoid addictive stimuli. This study assessed whether an approach bias for erotic stimuli exists among heterosexual college-aged females who report using pornography. We tested 121 female undergraduates using an approach-avoidance task (AAT) employing both erotic and neutral stimuli, during which participants were instructed to push or pull a gaming joystick in response to image orientation. To simulate approach and avoidance movements, pulling the joystick enlarged the image and pushing shrunk the image. Severity of pornography use was assessed using the Brief Pornography Screener (BPS) and the Problematic Pornography Use Scale (PPUS). Participants demonstrated a significant approach bias of 24.81 ms for erotic stimuli as compared to neutral stimuli, and this approach bias significantly positively correlated with PPUS scores. Moreover, approach bias scores were significantly positively correlated with anhedonia (as assessed by the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale), indicating that the stronger the degree of approach for erotic stimuli, the more anhedonia that was observed. Anhedonia was not significantly associated with pornography use severity, however. Findings implicate both similarities and differences in problematic pornography use among female and male users. A limitation of the current study is that it assessed approach biases among only heterosexual females due to the erotic stimuli employed during the AAT. Future studies should examine approach biases among females of varying sexual orientations.

The impact of task load on the integration of explicit contextual priors and visual information during anticipation.

There is limited knowledge about the impact of task load on experts' integration of contextual priors and visual information during dynamic and rapidly evolving anticipation tasks. We examined how experts integrate contextual priors--specifically, prior information regarding an opponent's action tendencies--with visual information such as movement kinematics, during a soccer-specific anticipation task. Furthermore, we combined psychophysiological measures and retrospective self-reports to gain insight into the cognitive load associated with this integration. Players were required to predict the action of an oncoming opponent, with and without the explicit provision of contextual priors, under two different task loads. In addition to anticipation performance, we compared continuous electroencephalography (EEG) and self-reports of cognitive load across conditions. Our data provide tentative evidence that increased task load may impair performance by disrupting the integration of contextual priors and visual information. EEG data suggest that cognitive load may increase when contextual priors are explicitly provided, whereas self-report data suggested a decrease in cognitive load. The findings provide insight into the processing demands associated with integration of contextual priors and visual information during dynamic anticipation tasks, and have implications for the utility of priors under cognitively demanding conditions. Furthermore, our findings add to the existing literature, suggesting that continuous EEG may be a more valid measure than retrospective self-reports for in-task assessment of cognitive load.

Estimating individual action dispositions using binary and frequency egocentric sexual network data

The degree distribution of nodes in a sexual network has been under thorough investigation, as has its implications for the spread of sexually transmitted infections. However, not only the structure of the network is of importance in regulating the propagation of an infection. Two nodes connected by an edge may take actions that reduce the transmission probability through that edge. Condom use is one such action. In this article, we derive models for individual action dispositions, and how they together generate an outcome on the edge connecting two nodes. We derive two main models: One where two connected nodes generate one outcome together (suitable for casual sex partners), and one where they generate several outcomes together (suitable for steady sex partners). We model different disposition distributions and different rules on how the dispositions generate outcomes, using an egocentric network dataset on condom use behavior.

INTANGIBLE RESOURCES AND INSTITUTION PERFORMANCE: THE CONCERN OF INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL, EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE, JOB SATISFACTION, AND ITS IMPACT ON ORGANIZATION PERFORMANCE

Purpose: The aim of this research paper is to examine the relationships between intangible assets, employee’s performance, and job satisfaction (JS) with structural model. The research explores both the practical and theoretical basis of these paradigms on organisation performance. This research also aims to identify whether a relation can be established between these aspects in the context of non-profit organisation performance in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach: Reviewing the literature explores a theoretical existence of related context preceding the organisational performance. The authors used structural equation modelling to check the research prototype with a sample of 121 respondents. The respondents were heads of departments and general employees. In addition, SPSS was used to measure demographic, non-response bias, and generate descriptive statistics. Findings: Overall, the results demonstrate that organisation with a higher level of intellectual capital (IC), employee performance (EP), and job performance (JP) are important predictors of organisational performance in this sample. Similarly, JS and IC predicted EP. It is acknowledged that emotional intelligence such as satisfaction and dissatisfaction are important incentives to necessitate action tendencies. Research limitations/implications: This research is focused on organisations. Further research may extend the focus to different types of organisations and countries. Practical implications: The findings of this study may help institutions and HR departments to initiate new strategies such as integrating the traditional company performance measurement systems based on various indicators of this study. These factors succeed in providing an effective representation of a set of intangible assets that are developed by the company and that contribute to the improvement of company’s performance. Additionally, to maximise IC assets, the company can implement knowledge sharing practices among employees and experts as well. Original value/knowledge contribution: This research is useful for organisations and academics as a reference of the comparative and intersecting explanation of enhancing organisational performance. Moreover, various main concepts/theories are combined, namely, IC, JS, and employee’s performance to solve the obstacles of organisation performance.

Socioeconomic inequality and adjustments in children’s perceptions of their agency as they age in South Korea

AbstractThis paper explores how children's perceptions of their agency, as something that is closely associated with its exercise, appear in relation to social structural factors, especially their socioeconomic positions, as they age. Using data from 862 10–18 years old in South Korea, we examine how children's expressed optimism about their ability to achieve their occupational choices can conceal the impact of structural factors on their ‘choices’ and dispositions for (non‐)action over time. Based on the findings, we argue for a more careful interpretation of children's sense of agency that recognises its propensity to continuously adjust in contexts of structural inequality.

Expecting the good: Symbolic valence signals provoke action biases and undermine goal-directed behavior

Positive and negative events are known to trigger opposing action tendencies (approach vs. avoidance). Recently, we found that advance monetary incentive cues can override such valence-action biases. In the present study we tested whether symbolic emotional valence cues can lead to similar adjustments and facilitate performance regardless of the required action. To this end, we performed three closely related experiments in which valence prospect (positive vs. neutral; indicated by stimulus color) and action requirements (approach vs. avoid; indicated by stimulus shape) were manipulated in a trial-to-trial fashion. Orthogonal to this, valence prospect was either embedded in the cue or target stimulus in discrete blocks (cue-valence vs. target-valence blocks). Actual valence was presented in the form of emotional face stimuli after response execution, which mirrors monetary incentive manipulations. In two of the experiments, we observed a positive-approach bias in form of performance benefit for positive versus neutral valence trials, which was exclusive for approach actions. Although numerically more pronounced in target-valence blocks, the bias was not significantly diminished in cue- versus target-valence blocks. This opposes our prediction that emotional valence cues can diminish such biases and instead highlights the robustness of inherent mappings between emotional valence and action tendencies - even if this goes against the task goal.

Brain Networks of Emotional Prosody Processing

The processing of emotional nonlinguistic information in speech is defined as emotional prosody. This auditory nonlinguistic information is essential in the decoding of social interactions and in our capacity to adapt and react adequately by taking into account contextual information. An integrated model is proposed at the functional and brain levels, encompassing 5 main systems that involve cortical and subcortical neural networks relevant for the processing of emotional prosody in its major dimensions, including perception and sound organization; related action tendencies; and associated values that integrate complex social contexts and ambiguous situations.

Approaching the development of hurt feelings in childhood

When do hurt feelings develop? In this paper, we want to set the stage for empirical investigations that can answer this neglected question. Thus, we present an integrative theory of hurt feelings according to which hurt feelings in their narrow sense consist of (a) a primary appraisal of an illegitimate devaluation, (b) a secondary appraisal of low controllability, (c) an action tendency to withdraw, and (d) the communicative function to signal that one has been wronged, and is expecting reparation. We argue that sulking behavior can be used as an approach to studying hurt feelings in young children because the same appraisals are assumed to underlie sulking. Thus, we review what is known about pouting as a facial expression and sulking behavior. After discussing the ontogeny of two important eliciting situations of hurt feelings—abandonment and sibling favoritism, we preliminarily conclude that relevant behaviors are not present in jealousy experiments that involve a situation of discrimination and that hurt feelings seem not yet present in the Ainsworth Strange Situation at twelve months of age. Finally, we review empirical studies on shame, pride, guilt and social norms because they relate to the same motivational topic of legitimacy and social evaluation. In summary, this review suggests that it is likely that sulking behavior and thus hurt feelings in their narrow sense begin to develop at the end of the second year, together with other self-conscious emotions, but that empirical investigations are strongly needed.

Disgust selectively dampens value-independent risk-taking for potential gains

Despite intricate interactions between emotion and decision making, the underlying cognitive mechanisms that govern their relationship remain elusive. Recent theoretical and empirical advances suggest that preferences in risky decision making can arise from the computation of subjective utility (value-dependent) or direct approach-avoidance action tendencies (value-independent). Here, 48 participants performed two gambling tasks (accept/reject and choice selection tasks) under the emotion manipulation (neutral versus disgust) to investigate how decision context and emotion may influence risk preference via the value-dependent and -independent pathways. The results showed that the decision context affected the degree to which both value-dependent and -independent systems were engaged. Crucially, however, the disgust emotion had a selective effect on participants' choices in the accept/reject task. Furthermore, computational analyses revealed that this specific effect resulted from a reduced propensity to gamble for potential gains by engaging only the value-independent system. These results indicate dissociative effects of decision context and emotion and suggest a specific route by which disgust influences choice preference in risky decision making.

The Quest for Hope: Disadvantaged Group Members Can Fulfill Their Desire to Feel Hope, but Only When They Believe in Their Power

Within contexts of oppression and struggle for social change, in which hope is constantly challenged, do disadvantaged group members still want to feel hope? If so, does this desire translate into actual hope? And does motivation for hope relate to disadvantaged individuals’ collective action tendencies? We suggest that, especially when faced with setbacks in the struggle for social change, disadvantaged group members want to feel hope, but actualizing this motivation depends on their group efficacy beliefs. We address these questions in a two-wave sample of 429 Palestinians living under militarized occupation in the West Bank. Our results indicate that when faced with setbacks, Palestinians want to feel hope for social change, but only those who perceive high group efficacy are able to fulfill their desire. We discuss these findings’ implications for understanding motivated emotional processes and hope in contexts of oppression.

Oxytocin Normalizes Approach-Avoidance Behavior in Women With Borderline Personality Disorder.

Background: Interpersonal deficits are a core symptom of borderline personality disorder (BPD), which could be related to increased social threat sensitivity and a tendency to approach rather than avoid interpersonal threats. The neuropeptide oxytocin has been shown to reduce threat sensitivity in patients with BPD and to modify approach–avoidance behavior in healthy volunteers.Methods: In a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled between-subject design, 53 unmedicated women with BPD and 61 healthy women participated in an approach–avoidance task 75 min after intranasal substance administration (24 IU of oxytocin or placebo). The task assesses automatic approach–avoidance tendencies in reaction to facial expressions of happiness and anger.Results: While healthy participants responded faster to happy than angry faces, the opposite response pattern, that is, faster reactions to angry than happy faces, was found in patients with BPD. In the oxytocin condition, the “congruency effect” (i.e., faster avoidance of facial anger and approach of facial happiness vice versa) was increased in both groups. Notably, patients with BPD exhibited a congruency effect toward angry faces in the oxytocin but not in the placebo condition.Conclusions: This is the second report of deficient fast, automatic avoidance responses in terms of approach behavior toward interpersonal threat cues in patients with BPD. Intranasally administered oxytocin was found to strengthen avoidance behavior to social threat cues and, thus, to normalize fast action tendencies in BPD. Together with the previously reported oxytocinergic reduction of social threat hypersensitivity, these results suggest beneficial effects of oxytocin on interpersonal dysfunctioning in BPD.

The Impact of Partner Performance on Emotions in Doubles Racquet Sports

ABSTRACT Purpose: Different athletes may experience different emotions, based on one’s appraisal of the situation or environment. To date, this line of research has received limited research attention in sport dyads. The purpose of this study was to understand the role of a partner’s play on the different types of emotion of athletes, as well as perceived impact on overall emotions, performance, and motivation in doubles racquet sports (i.e., tennis, badminton, and squash). Method: Using a post-test only, randomized experimental design, participants read one of three possible written vignettes that depicted different scenarios of their partner’s play (i.e., poor, good, or usual performance). Participants (N = 103) were then asked to fill out a questionnaire packet based on the scenario read. Results: A Multivariate Analysis of Variance, as well as follow-up Analyses of Variance revealed significant differences between groups in subjective emotions based on whether their partner was playing poorly, their partner having a good performance or whether their partner was perceived as playing their usual game (control group). The results showed that athletes scored higher in anger and anxiety when their partner is playing poorly, and when their partner is having a good performance, athletes had higher scores in happiness and excitement. Conclusion: Overall, these findings imply that athletes’ emotions may change based on how their partner is playing and provide a foundation to look at emotional reactions (action tendencies) and coping in sport teams.

Individual hygiene program of stomatologic conditions prevention in ophthalmologic patients

Aim. To describe features of formation and carrying-out of an individual hygiene program of stomatologic conditions prevention in ophthalmologic patients.
 Methods. The formation of hygiene program of prevention.
 Results. Action tendency and procedure of the program stages conduct with consideration for patients status are stated. Peculiarities of professional and individual oral hygiene during pre-op and post-op periods are reflected.
 Conclusions. It is necessary to take into account physical characteristics of oral hygiene products (vibration, sound, ultrasound, etc.) concerning subsequent ophthalmic procedures and special aspects of post-op period course.

Enhanced Go and NoGo Learning in Individuals With Obesity.

Overeating in individuals with obesity is hypothesized to be partly caused by automatic action tendencies to food cues that have the potential to override goal-directed dietary restriction. Individuals with obesity are often characterized by alterations in the processing of such rewarding food, but also of non-food stimuli, and previous research has suggested a stronger impact on the execution of goal-directed actions in obesity. Here, we investigated whether Pavlovian cues can also corrupt the learning of new approach or withdrawal behavior in individuals with obesity. We employed a probabilistic Pavlovian-instrumental learning paradigm in which participants (29 normal-weight and 29 obese) learned to actively respond (Go learning) or withhold a response (NoGo learning) in order to gain monetary rewards or avoid losses. Participants were better at learning active approach responses (Go) in the light of anticipated rewards and at learning to withhold a response (NoGo) in the light of imminent punishments. Importantly, there was no evidence for a stronger corruption of instrumental learning in individuals with obesity. Instead, they showed better learning across conditions than normal-weight participants. Using a computational reinforcement learning model, we additionally found an increased learning rate in individuals with obesity. Previous studies have mostly reported a lower reinforcement learning performance in individuals with obesity. Our results contradict this and suggest that their performance is not universally impaired: Instead, while previous studies found reduced stimulus-value learning, individuals with obesity may show better action-value learning. Our findings highlight the need for a broader investigation of behavioral adaptation in obesity across different task designs and types of reinforcement learning.

Human Lateral Frontal Pole Contributes to Control over Emotional Approach-Avoidance Actions.

Regulation of emotional behavior is essential for human social interactions. Recent work has exposed its cognitive complexity, as well as its unexpected reliance on portions of the anterior PFC (aPFC) also involved in exploration, relational reasoning, and counterfactual choice, rather than on dorsolateral and medial prefrontal areas involved in several forms of cognitive control. This study anatomically qualifies the contribution of aPFC territories to the regulation of prepotent approach-avoidance action tendencies elicited by emotional faces, and explores a possible structural pathway through which this emotional action regulation might be implemented. We provide converging evidence from task-based fMRI, diffusion-weighted imaging, and functional connectivity fingerprints for a novel neural element in emotional regulation. Task-based fMRI in human male participants (N = 40) performing an emotional approach-avoidance task identified aPFC territories involved in the regulation of action tendencies elicited by emotional faces. Connectivity fingerprints, based on diffusion-weighted imaging and resting-state connectivity, localized those task-defined frontal regions to the lateral frontal pole (FPl), an anatomically defined portion of the aPFC that lacks a homologous counterpart in macaque brains. Probabilistic tractography indicated that 10%-20% of interindividual variation in emotional regulation abilities is accounted for by the strength of structural connectivity between FPl and amygdala. Evidence from an independent replication sample (N = 50; 10 females) further substantiated this result. These findings provide novel neuroanatomical evidence for incorporating FPl in models of control over human action tendencies elicited by emotional faces.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Successful regulation of emotional behaviors is a prerequisite for successful participation in human society, as is evidenced by the social isolation and loss of occupational opportunities often encountered by people suffering from emotion regulation disorders, such as social-anxiety disorder and psychopathy. Knowledge about the precise cortical regions and connections supporting this control is crucial for understanding both the nature of computations needed to successfully traverse the space of possible actions in social situations, and the potential interventions that might result in efficient treatment of social-emotional disorders. This study provides evidence for a precise cortical region (lateral frontal pole) and a structural pathway (the ventral amygdalofugal bundle) through which a cognitively complex form of emotional action regulation might be implemented in the human brain.

Fearing the wurst: Robust approach bias towards non-vegetarian food images in a sample of young female vegetarian eaters

Previous studies have shown that humans show an implicit approach bias toward food related items which is moderated by hunger and properties of the food items displayed (such as their palatability and calorie content). However, little is known about if and how this approach bias is moderated by food preferences and/or diet choices. In this study, we compared approach-avoidance biases in a group of young female omnivore and vegetarian eaters towards images of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food items using a manikin stimulus-response compatibility task. While vegetarian eaters showed a slightly larger approach bias for vegetarian than for non-vegetarian food stimuli, this bias was of similar size to that observed in the omnivorous group. Most interestingly, vegetarian eaters’ approach bias towards non-vegetarian food pictures also did not differ from that of the omnivorous group, despite vegetarians rating those pictures as much less pleasant. Our findings suggest that approach biases towards food items are quite robust and do not rapidly change with dietary practice. However, despite approach biases often guiding behaviour, vegetarian eaters successfully withstand these implicit action tendencies and avoid non-vegetarian produce. Potential implications of this finding for the addiction literature are discussed.

Common circuit or paradigm shift? The functional brain in emotional scene perception and emotional imagery.

Meta-analytic and experimental studies investigating the neural basis of emotion often compare functional activation in different emotional induction contexts, assessing evidence for a "core affect" or "salience" network. Meta-analyses necessarily aggregate effects across diverse paradigms and different samples, which ignore potential neural differences specific to the method of affect induction. Data from repeated measures designs are few, reporting contradictory results with a small N. In the current study, functional brain activity is assessed in a large (N=61) group of healthy participants during two common emotion inductions-scene perception and narrative imagery-to evaluate cross-paradigm consistency. Results indicate that limbic and paralimbic regions, together with visual and parietal cortex, are reliably engaged during emotional scene perception. For emotional imagery, in contrast, enhanced functional activity is found in several cerebellar regions, hippocampus, caudate, and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, consistent with the conception that imagery is an action disposition. Taken together, the data suggest that a common emotion network is not engaged across paradigms, but that the specific neural regions activated during emotional processing can vary significantly with the context of the emotional induction.

Clarifying the Role of Negative Emotions in the Origin and Control of Impulsive Actions.

This critical review elaborates on the origin of impulsive actions and how these can be controlled. We focus in particular on the role of negative events. First, we outline how impulsive actions often originate from negative events that are (emotionally) appraised. A discrepancy between this current state and a desired goal state leads to action tendencies. The urgency of the resulting action depends on the importance of the goal and the size of the discrepancy. Second, we discuss how such impulsive actions can be regulated or controlled e.g. by biasing competition between different options, or by completely suppressing all motor output. Importantly, such control mechanisms might also depend on emotional factors. To reconcile these findings, we present a coherent theoretical framework, taking into account various cognitive, affective, and motivational mechanisms as well as contextual factors that play a crucial role in the origin and control of impulsive actions.