Positive Self-conscious Emotions Research Articles

Word-of-mouth generated influences of different prepared dishes via online consumer purchases: Preliminary text-based research findings from "Jingdong Mall" flagship shops.

With the rapid development of China's prepared vegetable product market, consumer demand for prepared vegetable products is increasing. The study adopts a qualitative research method to construct a model of factors influencing the generation of consumer word-of-mouth (IWOM) in the online consumption context, taking the real consumer word-of-mouth of Jingdong's own flagship shop of prepared dishes as the object of the study. The model states that the objective factors that promote the generation of word of mouth include specific consumption context (emotionality, initiality, scarcity, convenience and process) and specific product attributes (richness, safety, accessibility and emotionality). Meanwhile subjective factors design consumer satisfaction with the product (satisfaction with a single attribute and satisfaction with the brand as a whole) and emotions (positive self-conscious emotions, high arousal positive emotions and medium arousal positive emotions). Objective factors may contribute directly to the generation of word-of-mouth, or they may further contribute to word-of-mouth generation through subjective consumer factors. In addition, IWOM is often generated not by a single factor, but by a combination of factors.

The female athletic ideal — Friend or foe? Fit, thin, and athletic body ideals and their associations with women’s body image

The internalization of body ideals is a critical predictor of body image and health behaviors. Thin and athletic ideal internalization in women need to be elucidated. The aims of the current study included: (i) describing the endorsement of thin and athletic body ideals among women and (ii) examining group differences in negative and positive self-conscious emotions and body image. Participants (N = 392 women; Mage = 25.6, SD = 5.3 years) were assigned to Fit Ideal (n = 110), Thin Ideal (n = 83), Athletic Ideal (n = 55), and Low Internalization (n = 144) groups based on scores for thin and athletic internalization. Three multivariate analyses of variance were conducted to examine Body Ideal group differences on negative appearance and fitness self-conscious emotions, and positive self-conscious emotions and body image. The Athletic Ideal and Low Internalization groups generally scored lower on negative self-conscious emotions and higher on positive self-conscious emotions and body image in comparison to the Fit and Thin Ideal groups (Cohen’s d =.35 to 1.15). Results suggest that differing levels of thin and athletic internalization may intersect uniquely with women’s body-related self-conscious emotions and positive body image and thus may have distinct effects on women’s health and behavior.

Tough but not terrific: value destruction in men’s health

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of masculine identity in generating value destruction and diminished well-being in a preventative health service.Design/methodology/approachThis research used five focus groups with 39 Australian men aged between 50 and 74 years. Men’s participation in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program informed the sample frame. In total, 12 Jungian male archetypes were used to identify different masculine identities.FindingsThematic analysis of the data revealed three themes of masculinity that explain why men destroy value by avoiding the use of a preventative health services including: rejection of the service reduces consumer disempowerment and emasculation, active rejection of resources creates positive agency and suppressing negative self-conscious emotions protects the self.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations include the single context of bowel cancer screening. Future research could investigate value destruction in other preventative health contexts such as testicular cancer screening, sexual health screening and drug abuse.Practical implicationsPractical implications include fostering consumer empowerment when accessing services, developing consumer resources to create positive agency and boosting positive self-conscious emotions by promoting positive social norms.Originality/valueThis research is the first known study to explore how value is destroyed in men’s preventative health using the perspective of gender identity. This research also is the first to explore value destruction as an emotion regulation strategy.

Self-Evaluative and Other-Directed Emotional and Behavioral Responses to Gossip About the Self.

Gossip, or informal talk about others who are not present, is omnipresent in daily interactions. As such, people who are targeted are likely to hear some gossip about themselves, which may have profound implications for their well-being. We investigated the emotions and behavioral intentions of people who hear performance-related gossip about themselves. Based on the affective events theory, we predicted that gossip incidents have strong emotional consequences for their targets and that these emotional responses trigger different behaviors. Two scenario studies (N1 = 226, Mage = 21.76; N2 = 204, Mage = 34.11) and a critical incident study (N = 240, Mage = 37.04) compared targets' responses to positive and negative gossip. Whereas, targets of positive gossip experienced positive self-conscious emotions (e.g., pride), targets of negative gossip experienced negative self-conscious emotions (e.g., guilt), especially when they had low core self-evaluations. In turn, these negative self-conscious emotions predicted repair intentions. Positive gossip also led to positive other-directed emotions (e.g., liking), which predicted intentions to affiliate with the gossiper. Negative gossip, however, also generated other-directed negative emotions (e.g., anger), especially for targets with high reputational concerns, which in turn predicted retaliation intentions against the gossiper. This pattern of emotional reactions to self-relevant gossip was found to be unique and different from emotional reactions to self-relevant feedback. These results show that gossip has self-evaluative and other-directed emotional consequences, which predict how people intend to behaviorally react after hearing gossip about themselves.

Perseverance of effort is related to lower depressive symptoms via authentic pride and perceived power

Perseverance toward long-term goals has been tied to diminished depression. Few studies have considered mechanisms that might underlie the effects of perseverance. We tested the hypothesis that perseverance promotes greater resilience to depressive symptoms by enhancing positive self-conscious emotions (e.g., authentic pride) and positive self-valuation (e.g., sense of power). Participants (N = 420) completed self-report measures of perseverance, authentic pride, perceived power, and current depressive symptoms. Perseverance of effort was significantly related to lower depressive symptoms. Authentic pride and sense of power were both significant statistical mediators of the relationship between perseverance and depressive symptoms. Implications for future clinical research are discussed.

Neural correlates of processing “self-conscious” vs. “basic” emotions

Self-conscious emotions are prevalent in our daily lives and play an important role in both normal and pathological behavior. Despite their immense significance, the neural substrates that are involved in the processing of such emotions are surprisingly under-studied. In light of this, we conducted an fMRI study in which participants thought of various personal events which elicited feelings of negative and positive self-conscious (i.e., guilt, pride) or basic (i.e., anger, joy) emotions. We performed a conjunction analysis to investigate the neural correlates associated with processing events that are related to self-conscious vs. basic emotions, irrespective of valence. The results show that processing self-conscious emotions resulted in activation within frontal areas associated with self-processing and self-control, namely, the mPFC extending to the dACC, and within the lateral-dorsal prefrontal cortex. Processing basic emotions resulted in activation throughout relatively phylogenetically-ancient regions of the cortex, namely in visual and tactile processing areas and in the insular cortex. Furthermore, self-conscious emotions differentially activated the mPFC such that the negative self-conscious emotion (guilt) was associated with a more dorsal activation, and the positive self-conscious emotion (pride) was associated with a more ventral activation. We discuss how these results shed light on the nature of mental representations and neural systems involved in self-reflective and affective processing.

Affective consequences of self-focus in vulnerable and grandiose narcissists

The influence of self-focus in vulnerable and grandiose narcissists was researched in the experimental study (N = 136). Results show that self-focus elicits negative self-conscious emotions (shame and guilt) in high vulnerable narcissists and positive self-conscious emotions (pride) in grandiose narcissists. The former relations were mediated by explicit self-esteem. Regardless of self-focus manipulation, vulnerable narcissism was positively related to anxiety, and negatively to pride, and grandiose narcissism was negatively related to feelings of shame, guilt and anxiety – these relations were also mediated by explicit self-esteem. Implicit self-esteem, measured with Initial Preference Task, did not improve prediction. The results are discussed in the light of existing knowledge about the distinction between vulnerable and grandiose narcissism.

Development of the positive self-conscious emotions

Development of the positive self-conscious emotions

Vessels with Gold or Guilt: Emotional Reactions to Family Involvement Associated with Glorious or Gloomy Aspects of the Colonial Past

In two studies we examined whether forging a psychological bond with a nation’s colonization past facilitates the experience of positive and negative group-based self-conscious emotions as a function of a positive or negative manipulation of this past. Because people need to belong, we hypothesized that stronger family involvement in a nation’s colonization past (i.e. involved ancestors) evokes stronger a positive self-conscious emotions after positive descriptions of the nation’s colonizing past, and stronger negative self-conscious emotions after negative descriptions. In Study 1, we found support for these hypotheses in a real-life setting in which Dutch people actually found out whether their ancestors were involved in the colonization of Indonesia or not. In Study 2, we manipulated family involvement and valence of the past. Results offered support for the tested hypotheses. Implications of the results are discussed in relation to theories on identity and emotion.