Psychological Research Research Articles

Of course people can reject democracy: psychological perspectives

Concerns have been expressed about a worldwide retreat from liberal democracy and a turn toward more authoritarian forms of government. Along with that concern has come surprise: when the cold war ended, it was widely believed that a new historical era was dawning during which alternatives to Western liberalism would wither away. Influential psychological theories also assume that freedom and autonomy are powerful human needs—needs that are thwarted by dictatorships. However, a number of theoretical perspectives and programs of research in psychology lead to the conclusion that in certain circumstances, turns toward authoritarian forms of government and restrictive societies are not only explicable, but also predictable. Fromm's analysis of why people might want to escape from freedom, Baumeister's work on escape-from-self mechanisms, and Schwartz's review of the literature on choice overload all provide ways of understanding why in turbulent times, members of free countries might intentionally seek out—and perhaps even ecstatically embrace—authoritarian forms of government.

SPSS vs. AMOS: A Comparative Approach to Analyzing Moderators in Behavioral Research

Many researchers face confusion in selecting appropriate software for quantitative data analysis due to the lack of comparative studies in this area (1). This study examines the moderator analysis results conducted using AMOS and SPSS software. Moderator analysis assesses the extent to which the independent variable influences the dependent variable through a moderator variable. The research utilized data from a questionnaire completed by 383 adolescents in Ahvaz, Iran. The independent variables included the impact of COVID-19, parental attachment, and peer attachment, while emotional intelligence served as the dependent variable, with online networking acting as the moderator. Analysis using SPSS indicated that online networking moderated the relationship between all independent and dependent variables. Conversely, results obtained from AMOS revealed no significant moderating effect between the independent and dependent variables. Descriptive data indicated that students experienced low internet connectivity during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that online networking may have had a limited capacity to moderate these relationships. Consequently, the findings derived from AMOS are regarded as more reliable than those from SPSS. The novelty of this research lies in its comparative analysis of AMOS and SPSS, alongside its pioneering examination of moderation within developmental psychology studies using AMOS. The results underscore AMOS's superior accuracy and reliability, as demonstrated by its alignment with the descriptive data and ability to provide clearer visualizations of variable relationships. This study strongly advocates for the application of AMOS in psychological research, particularly for complex interaction effects.

Dimensions of wisdom perception across twelve countries on five continents

Wisdom is the hallmark of social judgment, but how people across cultures recognize wisdom remains unclear—distinct philosophical traditions suggest different views of wisdom’s cardinal features. We explore perception of wise minds across 16 socio-economically and culturally diverse convenience samples from 12 countries. Participants assessed wisdom exemplars, non-exemplars, and themselves on 19 socio-cognitive characteristics, subsequently rating targets’ wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Analyses reveal two positively related dimensions—Reflective Orientation and Socio-Emotional Awareness. These dimensions are consistent across the studied cultural regions and interact when informing wisdom ratings: wisest targets—as perceived by participants—score high on both dimensions, whereas the least wise are not reflective but moderately socio-emotional. Additionally, individuals view themselves as less reflective but more socio-emotionally aware than most wisdom exemplars. Our findings expand folk psychology and social judgment research beyond the Global North, showing how individuals perceive desirable cognitive and socio-emotional qualities, and contribute to an understanding of mind perception.

Testing the Effectiveness of Computerized Cognitive Training on an At-Risk Student Population.

Core constructs such as working memory, task switching, and processing speed in cognitive psychology research have prominent predictive roles in K12 students' academic performance. Specifically, considerable empirical work shows that variability in such capabilities is linked to differences in numerous academic outcomes. Moreover, there is an increasing awareness and acceptance of the malleability of cognitive abilities. Thus, an emerging strand of research focuses on the use of computerized cognitive training to improve cognitive skills. This project addresses this issue with high-risk students attending community day schools. An in-school cognitive training program implemented (for 30 min per day) at each school site resulted in improvements for working memory, task switching, and processing speed after six total hours of participation. The current results provide evidence for the changeability of what were once thought to be static skills. Equally important, this study highlights the effectiveness of computerized cognitive training and critically extends intervention-based work to a student group that has received little attention. Implications of this work for cognitive research and educational support programs are discussed.

SmartDetector: Automatic and vision-based approach to point-light display generation for human action perception.

Over the past four decades, point-light displays (PLD) have been integrated into psychology and psychophysics, providing a valuable means to probe human perceptual skills. Leveraging the inherent kinematic information and controllable display parameters, researchers have utilized this technique to examine the mechanisms involved in learning and rehabilitation. However, classical PLD generation methods (e.g., motion capture) are difficult to apply for behavior analysis in real-world situations, such as patient care or sports activities. Therefore, there is a demand for automated and affordable tools that enable efficient and real-world-compatible generation of PLDs for psychological research. In this paper, we propose SmartDetector, a new artificial intelligence (AI)-based tool for automatic PLD creation from RGB videos. To evaluate humans' perceptual skills for processing PLD building with SmartDetector, 126 participants were randomly assigned to recognition, discrimination, or detection tasks. Results demonstrated that, irrespective of the task, PLDs generated by SmartDetector exhibited commendable perceptual performance in terms of accuracy and response times compared to literature findings. Moreover, to enhance usability and broaden accessibility, we developed an intuitive web interface for our method, making it available to a wider audience. The resulting application is available at https://plavimop.prd.fr/index.php/en/automatic-creation-pld . SmartDetector offers interesting possibilities for using PLD in research and makes the use of PLD more accessible for nonacademic applications.

"He is changing, but I'm changing too": An interpretative phenomenological analysis of spouse caregivers' identity in the context of dementia.

This study explores the process through which informal caregivers, particularly spouses, construct their identity within the context of caregiving for individuals with dementia. Despite extensive research in psychology aimed at defining caregiving (e.g. tasks, consequences), few informal caregivers identify themselves as such. For instance, the affective bond shared between caregivers and care-recipients often imbues caregiving responsibilities with a sense of "naturalness," especially if the care-recipient is a spouse. To investigate the nature of caregiver identity construction, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with spouse caregivers of dementia patients. The collected data underwent interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Three interconnected themes emerged from the analysis: (1) Perceiving changes in my partner, which involves recognising alterations in the care-receiver's characteristics due to dementia; (2) Processing changes, encompassing the experience of grieving losses and reminiscing about the past; and (3) Perceiving changes in myself, referring to the acknowledgement of personal changes due to caregiving. The study emphasises the dynamic and ongoing nature of caregiver identity construction, which begins with the early recognition of changes in the care-receiver. Interestingly, spouse caregivers oscillate between their identity as a spouse and caregiver, influenced by how they process changes undergone by their partner. Contrasting with previous theories on caregivers' identity, our results focus of caregivers' perceptions rather than their relationship with the care-recipient or caregiving tasks.

Uncertainty and existential thinking

ABSTRACT The main question of the study is whether our existential problems are changing historically and, if so, what is specific to our era. The paper first distinguishes three main types of existential problems (external, internal and structural), secondly presents the historical dimension of existential experiences. In the third step, it argues that not only do existential experiences change with age, but most probably the form of the subject is exposed to historical transformation. The final part of the paper analyses the uncertainty of our present existential condition from the perspective of the concept of the contemporary subject. I try to argue throughout the paper that a clearly articulated set of concepts of existential thinking can be useful for qualitative psychological research.

Discussion on the Factors Affecting Psychological Resilience in School-Aged Children with Tumors

Under the background of the development of medical science and technology, the survival and cure rate of children with cancer has increased to a certain extent. In addition to the medical intervention and treatment measures, all sectors of society have gradually paid more attention to the living environment and mental health problems of children with cancer. To study the psychological elasticity in school-age children using life treatment and status, the main content, and how according to psychological elasticity factors to maintain the mental health level of children with school-age cancer, summarizes the domestic and foreign literature about the mental health development of children with school-age cancer, related to the influence of the psychological elasticity factors are summarized, discusses the main influence factors and suggested measures, to the school-age children with tumor psychological elasticity related research to provide reference.

Global perceptions of state apologies for human rights violations.

State apologies for human rights violations are often seen as a key mechanism in reconciliation processes. Nevertheless, they are often contested as well and have not been embraced equally by countries around the world. This raises questions about their universal value and potential to address or redress past harmdoing by countries. In a study across 33 countries (n = 11,023), we found that people around the world consider apologies by states for human rights violations to be reasonably important but tend to be less supportive of the idea that their own country should apologize for past harmdoing. We found that this discrepancy was amplified in countries with stronger honour norms and a stronger collective sense of victim- rather than perpetratorhood. Moving beyond the decontextualized approach that has prevailed in previous psychological research on this topic, our findings show that people's attitudes towards apologies by their country do not exist in a cultural and social vacuum but depend on the extent to which the broader context affords a critical reflection on past harmdoing. As such, they help explain why some countries have been reluctant to offer apologies, and why such gestures may also be more controversial in some contexts than in others.

The prevalence, characteristics, and psychological wellbeing of unpaid carers in the United Kingdom.

This study sought to describe the characteristics of unpaid carers in the UK and assess levels of depression, anxiety, and mental health treatment seeking behaviours in this population. Data was derived from Wave 9 (n = 2790) of the COVID-19 Psychological Research Consortium (C19PRC) study, a longitudinal survey of adults in the UK. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the characteristics of unpaid carers, association between caregiver status and psychological wellbeing, and caregiver-specific factors associated with risk of poor psychological wellbeing. Approximately 15% (n = 417) of the sample reported providing unpaid care. Younger age, having three or more children in the household, and lower income were identified as significant correlates of caregiver status. Unpaid caregivers were at increased risk of depression or anxiety and mental health help-seeking. Unpaid caregivers who were younger, lived in households with one or two children, and had a lower income were at greater risk of depression or anxiety and engaging in mental health help-seeking. Caring for an individual with a terminal illness, long-term illness, learning disability or difficulty, mental health problems, physical disability, and other were linked to increased risk of depression or anxiety, while caring for someone with a learning disability increased risk of mental health help-seeking. This study indicates that at least one in eight people in the UK provide unpaid care, and that those who provide unpaid care have a far higher risk of experiencing depression or anxiety and seeking mental health treatment. The identification of risk factors associated with these mental health outcomes will facilitate the identification of those in most need of support.

Undergraduates’ workplace learning in health sciences education: psychometric properties of single-item measures

BackgroundUndergraduates’ workplace learning is an important part of health sciences education. Educational psychology research considers many different aspects of self-regulated learning at the workplace, including cognition, motivation, emotions, and context. Multivariate longitudinal and diary studies in this field require fewer items than alternatives or even a single item per construct and can reveal the sub-processes of workplace learning and contribute to a better understanding of students’ learning. Short instruments are necessary for application in workplace settings, especially stressful ones, to mitigate survey fatigue. The present study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of single items measuring various aspects of workplace learning.MethodsTwenty-nine single items selected from the Workplace Learning Inventory in Health Sciences Education were analyzed for reliability, information reproduction, and relationships within the nomological network. The authors additionally analyzed four generally formulated single items’ relationships with the full Workplace Learning Inventory scales and external criteria within the nomological network. Participants were 214 ninth- or tenth-semester veterinary medicine students in Austria and Germany who were learning at varied workplaces during the winter semester of 2021/2022.ResultsOf the 29 single items selected from existing scales, 27 showed sufficient reliability, but mixed results were obtained regarding validity. Although the items’ relationships within the nomological network were similar to those of the full scales, information reproduction was insufficient for most items. The four general single items showed acceptable validity, but the reliability of these measures of states could not be assessed.ConclusionsThis paper reported findings on the psychometric properties of single items for undergraduates’ workplace learning in health science education. The findings are crucial for deciding whether to use scales versus single-item measures in future studies. By applying the findings, researchers can be more economical in their workplace learning data collection and can include more constructs.

Knowledge graph analysis of research on nurses' psychological resilience.

In recent years, a surge in literature on psychological nurse resilience, largely driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, has prompted the need for a comprehensive understanding of the current state and emerging trends through reliable methodologies. The purpose of this study was to analyzes the research on nurses' psychological resilience through bibliometrics to understand the current situation, foundation, and hotspot of this research field. The Web of Science core collection database was used as the search source, and CiteSpace analysis software was employed to conduct bibliometric analysis on authors, countries, institutions, keywords, and references of nurse psychological resilience-related literature published from the establishment of the database to July 11, 2023. A total of 1060 articles were included in the final analysis. The study of nurses' psychological resilience had been highly popular and had formed a new and important research basis in recent years. China and the United States led in the number of publications and centrality respectively, with Monash Univ and Curtin Univ as top institutions in the number of publications and centrality respectively. The authors with the highest number of publications and the most frequently cited were Rees and Connor Km respectively. The most frequently cited article was Factors Associated with Mental Health Outcomes Among Health Care Workers Exposed to Coronavirus Disease 2019 published by Lai, JB, etc. Important key keywords included mental health, resilience, stress, health, outbreak, acute respiratory syndrome, etc. The research topics in this field mainly focused on 4 aspects, including nurses' mental health, post-traumatic stress disorder, job burnout and job satisfaction, and intervention research on psychological resilience. The results of bibliometric analysis provide direct support for future scholars to explore and determine the research direction, hot spots, and find authoritative authors and institutions. At the moment, nurses' psychological resilience research has established a new foundation, primarily focusing on COVID-19-related topics. Given the potential prolonged coexistence of COVID-19 and other diseases, the main research focus remains innovating and validating effective psychological resilience intervention strategies for nurses' overall well-being.

Water on the mind: Mapping behavioral and psychological research on water security

AbstractWater security as a concept recognizes the profound connections between the physical and social aspects of water. Yet, water security research features limited perspectives from two disciplines directly concerned with human behavior—the behavioral and psychological sciences. This review aims to characterize the main areas of research on water (including floods and droughts) which do feature concepts and methods from the behavioral and psychological sciences, discuss knowledge gaps, and draw attention to their potential to contribute to water‐related research. Bibliometric mapping of published water research identifies five research clusters and associated sub‐clusters: risk perception and flood, climate change and drought, water quality and water conservation, drinking water and bottled water, and mental health and WASH. A summary of research in each cluster and sub‐cluster highlights the application of many conceptual frameworks and behavioral determinants associated with water‐related behavior. Few articles focus on the role of governance or structural factors, and studies in low‐ and middle‐income countries are less represented in some clusters. The discussion considers the scope to apply higher level organizing frameworks for structuring behavioral and psychological science applications in water security and for exploring synergies with the physical and wider social sciences. In conclusion, further engagement with behavioral and psychological science within, between, and beyond the clusters identified here, could potentially deepen understanding of human–water interactions and enhance the design of measures to promote water security.This article is categorized under: Human Water > Water Governance Human Water > Water as Imagined and Represented Science of Water > Water and Environmental Change

Reorienting psychological science.

Psychological phenomena occur across a wide range of scales, ranging from small, quick events of neurology and biology, to broader, more prolonged unfoldings typical of extended cultural practices. Although theories deployed by psychologists of different stripes have tended to incorporate these different scales, this is typically done in a manner that is implicit, and often unsystematic. That is, typical psychological research is conducted in a manner that is 'scale-blind'. In this article, I explore some of the historical and more recent recognition of this scale-blindness and place it in the context of recent work on the concept and implications of scale. I conclude by elucidating some of the important ways in which behaviour settings theory, and the researchers who developed it, are explicit and disciplined in their approach to scale, and how such scale-aware work promises practical value in improving scientific practice. This article is part of the theme issue 'People, places, things, and communities: expanding behaviour settings theory in the 21st century'.

Rewilding psychology.

Some commentators have recently argued that scientific psychology is overly reliant on artificial laboratory-based activities and that it undervalues field-based investigations. However, it remains unclear how a field-based programme of psychological research might be organized in a scalable way. We examine and compare two existing field-based approaches: Roger Barker's behaviour settings programme and Edwin Hutchins's distributed cognition programme. Both programmes prioritize observational work, and both reject the individual as the unit of analysis in favour of a community-scale unit. However, whereas the behaviour settings programme is concerned with structural properties of community life, distributed cognition is concerned more narrowly with the functional analysis of expert team performance. We discuss how these programmes can inform a future community-scale approach to studying psychology in the wild. We conclude that the two programmes are proof of concept of the possibility of a scientific psychology that rejects methodological individualism. This article is part of the theme issue 'People, places, things and communities: expanding behaviour settings theory in the twenty-first century'.

Introducing machine learning to analyze factors aimed at successful development of the individual social qualities

The paper considers an important problem of the successful development of social qualities in an individual using machine learning methods. Social qualities play an important role in forming personal and professional lives, and their development is becoming relevant in modern society. The paper presents an overview of modern research in social psychology and machine learning; besides, it describes the data analysis method to identify factors influencing success in the development of social qualities. By analyzing large amounts of data collected from various sources, the authors of the paper use machine learning algorithms, such as Kohonen maps, decision tree and neural networks, to identify relationships between different variables, including education, environment, personal characteristics, and the development of social skills. Experiments were conducted to analyze the considered datasets, which included the introduction of methods to find dependencies between the input and output parameters. Machine learning introduction to find factors influencing the development of individual social qualities has varying dependence accuracy. The study results could be useful for both practical purposes and further scientific research in social psychology and machine learning. The paper represents an important contribution to understanding the factors that contribute to the successful development of individual social skills and could be useful in the development of programs and interventions in this area. The main objective of the research was to study the functionalities of the machine learning algorithms and various models to predict the students’s success in learning.

Gender and Specialty Influence on Narcissism in University Students

Background: Narcissistic personality traits have garnered increasing attention in psychological research, particularly within academic environments where student behavior and performance are critical. Understanding these traits and their influencing factors is essential for improving student well-being and academic outcomes. Specific Background: The impact of gender and field of study on narcissistic traits among university students remains underexplored. Kernberg's (1970) theoretical framework provides a basis for investigating these traits through empirical measures. Knowledge Gap: While previous studies have examined narcissism broadly, there is limited research focusing specifically on how gender and academic specialization affect narcissistic traits among university students. Aims: This study aimed to identify narcissistic personality traits among university students and examine variations based on gender and field of study using a newly developed Narcissistic Personality Scale. Results: The research, involving 376 students from the University of Basra, utilized a 35-item scale validated through rigorous psychometric testing. The results indicated that the average narcissism score was significantly higher than the hypothesized mean. Male students exhibited higher levels of narcissism compared to female students, and humanities students scored higher than their scientific counterparts. Novelty: This study provides new insights into the prevalence and variance of narcissistic traits among university students, highlighting significant differences related to gender and academic specialization. Implications: The findings underscore the need for university programs to address narcissistic traits and their impact on student behavior and academic performance. Future research should investigate the longitudinal effects of narcissism and evaluate interventions aimed at reducing these traits. Highlights: Gender differences: males show higher narcissism. Humanities students exhibit more narcissistic traits. Calls for targeted university interventions. Keywords: narcissistic personality, university students, gender differences, academic specialization, psychometric scale

A Scoping Review on Staff Attitudes towards the Use of Coercion in Mental Healthcare.

Attitudes of mental health professionals towards the use of coercion are highly relevant concerning its use coercion in mental healthcare, as mental health professionals have to weigh ethical arguments and decide within a legal frame in which situations to use coercion or not. Therefore, assessment of those attitudes is relevant for research in this field. A vital instrument to measure those attitudes towards the use of coercion is the Staff Attitude to Coercion Scale. This scoping review aims to provide a structured overview of the advantages and limitations in the assessment of attitudes toward coercion. We conducted a scoping review in Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Web of Science, based on the PRISMA-ScR. Inclusion criteria were empirical studies on the attitudes of mental health professionals. We included 80 studies and systematically mapped data about the main results and limitations in assessing attitudes toward coercion. The main results highlighted the relevance and increased interest in staff attitudes towards coercion in mental healthcare. Still, the majority of the included studies relied on a variety of different concepts and definitions concerning attitudes. The data further indicated difficulties in developing new and adapting existing assessment instruments because of the equivocal definitions of underlying concepts. To improve the research and knowledge in this area, future studies should be based on solid theoretical foundations. We identified the need for methodological changes and standardized procedures that take into account existing evidence from attitude research in social psychology, nursing science, and other relevant research fields. This would include an update of the Staff Attitude to Coercion Scale based on the limitations identified in this review.

Exploring cognitive load through neuropsychological features: an analysis using fNIRS-eye tracking.

Cognition is crucial to brain function, and accurately classifying cognitive load is essential for understanding the psychological processes across tasks. This paper innovatively combines functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) with eye tracking technology to delve into the classification of cognitive load at the neurocognitive level. This integration overcomes the limitations of a single modality, addressing challenges such as feature selection, high dimensionality, and insufficient sample capacity. We employ fNIRS-eye tracking technology to collect neural activity and eye tracking data during various cognitive tasks, followed by preprocessing. Using the maximum relevance minimum redundancy algorithm, we extract the most relevant features and evaluate their impact on the classification task. We evaluate the classification performance by building models (naive Bayes, support vector machine, K-nearest neighbors, and random forest) and employing cross-validation. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of fNIRS-eye tracking, the maximum relevance minimum redundancy algorithm, and machine learning techniques in discriminating cognitive load levels. This study emphasizes the impact of the number of features on performance, highlighting the need for an optimal feature set to improve accuracy. These findings advance our understanding of neuroscientific features related to cognitive load, propelling neural psychology research to deeper levels and holding significant implications for future cognitive science.

The development of social essentialist reasoning in Iran: Insight into biological perception, cultural input, and motivational factors.

People express essentialist beliefs about social categories from an early age, but essentialist beliefs about specific social categories vary over development and in different contexts. Adapting two paradigms used with Western samples to measure social essentialism, we examined the development of essentialist beliefs about seven social categories (gender, race, nationality, religion, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and team fan bases) among 5- to 10-year-old children (N = 88) and adults (N = 273) in Iran, a population that is underrepresented in psychology research. Focusing on natural-kind reasoning, we investigated the relative contribution of biological perception of social categories as well as cultural and motivational factors in the development of essentialist beliefs about these categories. Our findings suggest that biological perception of social categories plays a key role and that cultural and motivational factors become more relevant in essentialist reasoning about social categories that are not perceived as biologically marked. The developmental patterns of essentialist reasoning in our study also closely parallel those found in other cultures, namely the United States and Turkey, further suggesting the primary role of biological perception of social categories in natural-kind reasoning about the social world. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).