Psychological Science in the Wake of COVID-19: Social, Methodological, and Metascientific Considerations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has extensively changed the state of psychological science from what research questions psychologists can ask to which methodologies psychologists can use to investigate them. In this article, we offer a perspective on how to optimize new research in the pandemic's wake. Because this pandemic is inherently a social phenomenon-an event that hinges on human-to-human contact-we focus on socially relevant subfields of psychology. We highlight specific psychological phenomena that have likely shifted as a result of the pandemic and discuss theoretical, methodological, and practical considerations of conducting research on these phenomena. After this discussion, we evaluate metascientific issues that have been amplified by the pandemic. We aim to demonstrate how theoretically grounded views on the COVID-19 pandemic can help make psychological science stronger-not weaker-in its wake.

The Need to Belong: a Deep Dive into the Origins, Implications, and Future of a Foundational Construct.

The need to belong in human motivation is relevant for all academic disciplines that study human behavior, with immense importance to educational psychology. The presence of belonging, specifically school belonging, has powerful long- and short-term implications for students' positive psychological and academic outcomes. This article presents a brief review of belonging research with specific relevance to educational psychology. Following this is an interview with Emeritus Professors Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary, foundational pioneers in belonging research which reflects upon their influential 1995 paper, "The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation," to explore the value and relevance of belonging for understanding human behavior and promoting well-being.

Hypo-Egoic Nonentitlement as a Feature of Humility.

Two studies tested the hypothesis that humility is characterized by the belief that, no matter how extraordinary one's accomplishments or characteristics may be, one is not entitled to be treated special because of them (hypo-egoic nonentitlement). Participants identified either one (Study 1) or five (Study 2) positive accomplishments or characteristics, rated those accomplishments/characteristics, indicated how they believed they should be treated because of them, and completed measures of humility and related constructs. As predicted, humility was inversely associated with the belief that other people should treat one special because of one's accomplishments and positive characteristics. However, humility was not related to participants' ratings of the positivity of their accomplishments or characteristics or of themselves. Ancillary analyses examined the relationships between hypo-egoic nonentitlement, humility, and measures of self-esteem, narcissism, self- and other-interest, psychological entitlement, individualism-collectivism, and identification with humanity.

Cognitive and Interpersonal Features of Intellectual Humility.

Four studies examined intellectual humility-the degree to which people recognize that their beliefs might be wrong. Using a new Intellectual Humility (IH) Scale, Study 1 showed that intellectual humility was associated with variables related to openness, curiosity, tolerance of ambiguity, and low dogmatism. Study 2 revealed that participants high in intellectual humility were less certain that their beliefs about religion were correct and judged people less on the basis of their religious opinions. In Study 3, participants high in intellectual humility were less inclined to think that politicians who changed their attitudes were "flip-flopping," and Study 4 showed that people high in intellectual humility were more attuned to the strength of persuasive arguments than those who were low. In addition to extending our understanding of intellectual humility, this research demonstrates that the IH Scale is a valid measure of the degree to which people recognize that their beliefs are fallible.

Why Seemingly Trivial Events Sometimes Evoke Strong Emotional Reactions: The Role of Social Exchange Rule Violations.

People sometimes display strong emotional reactions to events that appear disproportionate to the tangible magnitude of the event. Although previous work has addressed the role that perceived disrespect and unfairness have on such reactions, this study examined the role of perceived social exchange rule violations more broadly. Participants (N = 179) rated the effects of another person's behavior on important personal outcomes, the degree to which the other person had violated fundamental rules of social exchange, and their reactions to the event. Results showed that perceptions of social exchange rule violations accounted for more variance in participants' reactions than the tangible consequences of the event. The findings support the hypothesis that responses that appear disproportionate to the seriousness of the eliciting event are often fueled by perceived rule violations that may not be obvious to others.

Distinguishing Intrapsychic From Interpersonal Motives in Psychological Theory and Research.

Many psychological phenomena have been explained primarily in terms of intrapsychic motives to maintain particular cognitive or affective states--such as motives for consistency, self-esteem, and authenticity--whereas other phenomena have been explained in terms of interpersonal motives to obtain tangible resources, reactions, or outcomes from other people. In this article, we describe and contrast intrapsychic and interpersonal motives, and we review evidence showing that these two distinct sets of motives are sometimes conflated and confused in ways that undermine the viability of motivational theories. Explanations that invoke motives to maintain certain intrapsychic states offer a dramatically different view of the psychological foundations of human behavior than those that posit motives to obtain desired interpersonal outcomes. Several phenomena are examined as exemplars of instances in which interpersonal and intrapsychic motives have been inadequately distinguished, if not directly confounded, including cognitive dissonance, the self-esteem motive, biases in judgment and decision making, posttransgression accounts, authenticity, and self-conscious emotions. Our analysis of the literature suggests that theorists and researchers should consider the relative importance of intrapsychic versus interpersonal motives in the phenomena they study and that they should make a concerted effort to deconfound intrapsychic and interpersonal influences in their research.

Emotional responses to interpersonal rejection.

A great deal of human emotion arises in response to real, anticipated, remembered, or imagined rejection by other people. Because acceptance by other people improved evolutionary fitness, human beings developed biopsychological mechanisms to apprise them of threats to acceptance and belonging, along with emotional systems to deal with threats to acceptance. This article examines seven emotions that often arise when people perceive that their relational value to other people is low or in potential jeopardy, including hurt feelings, jealousy, loneliness, shame, guilt, social anxiety, and embarrassment. Other emotions, such as sadness and anger, may occur during rejection episodes, but are reactions to features of the situation other than low relational value. The article discusses the evolutionary functions of rejection-related emotions, neuroscience evidence regarding the brain regions that mediate reactions to rejection, and behavioral research from social, developmental, and clinical psychology regarding psychological and behavioral concomitants of interpersonal rejection.

Una parte importante de la emoción humana surge en respuesta al rechazo de otras personas, el cual puede ser real, anticipado, recordado o imaginado. Dado que la aceptación por otras personas mejoró la aptitud evolutiva, los seres humanos desarrollaron mecanismos psicobiológicos para darle valor a las amenazas contra la aceptación y la pertenencia, junto con los sistemas emocionales para manejar las amenazas contra la aceptación. Este artículo examina siete emociones que aparecen a menudo cuando las personas perciben que su valor relacional con otros es bajo o está en potencial peligro; incluyendo sentimientos de lástima, celos, soledad, vergüenza, culpa, ansiedad social y bochorno. Otras emociones, como la tristeza y el enojo, pueden presentarse durante los episodios de rechazo, pero son reacciones a las características de la situación más que al bajo valor relacional. El artículo discute las funciones a través de la evolución de las emociones relacionadas con el rechazo, la evidencia neurocientífica sobre regiones cerebrales que median las reacciones al rechazo, y la investigación conductual de la psicología clínica, del desarrollo y social acerca de los concomitantes psicológicos y conductuales del rechazo interpersonal.

Une grande partie des émotions humaines provient de la réponse au rejet réel, anticipé, mémorisé ou imaginé par les autres. Parce que l'acceptation par les autres a amélioré l'aptitude au cours de l'évolution, les êtres humains ont développé des mécanismes biopsychologiques pour les informer des menaces contre l'acceptation ou l'appartenance, ainsi que des systèmes émotionnels pour gérer les menaces contre l'acceptation. Cet article analyse sept émotions qui surviennent souvent lorsque les gens sentent que leur valeur relationnelle pour les autres est faible ou potentiellement en danger : préjudice moral, jalousie, solitude, honte, culpabilité, anxiété sociale et gêne. D'autres émotions comme la tristesse et la colère peuvent apparaître pendant les épisodes de rejet mais ce sont des réactions à des caractéristiques d'autres situations qu'une valeur relationnelle faible. Cet article examine les fonctions pour l'évolution des émotions liées au rejet, les arguments des neurosciences en ce qui concerne les régions cérébrales qui véhiculent les réactions au rejet, et la recherche comportementale en psychologie sociale, clinique et du développement sur les corollaires psychologiques et comportementaux du rejet interpersonnel.

Self-compassion and reactions to serious illness: the case of HIV.

To test the hypothesis that self-compassion buffers people against the emotional impact of illness and is associated with medical adherence, 187 HIV-infected individuals completed a measure of self-compassion and answered questions about their emotional and behavioral reactions to living with HIV. Self-compassion was related to better adjustment, including lower stress, anxiety, and shame. Participants higher in self-compassion were more likely to disclose their HIV status to others and indicated that shame had less of an effect on their willingness to practice safe sex and seek medical care. In general, self-compassion was associated with notably more adaptive reactions to having HIV.

Self-compassionate responses to aging.

PURPOSE: Evidence suggests that self-compassion may be beneficial to older adults who are struggling to cope with the aging process. The purpose of this study was to assess the thoughts of self-compassionate older adults and to determine whether self-compassionate thoughts relate to positive responses to aging. DESIGN AND METHODS: Participants (n = 121, M = 76.2 years, approximately 65% female) completed measures of self-compassion and self-esteem; were randomly assigned to write about a positive, negative, or neutral age-related event; and completed questions about the event and their reactions. Responses were coded for self-compassionate themes and emotional tone. RESULTS: Analyses indicated that self-compassion predicted positive responses to aging and that self-compassionate thoughts explained the relationship between trait self-compassion and emotional tone as well as the belief that one's attitude helped them cope with age-related events. IMPLICATIONS: Although older adults who were low versus high in self-compassion experienced similar age-related events, participants high in self-compassion thought about these events in ways that predicted positive outcomes. Encouraging older adults to be more self-compassionate may improve well-being in old age.

Reappraisal and mindfulness: a comparison of subjective effects and cognitive costs.

The present study investigated the relative effects of mindfulness and reappraisal in reducing sad mood and whether trait mindfulness and habitual reappraisal moderated the effects. The study also compared the extent to which implementation of these strategies incurred cognitive resources. A total of 129 participants were randomly assigned to receiving training in mindfulness, reappraisal, or no training prior to undergoing an autobiographical sad mood induction. Results showed that mindfulness and reappraisal were superior to no training, and equivalent in their effects in lowering sad mood. Compared to mindfulness, reappraisal resulted in significantly higher interference scores on a subsequent Stroop test, reflecting greater depletion of cognitive resources. Higher trait mindfulness, but not habitual reappraisal, predicted greater reductions in sadness across conditions. The study suggests that although mindfulness and reappraisal are equally effective in down-regulating sad mood, they incur different levels of cognitive costs.

Feeling superior is a bipartisan issue: extremity (not direction) of political views predicts perceived belief superiority.

Accusations of entrenched political partisanship have been launched against both conservatives and liberals. But is feeling superior about one's beliefs a partisan issue? Two competing hypotheses exist: the rigidity-of-the-right hypothesis (i.e., conservatives are dogmatic) and the ideological-extremism hypothesis (i.e., extreme views on both sides predict dogmatism). We measured 527 Americans' attitudes about nine contentious political issues, the degree to which they thought their beliefs were superior to other people's, and their level of dogmatism. Dogmatism was higher for people endorsing conservative views than for people endorsing liberal views, which replicates the rigidity-of-the-right hypothesis. However, curvilinear effects of ideological attitude on belief superiority (i.e., belief that one's position is more correct than another's) supported the ideological-extremism hypothesis. Furthermore, responses reflecting the greatest belief superiority were obtained on conservative attitudes for three issues and liberal attitudes for another three issues. These findings capture nuances in the relationship between political beliefs and attitude entrenchment that have not been revealed previously.

Construct validity of the need to belong scale: mapping the nomological network.

Nine studies examined the construct validity of the Need to Belong Scale. The desire for acceptance and belonging correlated with, but was distinct from, variables that involve a desire for social contact, such as extraversion and affiliation motivation. Furthermore, need to belong scores were not related to insecure attachment or unfulfilled needs for acceptance. Need to belong was positively correlated with extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism and with having an identity that is defined in terms of social attributes. Need to belong was associated with emotional reactions to rejection, values involving interpersonal relationships, and subclinical manifestations of certain personality disorders.

Self-compassionate reactions to health threats.

Four studies investigated the relationship between self-compassion, health behaviors, and reactions to illness. Participants completed measures of self-compassion, health-related thoughts and feelings, reactions to actual and hypothetical illnesses, and self-regulation. Study 1 revealed that self-compassion was related to health-related cognitions and affect for healthy and unhealthy participants. In Study 2, self-compassion predicted participants' reactions to actual illnesses beyond the influence of illness severity and other predictors of health behaviors. Self-compassionate people also indicated they would seek medical attention sooner when experiencing symptoms than people lower in self-compassion. Study 3 demonstrated that self-compassion is related to health-promoting behaviors even after accounting for self-regulatory capabilities and illness cognitions. Study 4 revealed that the relationship between self-compassion and health reactions is partially explained by a proactive approach to health, benevolent self-talk, and a motivation toward self-kindness. Overall, these studies demonstrate that self-compassion has important implications for health-promoting behaviors and reactions to illness.

Big two personality and big three mate preferences: similarity attracts, but country-level mate preferences crucially matter.

People differ regarding their "Big Three" mate preferences of attractiveness, status, and interpersonal warmth. We explain these differences by linking them to the "Big Two" personality dimensions of agency/competence and communion/warmth. The similarity-attracts hypothesis predicts that people high in agency prefer attractiveness and status in mates, whereas those high in communion prefer warmth. However, these effects may be moderated by agentics' tendency to contrast from ambient culture, and communals' tendency to assimilate to ambient culture. Attending to such agentic-cultural-contrast and communal-cultural-assimilation crucially qualifies the similarity-attracts hypothesis. Data from 187,957 online-daters across 11 countries supported this model for each of the Big Three. For example, agentics-more so than communals-preferred attractiveness, but this similarity-attracts effect virtually vanished in attractiveness-valuing countries. This research may reconcile inconsistencies in the literature while utilizing nonhypothetical and consequential mate preference reports that, for the first time, were directly linked to mate choice.

Differential predictability of four dimensions of affect intensity.

Individual differences in affect intensity are typically assessed with the Affect Intensity Measure (AIM). Previous factor analyses suggest that the AIM is comprised of four weakly correlated factors: Positive Affectivity, Negative Reactivity, Negative Intensity and Positive Intensity or Serenity. However, little data exist to show whether its four factors relate to other measures differently enough to preclude use of the total scale score. The present study replicated the four-factor solution and found that subscales derived from the four factors correlated differently with criterion variables that assess personality domains, affective dispositions, and cognitive patterns that are associated with emotional reactions. The results show that use of the total AIM score can obscure relationships between specific features of affect intensity and other variables and suggest that researchers should examine the individual AIM subscales.

Self-Compassion and Well-being among Older Adults.

Two studies assessed the role of self-compassion as a moderator of the relationship between physical health and subjective well-being in the elderly. In Study 1, 132 participants, ranging in age from 67-90 years, completed a questionnaire that assessed their perceptions of their physical health, self-compassion, and subjective well-being. Participants who were in good physical health had high subjective well-being regardless of their level of self-compassion. However, for participants with poorer physical health, self-compassion was associated with greater subjective well-being. In Study 2, 71 participants between the ages of 63 and 97 completed a questionnaire assessing self-compassion, well-being, and their willingness to use assistance for walking, hearing, and memory. Self-compassionate participants reported being less bothered by the use of assistance than those low in self-compassion, although the relationship between self-compassion and willingness to use assistive devices was mixed. These findings suggest that self-compassion is associated with well-being in later life and that interventions to promote self-compassion may improve quality of life among older adults.

Self-compassion in patients with persistent musculoskeletal pain: relationship of self-compassion to adjustment to persistent pain.

CONTEXT: Self-compassion entails qualities such as kindness and understanding toward oneself in difficult circumstances and may influence adjustment to persistent pain. Self-compassion may be a particularly influential factor in pain adjustment for obese individuals who suffer from persistent pain, as they often experience heightened levels of pain and lower levels of psychological functioning. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship of self-compassion to pain, psychological functioning, pain coping, and disability among patients who have persistent musculoskeletal pain and who are obese. METHODS: Eighty-eight obese patients with persistent pain completed a paper-and-pencil self-report assessment measure before or after their appointment with their anesthesiologist. RESULTS: Hierarchical linear regression analyses demonstrated that even after controlling for important demographic variables, self-compassion was a significant predictor of negative affect (ß=-0.48, P<0.001), positive affect (ß=0.29, P=0.01), pain catastrophizing (ß=-0.32, P=0.003), and pain disability (ß=-0.24, P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that self-compassion may be important in explaining the variability in pain adjustment among patients who have persistent musculoskeletal pain and are obese.

Self-presentational persona: simultaneous management of multiple impressions.

Most research on self-presentation has examined how people convey images of themselves on only 1 or 2 dimensions at a time. In everyday interactions, however, people often manage their impressions on several image-relevant dimensions simultaneously. By examining people's self-presentations to several targets across multiple dimensions, these 2 studies offer new insights into the nature of self-presentation and provide a novel paradigm for studying impression management. Results showed that most people rely on a relatively small number of basic self-presentational personas in which they convey particular profiles of impressions as a set and that these personas reflect both normative influences to project images that are appropriate to a particular target and distinctive influences by which people put an idiosyncratic spin on these normative images. Furthermore, although people's self-presentational profiles correlate moderately with their self-views, they tailor their public images to specific targets. The degree to which participants' self-presentations were normative and distinctive, as well as the extent to which they reflected their own self-views, were moderated by individual differences in agreeableness, self-esteem, authenticity, and Machiavellianism.

The neural sociometer: brain mechanisms underlying state self-esteem.

On the basis of the importance of social connection for survival, humans may have evolved a "sociometer"-a mechanism that translates perceptions of rejection or acceptance into state self-esteem. Here, we explored the neural underpinnings of the sociometer by examining whether neural regions responsive to rejection or acceptance were associated with state self-esteem. Participants underwent fMRI while viewing feedback words ("interesting," "boring") ostensibly chosen by another individual (confederate) to describe the participant's previously recorded interview. Participants rated their state self-esteem in response to each feedback word. Results demonstrated that greater activity in rejection-related neural regions (dorsal ACC, anterior insula) and mentalizing regions was associated with lower-state self-esteem. Additionally, participants whose self-esteem decreased from prescan to postscan versus those whose self-esteem did not showed greater medial prefrontal cortical activity, previously associated with self-referential processing, in response to negative feedback. Together, the results inform our understanding of the origin and nature of our feelings about ourselves.