Are different countries equally green with envy? A comparison of the everyday concept of envy in the United States, Spain, and Germany.

Using a prototype approach to emotion concepts, we mapped the internal structure and content of the everyday concept of envy (as used in the United States) and its translation equivalents of envidia in Spanish and Neid in German. In Study 1 (total N = 415), the features of the concept of envy, envidia, and Neid were generated via an open-ended questionnaire. In Study 2 (total N = 404), participants rated the degree of typicality of the constitutive features on a forced-choice questionnaire. The prototype analysis of envy, supplemented with network analyses, revealed that the largest connected set of features of envy, envidia, and Neid shared a group of central features, including features related to success or to people with a better appearance. Still, envy, envidia, and Neid did differ with respect to their constituent peripheral features as well as the density of their networks, their structure, and the betweenness centrality of the nodes. These results suggest that a prototype approach combined with network analysis is a convenient approach for studying the internal structure of everyday emotion concepts and the degree of overlap with respect to the translation equivalents in different countries.

Furnishing hypnotic instructions with implementation intentions enhances hypnotic responsiveness.

Forming implementation intentions has been consistently shown to be a powerful self-regulatory strategy. As the self-regulation of thoughts is important for the experience of involuntariness in the hypnotic context, investigating the effectiveness of implementation intentions on the suppression of thoughts was the focus of the present study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions (hypnotic instruction plus implementation intention, hypnotic instruction, implementation intention, and control condition). Results showed that participants who received information included in the "Carleton Skill Training Program" and in addition formed implementation intentions improved their hypnotic responsiveness as compared to all of the other three groups on measures of objective responding and involuntary responding. Thus, in line with the nonstate or cognitive social-psychological view of hypnosis stating that an individual's hypnotic suggestibility is not dispositional but modifiable, our results suggest that hypnotic responsiveness can be heightened by furnishing hypnotic instructions with ad hoc implementation intentions.

[Effect of ingroup membership on organizational meta-representation]. / El efecto del grupo de pertenencia en la metarepresentación de la organización.

The present study considers the importance of analyzing what very powerful or influential people think about their employees. We assumed that belonging to a specific category has a differential effect on the perception of others' thoughts in the organization ("meta-representation"). Therefore, experts in organization and human resources from diverse organizations and institutions assessed seven dimensions which structure the organizational image (context, structure, organizational processes, working climate, culture, satisfaction and efficacy). The results showed that belonging to a group (managers or leaders, academicians, consultants, technicians or employees' representatives) modulated the meta-representation, as the experts' opinion about what they think that the employees consider important was related to their group. This was specifically the case for the managers' and leaders' representations, which differed from the other groups and especially from that of the technicians and employees' representatives. The implications of the present findings are discussed.

Essentialism and the expression of social stereotypes: a comparative study of Spain, Brasil and England.

Over the past few years, one of the most productive directions in the study of the activation and application of stereotypes has been provided by the essentialist concept of categorization. The research presented here studied the impact of two dimensions of essentialist beliefs--naturalism and entitativity-by using data collected from Brazil, Spain and England. The aim was to test whether there was a greater degree of essentialization among the naturalizable categories (sex, age and race) than among the entitative categories (economic condition, religion, political orientation, nationality and social condition). The results not only showed that participants hold more essentialist beliefs with regard to naturalistic categories but also showed the differences in the degree of essentialization across the three cultures. A discussion is conducted on the implications of the present findings, and on the heuristic value of the theoretical model (of the bidimensional nature of essentialism) adopted by this research.

Downregulation of Anger by Mental Contrasting With Implementation Intentions (MCII).

As anger can lead to aggressive behavior aiming at intentionally hurting somebody, the prevention of its destructive consequences with effective emotion regulation strategies is crucial. Two studies tested the idea that mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) interventions would be effective in down-regulating anger. In Study 1, participants who adopted the self-regulation strategy of MCII showed significantly less anger-related negative affect after the anger induction than participants in a control condition, with positive affect staying unaffected. Results from a second study with a control condition plus three self-regulation conditions - a reappraisal, a MCII, and a reappraisal + MCII condition - suggest that participants using MCII were effective in down-regulating anger, irrespective of whether it was supplemented by reappraisal or not. The present research contributes to emotion regulation research by introducing MCII as an effective strategy that can be tailored to satisfy individual emotion regulation demands, such as dealing with experienced anger.

"The Fathers have eaten Sour Grapes, and the Children's Teeth are set on Edge": Differentiating the Emotional Experiences of Grima and Disgust.

The Spanish term grima refers to the aversive emotional experience typically evoked when one hears, for example, a scratch upon a chalkboard. Whereas Spanish speakers can distinguish between the concepts of grima and disgust, English and German speakers lack a specific word for this experience and typically label grima as disgust. In the present research, we tested the degree of differentiation between the two aversive experiences in Spanish speakers. Study 1 addressed whether Spanish speakers apply spontaneously the term grima rather than disgust to grima-eliciting experiences. Study 2 systematically addressed the constitutive features of both grima and disgust by mapping their internal structures. Results showed that the noise of a chulk on a blackboard and scraping fingernails on a blackboard, along with the physical manifestation of goose bumps, were the most typical features of the category. Whereas both grima and disgust were characterized as unpleasant sensations, t(193) = 1.21, ns, they differed with respect to their physiological signatures (e.g., producing shivers was characteristic of grima, as compared to disgust, t(194) = 12.02, p = .001, d = 1.72) and elicitors (e.g., a fractured bone was a characteristic elicitor of grima; t(193) = 5.78, p = .001, d = .83, whereas pederasts and pedophiles were the most characteristic elicitor of disgust, t(193) = 8.46, p = .001, d = 1.21). Thus, both grima and disgust are conceptually different experiences, whose shared features hold different degrees of typicality. The present research suggests that grima and disgust are two distinct emotion concepts.

Implementation intentions: a look back at fifteen years of progress.

Implementation intentions are if-then plans that spell out when, where, and how a set goal has to be put into action: If situation x is encountered, then I will perform behavior y!, thereby linking a critical situation with a goal-directed behavior. Over the last fifteen years, implementation intentions, as compared to simple goal intentions (I intend to reach z!), have demonstrated their effectiveness as self-regulation strategies in promoting desired behaviors or when unpleasant actions have to be carried out. By forming implementation intentions, the control of unwanted influences (e.g., temptations, bad habits, adverse self-states) on an ongoing goal pursuit can also be facilitated. Furthermore, implementation intentions have been shown to ease goal-directed actions in critical populations such as patients with a frontal brain lesion, schizophrenic patients, and opiate addicts in withdrawal, for whom the initiation problems of the goaldirected action are more accentuated.

Implementation intentions: control of fear despite cognitive load.

The cognitive consequences of forming implementation intentions in controlling fear were addressed in the present study. Participants with an intense fear of spiders evaluated pictures of spiders, pleasant pictures, and neutral pictures under cognitive load. Regulatory control was measured by participants' self-report ratings of the pictures on the Self-Assessment Manikins Scales. Only participants given implementation intentions reported weaker negative emotional responses to the pictures of spiders as compared to participants given a goal intention and to no-goal control participants. Thus, emotional control by implementation intentions was shown not to tax a person's cognitive resources, attesting to the automatic nature of this self-regulation strategy.

Grima: A Distinct Emotion Concept?

People experience an unpleasant sensation when hearing a scratch on a board or plate. The present research focuses on this aversive experience known in Spanish as 'grima' with no equivalent term in English and German. We hypothesized that this aversive experience constitutes a distinctive, separate emotional concept. In Study 1, we found that the affective meaning of 'grima' was closer to disgust than to other emotion concepts. Thus, in Study 2 we explored the features of grima and compared them with disgust. As grima was reported to be predominantly elicited by certain auditory stimuli and associated with a distinctive physiological pattern, Study 3 used direct measures of physiological arousal to test the assumption of a distinctive pattern of physiological responses elicited by auditory stimuli of grima and disgust, and found different effects on heart rate but not on skin conductance. In Study 4, we hypothesized that only participants with an implementation intention geared toward down-regulating grima would be able to successfully weaken the grima- but not disgust- experience. Importantly, this effect was specific as it held true for the grima-eliciting sounds only, but did not affect disgust-related sounds. Finally, Study 5 found that English and German speakers lack a single accessible linguistic label for the pattern of aversive reactions termed by Spanish speaking individuals as 'grima', whereas the elicitors of other emotions were accessible and accurately identified by German, English, as well as Spanish speakers.

Beyond the 'east-west' dichotomy: Global variation in cultural models of selfhood.

Markus and Kitayama's (1991) theory of independent and interdependent self-construals had a major influence on social, personality, and developmental psychology by highlighting the role of culture in psychological processes. However, research has relied excessively on contrasts between North American and East Asian samples, and commonly used self-report measures of independence and interdependence frequently fail to show predicted cultural differences. We revisited the conceptualization and measurement of independent and interdependent self-construals in 2 large-scale multinational surveys, using improved methods for cross-cultural research. We developed (Study 1: N = 2924 students in 16 nations) and validated across cultures (Study 2: N = 7279 adults from 55 cultural groups in 33 nations) a new 7-dimensional model of self-reported ways of being independent or interdependent. Patterns of global variation support some of Markus and Kitayama's predictions, but a simple contrast between independence and interdependence does not adequately capture the diverse models of selfhood that prevail in different world regions. Cultural groups emphasize different ways of being both independent and interdependent, depending on individualism-collectivism, national socioeconomic development, and religious heritage. Our 7-dimensional model will allow future researchers to test more accurately the implications of cultural models of selfhood for psychological processes in diverse ecocultural contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record

Combining motivational and volitional strategies to promote unsupervised walking in patients with fibromyalgia: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Fibromyalgia patients are often advised to engage in regular low- to moderate-intensity physical exercise. The need of fibromyalgia patients to walk has been stressed in previous research. Behavioral self-regulation theories suggest that a combination of motivational aspects (to develop or strengthen a behavioral intention: Theory of Planned Behavior) and volitional aspects (engagement of intention in behavior: implementation intentions) is more effective than a single intervention. In this paper, we describe a protocol for identifying the motivational processes (using the Theory of Planned Behavior) involved in the practice of walking (phase I) and for studying the efficacy of an intervention that combines motivational and volitional contents to enhance the acquisition and continuation of this exercise behavior (phase II). The paper also shows the characteristics of eligible individuals (women who do not walk) and ineligible populations (women who walk or do not walk because of comorbidity without medical recommendation to walk). Both groups consist of members of any of four patients' associations in Spain who are between 18 and 70 years of age and meet the London Fibromyalgia Epidemiology Study Screening Questionnaire criteria for fibromyalgia. Furthermore, using this study protocol, we will explore the characteristics of participants (eligible women who agreed to participate in the study) and nonparticipants (eligible women who refused to participate). METHODS/DESIGN: Two studies will be conducted: Phase I will be a cross-sectional study, and phase II will be a triple-blind, randomized longitudinal study with two treatment groups and one active control group. The questionnaires were sent to a total of 2,227 members of four patients' associations in Spain. A total of 920 participants with fibromyalgia returned the questionnaires, and 582 were ultimately selected to participate. DISCUSSION: The first data gathered have allowed us to identify the characteristics of the study population and they support the appropriateness of the inclusion criteria.. When the study is complete, the results will enable us to establish whether this kind of intervention can be used as a self-regulation tool for increasing and maintaining walking as unsupervised physical exercise of low to moderate intensity in fibromyalgia patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN68584893.

Cultural bases for self-evaluation: seeing oneself positively in different cultural contexts.

Several theories propose that self-esteem, or positive self-regard, results from fulfilling the value priorities of one's surrounding culture. Yet, surprisingly little evidence exists for this assertion, and theories differ about whether individuals must personally endorse the value priorities involved. We compared the influence of four bases for self-evaluation (controlling one's life, doing one's duty, benefitting others, achieving social status) among 4,852 adolescents across 20 cultural samples, using an implicit, within-person measurement technique to avoid cultural response biases. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses showed that participants generally derived feelings of self-esteem from all four bases, but especially from those that were most consistent with the value priorities of others in their cultural context. Multilevel analyses confirmed that the bases of positive self-regard are sustained collectively: They are predictably moderated by culturally normative values but show little systematic variation with personally endorsed values.

"The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge": differentiating the emotional experiences of grima and disgust

The Spanish term grima refers to the aversive emotional experience typically evoked when one hears, for example, a scratch upon a chalkboard. Whereas Spanish speakers can distinguish between the concepts of grima and disgust, English and German speakers lack a specific word for this experience and typically label grima as disgust. In the present research, we tested the degree of differentiation between the two aversive experiences in Spanish speakers. Study 1 addressed whether Spanish speakers apply spontaneously the term grima rather than disgust to grima-eliciting experiences. Study 2 systematically addressed the constitutive features of both grima and disgust by mapping their internal structures. Results showed that the noise of a chulk on a blackboard and scraping fingernails on a blackboard, along with the physical manifestation of goose bumps, were the most typical features of the category. Whereas both grima and disgust were characterized as unpleasant sensations, t(193) = 1.21, ns, they differed with respect to their physiological signatures (e.g., producing shivers was characteristic of grima, as compared to disgust, t(194) = 12.02, p = .001, d = 1.72) and elicitors (e.g., a fractured bone was a characteristic elicitor of grima; t(193) = 5.78, p = .001, d = .83, whereas pederasts and pedophiles were the most characteristic elicitor of disgust, t(193) = 8.46, p = .001, d = 1.21). Thus, both grima and disgust are conceptually different experiences, whose shared features hold different degrees of typicality. The present research suggests that grima and disgust are two distinct emotion concepts

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Efecto del ejercicio físico en la productividad laboral y el bienestar / Effects of physical exercise on job productivity and well-being

El presente estudio analiza el efecto de un programa sistematizado de ejercicio físico con una duración de un año sobre la productividad y satisfacción laboral, el bienestar y la percepción de estrés. Participaron 92 trabajadores de una empresa de consultoría, 53 en el programa y 39 como grupo control. El programa estaba basado en la mejora global de la condición física, con tareas enfocadas al incremento de la resistencia cardiovascular, la fuerza y la flexibilidad. Los resultados muestran que la intervención mejoró la condición física de los empleados. Comprobada la eficacia del programa, los resultados mostraron la influencia de la intervención sobre las dimensiones estudiadas: los participantes en el programa manifestaron mayores niveles de bienestar y satisfacción el trabajo, menor grado de estrés percibido y obtuvieron una valoración de su rendimiento laboral más elevada que los participantes en el grupo control. Se discuten las implicaciones de los resultados (AU)

This study analyses a systematic physical activity programme carried out over one year. The study was conducted with 92 employees working in a consultancy company. A total of 53 employees agreed to participate in the programme, while the remaining 39 formed the control group. The aim of the study was to improve the participants’ overall physical condition as a way to enhance cardiovascular resistance, strength and flexibility. The results obtained showed an improvement in the participants’ physical condition. Once the efficacy of the physical training programme was demonstrated, the influence of the intervention on other parameters was examined. The programme participants showed higher levels of well-being and satisfaction with life and work as well as lower levels of perceived stress and better job performance evaluations than the participants in the control group. The implications of the findings are discussed (AU)

Essentialism and the expression of social stereotypes: a comparative study of Spain, Brasil and England

Over the past few years, one of the most productive directions in the study of the activation and application of stereotypes has been provided by the essentialist concept of categorization. The research presented here studied the impact of two dimensions of essentialist beliefs - naturalism and entitativity- by using data collected from Brazil, Spain and England. The aim was to test whether there was a greater degree of essentialization among the naturalizable categories (sex, age and race) than among the entitative categories (economic condition, religion, political orientation, nationality and social condition). The results not only showed that participants hold more essentialist beliefs with regard to naturalistic categories but also showed the differences in the degree of essentialization across the three cultures. A discussion is conducted on the implications of the present findings, and on the heuristic value of the theoretical model (of the bidimensional nature of essentialism) adopted by this research (AU)

En los últimos años, la concepción esencialista de la categorización se ha consolidado como una de las orientaciones teóricas más fecundas para el estudio de la activación y aplicación de los estereotipos. La presente investigación transcultural realizada en Brasil, España e Inglaterra estudió el impacto de dos dimensiones de las creencias esencialistas -el naturalismo y la entitatividad- sobre la expresión de los estereotipos sociales y comprobó si se produce una mayor esencialización de las categorías naturalizables de sexo, edad y raza, en comparación con el grado de esencialización de las categorías entitativas relativas a la condición económica, la religión, la orientación política, la nacionalidad y la condición social. Los resultados obtenidos mostraron que en las diferentes dimensiones comparativas las categorías naturalizables fueron esencializadas con mayor intensidad que las categorías entitativas. Asimismo, se observaron diferencias entre los tres países en el grado de esencialización. Se discuten las implicaciones de los resultados, así como el valor heurístico del modelo teórico adoptado en la presente investigación sobre la naturaleza bidimensional del esencialismo (AU)

El efecto del grupo de pertenencia en la metarrepresentación de la organización / Effect of ingroup membership on organizational meta-representation

En el presente estudio se plantea la relevancia de conocer cuál es la representación de quienes ostentan un rol de poder o experto respecto a la imagen que tienen los trabajadores de su organización. Se propone que la pertenencia a un determinado grupo de expertos ejerce un efecto diferencial sobre la representación de esta imagen (metarrepresentación). Para ello, expertos en Organización y Recursos Humanos pertenecientes a diversas organizaciones e instituciones evaluaron siete dimensiones que estructuran la imagen organizacional (contexto, estructura, procesos organizacionales, clima, cultura, satisfacción y eficacia). Los resultados obtenidos sugieren que la pertenencia a una categoría de experto (directivos o mandos, académicos, consultores, técnicos o representantes de los trabajadores) modulaba la metarrepresentación. Se encontró una relación entre la opinión de los expertos sobre la imagen que tienen los trabajadores de su organización con su grupo de pertenencia. Específicamente, la representación de los directivos difería del resto de representaciones estudiadas, especialmente respecto a los grupos de técnicos y representantes de los trabajadores. Se discuten las implicaciones de los resultados (AU)

The present study considers the importance of analyzing what very powerful or influential people think about their employees. We assumed that belonging to a specific category has a differential effect on the perception of others’ thoughts in the organization («meta-representation»). Therefore, experts in organization and human resources from diverse organizations and institutions assessed seven dimensions which structure the organizational image (context, structure, organizational processes, working climate, culture, satisfaction and efficacy). The results showed that belonging to a group (managers or leaders, academicians, consultants, technicians or employees’ representatives) modulated the meta-representation, as the experts’ opinion about what they think that the employees consider important was related to their group. This was specifically the case for the managers’ and leaders’ representations, which differed from the other groups and especially from that of the technicians and employees’ representatives. The implications of the present findings are discussed (AU)

Implementation intentions: a look back at fifteen years of progress / Las intenciones de implementación: una mirada atrás a quince años de progreso

Implementation intentions are if-then plans that spell out when, where, and how a set goal has to be put into action: If situation x is encountered, then I will perform behavior y!, thereby linking a critical situation with a goal-directed behavior. Over the last fifteen years, implementation intentions, as compared to simple goal intentions (I intend to reach z!), have demonstrated their effectiveness as self-regulation strategies in promoting desired behaviors or when unpleasant actions have to be carried out. By forming implementation intentions, the control of unwanted influences (e.g., temptations, bad habits, adverse self-states) on an ongoing goal pursuit can also be facilitated. Furthermore, implementation intentions have been shown to ease goal-directed actions in critical populations such as patients with a frontal brain lesion, schizophrenic patients, and opiate addicts in withdrawal, for whom the initiation problems of the goaldirected action are more accentuated

Las intenciones de implementación son planes si-entonces (if-then plans) que especifican cuándo, dónde y cómo se va a llevar a la acción una meta propuesta: (Si me encuentro con la situación x, entonces llevaré a cabo la conducta y!, ligando de esta manera una situación crítica con una conducta dirigida a la meta. Durante los últimos quince años, las intenciones de implementación han resultado ser estrategias eficaces de autorregulación, en comparación con las metas simples, para promover comportamientos deseados o cuando hay que realizar acciones no placenteras. Mediante la formación de intenciones de implementación también se pueden controlar las influencias indeseadas (por ejemplo, tentaciones, malos hábitos, estados personales adversos). Asimismo, han demostrado facilitar las acciones encaminadas hacia una meta en poblaciones críticas, como pacientes con lesiones cerebrales frontales, esquizofrénicos, y pacientes bajo el síndrome de abstinencia, para quienes los problemas de iniciación de acciones dirigidas hacia una meta son más acentuados

Implementation intentions: control of fear despite cognitive load / Las intenciones de implementación: controlar el miedo a pesar del esfuerzo cognitivo

The cognitive consequences of forming implementation intentions in controlling fear were addressed in the present study. Participants with an intense fear of spiders evaluated pictures of spiders, pleasant pictures, and neutral pictures under cognitive load. Regulatory control was measured by participants= self-report ratings of the pictures on the Self-Assessment Manikins Scales. Only participants given implementation intentions reported weaker negative emotional responses to the pictures of spiders as compared to participants given a goal intention and to no-goal control participants. Thus, emotional control by implementation intentions was shown not to tax a person= s cognitive resources, attesting to the automatic nature of this self-regulation strategy

En el presente estudio analizamos las consecuencias cognitivas de la formación de intenciones de implementación sobre el control del miedo. Los participantes, que tenían un intenso miedo a las arañas, evaluaron imágenes positivas, neutras y de arañas bajo una carga cognitiva. El control de regulación se midió mediante la autoevaluación de las imágenes con las Self-Assessment Manikins Scales. Sólo aquellos participantes que se propusieron una intención de implementación tuvieron unas reacciones emocionales menos acentuadas en respuesta a las imágenes de arañas que aquellos que se propusieron una meta simple o los participantes que no tenían meta alguna. Así, el control de las emociones mediante intenciones de implementación no afectó a los recursos cognitivos de los participantes, lo que avala la automaticidad de esta estrategia de autorregulación