scholarly journals Validation of a Set of Stimuli to Investigate the Effect of Attributional Processes on Social Motivation in Within-Subject Experiments

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico Fucci ◽  
Constanza Baquedano ◽  
Oussama Abdoun ◽  
Jessy Deroche ◽  
Antoine Lutz

Attribution of responsibility for the causes of suffering is one of the main factors that influence responses to individuals in distress. While the role of attributional processes on prosocial motivation has been widely investigated in social psychology, only few attempts have been made to characterize their behavioural and neurophysiological underpinnings. This is partly due to the lack of stimuli that can facilitate within-subject experimental designs. To overcome this problem, we created a set of stimuli consisting of videos depicting people in different situations of distress. Each video is paired with short stories that aim to manipulate the perceived degree of responsibility of the main character. To validate the stimuli, we investigated the effect of different context-video pairs on self-report measures of participants’ subjective experience. We found that different contexts preceding the same video can influence blame and responsibility judgments, affective responses and willingness to help. In a complementary analysis, we replicated previous findings on the influence of empathy and responsibility on willingness to help, showing how the latter is mediated by moral judgments. Finally, we observed a general increase in responses times when videos were paired with responsible contexts. We provide interpretations of this finding that can relate attribution accounts to prominent theories in moral psychology. Overall, this study highlights the possibility of expanding existing theories on prosocial motivation by implementing a set of stimuli that includes multiple scenarios and allows for the collection of third person measures in within-subject designs.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico Fucci ◽  
Constanza Baquedano ◽  
Oussama Abdoun ◽  
Jessy Deroche ◽  
Antoine Lutz

Attribution of responsibility for the causes of suffering is one of the main factors that influence responses to individuals in distress. While the role of attributional processes on prosocial motivation has been widely investigated in social psychology, only few attempts have been made to characterize their behavioural and neurophysiological underpinnings. This is partly due to the lack of stimuli that can facilitate within-subject experimental designs. To overcome this problem, we created a set of stimuli consisting of videos depicting people in different situations of distress. Each video is paired with short stories that aim to manipulate the perceived degree of responsibility of the main character.To validate the stimuli, we investigated the effect of different context-video pairs on self-report measures of participants’ subjective experience. We found that different contexts preceding the same video can influence blame and responsibility judgments, affective responses and willingness to help.In a complementary analysis, we replicated previous findings on the influence of empathy and responsibility on willingness to help. However, we did not observe a negative correlation between responsibility and empathy as described in attribution theories.Finally, we observed a general increase in responses times when videos were paired with Responsible contexts. We provide interpretations of this finding that can relate attribution accounts to prominent theories in moral psychology.Overall, this study highlights the possibility of falsifying existing theories on attributional processes by implementing a set of stimuli that includes multiple scenarios and allow for the collection of third person measures in within-subject designs.


2002 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 319-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Smallwood ◽  
Marc Obonsawin ◽  
Derek Heim ◽  
Helga Reid

This study investigated the relationship between personality variables, task processing, and the self-report of subjective experience, including thought content, time perception, and awareness of task stimuli. In particular, this study was concerned with dis-entangling the role of environmental and dispositional influences on subjective experience. Thirty-eight participants were engaged in either a memory or a fluency task during which verbal reports of various aspects of subjective experience were recorded. Personality variables were measured using the Self-Consciousness Scale and the Thought Occurrence Questionnaire. The pattern of correlations between specific subjective aspects of attention and dispositional indices suggested that dispositional variables were important in determining subjective experience during the memory task, particularly in the encoding phase. In the fluency task, disposition made a smaller contribution to specific measures of attention, a finding consistent with a self-regulatory framework. Finally, the report of thoughts unrelated to the current situation were proportional to the number of false positives reported in the memory task, supporting the assertion that the quality of phenomenal experience is important in the process of source monitoring.


2000 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Barbaranelli ◽  
Gian Vittorio Caprara

Summary: The aim of the study is to assess the construct validity of two different measures of the Big Five, matching two “response modes” (phrase-questionnaire and list of adjectives) and two sources of information or raters (self-report and other ratings). Two-hundred subjects, equally divided in males and females, were administered the self-report versions of the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ) and the Big Five Observer (BFO), a list of bipolar pairs of adjectives ( Caprara, Barbaranelli, & Borgogni, 1993 , 1994 ). Every subject was rated by six acquaintances, then aggregated by means of the same instruments used for the self-report, but worded in a third-person format. The multitrait-multimethod matrix derived from these measures was then analyzed via Structural Equation Models according to the criteria proposed by Widaman (1985) , Marsh (1989) , and Bagozzi (1994) . In particular, four different models were compared. While the global fit indexes of the models were only moderate, convergent and discriminant validities were clearly supported, and method and error variance were moderate or low.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey H. Kahn ◽  
Daniel W. Cox ◽  
A. Myfanwy Bakker ◽  
Julia I. O’Loughlin ◽  
Agnieszka M. Kotlarczyk

Abstract. The benefits of talking with others about unpleasant emotions have been thoroughly investigated, but individual differences in distress disclosure tendencies have not been adequately integrated within theoretical models of emotion. The purpose of this laboratory research was to determine whether distress disclosure tendencies stem from differences in emotional reactivity or differences in emotion regulation. After completing measures of distress disclosure tendencies, social desirability, and positive and negative affect, 84 participants (74% women) were video recorded while viewing a sadness-inducing film clip. Participants completed post-film measures of affect and were then interviewed about their reactions to the film; these interviews were audio recorded for later coding and computerized text analysis. Distress disclosure tendencies were not predictive of the subjective experience of emotion, but they were positively related to facial expressions of sadness and happiness. Distress disclosure tendencies also predicted judges’ ratings of the verbal disclosure of emotion during the interview, but self-reported disclosure and use of positive and negative emotion words were not associated with distress disclosure tendencies. The authors present implications of this research for integrating individual differences in distress disclosure with models of emotion.


Author(s):  
John Deigh

This essay is a study of the nature of moral judgment. Its main thesis is that moral judgment is a type of judgment defined by its content and not its psychological profile. The essay arrives at this thesis through a critical examination of Hume’s sentimentalism and the role of empathy in its account of moral judgment. The main objection to Hume’s account is its exclusion of people whom one can describe as making moral judgments though they have no motivation to act on them. Consideration of such people, particularly those with a psychopathic personality, argues for a distinction between different types of moral judgment in keeping with the essay’s main thesis. Additional support for the main thesis is then drawn from Piaget’s theory of moral judgment in children.


Author(s):  
Martin Maiden

The chapter presents the role of stress and stress-related vocalic differentiation in creating a pattern of root allomorphy (the N-pattern), which distinguishes the singular and third-person forms of the present indicative and subjunctive, and of the imperative, from the rest of the paradigm. It is shown how numerous innovatory patterns (including suppletion, defectiveness, heteroclisis, and periphrases) replicate this pattern in diachrony. The possible role of markedness or of residual phonological conditioning is critically considered. It is suggested that the verb meaning ‘go’ may have played a special role. The independence of the N-pattern from extramorphological conditioning is reaffirmed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026540752199246
Author(s):  
Melissa Zajdel ◽  
Vicki S. Helgeson

Communal coping has been linked to better psychological and physical health across a variety of stressful contexts. However, there has been no experimental work causally linking communal coping to relationship and health outcomes. In addition, research has emphasized the collaboration over the shared appraisal component of communal coping. The present study sought to isolate the role of appraisal by manipulating whether dyads viewed a stressor as shared or individual. Friend dyads (n = 64 dyads; 128 participants) were randomly assigned to view a stressor as either a shared or an individual problem, but both groups were allowed to work together. Across self-report and observational measures dyads reported more collaboration and support, better relationship outcomes, and more positive mood after the stressor in the shared than the individual appraisal group. This is the first laboratory evidence to establish causal links of communal coping—specifically shared appraisal—to positive relationship and health outcomes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Wu ◽  
Tingzhong Yang ◽  
Daniel L. Hall ◽  
Guihua Jiao ◽  
Lixin Huang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic brings unprecedented uncertainty and stress. This study aimed to characterize general sleep status among Chinese residents during the early stage of the outbreak and to explore the network relationship among COVID-19 uncertainty, intolerance of uncertainty, perceived stress, and sleep status. Methods A cross-sectional correlational survey was conducted online. A total of 2534 Chinese residents were surveyed from 30 provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions of China and regions abroad during the period from February 7 to 14, 2020, the third week of lockdown. Final valid data from 2215 participants were analyzed. Self-report measures assessed uncertainty about COVID-19, intolerance of uncertainty, perceived stress, and general sleep status. Serial mediation analysis using the bootstrapping method and path analysis were applied to test the mediation role of intolerance of uncertainty and perceived stress in the relationship between uncertainty about COVID-19 and sleep status. Results The total score of sleep status was 4.82 (SD = 2.72). Age, place of residence, ethnicity, marital status, infection, and quarantine status were all significantly associated with general sleep status. Approximately half of participants (47.1%) reported going to bed after 12:00 am, 23.0% took 30 min or longer to fall asleep, and 30.3% slept a total of 7 h or less. Higher uncertainty about COVID-19 was significantly positively correlated with higher intolerance of uncertainty (r = 0.506, p < 0.001). The mediation analysis found a mediating role of perceived stress in the relationship between COVID-19 uncertainty and general sleep status (β = 0.015, 95%C.I. = 0.009–0.021). However, IU was not a significant mediator of the relationship between COVID-19 uncertainty and sleep (β = 0.009, 95%C.I. = − 0.002–0.020). Moreover, results from the path analysis further showed uncertainty about COVID-19 had a weak direct effect on poor sleep (β = 0.043, p < 0.05); however, there was a robust indirect effect on poor sleep through intolerance of uncertainty and perceived stress. Conclusions These findings suggest that intolerance of uncertainty and perceived stress are critical factors in the relationship between COVID-19 uncertainty and sleep outcomes. Results are discussed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and practical policy implications are also provided.


1994 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 122-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynne Widrich ◽  
Karen Ortlepp

The present study examined the relationship between work stress and a specific aspect of marital functioning, namely, marital interaction. An interactionist model of stress was adopted, with three role stresses, namely, role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload, being used as indicators of work stress. Despite the abundance of studies investigating the link between employment and family functioning over the past decade, the causal link between the two domains remains unclear. As previous research has indicated that the relationship between work and family is neither simple nor linear, the present study aimed to investigate the role of job satisfaction in the relationship. The final sample of the study consisted of 80 married men employed in a large financial organization. Data were gathered in the form of self-report questionnaires. Statistical analysis, using a longitudinal path analytic research design, did not support the proposed mediational model, that is, job satisfaction was not found to mediate the relationship between work stress and marital functioning.


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