Body Image Distortion Following Social Rejection or Acceptance Cues

Introduction: Body image has been shown to be subject to explicit, body-related feedback influences, yet little attention has been paid to subtle feedback about overall social acceptability. The current study tested competing hypotheses regarding women's body image after being primed with cued social rejection or acceptance. Whereas sociometer theory predicts that women will perceive their bodies more negatively following a social rejection prime, self-enhancement theory predicts the opposite. Method: A total of 105 female undergraduate students underwent a conditioning procedure in which distinctive tones were paired with signs of social rejection or acceptance. After this, body distortion (measured by a participant-adjusted virtual image), self-reported body satisfaction and affect were measured, while one of the tones sounded repeatedly in the background. Results: Compared with the acceptance condition, rejection condition participants reported greater state negative affect, F(1, 103) = 4.41, p = .04, greater state positive affect, F(1, 103) = 5.52, p = .02, and perceived their bodies as being smaller, F(1, 103) = 6.53, p = .01, consistent with the expectations of self-enhancement theory. Discussion: Implications of these findings are discussed regarding improved understanding of body image disturbance as well as development of novel clinical treatments.

The Power of Negative Disposition: An Examination of Trait and State Negative Affect With OCBI and OCBO

The authors developed and tested a two-by-two framework that identifies the strength of relationships between facets of negative affect (trait and state) and facets of organizational citizenship behavior (OCBI and OCBO). The framework is based on a stream of research concerned with dispositional- and situational-based predictors of OCB and is complemented with the phenomenon of social exchange spillover. Hypotheses were developed and tested using meta-analytic data to provide an authoritative perspective on the relationships of interest. The results largely support the proposed framework and suggest the strongest relationships are those between trait negative affect and OCBO, whereas the weakest relationships are those between state negative affect and OCBI. The authors discuss implications for research and practice concerning relationships between negative affect and OCB.

Coping With Daily Hindrance and Challenge Stressors in the Workplace

This study examined daily hindrance and challenge stressors at work (rated after work) for effects on employees’ state negative affect at the beginning of the next workday. Building on the transactional stress model, the authors also examine whether general coping styles impact the relationships. Multilevel analyses show that previous-day hindrance stressors are positively related to next-day state negative affect, whereas previous-day challenge stressors are not significantly related to next-day state negative affect. The study identifies differential effects of problem-focused versus emotion-focused coping styles: High use of emotion-focused coping style increases state negative affect for both challenge and hindrance stressors; a lack of problem-focused coping style strengthens challenge stressors’ positive effect on state negative affect. The results suggest that occupational health can be promoted through specific stress management training and through workplace designs that reduce hindrance stressors.