Frustration elevates arousal in individuals high on the psychopathy scale: The role of approach, not avoidance motivation

Psychopaths tend to react with aggression when mistreated. The literature offers two contradicting explanations of this subject. The aim of this study is to determine whether approach or (the lack of) avoidance motivation underlie emotional reactions of individuals with elevated psychopathic tendencies in frustrative situations. The sample of sixty participants (43.3% male) participated in the experiment in which the Ultimatum Game was used to induce the feeling of injustice. The participants received four fair offers in the first phase of the game and six unfair offers in the second phase of the experiment. Their electrodermal activity (EDA) was recorded during both parts of the experiment. Along with the EDA recording, the participants fulfilled Short Dark Triad (SD3) questionnaire and Questionnaire of Approach and Avoidance Motivation (QAAM). Generally, the unfair offers significantly elevated EDA in comparison to the levels of EDA during the fair part of the experiment. The mediational analysis conducted by hierarchical regression analysis revealed that psychopathy is associated with a higher EDA in frustrative conditions, which is entirely explained by QAAM wanting, i.e. approach-related scale. Neither of avoidance-related scales predicted the EDA. This result indicates that individuals with elevated psychopathic tendencies experience stronger emotional reactions when facing the potential loss of rewards, which is driven by their stronger approach motivation, and not by the lack of avoidance motivation. Hence, the study contributes to the understanding of the underlying reason for emotional reactions of individuals with elevated psychopathic tendencies in unfair conditions within the approach-avoidance framework. Implications for the methodological setting of future studies on this subject are discussed.

Revisiting the Power to Forgive: A Dyadic Approach for Determining the Relations Between Power, Self-Esteem, and Forgiveness in Romantic Relationships

Power pervades interpersonal relationships and can impact relationship-related outcomes (e.g., forgiveness). Here, we expected a positive association between power and forgiveness in two studies involving German and Israeli couples ( N = 149/174 couples). Actor–partner interdependence mediator models showed the expected positive associations of actor’s power with both actor’s forgiveness and partner’s forgiveness. Independent self-esteem partially mediated and interdependent self-esteem completely mediated the power–forgiveness link for actors. Also, high experienced power was associated with high self-esteem, which in turn was positively related to benevolence motivation and negatively related to revenge and avoidance motivation. The implications of these findings are relevant for couple’s therapy and advance our understanding of associations between power and relationship variables. Future research may distinguish between authentic and instrumental forgiveness and use experimental settings.

Implicit motives as the missing link between visionary leadership, approach and avoidance motivation, and vision pursuit

An unresolved question in visionary leadership research is, why must visions be high in imagery to cause affective reactions and be motivationally effective? Research in motivation psychology has shown that pictorial cues arouse implicit motives. Thus, pictorial cues from vision-induced imagery should arouse a follower’s implicit motives just like a real image. Hence, our fundamental proposition is that follower implicit motives and follower approach motivation serially mediate the relationship between leader vision and followers’ vision pursuit. We also examine the case of negative leader visions, with the central propositions that a negative leader vision arouses a follower’s implicit fear motives and that the follower’s implicit fear motives and follower avoidance motivation serially mediate the relationship between negative leader vision and the follower’s fear-related behaviors. Lastly, we assert that multiple implicit follower motives aroused by a multithematic leader vision exert additive as well as interaction effects on the follower’s vision pursuit.

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT STRATEGY OF COPING WITH ENTREPRENEURIAL FAILURE STIGMA: A TWO-PATH THEORETICAL MODEL

Impression management strategy is an important way to cope with the stigma of failed entrepreneurial firms. However, most existing studies only focused on the process of impression management with a single strategy. Few studies have provided a systematic theoretical explanation on how to use different types of impression management strategies to cope with stigma. To fill this theoretical gap, a two-path model of impression management of entrepreneurial failure stigma was constructed, based on the two-component model of impression management. In addition, the mechanism of impression management strategy selection for failed entrepreneurial firms to cope with stigma was discussed. The findings of the theoretical model reveal two paths for the stigma management strategy of failed entrepreneurial firms: “avoidance motivation → defensive strategy of impression management” and “diluted motivation → acquisitive strategy of impression management.” Moreover, in the selection mechanism of strategy, the formation of impression motivation is affected by the stigma type of entrepreneurial failure, the social status of the firm organization, and the degree of stigma threat. In the face of justifiable stigma, the failed entrepreneurial firms form the avoidance motivation and then implement a defensive strategy of impression management. High social status firms adopt an acquisitive strategy of impression management to cope with the negative impact of entrepreneurial failure stigma. As the threat level of entrepreneurial failure stigma increases, the dilution motivation of the failed entrepreneurial firms to stigma becomes stronger, and the firms are more likely to adopt the acquisitive strategy of impression management. The two-path theoretical model provides decision support for failed entrepreneurial firms to formulate stigma management strategies and expands the research scope of entrepreneurial failure stigma.

The Effect of Riba Avoidance and Product Knowledge on the Decision to Become a Customer of Islamic Banks

The objective of this study is to find out the impact of riba avoidance motivation and product knowledge towards decision to be Islamic banks customers. Previous studies found that Muslim societies chose Islamic banks because they are interest-free. However, other studies also found that most Islamic banks customers do not have sufficient knowledge about Islamic bank products. Using the quantitative method, this study surveyed the effect of riba avoidance and product knowledge towards intention becoming Islamic bank costumers. There were thirty respondents who were chosen accidentally. Questions were distributed manually to the Islamic banks' customers. Our study found that riba avoidance and product knowledge significantly affect the decision to become a customer of Islamic banks in Palu City. This is proven by the sig-F value of 0.000, which is smaller than Alpha 0.05. At the same time, partially, the motivation to riba avoidance and product knowledge has a significant effect on the decision to become a customer of Islamic banks. Our findings highlight that Islamic banks should focus on providing more free riba products to attract more Muslim customers. In addition, customers' knowledge of Islamic banks' products should also become the banks' focus for improvement.

Characteristics and impact of impaired emotion processing

Characteristics and impact of impaired emotion processing demonstrates that the experience of sustained negative affect and diminished positive emotions are cardinal symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD). It explores how patients diagnosed with MDD show reduced approach motivation and increased avoidance motivation and demonstrate a mood-congruent negative processing bias. It deepens our understanding that patients might exhibit an elevated sensitivity to negative feedback and show an altered thinking style referred to as rumination. Importantly, it explains that depressed patients preferentially attend to mood-congruent stimuli, recall more unpleasant memories, and tend to interpret (ambiguous) information in a negative manner. It highlights that emotional-cognitive dysfunctions are closely related information processing and hence impair cognitive performance of MDD patients.

A network perspective on real-life threat: Complex associations between trait and situational anxiety, stress, and individual approach-avoidance tendencies

Anxiety and approach-avoidance conflicts are crucial factors influencing mental and physical health, especially when environments are stressful. Their interplay is modulated by multiple state and trait factors. Therefore, focusing on some specific associations, which represents the dominant approach in most previous work on anxiety and avoidance, can only provide limited insights and does not capture the whole complexity of the interaction patterns between psychological factors. This study applied graph-theoretical network analysis to investigate associations between self-reported trait anxiety, approach and avoidance tendencies, situational anxiety, stress symptoms, perceived threat, perceived positive consequences of approach, and avoidance behavior in situations of real-life threat. 541 participants (218 psychotherapy patients, 323 participants from the general community) completed an online survey assessing threat-related traits and states, and responses towards public situations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The resulting psychological network revealed a complex pattern with positive (e.g., between trait anxiety, avoidance motivation, and avoidance behavior) and negative associations (e.g., between approach and avoidance motivation). The patient and community subsample networks were not significantly different, but descriptive effects may inform future research. Our study shows that network analysis provides a promising tool to get comprehensive insights into complex associations between state and trait factors influencing psychological health.