Emotional Suppression and Psychological Well-Being in Marriage: The Role of Regulatory Focus and Spousal Behavior

Emotional suppression has been considered a critical factor in determining one’s mental health and psychological well-being in intimate relationships such as marriage. The present study aimed to delineate the nuanced association between emotional suppression and psychological well-being in marriage by considering two critical factors: (a) individual differences in motivational orientation and (b) the perceived level of a partner’s emotional suppression. A set of two online survey studies were conducted on a large sample of married participants. The participants were asked to indicate (a) their own level of emotional suppression, (b) the perceived level of their spouse’s emotional suppression, (c) relationship motivation, and (d) satisfaction with marital life. The results consistently indicated that for prevention-focused individuals being emotionally suppressive was associated with greater marital satisfaction, but only for those who perceived their spouses as also emotionally suppressive. Conversely, for promotion-focused individuals, being less emotionally suppressive was associated with greater marital satisfaction, but again, only for those who perceived their spouses as also being less emotionally suppressive. These findings provide insights into research on emotion regulation and self-regulatory strategies in influencing psychological well-being and mental health in an intimate relationship.

Unpacking Psychological Ownership: How Transactional and Transformational Leaders Motivate Ownership

Psychological ownership represents feelings of responsibility for and possession over a target, which can be both tangible in terms of physical resources, or intangible regarding one's relationships. Here we examine how two well-established leadership styles can trigger six different facets of psychological ownership and their corresponding ownership behaviors, by using regulatory focus and identity theory to explain how psychological ownership emerges and influences an individual's work behavior. We provide specific propositions that link two leadership styles to an individual's activated regulatory focus and self-identity, which results in six different facets of ownership. We use these different facets of ownership to examine how each contributes to explaining how leaders motivate their followers to engage in and take on different work challenges and opportunities, thus advancing both the leadership and psychological ownership literatures. We combine leadership style and psychological ownership to determine the type of ownership behavior and work performance that results based on which ownership facets are triggered.

Visuals misleading consumers? Testing the visual superiority effect in advertising

Purpose The purpose of this study is to test the visual superiority effect in a verisimilar scenario that an industry association seeks to manipulate consumers using a visual element in its ad while providing an ostensibly balanced claim about the potential health effects of stevia. Design/methodology/approach Two experiments were conducted. In Study 1, an online experiment was conducted with a sample of 112 adult consumers using a two-group (headline frame type: gain vs loss), post-test only design with additional planned analysis of an individual difference (i.e. regulatory focus). In Study 2, another online experiment was implemented with a sample of 175 adults using a 2 (headline frame type: gain vs loss) × 2 (image valence: positive vs negative) between-subjects design with additional planned analysis of regulatory focus. The hypotheses were tested by running the PROCESS macro on SPSS. Findings The results showed that when exposed to the advertising message designed to elicit uncertainty, participants relied more on the visual than the textual content (i.e. framed headline and body text) in forming attitude toward the behavior (i.e. consuming stevia). Analysis of cognitive responses also revealed that those who received the stimulus ad with an image added (Study 2) generated significantly fewer thoughts related to the textual content of the ad than those who received the ad with no image (Study 1). Originality/value This study represents one of the earliest experimental inquiries into the visual superiority effect in an advertising context. While earlier studies have tended to rely on dual-processing models to test the effects of advertising stimuli featuring both textual and visual elements, the findings of this study (e.g. visual content overwhelmed its textual counterpart in producing persuasive effects) somewhat contradict the premise of dual-processing models.

Different Effects of Supervisor Positive and Negative Feedback on Subordinate In-Role and Extra-Role Performance: The Moderating Role of Regulatory Focus

As an important tool for supervisors to intervene subordinates’ work and influence their performance, supervisor feedback has gradually become a new academic research hotspot. In this study, we build and verify a theoretical model to explore the different effects of supervisor positive and negative feedback on subordinate in-role and extra-role performance, and the moderating role of regulatory focus in these relationships. With data from pairing samples of 403 Chinese employees and their direct supervisors, the results indicate that supervisor positive feedback is positively related to subordinate in-role and extra-role performance. Supervisor negative feedback is positively related to subordinate in-role performance and negatively related to subordinate extra-role performance. Regulatory focus of subordinate can moderate the influence of supervisor positive feedback on subordinate in-role and extra-role performance, but it cannot moderate the influence of supervisor negative feedback on subordinate in-role and extra-role performance. That means when subordinates have promotion focus, the influence of supervisor positive feedback on their in-role performance and extra-role performance was stronger than those with prevention focus. These results further enrich the research on the relationship between supervisor feedback and subordinate performance, especially the different effects of positive and negative feedback from supervisor on subordinate with different regulatory focus. All conclusions from the analyses above not only further verify and develop some previous points on supervisor feedback and subordinate performance, but also derive certain management implications for promoting subordinate in-role and extra-role performance from the perspective of supervisor positive and negative feedback.

Two Routes to Trust Calibration

Trust calibration takes place prior to and during system interaction along the available information. In an online study N = 519 participants were introduced to a conditionally automated driving (CAD) system and received different a priori information about the automation's reliability (low vs high) and brand of the CAD system (below average vs average vs above average reputation). Trust was measured three times during the study. Additionally, need for cognition (NFC) and other personality traits were assessed. Both heuristic brand information and reliability information influenced trust in automation. In line with the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), participants with high NFC relied on the reliability information more than those with lower NFC. In terms of personality traits, materialism, the regulatory focus and the perfect automation scheme predicted trust in automation. These findings show that a priori information can influence a driver's trust in CAD and that such information is interpreted individually.