Cognitive Control Processes and Defense Mechanisms That Influence Aggressive Reactions: Toward an Integration of Socio-Cognitive and Psychodynamic Models of Aggression

Research on cognitive processes has primarily focused on cognitive control and inhibitory processes to the detriment of other psychological processes, such as defense mechanisms (DMs), which can be used to modify aggressive impulses as well as self/other images during interpersonal conflicts. First, we conducted an in-depth theoretical analysis of three socio-cognitive models and three psychodynamic models and compared main propositions regarding the source of aggression and processes that influence its enactment. Second, 32 participants completed the Hostile Expectancy Violation Paradigm (HEVP) in which scenarios describe a hostile vs. non-hostile social context followed by a character's ambiguous aversive behavior. The N400 effect to critical words that violate expected hostile vs. non-hostile intent of the behavior was analyzed. Prepotent response inhibition was measured using a Stop Signal task (SST) and DMs were assessed with the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-60). Results showed that reactive aggression and HIA were not significantly correlated with response inhibition but were significantly positively and negatively correlated with image distorting defense style and adaptive defense style, respectively. The present article has highlighted the importance of integrating socio-cognitive and psychodynamic models to account for the full complexity underlying psychological processes that influence reactive aggressive behavior.

Match me if you can: Evidence for a domain-general visual comparison ability

Visual comparison—comparing visual stimuli (e.g., fingerprints) side by side and determining whether they originate from the same or different source (i.e., “match”)—is a complex discrimination task involving many cognitive and perceptual processes. Despite the real-world consequences of this task, which is often conducted by forensic scientists, little is understood about the psychological processes underpinning this ability. There are substantial individual differences in visual comparison accuracy amongst both professionals and novices. The source of this variation is unknown, but may reflect a domain-general and naturally varying perceptual ability. Here, we investigate this by comparing individual differences (N = 248 across two studies) in four visual comparison domains: faces, fingerprints, firearms, and artificial prints. Accuracy on all comparison tasks was significantly correlated and accounted for a substantial portion of variance (e.g., 42% in Exp. 1) in performance across all tasks. Importantly, this relationship cannot be attributed to participants’ intrinsic motivation or skill in other visual-perceptual tasks (visual search and visual statistical learning). This paper provides novel evidence of a reliable, domain-general visual comparison ability.

Customer-Centered Antecedents of a Value Co-Creation Ecosystem

Considering the call for understanding the broader social and cultural context of value co-creation within emerging multilevel co-creative service systems, this research aims to explore the social and cultural processes along with psychological processes in terms of their influence on resource integration. It primarily adopts the customer perspective of resource integration. First, an integrative structure is developed and then the identified antecedents are positioned under relevant category proposing the multi-perspective VCC antecedent' framework. Further, the extant knowledge about VCC antecedents is used to set the agenda for future research. The study is based on an in-depth review of 85 key articles carefully extracted from a broad set of 1100 papers on VCC within the Scopus database. This review work provides a clear state of the art of VCC antecedents and has a direct implication for managers involved in designing the co-creation strategies for their customers.

Gonzalo Guerrero and the Psychology of Identity

Historiographic analysis is underused in academic psychology. In this expository essay, I intend to show that historical events or persons can be described with reference to theory and research provided by empirical psychology. Besides providing evidence-based grounds for a more penetrating historical account, the conclusions drawn from a historiographic analysis may feedback into psychological theory by generating new testable hypotheses. Whereas standard empirical research is focused on statistical associations among quantitative variables obtained in random samples, historiographic analysis is most informative with the use of extreme cases, that is, by asking and showing the limits of what is possible. This essay focuses on the story of Gonzalo Guerrero to explore psychological processes involved in identity transformation.

Is Your Food Organic? Examining the Role of Food Aesthetics in Restaurant Marketing

Many restaurants believe that an aesthetically pleasing food presentation can help attract customers and elevate their evaluations. Yet the effectiveness of expressive aesthetics and the psychological processes associated with its use are not well understood in hospitality research. This study adopts a consumer behavior lens to explore how expressive aesthetics affects consumers’ decision making about organic versus conventional food in the restaurant setting. Findings reveal that the expressive aesthetics strategy is effective when marketing conventional, nonorganic food; however, such a strategy decreases consumers’ purchase intentions when the food is described as organic. Furthermore, an investigation of the underlying psychological mechanism indicates that anticipated pleasure and food temptation serially mediate the impacts of expressive aesthetics and food type on purchase intention.

How Does Gender Moderate Customer Intention of Shopping via Live-Streaming Apps during the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown Period?

Shopping through Live-Streaming Shopping Apps (LSSAs) as an emerging consumption phenomenon has increased dramatically in recent years, especially during the COVID-19 lockdown period. However, insufficient studies have focused on the psychological processes undergone in different customer demographics while shopping via LSSAs under pandemic conditions. This study integrated the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 with Flow Theory into a Stimulus-Organism-Response framework to investigate the psychological processes of different customer demographics during the COVID-19 lockdown period. A total of 374 validated data were analyzed by covariance-based structural equation modelling. The statistical results demonstrated by the proposed model showed a significant discrepancy between different gender groups, in which Flow, as a mediator, representing users’ engagement and immersion in shopping via LSSAs, was significantly moderated by gender where connection between stimulus components, hedonic motivation, trust and social influence and response component perceived value are concerned. This study contributed a theoretical development and a practical framework to the explanation of the mental processes of different customer demographics when using an innovative e-commerce technology. Furthermore, the results can support the relevant stakeholders in e-commerce in their comprehensive understanding of customers’ behavior, allowing better strategical and managerial development.

Psychological Characteristics of Information Workers

В статье выявляется психологическая специфика труда информационного типа, отличающая его от объектного и субъектного типов структурно-функциональной организацией деятельности. Актуальность исследования обусловлена противоречием между наличием класса специфических форм профессиональной деятельности, основанных на применении различного рода программных продуктов и телекоммуникационных технологий, включающим специальности информационного типа (программист, IT-специалист, специалист по анализу больших данных, специалист по облачным сервисам, разработчик интеллектуальных систем, оператор банковской сферы, бизнес-аналитик, экономист-кибернетик и др.), и фрагментарностью исследований особенностей психических процессов, свойств, состояний субъектов труда в данных профессиях. Исследования конкретной психологической специфики субъектов труда в профессиях информационного типа до настоящего времени встречаются относительно редко, а их результаты остаются разрозненными. Цель исследования состояла в систематизации и обобщении психологических особенностей субъектов труда в указанных профессиях. Ключевым методом исследования являлся анализ научной литературы по рассмотрению теоретического и эмпирического изучения психических процессов, состояний и свойств субъектов труда в профессиях информационного типа. Доказательную базу исследования составили научные публикации, размещенные в таких русскоязычных базах данных, как Elibrary, электронные ресурсы Российской государственной библиотеки, сайт Высшей аттестационной комиссии, сайты ведущих российских вузов. В результате сравнения, систематизации и обобщения разнородных психологических характеристик представителей профессий информационного типа была описана структурно-функциональная организация деятельности информационного характера и выделены обобщенные психологические особенности субъектов труда в профессиях информационного типа, проявляющиеся в различных сферах психики: когнитивной, потребностно-мотивационной и ценностно-смысловой, коммуникативной, эмоционально-волевой и отвечающей за социальное взаимодействие. Полученные и представленные в статье результаты определяют перспективы и необходимость более широких психологических исследований специфики субъектов труда профессий информационного типа, сфокусированных на выявленных проблемных зонах. The article analyzes unique psychological characterises of information work which make it different from objective and subjective dimensions of work. The relevance of the research is accounted for by the fact that even though there are specific forms of professional activities which involve the application of software products and telecommunication technologies (programmer, IT-specialist, data analyst, cloud infrastructure specialist, intelligent system developer, proof operator, business analyst, cyber economist, etc.), the psychological processes underlying information workers’ performance characteristics are underinvestigated. There is a paucity of research dedicated to the investigation of psychological processes that impact the performance of information workers. Moreover, there is a rather inconsistent set of results. The aim of the article is to systematize and generalize the psychological peculiarities of information workers. The key method of investigation is research analysis, theoretical and empirical investigation of psychological processes underlying information workers’ performance. The article is based on research published in Russian full-text databases, such as eLibrary, electronic resources of the Russian State Library, the site of the Higher Attestation Commission, sites of leading Russian universities. The authors compare, systematize and generalize various psychological characteristics of information workers, they describe the structure and functions of information work, they single out general psychological processes underlying information workers’ cognitive, value-related, motivational, volitional, communicative performance and social interaction. The results of the research open up diverse avenues for further research and underline the necessity to scrutinize the problems related to information workers’ performance.