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.

Translation/Interpreting psychological mechanism as embodied bilingual processing

Based on the psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic research on bilingualism, this paper firstly discusses three fundamental models and relevant central issues involved in the bilingual processing of interpreting: the selective and non-selective feature of bilingual access and control, the serial and parallel view of bilingual processing, and the coordination view of serial and parallel procedure of bilingual information processing, with the dual purpose of explicating the bilingual processing and cognitive control mechanism in the interpreting process and paving the way for further explanation of the embodied nature of bilingual processing in interpreting from the embodied cognition perspective. Then with the two aspects of processing mechanism and neurolinguistic evidence, it elaborates how the interpreter’s embodied experience and skills in the profession, as a part of cognitive resources, play crucial roles in different levels of cognitive processing which coordinates the serial and parallel processing in the interpreting process. Lastly, this paper argues for viewing the translating process likewise as embodied bilingual processing using a brief comparison between translating and interpreting with a focus on the embodied nature of bilingual processing in their respective processes.

Psychological Strategies for Overcoming the Life Crisis of the Individual in Postmodern Practical Psychology

The article talks about the personality-oriented approach of postmodern practical psychology to counseling a crisis client. Coping strategies for overcoming a life crisis by a person at the cognitive, emotional and behavioral levels are analyzed. Based on the consideration of practical work with crisis clients, algorithms for overcoming a crisis situation in the form of stages and phases of its experience are highlighted. The important role of neuropsychological correction at the first stage of work with the client is emphasized. Theoretical and methodological provisions of postmodern psychotherapy and practical psychology on the features of psychological support of a crisis client, taking into account his personal resource. The variability of the personality as one of its fundamental properties and the psychological mechanism providing a flexible choice of coping strategies, process of adaptation to conditions of crisis situation are considered. It is revealed that in the conditions of overcoming the life crisis there are personal transformations as expression and development of specific personal characteristics and properties. The model of overcoming a life crisis situation by an individual in the context of postmodern practical psychology is presented. In the presented author’s model of overcoming the personal crisis the postmodernist, personality-oriented and phenomenological approaches are applied.

The Association of Restrained Eating and Overeating during COVID-19: A Cross-Lagged Model

Widespread overeating has been found during the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The present study investigated whether pre-pandemic restrained eating (RE) predicted overeating during the pandemic, and further explored the behavioral (mortality threat, negative affect) mechanisms underlying this association. An eight-month longitudinal survey was conducted with a large sample of 616 undergraduates from Southwest university. From September 2019 to April 2020, three measurements were conducted. RE was tested before the pandemic (T1), and data of mortality threat, negative affect, and overeating were collected at the middle (T2) and end of (T3) the COVID-19 crisis in China. The correlation results showed that baseline RE was positively associated with mortality threat, negative affect, and overeating at T2 and T3. Moreover, negative affect and mortality threat were positively correlated with overeating. Results from longitudinal mediation showed that baseline RE would positively predict T3 overeating through T2 negative affect, but not T2 mortality threat. This study supports and extends the counterregulatory eating hypothesis that RE positively predicts future overeating, especially through negative emotions. These findings further reveal the core psychological mechanism underlying this positive RE-overeating relation in the context of COVID-19, indicating that the individuals with higher RE could not cope with negative affect adequately, contributing to more overeating.

Exploring Users’ Mental Models for Anthropomorphized Voice Assistants through Psychological Approaches

Various perspectives are being studied to increase the usability and persistence of voice assistants (VA) as the use is rapidly expanding to various domains. Particularly, many studies note that users personify VA. Systems designed to suit users differing mental models while using specific systems can provide a positive user experience, increasing usability and persistence. Therefore, we tried to structure the mental model of users using personified VA and proposed these results as an important factor to consider in personifying VA. To determine important factors to consider in personifying VA, this research structures the mental model of users using personified VA. Furthermore, we used two types of psychological approaches that were not applied in previous studies to analyze users’ mental models. Using two types of psychological approaches that were not applied in previous studies, this research analyzed users’ mental models. In Study 1, each user’s thinking process is derived through ZMET (Zaltman metaphor elicitation techniques as a consensus map. Afterward, in Study 2, correlations between the key components analyzed in Study 1 are validated through RG (repertory grid technique). As a result, the research found that there are three different psychological structures. The first structure is of users who feel human-like empathy and warmth in the use of VA. Meanwhile, the second structure is of users who seek help with problem-solving. The last is the psychological structure of users who regarded anthropomorphic VA as just a machine. Users with this mental model expect the potential for development as a machine rather than the personification of VA. Ultimately, this research is meaningful in that it analyzes each user’s psychological mechanism for personified VA through a psychological approach and derives three new mental models in detail.

ANTICIPATORY COMPETENCE IN THE STRUCTURE OF COPING BEHAVIOR IN RESIDENT DOCTORS

The work is devoted to the study of the problem of anticipation as a psychological mechanism in the process of forming prognostic competence among resident doctors. Theoretical approaches and concepts to the problem of intuitive behavior – anticipation are considered in domestic and foreign psychology. The diversity of views on the study of the problem of anticipation and its multidimensional and multidimensional nature are substantiated; the structure of anticipation consistency among resident doctors is empirically studied; spatial, temporal and personal-situational components of the development of the ability to predict in resident doctors and coping behavior strategies are identified; the interrelationships between anticipation consistency and preferred coping strategies by resident doctors are established.

Exploration of Psychological Mechanism of Smartphone Addiction Among International Students of China by Selecting the Framework of the I-PACE Model

The I-PACE (interaction of person-affect-cognition-execution) model explains that the causes of addiction are the result of individual susceptibility (genetic and personality), psychopathological factors (negative emotions), and cognitive and affective factor interaction. The issue of smartphone addiction and its emerging effects are now becoming an essential social enigma. This study is aimed at exploring how personal, affective, cognitive, and execution factors accelerate the mechanism of smartphone addiction among international students. Randomly selected, six hundred international students have constituted the population for our study. All participants were asked to complete self-administered questionnaires. The questionnaire included demographics (gender, place of stay, educational level, and reason for smartphone usage), Mobile Phone Addiction Index, Loneliness Scale (UCLA), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Perceived Stress Scale, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS. 20.3% (n = 122) of international students are agonized with smartphone addiction, while 79.7% (n = 478) use smartphones at an average level. Students’ place of stay, neuroticism personality, social desirability, self-esteem, loneliness, depression, perceived stress, and passive coping are associated with smartphone addiction. Loneliness and depression show a strong positive significant correlation, among other variables while loneliness, neurotic personality, depression, low self-esteem, stress, and passive coping are risk factors for smartphone addiction. This study reveals that international students are a high-risk group for smartphone addiction. It has a great deal of impact on students’ behavior and psyche. Multiple social, psychological, affective, and cognitive factors affect smartphone addiction. It would be beneficial to direct the students to limit their phone usage and indulge in other healthy physical activities to complete academic goals.

Feel Good, Eat Better: The Role of Self-Compassion and Body Esteem in Mothers’ Healthy Eating Behaviours

Mothers’ eating behaviours are important to ensure the health and well-being of themselves and their families. Recent research has pointed to self-compassion, defined as extending kindness to oneself in times of perceived inadequacy or general suffering, as a trait associated with healthy forms of eating, such as intuitive eating, and reduced maladaptive forms of eating, such as emotional eating. However, little is known about the psychological mechanism through which self-compassion relates to healthy eating behaviours. This study examined 100 mothers’ levels of self-compassion, body esteem and eating behaviours. Structural equation modelling revealed that self-compassion was positively associated with diet quality and intuitive eating, while being negatively associated with emotional eating. Moreover, these links occurred, in part, due to higher body esteem. This points to a mechanism through which self-compassion may positively contribute to mothers’ healthy eating behaviours. The implications for eating outcomes and women’s health are discussed.