Couldn't help it
Peer influence as a potential magnifier of ADHD diagnosis
Brian Aronson
Social Science & Medicine, November 2016, Pages 111–119
Abstract:
The prevalence of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is growing in America, but its cause is unclear. Scholars have identified many environmental factors that can cause or confound ADHD diagnosis, but epidemiological studies that try to control for confounding factors still find evidence that rates of ADHD diagnosis are increasing. As a preliminary explanation to ADHD's increasing prevalence, this article examines whether core ADHD diagnostic traits are subject to peer influence. If ADHD diagnosis can be confounded by peer influence, there are several mechanisms that could have caused increased rates of diagnosis. With data drawn from two schools across three waves in the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (n = 2193), the author uses a stochastic actor oriented model to estimate the effect of peer influence on inattention, controlling for alternative network and behavioral causes. Results indicate that respondents have a strong likelihood to modify their self-reports of inattention, a core ADHD trait, to resemble that of their friends.
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Warren Bickel et al.
PLoS ONE, September 2016
Abstract:
Insufficient resources are associated with negative consequences including decreased valuation of future reinforcers. To determine if these effects result from scarcity, we examined the consequences of acute, abrupt changes in resource availability on delay discounting — the subjective devaluation of rewards as delay to receipt increases. In the current study, 599 individuals recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk read a narrative of a sudden change (positive, neutral, or negative) to one’s hypothetical future income and completed a delay discounting task examining future and past monetary gains and losses. The effects of the explicit zero procedure, a framing manipulation, was also examined. Negative income shock significantly increased discounting rates for gains and loses occurring both in the future and the past. Positive income windfalls significantly decreased discounting to a lesser extent. The framing procedure significantly reduced discounting under all conditions. Negative income shocks may result in short-term choices.
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Using Self-Regulation to Overcome the Detrimental Effects of Anger in Negotiations
Andreas Jäger, David Loschelder & Malte Friese
Journal of Economic Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Both being angry (intrapersonal anger) and facing expressions of anger (interpersonal anger) impair negotiators’ goal attainment, as evident in less profitable outcomes. Here, we hypothesize that fostering self-regulation by forming if-then plans helps to overcome these detriments. In Study 1, angry negotiators attained less successful joint gains than non-angry negotiators. Angry negotiators who had formed an if-then plan about how to negotiate, however, attained similarly profitable outcomes as non-angry negotiators. In Study 2, participants negotiating with an angry opponent conceded more than those facing a non-angry opponent. Participants who had formed an if-then plan, however, conceded less than participants without self-regulatory help. These findings demonstrate that fostering self-regulation is a valuable means to overcome the detriments of intrapersonal and interpersonal anger in negotiations.
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The effects of surrounding positive and negative experiences on risk taking
Sandra Schneider, Sandra Kauffman & Andrea Ranieri
Judgment and Decision Making, September 2016, Pages 424–440
Abstract:
Two experiments explored how the context of recently experiencing an abundance of positive or negative outcomes within a series of choices influences risk preferences. In each experiment, choices were made between a series of pairs of hypothetical 50/50 two-outcome gambles. Participants experienced a control set of mixed outcome gamble pairs intermingled with a randomly assigned set of (a) all-gain, (b) all-loss, or (c) a mixture of all-gain and all-loss gamble pairs. In both experiments, a positive experience led to reduced risk taking in the control set and a negative experience led to increased risk taking. These patterns persisted even after the all-gain and all-loss gamble pairs were no longer present. In addition, we showed that the good luck attributed to positive experiences was associated with decreased, rather than increased, risk taking. These results ran counter to the house money effect, and could not readily be accounted for by changes in assets. We suggest that the goals associated with the predominant valence are likely to be assimilated and applied to other choices within a given situation. We also discuss the need to learn more about the characteristics of choice bracketing and mental accounting that influence which aspects of situational context will be included or excluded from consideration when making each choice.
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The Malleable Efficacy of Willpower Theories
Joshua Clarkson et al.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Emerging research documents the self-control consequences of individuals’ theories regarding the limited nature of willpower, such that unlimited theorists consistently demonstrate greater self-control than limited theorists. The purpose of the present research was to build upon prior work on self-validation and perceptions of mental fatigue to demonstrate when self-control is actually impaired by endorsing an unlimited theory and — conversely — enhanced by endorsing a limited theory. Four experiments show that fluency reinforces the documented effects of individuals’ willpower theories on self-control, while disfluency reverses the documented effects of individuals’ willpower theories on self-control. Moreover, these effects are driven by differential perceptions of mental fatigue — perceptions altered by individuals’ level of confidence in their willpower theory — and are bound by conditions that promote effortful thought. Collectively, these findings point to the malleable efficacy of willpower theories and the importance of belief confidence in dictating this malleability and in modulating subsequent self-control behavior.
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Regret among tattooed adolescents
Richard Dukes
Social Science Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
Tattoo regret among adolescents is an important, yet understudied, process. Among the 417 tattooed adolescents in a Colorado school district, one-third express regret. Developmental theory reasons that younger persons consider a tattoo decision more emotionally, anticipate regret less, and regulate regret less effectively; therefore, more of them experience regret. Non-delinquents are more prone to regret stemming from social control via bonding, negative labels and stigma. Higher risk-taking by men explains their generally larger, more controversial, more visible tattoos. These tattoos can conflict more with changes in identity and meaning, as well as evaluations from others, so more men experience regret. Results support these predictions. Findings suggest regret is part of a more mainstream developmental trajectory for tattooed adolescents.