1,720,968 research outputs found
Emotional inertia emerges after prolonged states of exhaustion: Evidences from a measurement burst study
No full textExhaustion refers to the feeling of ongoing loss of emotional, physical and cognitive resources. The present study draws on the Conservation of Resources Theory to examine the relationship between chronic exhaustion and negative emotional inertia among 206 employees (aged between 19 and 50 years; M = 21.03; SD = 2.98), in a naturalistic setting. To this purpose, we used a measurement burst design with two intensive bursts—spaced 1 month apart—by repeatedly sampling exhaustion and negative affect with 18 daily diaries (a morning and an evening assessment each day) per burst. After controlling for potential confounders, results showed that exhaustion at Burst 1 predicted negative emotional inertia at Burst 2, and not the other way around. These findings advance the knowledge on the relationship between exhaustion and negative emotional inertia by providing further insights on the likely direction of causality between study variables, that is from exhaustion to inertia (but not vice versa). Practical implication, limitations, and directions for future research are also discussed
Can Self-Concept Clarity Protect against A Pandemic? A Daily Study on Self-Concept Clarity and Negative Affect during the COVID-19 Outbreak
No full textSelf-concept clarity reflects how confidently and clearly an individual defines the self-belief, and it is theorized to help individuals to be more resilient in the face of stressors. The present study aimed at investigating how self-concept clarity may be implicated in the stress process related to the COVID-19 outbreak, by examining its association with daily negative affect, as a short-term adaptational outcome. The impact of the total number of positive cases, as an objective index of COVID-19 spreading, on negative affect was also tested. Participants were 287 young Italian adults (52% female; Mage = 22.68 years, SDage = 2.62), who completed twelve daily diaries (of which five after the lockdown measure was introduced). Results from multilevel growth modeling showed that individuals low in self-concept clarity reported the highest levels of negative affect across the study period, compared to individuals high in self-concept clarity. Moreover, after the issuing of the lockdown measure, individuals high in self-concept clarity showed a steeper increase in their daily level of negative affect, compared to individuals low in self-concept clarity, indicating their responsiveness to the new situation. The total number of new cases was not related to daily negative affect. These findings attest the protective role of self-concept clarity and its impact on emotional responding to the lockdown measure in Italy
Explaining Prosocial Behavior from the Inter-and Within-Individual Perspectives: A Role of Positive Orientation and Positive Affect
No full textProsocial behavior is undertaken voluntarily to benefit others and includes a range of actions, such as helping, sharing, caring, and comforting. Our study concerned psychological mechanisms stimulating prosocial behavior explaining it from both the within-individual (daily fluctuations) and inter-individual (individual differences) perspectives. We tested a model in which positive orientation and positive affect directly predict within-individual variability in prosocial behavior and in which positive affect mediates the relationship between positive orientation and daily prosocial behavior. These two-level mediation mechanisms were investigated using an intensive longitudinal study design with seven daily measurements on a sample of 181 undergraduates and 1119 daily observations. The results confirm that, with personality traits, sex, and prosocial behavior during the previous day adjusted for, inter- and within-individual variability in positive orientation predict daily prosocial behavior. Inter-individual variability in positive affect is a significant predictor of prosocial behavior and a mediator between positive orientation and daily prosocial behavior. No such mediation mechanism was detected for within-individual variability in positive affect. These results suggest several recommendations on how to stimulate prosocial behavior. By stimulating the general tendency to cultivate positive affective experiences and to view life in a positive light, it may be possible to prepare people to notice and respond to the needs of others
Associations between inertia of negative emotions and diurnal cortisol in a sample of college students
No full textEmotional inertia refers to the extent to which emotional states are predictable over time and are resistant to change. High emotional inertia, characterized by emotional states that carry over from one moment to the next, has been linked with both psychological maladjustment and impaired emotion regulation abilities. However, little research has examined the psychobiological correlates of emotional inertia. As such, in this study, we examined the association between inertia of negative emotions with cortisol, the end product of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis, one of the body's primary stress response systems. Participants were 76 college students (24% male, Mage = 18.53, SD = 0.37), who completed five corresponding daily diaries and salivary samples to ascertain cortisol per day for 3 consecutive days. Hierarchical linear models indicated that greater inertia of negative emotion across the three days was associated with smaller cortisol awakening responses (CAR) and lower AUCg, even when controlling for average negative emotion and momentary stress perception. There were no associations with the diurnal cortisol slope. These findings shed light on the neurobiological mechanisms involved in emotion dynamics
Self-set goals improve academic performance through nonlinear effects on daily study performance
Full text linkA Bayesian longitudinal moderated mediational model was used to test the effect of students' daily/proximal self-set goals on a final course grade through daily study performance. Thirty-six daily diaries were completed twice a day by 147 sophomore students. Study goals were self-set in the morning and daily performance was self-assessed in the evening. Two independent coders, blind to the hypotheses, evaluated goal specificity and difficulty. The relationship between the goals and final grade was mediated by daily performance, and occurred only in the case of goals high in specificity and of moderate difficulty
The costs of working too hard: relationships between workaholism, job demands, and prosocial organizational citizenship behavior
Full text linkDespite the relatively intuitive link between working hard and achievements at work, results from empirical studies tend to characterize workaholics more often as hard workers rather than smart workers. Indeed, the link between workaholism and job performance is not obvious. In this paper, we investigated the link between workaholism and a core component of contextual performance, namely, prosocial organizational citizenship behavior (P-OCB). More in detail, we posited a mediational model in which workaholic tendencies negatively predicted P-OCB indirectly through an increased perception of job demands. This model was tested using longitudinal data from a sample of 85 police officers assessed once every two weeks for three months. Results from multilevel structural equation analyses demonstrated the model's good fit and corroborated the mediated effect. All in all, our results point to an organizational cost of workaholism, represented by its aversive impact on P-OCB
Go greener, less risk: Access to nature is associated with lower risk taking in different domains during the COVID-19 lockdown
Full text linkSpecific risk attitude and risky behavior had an important boost during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this contribution, we hypothesize that access to nature during home confinement will decrease both the tendency to passive risk taking and alcohol intake. To do so, we interviewed through an online survey two samples of Italian residents during the strict lockdown due to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, in Study 1, participants were 1519 Italian residents coming from different Italian regions, whilst in Study 2, participants were 182 students at a university of southern Italy who were monitored for one week. In Study 1, the hierarchical regression analysis attested that access to nature during the lockdown mitigated the tendency to passive risk taking, over and beyond the effect of socio-demographic variables and the psychological construct of impulsiveness, an important personality correlate of risk taking. In Study 2, the hierarchical regression showed that access to green was associated with fewer glasses of alcohol drunk in a week of lockdown. This effect held over and above the effect of socio-demographic variables and the drinking behavior before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In both studies, findings confirmed the beneficial effect of access to nature in specific risk-taking domains. Theoretical future directions, as well as practical implications for the management of the COVID-19 emergency by policymakers, are discussed
- …
