Current Psychology

Yong, Siew Siew; Sia, Joseph Kee-Ming

doi: 10.1007/s12144-021-02290-6pmid: 34539153

The world has witnessed the largest single disruption to social wellbeing since the first known case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was reported in China in December 2019. In Malaysia, the government implemented the Movement Control Order (MCO) on 18 March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, this paper highlights how the Malaysian government responded to COVID-19 in comparison with some Asian countries; and what has and has not worked for the MCO imposed by the government. The paper adopts a review approach that is supported by findings from both grey and academic literature. The findings reveal that the COVID-19 pandemic has significant impacts on the society’s wellbeing in Malaysia, the most severe of which are negative mental health and job unemployment. On the other hand, COVID-19 has sparked a surge of volunteering in society. This paper presumably and hopefully represents a frontier review with more empirical research to be conducted to investigate the extent of the social impact of COVID-19, the outcomes of which are a call for re-envisioning of social policies in Malaysia. To the best knowledge of the authors, little empirical research has been conducted to explore the social-wellbeing implications of COVID-19 in Malaysia. By reflecting on the various scenarios—both detrimental and beneficial in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the paper identifies potential avenues for relevant research in the social wellbeing realm.

Bardin, Alyssa S.; Fletcher, Keaton A.

doi: 10.1007/s12144-021-02275-5pmid: N/A

Previous research has examined how job control impacts either health behaviors or outcomes. This study examines the interaction of job control and job demands on body mass index (BMI) as mediated by exercise to test the physical activity mediated Demand-Control model (pamDC). We analyzed cross-sectional survey data from 315 participants within the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS 1) dataset to explore this relationship. As hypothesized, after controlling for age, sex, and work hours, job control is associated with more frequent exercise, which is linked to a lower BMI. However, this link was stable regardless of the level of demands. These findings provide a basis to understand the intertwined nature of one’s work and health. Future research may investigate this relationship from an experimental approach to better determine causality. Practically, these findings suggest that workplaces ought to provide employees with more job control which may enable them to engage in healthy behaviors (e.g., physical activity) that can impact key health outcomes such as BMI.

Üzümcü, Elif; Evliyaoğlu, Ela Serpil; Inozu, Mujgan

doi: 10.1007/s12144-021-02285-3pmid: N/A

Mental contamination (MC) is an internal feeling of dirtiness without having any direct contact with a contaminated object/person. Evoking feelings of pollution and a strong urge to wash, MC is related to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The study examined the associations between individual vulnerability factors such as gender, disgust propensity (DP), fear of self (FOS), and MC using a self-report study (Study 1) and a laboratory induction study (Study 2). In the first study (Study 1), 312 undergraduate students were asked to complete a set of questionnaires to assess their FOS, DP, MC, and fear of contact contamination. In the second study (Study 2), after completing the same questionnaires, 65 female and 46 male undergraduate students listened to a scenario describing a non-consensual kiss and completed the MC report. The results of Study 1 and Study 2 indicated that mental contamination mediated the association between gender, FOS and DP, and contact contamination. The female participants reported higher degrees of mental contamination than the male participants. The model testing indicated that the indirect effects of FOS and DP on the urge to wash, which was mediated by Vancouver Obsessive Compulsive Inventory-Mental Contamination Scale (VOCI-MC) scores, feelings of MC, and negative emotions were statistically significant. The study underlines the importance of gender, FOS, and DP in MC-related factors. Feelings of MC induced by non-consensual kiss scenarios mediated the relationship between individual vulnerability factors and fear of contamination.

Petrocelli, John V.; Silverman, Haley E.; Shang, Samantha X.

doi: 10.1007/s12144-021-02243-zpmid: N/A

Although a ubiquitous social behavior, little is known about bullshitting (i.e., communicating with no regard for truth and/or evidence) and its effects on social perception and influence. Although bullshit and lies are viewed as undesirable, the distinction may have important implications for social influence. Frankfurt’s (1986) insidious bullshit hypothesis (i.e., bullshitting is evaluated less negatively, but more insidious, than lying) is examined in light of social perception (i.e., evaluation and perceived motives; Experiment 1) and social influence (Experiment 2). Results suggest bullshitting is evaluated less negatively than lying and identifies ignorance, dishonesty, and opinion expression as mediators of a bullshit/lie-evaluation link. Furthermore, relative to lies, bullshit appears to have a more potent impact on that which is perceived to be true as well as attitudes formed for novel attitude objects.

Ene, Cristina; Rîndașu, Cristina; Ionescu, Daniela

doi: 10.1007/s12144-021-02240-2pmid: N/A

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the personality and patient activation. It also tested the mediator effect of autonomy support from physicians in the relationship between the personality factors and patient activation. We relied on a sample of 335 participants (Mage = 37.85, SD = 12.60) who had a medical diagnosis. The study’s results showed that extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness were positively related to patient activation, whilst neuroticism was negatively related to it. Autonomy support from physicians was shown to be a mediator in the relationship between the personality factors and patient activation. When receiving autonomy support from their health practitioners, patients tend to be more engaged, facilitating recovery, reducing complications, costs, and having overall better health outcomes. These findings might be considered for implementing more collaborative interventions in order to improve patients’ activation and supporting them to maintain an active role in their health.

Li, Xia; Xia, Kaixin; Bai, Jiyun; Wu, Xiling; Hou, Mulan; Zhang, Jianxin

doi: 10.1007/s12144-021-02207-3pmid: N/A

The purpose of this research was to explore how moral belief of life, at a trait and state level, triggers more altruistic empathy towards others in risk, thereby enhancing greater prosocial behavior, especially in emergencies. Three hundred and twenty-eight undergraduates were asked to complete moral belief of life scale, Interpersonal Reactivity Index, Prosocial Tendencies Measure and Social Desirability Scale. We first found empathy, rather than personal distress, mediated the effect of moral belief of life disposition on prosocial behavior (Study 1). Then, sixty undergraduates were recruited to voluntarily participate the follow-up experiment, moral belief of life elicited by narrative recalling increased empathy toward victims in life emergencies, rather than personal distress, and thus enhanced emergency helping. Moreover, the mediation mechanism of empathy was not moderated by victim attributions (Study 2). These findings verify the self-transcendent attribute of moral belief of life and shed light on how moral belief of life influences emergency helping. Practically, they provide a new perspective for emergency interventions, it is necessary to popularize life morality education to promote moral belief of life and carry out empathy intervention among individuals with weak moral belief of life.

Dalmaijer, Edwin S.; Gibbons, Sophie G.; Bignardi, Giacomo; Anwyl-Irvine, Alexander L.; Siugzdaite, Roma; Smith, Tess A.; Uh, Stepheni; Johnson, Amy; Astle, Duncan E.

doi: 10.1007/s12144-021-02232-2pmid: 37215737

A child’s socio-economic environment can profoundly affect their development. While existing literature focusses on simplified metrics and pair-wise relations between few variables, we aimed to capture complex interrelationships between several relevant domains using a broad assessment of 519 children aged 7–9 years. Our analyses comprised three multivariate techniques that complimented each other, and worked at different levels of granularity. First, an exploratory factor analysis (principal component analysis followed by varimax rotation) revealed that our sample varied along continuous dimensions of cognition, attitude and mental health (from parallel analysis); with potentially emerging dimensions speed and socio-economic status (passed Kaiser’s criterion). Second, k-means cluster analysis showed that children did not group into discrete phenotypes. Third, a network analysis on the basis of bootstrapped partial correlations (confirmed by both cross-validated LASSO and multiple comparisons correction of binarised connection probabilities) uncovered how our developmental measures interconnected: educational outcomes (reading and maths fluency) were directly related to cognition (short-term memory, number sense, processing speed, inhibition). By contrast, mental health (anxiety and depression symptoms) and attitudes (conscientiousness, grit, growth mindset) showed indirect relationships with educational outcomes via cognition. Finally, socio-economic factors (neighbourhood deprivation, family affluence) related directly to educational outcomes, cognition, mental health, and even grit. In sum, cognition is a central cog through which mental health and attitude relate to educational outcomes. However, through direct relations with all components of developmental outcomes, socio-economic status acts as a great ‘unequaliser’.

Simard, Valérie; Morin, Anne Sara; Godin, Sabrina; Boothman, Laurie; Lavoie, Anne-Julie

doi: 10.1007/s12144-021-02272-8pmid: N/A

Repeated nightmares involving separation are a DSM-5 symptom criterion for separation anxiety disorder. However, research on nightmares and separation anxiety in clinical or non-clinical samples is scarce. To verify whether children’s separation anxiety predicted nightmares’ characteristics (frequency, distress and separation-related content), we conducted an online survey among 237 mothers of a 4- to 12-year-old child. Children’s separation anxiety as assessed by a modified version of the Separation Anxiety Symptoms Inventory predicted frequent nightmares and bad dreams, dreaming of the parents’ death (odds ratio [OR] = 2.65 [1.41, 4.98]) or of any separation theme (OR = 5.97 [2.64, 13.50]) during the last year, and dysphoric dream distress. The association between children’s separation anxiety and dysphoric dream distress was mediated by dysphoric dream frequency. Our findings suggest that dysphoric dream distress may be a better marker of separation anxiety compared with frequency. Future studies in clinical samples are needed to determine whether the DSM-5 nightmare symptom criterion should be reviewed to emphasize the occurrence of any type of dysphoric dreams (bad dreams and nightmares), the presence of distress in relation to these dreams, and their specific content.

Cho, Myong Sun

doi: 10.1007/s12144-021-02103-wpmid: N/A

The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which self-esteem and depressive symptoms mediated the influence of stigma on life satisfaction among out-of-school youth in the Republic of Korea. Cross-sectional data were collected from 318 youth, aged 18 to 23 years (20.67 ± 1.12), who provided information on perceived stigma, self-esteem, depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, and personal characteristics. A hierarchical linear regression analysis was followed by a path analysis to investigate the mediation effects. Stigma was found to be negatively associated with life satisfaction. Self-esteem mediated the negative association between stigma and life satisfaction, while depressive symptoms mediated the positive association between stigma and life satisfaction. The path analysis results showed that the influence of depressive symptoms on life satisfaction had the largest path coefficient (β = −0.60, p < .01) and the influence of self-esteem on life satisfaction also has a large path coefficient (β = 0.52, p < .01). This study demonstrated that self-esteem and depressive symptoms are important to the relationship between stigma and life satisfaction. Implications are discussed regarding possible stigma-reduction strategies and interventions to help out-of-school youth integrate into society and lead successful and satisfying lives.

Freda, Maria Francesca; Raffaele, De Luca Picione; Esposito, Giovanna; Ragozini, Giancarlo; Testa, Italo

doi: 10.1007/s12144-021-02189-2pmid: N/A

Despite the growing interest on the notion of academic engagement (AE) and its relevance for students’ success, a few valid and reliable instruments on AE have been developed. Moreover, most of the available measures consider AE as a student’s trait rather than a relational and situated dynamic process. This study presents the development and validation of a new instrument, the SInAPSi Academic Engagement Scale (SAES), which was developed within a project coordinated by the SInAPSi center of the Authors’ University and it aims to measure AE. The main sample was constituted by 680 students and a convenience sample of 312 biology and biotechnologies students was also involved to perform the confirmatory factor analysis of the initial factor structure of the SAES. Construct validity was assessed using the University Student Engagement Inventory (USEI), while criterion-related validity was established with the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS), the students’ confidence in one’s own preparation for academic studies and their academic performance. Results show that the SAES presents a robust factor structure, a good convergent and discriminant validity, and satisfactory psychometric properties. Furthermore, the SAES shows a positive correlation with the USEI and the AMS, the students’ confidence in their preparation for academic studies and their academic performance. The results indicate that the SAES can produce valid and reliable data on AE and it may have strong implications for assessing AE and implementing intervention programs for university students.