Feel good, do-good!? On consistency and compensation in moral self-regulation

Studies in the behavioral ethics and moral psychology traditions have begun to reveal the important roles of self-related processes that underlie moral behavior. Unfortunately, this research has resulted in two distinct and opposing streams of findings that are usually referred to as moral consistency and moral compensation. Moral consistency research shows that a salient self-concept as a moral person promotes moral behavior. Conversely, moral compensation research reveals that a salient self-concept as an immoral person promotes moral behavior. The present study’s aim was to integrate these two literatures. We argued that compensation forms a reactive, “damage control” response in social situations, whereas consistency derives from a more proactive approach to reputation building and maintenance. Two experiments supported this prediction in showing that cognitive depletion (i.e., resulting in a reactive approach) results in moral compensation whereas consistency results when cognitive resources are available (i.e., resulting in a proactive approach). Experiment 2 revealed that these processes originate from reputational (rather than moral) considerations by showing that they emerge only under conditions of accountability. It can thus be concluded that reputational concerns are important for both moral compensation and moral consistency processes, and that which of these two prevails depends on the perspective that people take: a reactive or a proactive approach

Being “in Control” May Make You Lose Control: The Role of Self-Regulation in Unethical Leadership Behavior

In the present article, we argue that the constant pressure that leaders face may limit the willpower required to behave according to ethical norms and standards and may therefore lead to unethical behavior. Drawing upon the ego depletion and moral self-regulation literatures, we examined whether self-regulatory depletion that is contingent upon the moral identity of leaders may promote unethical leadership behavior. A laboratory experiment and a multisource field study revealed that regulatory resource depletion promotes unethical leader behaviors among leaders who are low in moral identity. No such effect was found among leaders with a high moral identity. This study extends our knowledge on why organizational leaders do not always conform to organizational goals. Specifically, we argue that the hectic and fragmented workdays of leaders may increase the likelihood that they violate ethical norms. This highlights the necessity to carefully schedule tasks that may have ethical implications. Similarly, organizations should be aware that overloading their managers with work may increase the likelihood of their leaders transgressing ethical norms

Out of Control!? How Loss of Self-Control Influences Prosocial Behavior: The Role of Power and Moral Values

Lack of self-control has been suggested to facilitate norm-transgressing behaviors because of the operation of automatic selfish impulses. Previous research, however, has shown that people having a high moral identity may not show such selfish impulses when their self-control resources are depleted. In the present research, we extended this effect to prosocial behavior. Moreover, we investigated the role of power in the interaction between moral identity and self-control depletion. More specifically, we expected that power facilitates the externalization of internal states, which implies that for people who feel powerful, rather than powerless, depletion decreases prosocial behavior especially for those low in moral identity. A laboratory experiment and a multisource field study supported our predictions. The present finding that the interaction between self-control depletion and moral identity is contingent upon people’s level of power suggests that power may enable people to refrain from helping behavior. Moreover, the findings suggest that if organizations want to improve prosocial behaviors, it may be effective to situationally induce moral values in their employees

Emulsification with microstructures

A dispersion is a multiphase product in which at least one phase is dispersed into another phase. In emulsions, those phases are immiscible liquids, for example oil and water. Many products which we use in everyday life are emulsions. One can think of ointments, paints, or sun protection cream, but the largest variety of emulsion-based products can be found in food: butter, mayonnaise, cream, milk, salad dressings (like vinaigrettes), soups, sauces, ice cream, and margarine are some examples. Emulsions are generally thermodynamically unstable and they tend to separate into the original phases in due time. The droplet size and the droplet size distribution are two important properties of an emulsion that have influence on the stability, but also the taste and appearance. Traditional emulsification techniques are based on disrupting larger droplets in coarse pre-mix emulsions into smaller ones using intense force fields. A lot of energy is put into the product; almost all energy dissipates into heat and only a very small fraction is used to form the emulsion. In addition, the resulting emulsions have a wide droplet size distribution. New microtechnological emulsification techniques hold a large advantage over conventional techniques as they can produce narrowly dispersed emulsions, while using the energy much more efficiently for the formation of droplets. This implies that the process is much milder, therewith allowing production of shear and temperature sensitive products such as multiple emulsions, which have great potential for reduced calorie products or encapsulation of (healthy) components but cannot be produced with traditional methods. With these microtechnological techniques, droplets of the desired size are directly generated with a device that is structured on the same scale as the droplets itself. In general, one can divide these emulsification techniques into two categories based on the driving force: shear-induced and spontaneous droplet generation. In the first category, cross- or co-flow of the continuous phase is used to snap off droplets. In the second category, interfacial tension forces cause droplet snap off without the need of a flow field. These latter devices show the highest potential for the production of monodisperse emulsions. Given the potential of these emulsions for a variety of purposes, this thesis focuses on these microtechnological emulsification systems. The goal of this thesis was to gain a thorough understanding of the principles and dynamics of spontaneous droplet generation, and to use this understanding to design better devices, for improved product properties at reasonable throughput. In Chapter 2, experimental observations and extensive Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations of a so-called terrace system are combined into an analytical predictive model, based the analysis of local pressures in the device. This model was shown to have good predictive value and to give direct insight in the relevant process parameters. Based on that, the terrace structure itself could be evaluated, and various design rules could be derived. The analytical model was also used as a steppingstone to gain insight in complex phenomena such as dynamic interfacial tension effects and contact angle (surface properties) of the used microdevices. In Chapter 3, the ratio of the viscosities of the dispersed and the continuous phases was found to be an important parameter for droplet formation in terrace-based systems. At high viscosity ratios, the droplet size is constant, but below a critical value droplet size increases, and below a minimum value no droplet formation is possible. These characteristic ratios were found to be dependent on the device geometry, both experimentally and through CFD simulation. The inflow of continuous phase is relatively difficult at low viscosity ratios, resulting in steep pressure gradients on the terrace structure which result in more oil supply during droplet formation, which in turn results in larger droplets. Detailed understanding of the existing spontaneous droplet formation in microchannel systems resulted in a new design: Edge-based Droplet GEneration (EDGE), which is described in Chapter 4. In EDGE, droplets are formed simultaneously along the edge of a wide but shallow nozzle, in contrast to the terrace systems discussed in Chapters 2 and 3 where only one droplet is formed at a time. With EDGE, narrowly dispersed emulsion droplets were formed in a broad pressure range. The system seems self-regulating: a disturbance in the flow pattern does not influence the droplet formation. The droplet size scales with the height of the droplet formation unit by a factor 5.5 – 6.5. Fundamental aspects related to EDGE are discussed in Chapter 5; especially the filling of the plateau was found to be essential for multiple droplet formation. Crucial for this is the difference in pressure needed for the dispersed phase to invade the plateau and the pressure needed to flow over the edge at the other end. In addition, the nozzle needs to have a relatively high hydrodynamic resistance compared to the whole system, which ensures even oil supply to the plateau and complete filling. The droplet formation locations along the nozzle were found to be regularly distributed along the length of the nozzle, and to be dependent on plateau depth. The EDGE process was simulated with CFD, which revealed that the pressure distribution on the plateau is influenced only very locally by droplet formation, therewith explaining the robust behavior of EDGE systems. Also for EDGE, viscosity ratio was found to be an important parameter. Behavior similar to that described for terrace structures (Chapter 3) was found, therewith also explaining the differences in size between liquid droplets in emulsification and gas bubbles in foaming. The minimum droplet size that can be obtained with EDGE could be derived from a geometric model that includes contact angle effects. EDGE has an advantage over microchannel systems mainly due to its simple structure, robustness, and parallelization possibilities as discussed in Chapter 6. An important design criterion when parallelizing droplet formation units is designing both oil supply and emulsion drainage channels properly, i.e. minimizing the pressure drops in these channels to obtain similar pressure conditions for each nozzle. The shape of the plateau may further be tuned to the properties of the phases (especially viscosity is important), to obtain a more stable process. Many microfluidic droplet generation devices can generate equally sized droplets, but emulsions with droplets below 10 micrometer are not common. Similarly, many devices have limitations in the types of ingredients that can be used, due to their small dimensions. Unfortunately, food-grade ingredients often pose problems. We found in Chapter 7 that EDGE is rather tolerant in the type of ingredients used. Some examples of food-grade dispersions are shown; for example, sunflower oil in whey protein concentrate gave an emulsion with an average droplet size of about 7 micron and very stable process operation. Furthermore, food-grade double emulsions (again 7 micron droplet size) were produced, and foams of whey protein (with a bubble size of 30 micron). This indicates the suitability of EDGE for products that otherwise cannot be made, and together with the sizes of scaled-up versions, this shows that EDGE could be a truly interesting new technology for the food industry. The last chapter in this thesis discusses the research strategy followed in this project. The combination of experiments with computational modeling of fluid dynamics, and relatively simple analytical or geometric models is shown to be a very effective method for investigating complex systems, to obtain fast process understanding and for further development of the devices. EDGE has several possibilities to increase production capacity, and this together with the advances in precision engineering is expected to make large-scale application of emulsification with EDGE microstructures a possibility in the near future. <br/

Videoconferencing Psychotherapy in an App Environment for Trauma-Related Psychopathology

The theoretical background of the life-span sequelae of exposure to interpersonal psychological trauma (emotional or physical neglect or abuse or sexual abuse) in childhood, particularly when a primary caretaker is involved, and its assessment and treatment possibilities in a 100% online environment are outlined. These sequelae may be understood as a complex variant of PTSD (CPTSD) or a complicated array of overlapping mental and personality disorders or as trans-diagnostic symptoms. However, disorders of extreme stress not otherwise specified (DESNOS) constitute a distinct syndrome of potential clinical utility. In childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood (YA), these symptoms seem encompassed by developmental trauma disorder (DTD). Affect dysregulation, identity alterations, and relational impairment are central features of DESNOS/DTD/CPTSD and can also be understood as trans-diagnostic symptom clusters. More and more people use smartphone apps in daily life. Therefore we started our 100% online treatments in patients’ environments and at their convenience (need driven). Our digitally enriched outpatient clinics (DOCs) using smartphone apps for videoconferencing psychotherapy (VCP) and personal data monitoring aim to augment established evidence-based treatment protocols. Also, they facilitate continuously gathering real-time sensor- and self-reported data that improve ecological validity of self-reports and monitoring for course of treatment and relapse prevention

Expressing forgiveness after interpersonal mistreatment: power and status of forgivers influence transgressors' relationship restoration efforts

One adverse consequence of interpersonal mistreatment is that it damages the relationship between the victim and the transgressor. Scholars have promoted forgiveness of such mistreatment as a victim response that can motivate transgressors to work towards relationship restoration. Building on social exchange theory and the social perception literature, we provide an account of when transgressors are less (vs. more) willing to restore their relationship with the victim in response to forgiveness. Specifically, we argue that transgressors perceive forgiveness from a victim who has high (vs. low) power, relative to the transgressor, as insincere, making transgressors less willing to restore the relationship. We further argue that this effect of high (vs. low) victim power is pronounced especially when the victim also has low (vs. high) status. Two experiments and two field studies support these predictions. These findings highlight the relevance of studying how contextual conditions color transgressors' perceptions of victims' behavior to understand relationship restoration after interpersonal mistreatment