Assessing Future Expectations and the Two-Dimensional Model of Affect in an Italian Population

Future-directed thinking has been described as part of two underlying systems that integrate dimensions of affect, motivational systems, orientation to the future, and future expectations, which are initiated at the cognitive, affective, biological, behavioral, and motivational levels. The main aim of the present study is to test the two underlying frameworks model and explore future expectations in a general Italian-speaking population (N=345). Therefore, the second aim of the present paper is to confirm the factorial structure of the Subjective Probability Task (SPT; MacLeod et al., 1996), a questionnaire designed to assess specific positive and negative orientations towards the future. Results showed that the SPT has good psychometric properties and it is a reliable instrument to assess future-directed thinking. Moreover, our findings confirmed the role of future expectancies as cognitive correlates of depression and anxiety. Differently from previous studies (Clark and Watson, 1991; MacLeod et al., 1996), our results did not confirm that depression was characterized by low positive affect. We believe this paper contributes to the understanding of future expectancies and their relation with anxiety and depression, and will help to expand the availability of an instrument to assess future directed thinking

Mental time travel and construal level associations: Functional past- and future-directed thinking

First place award for Social Psychology category at Denman Undergraduate Research ForumMental time travel, the ability to mentally project one's self backward and forward in time, is thought to be crucial for goal attainment (Suddendorf & Corballis, 2007). Construal level theory suggests the way people think about temporally distant (relative to near) events is by engaging in greater cognitive abstraction (Trope & Liberman, 2003). Whether this process is the same for past vs. future events, however is unclear. We explore whether past and future processes rely on similar mechanisms (Buckner & Carroll, 2007). We also examine the functionality of these processes, suggesting that those who do not engage in abstraction to think about temporally distant events will have more difficulty attaining their goals. We explore whether difficulties for individuals with depression stem from employing dysfunctional cognitive tendencies with respect to thinking about the past and future (Strauman, 2002; Trivedi & Greer, 2014). Thus, this study aims to address two questions: 1) whether cognition is similar between thinking about the past and future, and 2) what constitutes functional cognition in mental time travel and how this relates to goal attainment and well-being. We recruited 251 participants from the Department of Psychology's Research Experience Program. We assess the tendency to use abstraction to think about past and future events using an Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998). Participants also complete the Beck Depression Inventory to measure depressive severity and other well-being and goal attainment questionnaires (Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh, 1961). Data was analyzed utilizing D Score algorithm (Greenwald, Nosek, & Banaji, 2003) for IAT reaction times, and Process Dissociation Procedure (PDP; Jacoby, L.L. 1991) for error rates. As we predicted, we found non-significant differences between past and future versions of the IAT, suggesting people likely engage in similar abstraction processes when thinking about the past vs. future. Participants with more depressive symptoms, relative to those with fewer, did not show differences in association strengths on reaction time measures. Participants with more depressive symptoms, relative to fewer, did show weaker associations between distant time and abstraction on error rate measures; this may be due to this measurement's greater sensitivity for measuring associations. Overall, evidence suggests past and future rely on similar mechanisms, and although mixed, some evidence supports predictions about the functionality of abstract thinking with distant time.Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research ScholarshipSocial and Behavioral Sciences Undergraduate Research GrantNo embargoAcademic Major: Psycholog

Developing clinical skill competency of undergraduate nursing students utilising a simulated psychomotor skill laboratory and model of self-directed learning : an evaluation research study : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Nursing at Massey University

Nursing education today emphasises higher-level thought processes than in the past. The requirement for Bachelor of Nursing students to also demonstrate competence in the core clinical skills is critical for safe professional practice. Balancing curricular emphases on technical knowledge, clinical and interpersonal skills, ethical decision-making, and other critical thinking skills is becoming increasingly difficult for nurse educators. Changes in the health sector have resulted in increased complexity of care, reduced numbers of venues for clinical practicum experiences, and increased financial costs associated with student practicum. The commitment to ensure that students have requisite clinical skills appropriate to each stage of their programme, prior to their clinical practicum involves curricular, pedagogical and financial considerations. Drawing on international literature and a Faculty committed to the development of nursing knowledge and skill, discovery, reflection and self-directed learning, the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) implemented the use of the Clinical Arts and Technology Centre and a cooperative model of self-directed learning into the Bachelor of Nursing curriculum in January 2000. The Clinical Arts and Technology Centre is an "enhanced" clinical simulation laboratory that provides students with the facilities and resources to support and enhance their knowledge and skills in preparation for clinical practicum. This Evaluation Research study explores and determines the effectiveness of the Clinical Arts and Technology Centre and the cooperative model of self-directed learning in terms of student clinical competency outcomes, and student satisfaction with the facility and model of self-directed learning. An extensive review of literature was undertaken in relation to the development and use of clinical simulation laboratories, clinical simulation, and models of self-directed learning in nursing education. A combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection methods were used including a pre piloted research questionnaire and a collation of student competency assessment outcomes. One hundred and fifty-six EIT Bachelor of Nursing students participated in the study. Statistical research findings and themes that emerged demonstrated a high level of overall student satisfaction with the facility resources and model of learning and provide direction for future facility and resource development, and ongoing quality improvement initiatives

Perfectionism, personality, and future-directed thinking: Further insights from revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory

In a recent study, Stoeber and Corr (2015) examined how three forms of perfectionism (self-oriented, other-oriented, socially prescribed) predicted participants' affective experiences in the past two weeks, and found that revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (rRST) components explained the relations between perfectionism and affective experiences. As an extension, this study investigated whether rRST components—capturing individual differences in the Behavioral Approach System (BAS), Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS), Fight-Flight-Freeze System (FFFS), and defensive fight—also explained the relations between perfectionism and future-directed thinking. 343 university students completed measures of perfectionism, rRST, and positive and negative expectations for the next two weeks. Mediation analyses showed that all BAS components (reward interest, goal-drive persistence, reward reactivity, impulsivity) and the BIS, but not the FFFS and defensive fight, explained how the different forms of perfectionism predicted future-directed expectations. The findings suggest that the BAS and BIS components of rRST, which reflect fundamental emotion-motivational systems of personality, play a role not only in the relations of perfectionism and past affective experiences, but also in those of perfectionism and future-directed thinking

Rich environments for active learning in action: Problem‐based learning

Rich Environments for Active Learning (REALs) are comprehensive instructional systems that are consistent with constructivist theories. They promote study and investigation within authentic contexts; encourage the growth of student responsibility, initiative, decision making and intentional learning; cultivate collaboration among students and teachers; utilize dynamic, interdisciplinary, generative learning activities that promote higher‐order thinking processes to help students develop rich and complex knowledge structures; and assess student progress in content and learning‐to‐learn within authentic contexts using realistic tasks and performances. Problem‐Based Learning (PBL) is an instructional methodology that can be used to create REALs. PBL's student‐centred approach engages students in a continuous collaborative process of building and reshaping understanding as a natural consequence of their experiences and interactions within learning environments that authentically reflect the world around them. In this way, PBL and REALs are a response to teacher‐centred educational practices that promote the development of inert knowledge, such as conventional teacher‐to‐student knowledge dissemination activities. In this article, we compare existing assumptions underlying teacher‐directed educational practice with new assumptions that promote problem solving and higher‐level thinking by putting students at the centre of learning activities. We also examine the theoretical foundation that supports these new assumptions and the need for REALs. Finally, we describe each REAL characteristic and provide supporting examples of REALs in action using PB

Prospective cognitions in anxiety and depression: Replication and methodological extension

The present study presents a replication and methodological extension of MacLeod, Tata, Kentish, and Jacobsen (1997) with a nonclinical sample, using future-directed imagery to assess prospective cognitions. Results showed that only anxiety (but not depression) was related to enhanced imagery for future negative events. Both anxiety and depression showed significant zero-order correlations with reduced imagery for future positive events. However, when the overlap between anxiety and depression was controlled for, only depression (but not anxiety) showed a unique association with reduced imagery for positive events. Implications of these findings for cognitive models of anxiety and depression are discussed

Spirituality and business: An interdisciplinary overview

The paper gives an interdisciplinary overview of the emerging field of spirituality and business. It uses insights from business ethics, theology, neuroscience, psychology, gender studies, and philosophy to economics, management, organizational science, and banking and refers to different religious convictions including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, the Baha'i faith, and the North-American aboriginal worldview. The authors argue that the materialistic management paradigm has failed. They explore new values for post-materialistic management: frugality, deep ecology, trust, reciprocity, responsibility for future generations, and authenticity. Within this framework profit and growth are no longer ultimate aims but elements in a wider set of values. Similarly, cost-benefit calculations are no longer the essence of management but are part of a broader concept of wisdom in leadership. Spirit-driven businesses require intrinsic motivation for serving the common good and using holistic evaluation schemes for measuring success. The Palgrave Handbook of Business and Spirituality, edited by the authors, is a response to developments that simultaneously challenge the “business as usual” mindset

Extended Agency and the Problem of Diachronic Autonomy

It seems to be a humdrum fact of human agency that we act on intentions or decisions that we have made at an earlier time. At breakfast, you look at the Taco Hut menu online and decide that later today you’ll have one of their avocado burritos for lunch. You’re at your desk and you hear the church bells ring the noon hour. You get up, walk to Taco Hut, and order the burrito as planned. As mundane as this sort of scenario might seem to be, philosophers have raised a problem in understanding it. If you are simply abiding by this morning’s decision, how are you acting autonomously? Your earlier self seems to be calling the shots; if you are just acting accordingly, without thinking through it or in some other way trying to ensure that the past decision conforms to your present standpoint, it is not clear how this amounts to an exercise of your present autonomous agency. It seems, rather, that your earlier self has succeeded in slaving you to her own purposes. She was the one who wanted (intended, judged it to be good, etc.) to have an avocado burrito. In simply following through, your current self seems to be just an automaton performing the commands left behind by your former self. Of course, you might not allow yourself to be shackled by your earlier self. You might refuse to follow anything but your own present judgments: you will only go to Taco Hut if this is what you judge you should do right now, and once at Taco Hut you will only eat the avocado burrito if that is what you want to eat once there. But if this is the way you generally operate, this seems to block your ability to make effective future-directed decisions. The puzzle, then, is one of explaining how the future self can do the bidding of her past self without losing her autonomy. We call this “the Problem of Diachronic Autonomy.” Philosophers raising this problem take it to show that there must be reasons or rational requirements to follow-through with our past decisions. According to these philosophers, we can only make sense of our diachronic autonomy if our past decisions put rational pressure on us to follow through. We argue that there is no Problem of Diachronic Autonomy. There is, in other words, no puzzling situation that needs explaining. Consequently, there is no need coming from this purported puzzle to think that our future-directed decisions generate reasons or rational requirements to follow through. The correct view of our diachronic autonomy is the “naïve” one: the “future self” can do the bidding of the “past self” without giving up its autonomy because, very simply, the past self is the same agent as the future self. I am acting autonomously when I get the avocado burrito, because I was the one who decided to get the burrito. I am acting on my own freely-formed decision

On Birthing Dancing Stars: The Need for Bounded Chaos in Information Interaction

While computers causing chaos is acommon social trope, nearly the entirety of the history of computing is dedicated to generating order. Typical interactive information retrieval tasks ask computers to support the traversal and exploration of large, complex information spaces. The implicit assumption is that they are to support users in simplifying the complexity (i.e. in creating order from chaos). But for some types of task, particularly those that involve the creative application or synthesis of knowledge or the creation of new knowledge, this assumption may be incorrect. It is increasingly evident that perfect order—and the systems we create with it—support highly-structured information tasks well, but provide poor support for less-structured tasks.We need digital information environments that help create a little more chaos from order to spark creative thinking and knowledge creation. This paper argues for the need for information systems that offerwhat we term ‘bounded chaos’, and offers research directions that may support the creation of such interface