Polish Psychological Bulletin

Decisions involving comparisons of Arabic number digits often exhibit an interference between the physical size of the digit and the implied numerical magnitude, a phenomenon called the size-congruity effect. Related research over the past four decades has yielded two competing models of the phenomenon: an early interaction account, where interference between numerical and physical magnitude occurs at an early encoding stage, and a late interaction account, where the interference occurs downstream as response competition during the decision process. In the present study, we asked participants to compare the physical sizes of pairs of Arabic digits. We fit the resulting response time distributions with a shifted Wald model, a single boundary accumulator model, which gave us estimates of information accumulation rate (drift rate), response threshold, and nondecision time. We found that incongruity between physical size and numerical magnitude affected the decision-related estimates of drift rate and response threshold. Further, a Bayesian analysis confirmed a null effect of congruity on nondecision time. These results indicate that the observed interference originates from decision-related processes, lending further support for a late interaction account of the size-congruity effect.

On one hand, Judgment and Decision Making (JDM) research reports a phenomena called the cross-modal effect, which shows that magnitude priming based on spatial attributes of a stimuli might influence numerical estimations. On the other hand, research directed at human cognition reports that processing of space and numbers may interfere. Despite different theoretical backgrounds, those two lines of research report similar results. Is it possible that the cross-modal anchoring and the interaction between space and number are just two manifestations of the same psychological effect, conceptualized within different paradigms? In Experiment 1 participants were asked to draw lines of different length and estimate numerosity of sets of dots presented for 100 ms. Based on current studies, magnitude priming is assimilated with subsequent numerical judgment. However, an unexpected contrast effect was observed in Experiment 1. Priming of “smallness” resulted in higher estimations of numerosity, while priming of “largeness” was associated with lower estimations. Short exposition time often leads to automatic attention processes, which could possibly account for the observed contrast effect. In Experiment 2 this assumption was tested, verifying potential differences between different exposition times (100 ms vs 300 ms). The same pattern of results was obtained. Findings of both experiments are discussed from the perspective of different anchoring paradigms and concepts related to space and number processing.

In recent years, the construct of work engagement as well as methods for its measurement have generated growing interest in the field of occupational psychology. In this study, we aim to contribute to the current work engagement literature by investigating the possible advantages of single-item measures of work engagement by analysing their psychometric feasibility. Testing the validity of a single-item measure tool within the framework of the Job Demands-Resources theory, we have found similar pattern of correlations of single-item measures of work engagement with exhaustion, disengagement, job resources and job demands as for the well-established multi-item measure the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. The reliability of single-item measures tested with factor analysis and the attenuation formula was estimated to be in the range of between .60 and .70, the figure depending on the particulars of the estimation methods. Our findings provide an initial modicum of evidence that, if a research purpose requires it, or if the use of a multi-item measurement tool is overly restrictive or costly, then a single-item measure of work engagement could be effectively adopted.

The discourse on homosexually has largely remained Euro-American with a focus on human right of African homosexuals residing in Africa. However, current debates in Africa have centered on the cultural acceptability, legality as well as mental health concerns presumed to be associated with homosexuality. The paper approaches the issue of homosexuality from a perspective that is sensitive to the cultural context of Ghana and also through a non-Euro-American lens. The author attempts to address some of the misunderstanding about the legal status of homosexuals and the negative attitudes in Ghana. The paper concludes that Ghanaians face a paradox of accepting homosexuality because it cannot be understood to further growth of human society from their perspective. Similarly, if Ghanaians view homosexuality as a mental health issue, then it is more appropriate to decriminalize it as it is not appropriate to criminalize mental disorders. Reconceptualizing the issue as a human rights one in which both anti- and pro-homosexual religious and sexual rights respectively are accommodated may be more progressive than promoting one set of rights at the expense of the other. Though Ghana is the focus of this paper, it is believed that the discussions presented are applicable to the rest of Africa and other non-Western societies.

Good quality communication in the family is a source of positive relations among its members. It is the most important characteristic of a well-functioning family. Very interesting perceptions of communication in the family are held by high achieving students. In those young people, communication in the family correlates negatively with their high grade point average. Also, they evaluate positively communication in the family as a whole but less positively one-to-one verbal interactions with the mother and the father. This observation is explained by the fact that the family forms a system. Moreover, communication is associated with positive relationships and attitudes such as acceptance and autonomy, but correlates negatively with control, over-demanding behaviour, and inconsistency in the parents of high achieving students.

This study attempted to examine the impacts of academic locus of control and metacognitive awareness on the academic adjustment of the student participants. The convenient sampling was applied to select the sample of 368 participants comprising 246 internals with age ranging from 17 to 28 years (M = 20.52, SD = 2.10) and 122 externals with age spanning from 17 to 28 years (M = 20.57, SD = 2.08). The findings indicated that there were significant differences in the various dimensions of metacognition, academic lifestyle and academic achievement of the internals and externals except for academic motivation and overall academic adjustment. There were significant gender differences in declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, conditional knowledge, planning, information management, monitoring, evaluation and overall metacognitive awareness. Likewise, the internals and externals differed significantly in their mean scores of declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, conditional knowledge, planning, information management, monitoring, debugging, evaluation and overall metacognitive awareness, academic lifestyle and academic achievement. The significant positive correlations existed between the scores of metacognitive awareness and academic adjustment. It was evident that the internal academic locus of control and metacognitive awareness were significant predictors of academic adjustment of the students. The findings have been discussed in the light of recent findings of the field. The findings of the study have significant implications to understand the academic success and adjustment of the students and thus, relevant for teachers, educationists, policy makers and parents. The future directions for the researchers and limitations of the study have also been discussed.

This paper describes the results of a study that examined if psychological entitlement and hedonic well-being mediated relationships between counterproductive work behaviors (CWB) and grandiose narcissism. More specifically, the mediation effects of both types of narcissism on CWB via psychological entitlement and hedonistic subjective well-being (SWB) were examined. This study is based on self-reported, cross-sectional study on 119 working adults. Agentic and communal narcissism were positively related to CWB in parallel way, while simultaneously and indirectly decreasing CWB levels via higher SWB. Current paper is the first attempt to include agentic-communal narcissism model to explain the levels of CWB. The theoretical and practical implications of presented findings are discussed here in terms of the agency-communion model of narcissism and the “mixed blessing” effects of grandiose narcissism on subjective well-being.

In general, it is ben eficial and adaptive to have high self-esteem; however, contingent self-esteem depending on approval is not so advantageous. This article presents research on a Polish version of the Contingent Self-Esteem Scale (CSES), which measures contingent self-esteem. The CSES was administered on a total of 1,199 participants; a range of other instruments were also used to establish the validity of the CSES. The CSES proved to have acceptable internal consistency and validity and factor analyses revealed that it contains four factors: vulnerability to negative opinions, dependence on physical attractiveness, dependence on opinions, and dependence on self-standards. Contingent self-esteem was positively correlated with neuroticism, agreeableness, ruminating, anxiety, and maladaptive perfectionism; it was negatively correlated with general self-esteem and self-efficacy. Mediational analyses confirmed the hypothesis that low general self-esteem causes high rumination about oneself, which in turn is related to high contingent self-esteem.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the importance of social bonds for our ability to cope with traumatizing incidents. It is theorized that the dysfunctions related to trauma, such as alexithymia and dissociation can be linked to certain parental attitudes towards a child in an early developmental stages together with characteristics of the trauma itself, namely the identity of the perpetrator, understood as his or her social closeness to the victim.

Participants: A total number of 60 participants, selected randomly from a population, psychiatric hospital patients as well as psychotherapy centers were tested using four questionnaires (TAS-26, PSD, CES, PBI).

Results: The analyses revealed that high alexithymia levels are related to demanding attitude of the caregivers, whereas dissociation is more common in people who remember their parents as inconsequent and emotionally labile. Findings related to the connection between the identity of a perpetrator of the trauma and the sequelae showed that the dissociation levels were significantly higher in victims who suffered abuse from the hands of family member or friends than those who were harmed by unknown people.

Personality, demographics and art experience proved to play an important role in reactions to visual art. Nevertheless, research attempts that take into account all those factors when determining predictors of aesthetic responses to different artistic styles are quite rare. The study presented here investigates predictors of aesthetic experience across figurative, abstract and contemporary paintings in individuals with varying expertise.

Students enrolled in Sport, Humanities and the Arts programmes (N = 181) declared their art exposure and filled out personality measures (Big Five, alexithymia, need for closure). Next participants evaluated three paintings using a tool constructed by the authors to track various dimensions of aesthetic reactions (i.e. negative/positive affective responses, self-references, explicit knowledge and perceived mastery of the artwork).

Reactions to figurative painting depended mostly on formal knowledge about arts, not personality traits. Aesthetic perception of abstract art rely not only on art exposure, but also on some individual characteristics (openness to experience, tolerance of ambiguity and ability to identify one’s own emotions and track their source). Reception of contemporary art was predicted mostly by art exposure variables and in the case of negative emotionality by ability to identify one’s own emotions and track their source.

Both formal art education and art experience were stronger predictors of aesthetic responses than personality traits, for all art styles and dimensions of aesthetic experience. Personality predictors were significant mostly for abstract art. Personal interest in the arts seems to be as good predictor of aesthetic reactions as formal expertise.

Investigating human emotions empirically is still considered to be challenging, mostly due to the questionable validity of the results obtained when employing individual types of measures. Among the most frequently used methods to study emotional reactions are self-report, autonomic, neurophysiological, and behavioral measures. Importantly, previous studies on emotional responding have rarely triangulated the aforementioned research methods. In this paper we discuss main methodological considerations related to the use of physiological and self-report measures in emotion studies, based on our previous research on the processing of emotionally-laden narratives in the native and non-native language, where we employed the SUPIN S30 questionnaire as a self-report tool, and galvanic skin response (GSR) as a physiological measure (Jankowiak & Korpal, 2018). The findings revealed a more pronounced reaction to stimuli presented in the native relative to the non-native language, which was however reflected only in GSR patterns. The lack of correlation between GSR and SUPIN scores might have resulted from a number of methodological considerations, such as social desirability bias, sensitive questions, lack of emotional self-awareness, compromised ecological validity, and laboratory anxiety, all of which are thoroughly discussed in the article.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to discuss exposure to stress and the incidence of occupational burnout among oncology nurses.

Methods: To study the discussed issue, we analyzed six full-text research papers which were searchable by EBSCO and met all required criteria (words included in the abstract, English publication, size of the study group).

Results: Exposure to chronic occupational stress may lead to developing burnout syndrome. Social service professionals are especially affected as they are expected to be emotionally engaged in their jobs, which particularly applies to such health care professionals as nurses, psychologists, police officers and social workers. Because of occupational burnout work efficiency may deteriorate. Oncology nurses are among the most affected nurse groups in terms of exposure to the risk of burnout.

Conclusions: Oncology nurses as well as other oncology workers exhibit an increased risk and a higher grade of burnout. Psychological training sessions are available which effectively prevent and alleviate the effects of burnout.

Perception takes into account the costs and benefits of possible interpretations of incoming sensory data. This should be especially pertinent for threat recognition, where minimising the costs associated with missing a real threat is of primary importance. We tested whether recognition of threats has special characteristics that adapt this process to the task it fulfils. Participants were presented with images of threats and visually matched neutral stimuli, distorted by varying levels of noise. We found threat superiority effect and liberal response bias. Moreover, increasing the level of noise degraded the recognition of the neutral images to higher extent than the threatening images. To summarise, recognising threats is special, in that it is more resistant to noise and decline in stimulus quality, suggesting that threat recognition is a fast ‘all or nothing’ process, in which threat presence is either confirmed or negated.