Envy has been positively associated with both moral disengagement and organizational unethical decision-making. Nevertheless, extant research suffers from a number of limitations that constrain our ability to define the unique links between different forms of envy and moral disengagement. In two studies (N = 419), using a dual conception of envy, we demonstrate that malicious envy has a consistently

The definition of courage has been widely debated, though most agree it involves an element of ‘persistence despite fear’. However, even with its correlation to fear and anxiety, courage as a concept has received minimal research in psychology. This study aimed to explore the role of courage in predicting behavior. Twenty-eight participants who indicated during a pre-screening that they feared public

Extremism occurs when a certain need, for instance, significance quest, overrides other human motivations. Based on the Significance Quest Theory, we argue that ambition—a specific aspect of significance quest—can lead to extremism, particularly through obsessive passion. In an Italian sample (Study 1, N = 249) we predicted and found that ambition was positively related to both obsessive and harmonious

According to the awe-quixoteism hypothesis, one experience of awe may lead to the engagement in challenging actions aimed at increasing the welfare of the world. However, what if the action involves damaging one individual? Across four experiments (N = 876), half participants were induced to feel either awe or a different (pleasant, activating, or neutral-control) emotion, and then decided whether

Whether to engage with the environment or not is critical to self-regulation and individual differences figure prominently in this decisional realm. The present studies (total N = 695) pursue the premise that important clues to these dynamics can be found by asking individuals whether they prefer the spatial concept of something (e.g., the self or the world) being “closed” or “open”, given that open

The present study brings evidence of a new type of emotional processes, namely sequential modulations of emotional effects, and how these processes change during aging. Sequential modulations of emotional effects refer to the changes in emotional effects (i.e., differences in performance between current negative and positive items) as a function of emotional valence of the immediately preceding items

Mourning constitutes an important human emotion, which might cause—among other things—major depressive symptoms when lasting for too long. To date, no study investigated whether mourning is related to specific psychophysiological activation patterns. Therefore, we examined physiological reactions induced by iconographic mourning-related stimuli in comparison to neutral and attachment stimuli in healthy

Real-life decision-making involves a balance between emotion and cognition, a process that is mirrored in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Previous studies suggest that negative emotion affects IGT performance, and that this effect may be moderated by gender. In the current study, we experimentally instructed the use of a strategy for ameliorating the incidental negative emotion induced by negative images

Given that avoidance motivation is often related to negative outcomes, it is surprising that little research has investigated the economic factors that correlate with avoidance motivation. The current meta-analysis synthesized 40 studies (Ntotal = 771,690) on the relation between economic status and avoidance motivation. Economic status was operationalized with objective and subjective measures of

High levels of disgust and perfectionism co-exist in some clinical disorders raising questions about the relationship between the two. This research evaluated socially-related and physically-related disgust in people with varying levels of perfectionism. In Study 1, 120 college students participated in a state emotion-eliciting scenario task, then completed both the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised and

Mourning constitutes an important human emotion, which might cause—among other things—major depressive symptoms when lasting for too long. To date, no study investigated whether mourning is related to specific psychophysiological activation patterns. Therefore, we examined physiological reactions induced by iconographic mourning-related stimuli in comparison to neutral and attachment stimuli in healthy

Essay-style assessment is widespread in education. Nonetheless, research shows that this tool can suffer from low reliability and validity. We attribute this problem partly to the boredom that marking multiple essays causes. Specifically, we propose that boredom in markers is associated with systematically lower marks on essays. To test this, we asked participants (N = 100) with an undergraduate degree

Why does sibling abuse affect some adolescents more severely than others? When and how does its experience at home influence the psychosocial behavior of adolescents at school? Guided by the Conservation of Resources Theory (CoRT), the authors established a moderated-mediation model to find answers to these under-researched questions. Specifically, they analyzed the effects of sibling abuse on victimized

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) has been inconsistently associated with exaggerated threat monitoring measured via the error-related negativity (ERN). This suggests the need to consider whether the link between GAD and ERN is influenced by additional processes, such as cognitive inhibition of non-threat. The current study explored this possibility by employing a novel, trait-like measure of cognitive

Across nine studies (N = 1672), we assessed the link between cognitive costs and the choice to express outrage by blaming. We developed the Blame Selection Task, a binary free-choice paradigm that examines individuals’ propensity to blame transgressors (versus an alternative choice)—either before or after reading vignettes and viewing images of moral transgressions. We hypothesized that participants’

Social emotional abilities (i.e., specific skills), defined as the set of cognitive abilities, emotion-based knowledge, and behavioral competencies (i.e., skill levels) that facilitate adaptively employing prosocial processes and behaviors (i.e., “actions”), such as emotional regulation and sympathetic and empathetic response behaviors, is contemporarily modeled and measured as emotional intelligence

Identifying causes of healthy behaviors is important for harnessing health benefits. A growing body of experience sampling research suggests that positive emotion may drive these behaviors. However, it is not known how long elevations in positive emotion facilitate these behaviors in daily life. The present study tested how time between signals moderates the association between within-person positive

This study was designed to investigate academic motivation profiles (and their similarity) among distinct samples of high school students. Anchored in recent developments in self-determination theory, these profiles were estimated while considering both the global and specific nature of academic motivation. The role of fixed mindsets and parenting practices in predicting profile membership, as well

Based on self-determination theory, this diary study examined associations between adolescents’ daily need crafting and daily fluctuations in their need-based and affective experiences. We also examined the role of daily perceived autonomy-supportive parenting in adolescents’ daily need-crafting. Adolescents (N = 159; Mage = 15.56; 62% female) filled out a diary for seven consecutive days. Multilevel

Extant literature consistently demonstrates the level of self-determination individuals experience or demonstrate during an activity can be primed. However, considering most of this literature comes from a period wherein p-hacking was prevalent (pre-2015), it may be that these effects reflect false positives. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether published literature showing autonomous

Mental health problems are becoming increasingly prevalent across college campuses. Past research has found that negative affect and frustration of basic psychological needs contribute to the development of depressive symptoms, but there is limited research which compares whether these are antecedents or concomitants of depressive symptoms. The present set of studies aimed to distinguish the differential

We estimated a network model of trait affect to examine the pattern of associations between emotions. We reasoned that more independence across valences (e.g., enthusiastic-upset) and within valence (e.g., distressed-afraid) would represent a more adaptive affective structure characterized by greater emotion differentiation. The network structure was expected to vary as a function of effortful control

In this preregistered analysis of existing data, we explored whether the association between urgency—a mood-based impulsivity—and risky and self-destructive behavior engagement is moderated by a sense of purpose in life. Results indicated positive associations between positive and negative urgency and recent risk behavior, and negative associations between a sense of purpose and recent risk behavior

This research advances the conceptualization and measurement of flow. The results of six studies (N = 2809) reveal that flow has two dimensions: “fluency,” which is comprised of experiences related to fluent thought and action; and “absorption,” which is based on sustained full attention. The results also demonstrate that the two dimensions have nuanced relationships with other variables. Specifically

University students’ study motivation in a particular moment is shaped by contextual factors such as upcoming exams and conflicts between different action tendencies. We investigated how these two contextual factors are related. Based on the theoretical assumption that students’ in-the-moment study motivation increases relative to their motivation for other activities as exams approach, we investigated

Through two studies that utilized pin counts in the voodoo doll aggression task, we tested how compassionate and self-image goals in relationships were associated with aggressive inclinations. Participants in Study 1 (N = 381) recalled and wrote about an experience of being accepted or rejected and participants in Study 2 (N = 391) imagined themselves in hypothetical scenarios of being rejected either

This research seeks to improve our understanding of how intrinsic motivation is instantiated. Three motivation theories, flow theory, self-determination theory, and empowerment theory, have informed our understanding of the foundations of intrinsic motivation at work. Taken jointly, they suggest six causal factors for intrinsic motivation: (1) perceived competence, (2) perceived challenge, (3) perceived

It is well-established that intermediate challenge is optimally motivating. We tested whether this can be quantified into an inverted-U relationship between motivation and success frequency. Participants played a game in which they navigated a scene to catch targets. In Experiment 1 (N = 101), play duration was free and the motivating value of success frequency was measured from the probability that