Kinga Lachowicz-Tabaczek

Voice-based assessments of trustworthiness, competence, and warmth in blind and sighted adults

The study of voice perception in congenitally blind individuals allows researchers rare insight into how a lifetime of visual deprivation affects the development of voice perception. Previous studies have suggested that blind adults outperform their sighted counterparts in low-level auditory tasks testing spatial localization and pitch discrimination, as well as in verbal speech processing; however, blind persons generally show no advantage in nonverbal voice recognition or discrimination tasks. The present study is the first to examine whether visual experience influences the development of social stereotypes that are formed on the basis of nonverbal vocal characteristics (i.e., voice pitch). Groups of 27 congenitally or early-blind adults and 23 sighted controls assessed the trustworthiness, competence, and warmth of men and women speaking a series of vowels, whose voice pitches had been experimentally raised or lowered. Blind and sighted listeners judged both men’s and women’s voices with lowered pitch as being more competent and trustworthy than voices with raised pitch. In contrast, raised-pitch voices were judged as being warmer than were lowered-pitch voices, but only for women’s voices. Crucially, blind and sighted persons did not differ in their voice-based assessments of competence or warmth, or in their certainty of these assessments, whereas the association between low pitch and trustworthiness in women’s voices was weaker among blind than sighted participants. This latter result suggests that blind persons may rely less heavily on nonverbal cues to trustworthiness compared to sighted persons. Ultimately, our findings suggest that robust perceptual associations that systematically link voice pitch to the social and personal dimensions of a speaker can develop without visual input.

The moderating role of specific self-efficacy in the impact of positive mood on cognitive performance.

Research concerning the impact of positive mood on cognitive performance is inconsistent. We suggest that specific self-efficacy moderates this relationship. The current study proposed that participants in a positive mood with a high level of specific self-efficacy would anticipate mood-maintaining success on a task. Hence, they would be more strongly motivated, and perform better on the task, than individuals in other moods. Conversely, participants in a positive mood with low specific self-efficacy should expect mood-threatening failure. Thus, these individuals should be less motivated and perform more poorly than individuals in other moods. The current study included 139 participants with different levels of specific self-efficacy performing a comprehension task in either a positive or negative mood or a control condition. Results confirmed our hypothesis whereby specific self-efficacy affects cognitive performance but only during a positive mood. These findings support the role of specific self-efficacy in maintaining positive mood by regulating task activity.

Why insight in psychotherapy does not always lead to behaviour change

Abstract The purpose of this review was to come closer to answering the question why insight gained in psychotherapy does not necessarily lead to a change in patient’s behaviour. The review of literature on the subject of insight allowed us to distinguish two types of insight: “more intellectual than emotional” (I-e) and “more emotional than intellectual” (E-i). In addition, we differentiated E-i insight with a component of negative emotions (aversive) and with a component of positive emotions (corrective). We assumed that each type of insight would motivate the patient to change their behaviour in a different way. The I-e insight makes it easier for the patient to achieve concrete adaptive goals, the E-i aversive insight discourages them from attaining maladaptive goals, while the E-i corrective insight encourages them to form and follow adaptive goals. We also analysed the influence on behaviour change of some other factors, co-occurring with insight: the therapeutic relationship, the actions of the patient and his narrative motivation. Insight does not always lead to a change in behaviour because: 1) the type of the insight does not match the type of patient’s motivation; 2) insight occurs in the context of a weak therapeutic relationship or is not reinforced by the patient’s actions; 3) insight is not a key factor of change, but rather its effect or indicator. Streszczenie Celem opracowania było zbliżenie się do odpowiedzi na pytanie, dlaczego wgląd uzyskiwany podczas psychoterapii nie zawsze prowadzi do zmiany zachowania pacjenta. Eksploracja literatury na temat wglądu w psychoterapii pozwoliła wyodrębnić wgląd „raczej intelektualny, niż emocjonalny” (I-e) oraz „raczej emocjonalny, niż intelektualny” (E-i). Dodatkowo wyróżniliśmy wgląd E-i z komponentą emocji negatywnych (awersyjny) oraz z komponentą emocji pozytywnych (korektywny). Uzasadniliśmy, że każdy rodzaj wglądu w inny sposób motywuje pacjenta do zmiany zachowania. Wgląd I-e ułatwia pacjentowi realizację wyraźnych celów adaptacyjnych, wgląd E-i awersyjny zniechęca do realizacji celów nieadaptacyjnych, natomiast wgląd E-i korektywny zachęca do przyjęcia i realizacji celów adaptacyjnych. Poddaliśmy też analizie wpływ niektórych, współwystępujących z wglądem, uwarunkowań zmiany zachowania: relacji terapeutycznej, działań pacjenta oraz jego motywacji narracyjnej. Wgląd nie zawsze prowadzi do zmiany zachowania dlatego, że: 1) typ wglądu jest niedostosowany do typu motywacji pacjenta, 2) wgląd pojawia się w kontekście zbyt słabej relacji terapeutycznej lub nie jest wzmocniony działaniem pacjenta, 3) wgląd nie jest kluczowym czynnikiem zmiany, tylko jej efektem bądź wskaźnikiem.

Future self-appraisals and global self-esteem: Who benefits more from thinking about the future, and why?

Abstract People tend to think positively about their future selves. However, it remains unclear to what extent this tendency depends on the positivity of their current self-appraisal. To study this problem, we employed the assumptions of construal level theory, the concept of self-enhancement, and the assumptions of temporal self-appraisal theory, and we examined the role of global self-esteem in the relationship between temporal distance and future self-appraisals measured in absolute (Study 1), comparative temporal (Study 2), or comparative social (Study 3) ways. In all three studies, when assessed in terms of specific dimensions, future self-appraisals increased with temporal distance only in people with low self-esteem, but when assessed in terms of general dimensions, self-appraisals were higher in the distant compared to the near future irrespective of self-esteem level.

On Knowing When to Engage: How Activation of Self-motives Moderates the Relationship between Self-esteem and Task Performance

Evidence of a relationship between self-esteem and performance has been inconclusive; this suggests that there are additional factors moderating this relationship. One such factor could be self-motives. The present study investigated the effect of activating these motives on performance in participants of varying levels of self-esteem. Two studies were conducted to test the effect of self-assessment motive (Study 1) and self-enhancement or self-improvement motives (Study 2) on the aforementioned relationship. Results showed that self-esteem was related to performance only when execution of the task was relevant to the fulfillment of self-motives. Self-esteem turned out to be unrelated to performance in the control groups that received no motive activation. Thus, this study provides evidence of the moderating effect of self-motives on the relationship between self-esteem and performance, with potential of other classes of factors to be investigated in further studies.