Eudaimonic Well-Being for Lesbian and Bisexual Women: The Roles of Religion and Social Connectedness

Understanding how religion and well-being are related for lesbian and bisexual women provides important context for clinical interventions. Current literature in the field diverges on whether the relationship between religious commitment and well-being is positive for those in the queer community. The current study examines whether an independent or interdependent self-construal explains the relationship between religious commitment and eudaimonic well-being (EWB) for lesbian and bisexual women. This empirical study used data from the Multi-Site University Study on Identity and Culture, a research collaboration amongst 30 colleges and universities in the United States. Findings suggest that although self-construal does not mediate the relationship between religious commitment and well-being, there are significant effects between religious commitment and EWB as well as an independent self-construal and EWB. These findings provide a deeper understanding of variables associated with greater well-being and are important for the advancement of research and practice with queer women.

Exploring the Relationship Between Visual Aesthetics and Social Commerce Through Visual Information Adoption Unimodel

The visual revolution and attention economy of the digital world have put visual aesthetic communication into the primary position of social media marketing. However, this phenomenon remains underexplored within social commerce research. This study thus develops a visual information adoption unimodel (VIAUM), to explore the relationship between visual aesthetics and social commerce intentions. Users with social commerce experience are invited to complete our online survey, and 321 valid data are collected. The results reveal that visual aesthetics has direct and indirect (via perceived usefulness) effects on the social commerce intention of users. Besides, interdependent self-construal (InterSC) strengthens the direct effect between visual aesthetics and social commerce intention. In contrast, independent self-construal weakens the mediation effects of perceived usefulness. This study is among the first attempts to empirically examine the intervening mechanism and boundary conditions between the visual aesthetics of self-presentation of micro-celebrity and the social commerce intention of consumers.

Prior context influences motor brain areas in an auditory oddball task and prefrontal cortex multitasking modelling

In this study, the relationship of orienting of attention, motor control and the Stimulus- (SDN) and Goal-Driven Networks (GDN) was explored through an innovative method for fMRI analysis considering all voxels in four experimental conditions: standard target (Goal; G), novel (N), neutral (Z) and noisy target (NG). First, average reaction times (RTs) for each condition were calculated. In the second-level analysis, 'distracted' participants, as indicated by slower RTs, evoked brain activations and differences in both hemispheres' neural networks for selective attention, while the participants, as a whole, demonstrated mainly left cortical and subcortical activations. A context analysis was run in the behaviourally distracted participant group contrasting the trials immediately prior to the G trials, namely one of the Z, N or NG conditions, i.e. Z.G, N.G, NG.G. Results showed different prefrontal activations dependent on prior context in the auditory modality, recruiting between 1 to 10 prefrontal areas. The higher the motor response and influence of the previous novel stimulus, the more prefrontal areas were engaged, which extends the findings of hierarchical studies of prefrontal control of attention and better explains how auditory processing interferes with movement. Also, the current study addressed how subcortical loops and models of previous motor response affected the signal processing of the novel stimulus, when this was presented laterally or simultaneously with the target. This multitasking model could enhance our understanding on how an auditory stimulus is affecting motor responses in a way that is self-induced, by taking into account prior context, as demonstrated in the standard condition and as supported by Pulvinar activations complementing visual findings. Moreover, current BCI works address some multimodal stimulus-driven systems.

It Was Me: The Use of Sense of Agency Cues Differs Between Cultures

Sense of agency (SoA) is the sense of having control over one's own actions and through them events in the outside world. SoA may be estimated by integrating different agency cues. In the present study, we examined whether the use of different agency cues - action-effect congruency, temporal relation between action and effect, and affective valence of effects - differs between Eastern (Mongolian) and Western (Austrian) cultures. In a learning phase, participants learned to associate different actions (keypresses) with positive and negative action effects (smileys). In a test phase, participants performed the same keypresses. After different intervals positive and negative action effects, which were either congruent or incongruent with the previously acquired action-effect associations, were presented. In each trial participants were asked to rate how likely the action effect was caused by themselves or by the computer (authorship ratings). In both groups authorship ratings were higher for congruent compared to incongruent action effects and for positive compared to negative action effects. This indicates that action-effect congruency and affective valence of action effects modulate SoA. Further, in both groups the difference between positive and negative effects was higher with congruent effects than incongruent effects. This overadditive effect of action-effect congruency and affective valence might indicate that an integration of different agency cues takes place. Decreasing authorship ratings with increasing interval were observed in Austrians but not in Mongolians. For Mongolians, the temporal chronology of events might be less important when inferring causality. Therefore, information regarding the temporal occurrence of the effect might not be used as an agency cue in Mongolians. In conclusion, some agency cues might be similarly used in different cultures, but the use of others might be culture-dependent.

What does agency afford the self?

We welcome Doris's dual systems, social account of agency and self. However, we suggest that a level of affordances regarding agency is interpolated between those dual systems. We also suggest a need to consider joint (“we”) agency in addition to individual (“I”) agency, and we suggest a more fundamental role for culture in configuring both the values entering the dialogue that generates the sense of agency and self, and the nature of the dialogue itself.

Increasing water intake in pre-school children with unhealthy drinking habits: A year-long controlled longitudinal field experiment assessing the impact of information, water affordance, and social regulation

OBJECTIVE

We investigated the effect of three interventions to increase the plain water consumption of children with unhealthy drinking habits, with an innovative approach combining the three layers of Installation Theory: embodied competences, affordances and social regulation.

METHODS

334 preschool children and their carers were allocated to three interventions: Control (control): no intervention, Information (info): online coaching sessions on water health benefits aiming at modifying embodied competences (knowledge), Information + Water Affordance (info + w): the same plus home delivery of small bottles of water. After three months, half of the info and info + w subjects were allocated to Social Regulation (+social) (on-line discussion forum) or no further intervention (-social). Intake of plain water and all other fluid types of the children were recorded by the carers 6 times over a year using an online 7-day fluid-specific dietary record.

RESULTS

Over 1 year, all groups significantly increased daily water consumption by 3.0-7.8 times (+118 to +222 mL). Info + w + social and Info-social generated the highest increase in plain water intake after one year compared to baseline, by 7.8 times (+216 mL) and 6.7 times (+222 mL) respectively; both significantly exceeded the control (3.0 times, +118 mL), whilst the effect of info + w-social (5.0 times, +158 mL) and info + social (5.3 times, +198 mL) did not differ from that of control. All groups saw a decrease of sweetened beverages intake, again with info + w + social generating the largest decrease (-27%; -172 mL). No changes in other fluids or total fluid intake were observed.

CONCLUSIONS

Sustainable increased water consumption can be achieved in children with unhealthy drinking habits by influencing representations, changing material affordances, and providing social regulation. Combining the three provided the strongest effect as predicted by Installation Theory.