The salesperson who is engaged in an adaptive selling effort often finds him/herself in a complex circumstance wrought with uncertainty. To negotiate the sales encounter successfully, the individual must call upon perceptual and cognitive skills in order to respond effectively to cues of possible events. The dynamics of this elaborate process are aptly detailed in a framework from psychophysics called “Signal Detection Theory” (SDT). The...

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of positive and negative outcome imagery on golf-putting performance. Players of both high and low ability performed a golf-putting task in three imagery conditions: (a) a positive outcome imagery condition, (b) a negative outcome imagery condition and (c) a no-imagery control condition. The task was conducted in a competitive setting, reducing the possibility of demand...

Previous research has shown that hills appear steeper to those who are fatigued, encumbered, of low physical fitness, elderly, or in declining health (Bhalla & Proffitt, 1999; Proffitt, Bhalla, Gossweiler, & Midgett, 1995). The prevailing interpretation of this research is that observers’ perceptions of the environment are influenced by their capacity to navigate that environment. The current studies extend this programme by investigating more subtle...

The goal-gradient hypothesis denotes the classic finding from behaviorism that animals expend more effort as they approach a reward. Building on this hypothesis, the authors generate new propositions for the human psychology of rewards. They test these propositions using field experiments, secondary customer data, paper-and-pencil problems, and Tobit and logit models. The key findings indicate that (1) participants in a real café reward program purchase...

  Background: Lack of a sense of belonging has been shown to be associated with loneliness, emotional distress, psychosocial disturbance, and mental illness. Conversely, sense of belonging was found to correspond with psychosocial health. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the buffering effect of sense of belonging against the development of depression. Study Design: This study used a comparative design. The sample consisted of...

 DISORIENTED1–3 rats and non-human primates reorient themselves using geometrical features of the environment2,4–6. In rats tested in environments with distinctive geometry, this ability is impervious to non-geometric information (such as colours and odours) mark-ing important locations and used in other spatial tasks7. Here we show that adults use both geometric and non-geometric information to reorient themselves, whereas young children, like mature rats, use only geometric...

[Two experiments demonstrated that positive affect fosters intrinsic motivation, as reflected by choice of activity in a free-choice situation and by rated amount of enjoyment of a novel and challenging task, but also promotes responsible work behavior in a situation where the work needs to be done. Where there was work that needed to be done, people in the positive-affect condition reduced their time on...

 This article reports the development of the Stress‐Related Growth Scale (SRGS) and its use in a study examining determinants of stress‐related positive outcomes for college students. Study 1 analyses showed that the SRGS has acceptable internal and test‐retest reliability and that scores are not influenced by social desirability. Study 2 analyses showed that college students' SRGS responses were significantly related to those provided by friends...

Stressors have a major influence upon mood, our sense of well-being, behavior, and health. Acute stress responses in young, healthy individuals may be adaptive and typically do not impose a health burden. However, if the threat is unremitting, particularly in older or unhealthy individuals, the long-term effects of stressors can damage health. The relationship between psychosocial stressors and disease is affected by the nature, number,...

This article describes 3 studies that explore the role of mindsets in the context of stress. In Study 1, we present data supporting the reliability and validity of an 8-item instrument, the Stress Mindset Measure (SMM), designed to assess the extent to which an individual believes that the effects of stress are either enhancing or debilitating. In Study 2, we demonstrate that stress mindsets can...