Frontiers in psychology
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Frontiers in psychology · Jan 2020
ReviewAre All Code-Switches Processed Alike? Examining Semantic v. Language Unexpectancy.
Prior studies using the event-related potential (ERP) technique show that integrating sentential code-switches during online processing leads to a broadly distributed late positivity component (LPC), while processing semantically unexpected continuations instead leads to the emergence of an N400 effect. While the N400 is generally assumed to index lexico-semantic processing, the LPC has two different interpretations. One account suggests that it reflects the processing of an improbable or unexpected event, while an alternative account proposes sentence-level reanalysis. ⋯ Analyses across three time windows show a main effect for semantic expectancy in the N400 time window and a main effect for code-switching in the LPC time window. Additional analyses based on the self-reported code-switching experience of the participants suggest an early positivity linked to less experience with code-switching. The results highlight that not all code-switches lead to similar integration costs and that prior experience with code-switching is an important additional factor that modulates online processing.
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Frontiers in psychology · Jan 2020
Dignity Therapy Helps Terminally Ill Patients Maintain a Sense of Peace: Early Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial.
Introduction: Dignity Therapy (DT) is a brief, individualized, narrative psychotherapy developed to reduce psychosocial and existential distress, and promote dignity, meaning, and hope in end of life patients. Previous studies have shown that DT was effective in reducing anxiety and depression, and improving dignity-related distress. However, less is known about its efficacy on spiritual well-being. ⋯ Discussion: This study provides initial evidence that patients in the DT intervention maintained similar levels of peace from pre-test to follow-up, whereas patients in the control group showed a decrease in peace during the same time period. We did not find significant longitudinal changes in measures of meaning, faith, loss of meaning and purpose, distress and coping ability, existential, psychological and physical distress. The findings of our study are of relevance in palliative care and suggest the potential clinical utility of DT, since they offer evidence for the importance of this intervention in maintaining peace of mind for terminally ill patients.
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Frontiers in psychology · Jan 2020
Altered Spontaneous Neural Activity in Peripartum Depression: A Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.
Abnormalities related to peripartum depression (PPD) have been detected in several brain regions through tasking-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In this study, we used the two markers of resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) to investigate changes in spontaneous neural activity of PPD and their correlation with depression severity. A total of 16 individuals with PPD were compared with 16 age- and education-matched healthy controls (HCs) by using rs-fMRI. ⋯ The fALFF value of the left DLPFC was negatively correlated with the HAMD score in PPD. This rs-fMRI study suggests that changes in the spontaneous neural activity of these regions are related to emotional responses. PPD cases with low fALFF values in the left DLPFC have severe depression.
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Frontiers in psychology · Jan 2020
Impostors Dare to Compare: Associations Between the Impostor Phenomenon, Gender Typing, and Social Comparison Orientation in University Students.
Entering university is often associated with new surroundings and challenges, which can cause distress and might result in poor mental health. A phenomenon that was shown to be linked to low self-esteem, higher stress levels, anxiety, and depression in university students is the impostor phenomenon. Impostorism is defined as a conviction to be unintelligent despite one's academic success and was found to be closely associated with psychological femininity in previous studies. ⋯ Social comparison orientation, however, was not found to mediate the association between positive masculinity and impostorism. This result indicates that individuals who identify with negative aspects of femininity tend to compare themselves to others more often, which is associated with stronger impostor feelings. Based on the results, we discuss possible interventions to reduce psychological distress among university students.
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Frontiers in psychology · Jan 2020
Can Ethical Leadership Improve Employees' Well-Being at Work? Another Side of Ethical Leadership Based on Organizational Citizenship Anxiety.
Most of the previous literature has focused on the positive effects of ethical leadership on organizations and employees, but some studies have unexpectedly found that ethical leadership is negatively related to employees' well-being at work. Based on the theory of workplace anxiety, this research explored whether ethical leadership can reduce employees' well-being at work by causing them to feel anxious about organizational citizenship behavior and whether organizational concern motivation moderates this mechanism. We collected 227 three-stage time-crossed data samples from 12 institutions in Hainan China, then tested our research hypotheses to confirm that ethical leadership has a negative impact on employees' well-being at work under certain conditions. We found that: (1) ethical leadership is significantly and positively correlated with the organizational citizenship anxiety perceived by employees, (2) organizational citizenship anxiety perceived by employees plays a completely mediating role between ethical leadership and employee well-being at work, and (3) organizational concern motivation not only negatively moderates the negative correlation between employees' organizational citizenship anxiety and well-being at work, but also further moderates the indirect negative effect of ethical leadership on employee well-being at work through organizational citizenship anxiety.