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Recent studies have indicated that research practices in psychology may be susceptible to factors that increase false-positive rates, raising concerns about the possible prevalence of false-positive findings. The present article discusses several practices that may run counter to the inflation of false-positive rates. Taking these practices into account would lead to a more balanced view on the false-positive issue. Specifically, we argue that an inflation of false-positive rates would diminish, sometimes to a substantial degree, when researchers (a) have explicit a priori theoretical hypotheses, (b) include multiple replication studies in a single paper, and (c) collect additional data based on observed results. We report findings from simulation studies and statistical evidence that support these arguments. Being aware of these preventive factors allows researchers not to overestimate the pervasiveness of false-positives in psychology and to gauge the susceptibility of a paper to possible false-positives in practical and fair ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer victimization at school is a worldwide problem with profound implications for victims, bullies, and whole-school communities. Yet the 50-year quest to solve the problem has produced mostly disappointing results. A critical examination of current research reveals both pivotal limitations and potential solutions. Solutions include introducing psychometrically sound measures to assess the parallel components of bullying and victimization, analyzing cross-national data sets, and embracing a social-ecological perspective emphasizing the motivation of bullies, importance of bystanders, pro-defending and antibullying attitudes, classroom climate, and a multilevel perspective. These solutions have been integrated into a series of recent interventions. Teachers can be professionally trained to create a highly supportive climate that allows student-bystanders to overcome their otherwise normative tendency to reinforce bullies. Once established, this intervention-enabled classroom climate impedes bully-victim episodes. The take-home message is to work with teachers on how to develop an interpersonally supportive classroom climate at the beginning of the school year to catalyze student-bystanders' volitional internalization of pro-defending and antibullying attitudes and social norms. Recommendations for future research include studying bullying and victimization simultaneously, testing multilevel models, targeting classroom climate and bystander roles as critical intervention outcomes, and integrating school-wide and individual student interventions only after improving social norms and the school climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that emotional stimuli are more likely than neutral stimuli to be selected by attention, indicating that the processing of emotional information is prioritized. In this study, we examined whether the emotional significance of stimuli influences visual processing already at the level of transient storage of incoming information in iconic memory, before attentional selection takes place. We used a typical iconic memory task in which the delay of a poststimulus cue, indicating which of several visual stimuli has to be reported, was varied. Performance decreased rapidly with increasing cue delay, reflecting the fast decay of information stored in iconic memory. However, although neutral stimulus information and emotional stimulus information were initially equally likely to enter iconic memory, the subsequent decay of the initially stored information was slowed for threatening stimuli, a result indicating that fear-relevant information has prolonged availability for read-out from iconic memory. This finding provides the first evidence that emotional significance already facilitates stimulus processing at the stage of iconic memory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article investigates gender differences in 181 gifted and 181 average-ability sixth graders in achievement, academic self-concept, interest, and motivation in mathematics. Giftedness was conceptualized as nonverbal reasoning ability and defined by a rank of at least 95% on a nonverbal reasoning subscale of the German Cognitive Abilities Test. Mathematical achievement was measured by teacher-assigned grades and a standardized mathematics test. Self-concept, interest, and motivation were assessed by questionnaire. In both ability groups, boys earned significantly higher test scores but there were no gender differences in grades. Girls scored lower on measures of academic self-concept, interest, and motivation. Gender differences were larger in gifted than in average-ability students. Ability group differences for self-concept and interest were only found for boys in favor of the gifted. Results support the assumption that gender differences in self-concept, interest, and motivation in mathematics are more prevalent in gifted than in average-ability students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internal working models of attachment (IWMs) are presumed to be largely unconscious representations of childhood attachment experiences. Several instruments have been developed to assess IWMs; some of them are based on self-report and others on narrative interview techniques. This study investigated the capacity of a self-report measure, the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA; Armsden & Greenberg, 1987), and of a narrative interview method, the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985), to measure unconscious attachment models. We compared scores on the two attachment instruments to response latencies in an attachment priming task. It was shown that attachment organisation assessed by the AAI correlates with priming effects, whereas the IPPA scales were inversely or not related to priming. The results are interpreted as support for the assumption that the AAI assesses, to a certain degree, unconscious working models of attachment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of self is central to personhood, but personality research has largely ignored the relevance of recent advances in self‐concept theory: multidimensionality of self‐concept (focusing instead on self‐esteem, an implicit unidimensional approach), domain specificity (generalizability of trait manifestations over different domains), and multilevel perspectives in which social‐cognitive processes and contextual effects drive self‐perceptions at different levels (individual, group/institution, and country) aligned to Bronfenbrenner's ecological model. Here, we provide theoretical and empirical support for psychological comparison processes that influence self‐perceptions and their relation to distal outcomes. Our meta‐theoretical integration of social and dimensional comparison theories synthesizes five seemingly paradoxical frame‐of‐reference and contextual effects in self‐concept formation that occur at different levels. The effects were tested with a sample of 485,490 fifteen‐year‐old students (68 countries/regions, 18,292 schools). Consistent with the dimensional comparison theory, the effects on math self‐concept were positive for math achievement but negative for verbal achievement. Consistent with the social comparison theory, the effects on math self‐concept were negative for school‐average math achievement (big‐fish‐little‐pond effect), country‐average achievement (paradoxical cross‐cultural effect), and being young relative to year in school but positive for school‐average verbal achievement (big‐fish‐little‐pond effect—compensatory effect). We demonstrate cross‐cultural generalizability/universality of support for predictions and discuss implications for personality research. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies were conducted to examine gender differences in trait (habitual) versus state (momentary) mathematics anxiety in a sample of students (Study 1: N= 584; Study 2: N= 111). For trait math anxiety, the findings of both studies replicated previous research showing that female students report higher levels of anxiety than do male students. However, no gender differences were observed for state anxiety, as assessed using experience-sampling methods while students took a math test (Study 1) and attended math classes (Study 2). The discrepant findings for trait versus state math anxiety were partly accounted for by students' beliefs about their competence in mathematics, with female students reporting lower perceived competence than male students despite having the same average grades in math. Implications for educational practices and the assessment of anxiety are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]