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Although anecdotal evidence suggests that control-threatening situations are associated with an increase in conspiracy beliefs, existing research does not support this “compensatory control” hypothesis. In the current study, we test a more refined hypothesis: that the link between control threat and conspiracy beliefs is domain specific, such that perceived control in a particular domain should lead to conspiracy beliefs pertaining to that domain only. Moreover, given that conspiracy beliefs are stigmatized (i.e., not socially acceptable), we propose that they should be endorsed only when other compensatory systems are frustrated. We test these ideas in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants from North Macedonia and New Zealand, who differed in perceived government effectiveness, filled in a questionnaire measuring domain-specific and domain-general perceived control, as well as domain-specific and domain-general conspiracy beliefs. As expected, domain specificity of the control threat predicted domain-specific conspiracy beliefs in the Macedonian group only. The results have implication for compensatory control theory, suggesting that the compensatory process may not always be as fluid as believed. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-01977-0.

The consideration of future consequences (CFC) is a cognitive-motivational construct describing the extent to which individuals consider the future outcomes of behavior during decision-making. The current research examined the extent to which CFC may be a domain-specific, as opposed to global, temporal construct. Across three surveys, adults ( n = 498; 66.9% female; 41.2% students) completed the 14-item general CFC scale, five newly adapted domain-specific CFC scales, and self-report measures of behavior in five substantive domains (work, health, the environment, money, and college). Confirmatory factor analyses replicated the two-factor model in the CFC-14, supporting the distinction between CFC-Future and CFC-Immediate in domain-specific CFC-14 scales. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that domain-specific, and not the general, CFC subscales were most strongly associated with the relevant domain-specific behavior and revealed differential patterns of association between domain-specific CFC subscales and behaviors in particular domains. The applied implications for behavioral interventions are discussed.

Abstract. Need for Cognition (NFC) is increasingly investigated in educational research. In contrast to other noncognitive constructs in this area, such as academic self-concept and interest, NFC has consistently been conceptualized as domain-general. We employed structural equation modeling to address the question of whether NFC can be meaningfully and gainfully conceptualized as domain-specific. To this end, we developed a domain-specific 20-item NFC scale with parallel items for Science, Mathematics, German, and French. Additionally, domain-general NFC was assessed with five domain-general items. Using a cross-sectional sample of more than 4,500 Luxembourgish 9th graders, we found that a nested-factor model incorporating both a general factor and domain-specific factors better accounted for the data than a single-factor or a correlated-factor model. However, the influence of the general factor was markedly stronger than in corresponding models for academic self-concept and interest. When controlling for the domain-specific factors, only Mathematics achievement was significantly predicted by the domain-general factor, while all achievement measures (Mathematics, French, and German) were predicted by the corresponding domain-specific factor. The nested domain-specific NFC factors were clearly empirically distinguishable from first-order domain-specific interest factors.

Researchers have questioned whether grit should be conceptualized and measured as a global- (i.e., domain-general) or domain-specific construct. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is value in conceptualizing and measuring grit as a domain-specific construct. 251 intercollegiate student-athletes completed three versions of the Grit Scale (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007) to measure grit in the context of sport, school/academe, and life in general. Results of a repeated-measures MANOVA revealed that grit levels varied as a function of situational context. Participants reported significantly higher grit in sport than in school and life in general. Results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the school-specific measure of grit accounted for significant amounts of incremental variance in respondents' grade point average beyond the variance explained by the global measure of grit. Results indicate that there is merit to conceptualizing and measuring grit as a domain-specific construct in different achievement domains.

Prestige-biased social learning (henceforth “prestige-bias”) occurs when individuals predominantly choose to learn from a prestigious member of their group, i.e. someone who has gained attention, respect and admiration for their success in some domain. Prestige-bias is proposed as an adaptive social-learning strategy as it provides a short-cut to identifying successful group members, without having to assess each person’s success individually. Previous work has documented prestige-bias and verified that it is used adaptively. However, the domain-specificity and generality of prestige-bias has not yet been explicitly addressed experimentally. By domain-specific prestige-bias we mean that individuals choose to learn from a prestigious model only within the domain of expertise in which the model acquired their prestige. By domain-general prestige-bias we mean that individuals choose to learn from prestigious models in general, regardless of the domain in which their prestige was earned. To distinguish between domain specific and domain general prestige we ran an online experiment (n = 397) in which participants could copy each other to score points on a general-knowledge quiz with varying topics (domains). Prestige in our task was an emergent property of participants’ copying behaviour. We found participants overwhelmingly preferred domain-specific (same topic) prestige cues to domain-general (across topic) prestige cues. However, when only domain-general or cross-domain (different topic) cues were available, participants overwhelmingly favoured domain-general cues. Finally, when given the choice between cross-domain prestige cues and randomly generated Player IDs, participants favoured cross-domain prestige cues. These results suggest participants were sensitive to the source of prestige, and that they preferred domain-specific cues even though these cues were based on fewer samples (being calculated from one topic) than the domain-general cues (being calculated from all topics). We suggest that the extent to which people employ a domain-specific or domain-general prestige-bias may depend on their experience and understanding of the relationships between domains.

The aim of this study was to explore the education expert and non-expert consensually rated nature of creativity operationalized as observable behaviour. When operationalized as observable behaviour akin to concrete educational objectives accessible to being taught, is creativity a construct valid both internationally and over time, and what are its distinguishing features? A representative sample of concretely stated behaviours descriptive of creativity displayed by children and adolescents was evaluated with high convergent validity by educational psychologists, specialists in gifted education, university students of teacher studies, and mathematics teachers (N = 208) on the level of creativity, and ten additional behaviour features. The results of the canonical correlation analysis suggest internationally and temporally stable and an educationally viable bridge between general creativity construct operationalization and measurement on the one hand, and the domain-specificity of creative behaviours and their features on the other. By viewing the general creativity construct as a meta-theoretical heuristic, and focusing on one group of domain-specific consensually rated creative behaviours and their progressive nature as educational objectives, the findings of this study are discussed in the context of general and gifted education.

The present study examined the role of conflict topics and individual differences in epistemic perspectives (absolutism, multiplism, and evaluativism) in students' explanations of expert conflicts. University students (N = 184) completed an epistemic thinking assessment and a conflict explanation assessment regarding two controversies in biology and history. Additionally, thirty students were interviewed and provided detailed conflict explanations that were used to interpret and extend the quantitative results. In the biology problem, conflicts were predominantly attributed to topic complexity and to research methods. In the history problem, conflicts were also predominantly attributed to topic complexity, but also to researchers' personal backgrounds and motivations. Epistemic perspectives were related to specific conflict explanations, suggesting that these perspectives have a role beyond topic differences. Thus, both conflict topics and epistemic perspectives shape lay explanations of experts' conflicts. The findings highlight differences in students’ interpretations of the roles experts play in knowledge construction.

Research on learning from errors gives reason to assume that errors provide a high potential to facilitate deep learning if students are willing and able to take these learning opportunities. The f...

Lumosity is a subscription-based suite of online brain-training games, intended to improve cognitive skills. Due to an influx of products designed to train cognition through games such as Lumosity, it is important to determine their effectiveness for the sake of consumers and for the potential implications of any training effects for theories of transfer of cognitive skills. Two training experiments were conducted using the Lumosity platform. Participants were divided into three groups: those who trained with five attention games in Lumosity (attention group), those who trained with five flexibility games in Lumosity (flexibility group), and an inactive control group. Participants were assessed on accuracy and response time for two cognitive tests of attention (useful field of view and change detection) and two cognitive tests of flexibility (Wisconsin card sort and Stroop) both before and after a training period. In experiment 1, the training period was 3 h spread over four sessions. In experiment 2, the training period was 15 to 20 h spread over an average of 73 sessions. The trained groups did not show significantly greater pretest-to-posttest gains than the control group on any measures in either experiment, except in experiment 2 where the flexibility group significantly outperformed the other two groups on Stroop response time and UFOV reaction time. A practical implication concerns the lack of strong evidence for the effectiveness of brain-training games to improve cognitive skills. A theoretical implication concerns the domain specificity of cognitive skill learning from brain training games.

This article focuses on two recurrent themes in the study of acculturation in adolescence that challenge progress of the field. First, we often work with low-dimensional, trait-like models of acculturation that cannot deal with modern types of acculturation that are often characterized by multidimensionality and domain specificity. Second, acculturative change in adolescence is undertheorized and there is a need to integrate developmental tasks and models of acculturation. It is argued that approaches that have been adopted in the study of identity (with their models that range from generalized traits to situated approaches and their adoption of both quantitative and qualitative methods) are highly suitable for the study of acculturation. A more contextualized approach would also facilitate the study of the interaction of contextual conditions and acculturative changes in adolescence. (C) 2017 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Theories of domain specificity argue that the skills and traits that lead to creative performance in different domains (e.g., linguistic, artistic, musical, and mathematical) are distinct and unrelated to the skills and traits that underlie creative performance in other domains (as opposed to domain general theories, which assume that there are common skills and traits that lead to creativity in all domains). A growing body of evidence suggests that creativity is domain specific. This article explains what is meant by domain specificity, summarizes evidence supporting the theory, and discusses the implications of domain specificity for creativity theory, testing, and training.

Introduction Mathematics anxiety (MA) is an important risk factor hindering the development of confidence and capability in mathematics and participation in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics workforce. The aim of the present study is to further our understanding of these relations in adolescence by adopting a threefold approach. First, we adopted a longitudinal design to clarify the temporal order in the developmental relations between (a) MA and mathematics achievement and (b) MA and mathematics self-perceived ability. Second, we investigated whether the developmental relations between MA and mathematics achievement/self-perceived ability differed between boys and girls. Finally, we explored the domain-specificity of MA by examining its role in foreign language (L2) learning. Methods Data were collected from 1043 Italian high school students. Students reported their anxiety, self-perceived ability, and school achievement in mathematics and L2 over two separate waves, one semester apart. Results Using multi-group cross-lagged panel analyses, we found that (a) mathematics achievement predicted MA longitudinally, whereas MA did not predict subsequent mathematics achievement; (b) there was a negative reciprocal relation between MA and mathematics self-perceived ability in male, but not female students; and (c) there were longitudinal relations between MA and L2 achievement and self-perceived ability above and beyond L2 anxiety. Conclusions These findings support the deficit view of the developmental relation between MA and mathematics achievement, highlight high school male students as a vulnerable group evincing vicious transactions between high anxiety and low self-efficacy in mathematics, and reveal the importance of internal cross-domain comparison processes in MA development.

This study tries to examine the reciprocal effects of social competence and behavior problems during kindergarten and elementary school among the experimental group children (N=181) by testing a model among SEM. The present work provides strong evidences for the linkages between SC and behavior problems principally in preschool children. Our tested model comparisons allowed tests of theoretical propositions on the timing and domain specificity of effects in kindergarten. Although there is need a revision for elementary scholars.

The study of Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC) construct has increased substantively in recent years. Underlying these developments is the presumption that consideration of the future is uniform across all domains, and not a domain-specific construct. Building on work undertaken previously, the present study used 30 researcher-derived items to assess the domain specificity of consideration of the future in three large samples of adolescents in the United Kingdom. A psychometrically valid and reliable 18-item scale measuring consideration of the future in four domains emerged. Domain specificity was supported on two levels: a good fitting multidimensional model of CFC; and low to moderate factor correlations for the four domains measured by the 18-item scale. The study suggests that adolescents are considerate of future outcomes to different degrees, depending on the domain, and the implications of this with regard to future research are discussed.

Previous studies have presented evidence revealing that the dispositional personalities of consumers, or the traits associated with their gambling behaviors and risk preferences, differ across various gambling types. Those studies leave open the question of whether and how personality differences affect domain-specific gambling preferences. Using latent class analysis (LCA), we explored the latent classes of risk preference for different gambling types and the effects of personality traits on these classes. A total of 732 Macau residents completed a questionnaire assessing 13 gambling types and personality traits. Preferences for gambling shown by the participants varied between three latent classes of games: chance gambling, entertainment gambling, and technical gambling. Moreover, not all personality traits consistently predicted preferences for these gambling classes. For instance, aggression-hostility positively predicted a general preference for both chance gambling and technical gambling, but impuls...

We conducted five sets of experiments asking whether psychological and physical events are construed in broadly different manners concerning the underlying textures of their causes. In Experiments 1a-1d, we found a robust tendency to estimate fewer causes (but not effects) for psychological than for physical events; Experiment 2 showed a similar pattern of results when participants were asked to generate hypothetical causes and effects; Experiment 3 revealed a greater tendency to ascribe linear chains of causes (but not effects) to physical events; Experiment 4 showed that the expectation of linear chains was related to intuitions about deterministic processes; and Experiment 5 showed that simply framing a given ambiguous event in psychological versus physical terms is sufficient to induce changes in the patterns of causal inferences. Adults therefore consistently show a tendency to think about psychological and physical events as being embedded in different kinds of causal structures.

Prior studies have proved that the effect of sensation-seeking on health/safety risk behaviors was mediated by risk perception and expected benefit. However, risk-taking is a multidimensional construct, based on the view of risk-taking domain specificity, this study investigates whether or not a similar mediation model exists in other risk-taking fields. A total of 2294 senior high school students (females = 1123) completed questionnaires assessing sensation-seeking, multi-domain risk behaviors, risk perceptions and expected benefit. The results revealed that: the mediation models of the sensation-seeking on adolescents' risk-taking through risk perception and expected benefit vary in health/safety, recreational and social, ethical domains, suggesting that the models underlying adolescents' risk-taking is highly dependent on the circumstances in which risky behaviors occur.

Mind-sets are beliefs regarding the malleability of self-attributes. Research suggests they are domain-specific, meaning that individuals can hold a fixed (immutability) mind-set about one attribute and a growth (malleability) mind-set about another. Although mind-set specificity has been investigated for broad attributes such as personality and intelligence, less is known about mental health mind-sets (e.g., beliefs about anxiety) that have greater relevance to clinical science. In two studies, we took a latent variable approach to examine how different mind-sets (anxiety, social anxiety, depression, drinking tendencies, emotions, intelligence, and personality mind-sets) were related to one another and to psychological symptoms. Results provide evidence for both domain specificity (e.g., depression mind-set predicted depression symptoms) and generality (i.e., the anxiety mind-set and the general mind-set factor predicted most symptoms). These findings may help refine measurement of mental health mind-sets and suggest that beliefs about anxiety and beliefs about changeability in general are related to clinically relevant variables.

Using detailed vignettes and scale measures, concepts of laws regulating domain-specific issues and engagement in delinquency were assessed among 340 9th through 12th graders (Mage = 16.64, SD = 1.37). Adolescents distinguished between laws that regulate moral, drug-related prudential, conventional, personal, and multifaceted issues in their criterion judgments and justifications. Youths' ratings of the importance of laws, obligation to obey laws, and deserved punishment for breaking different laws also followed domain-consistent patterns. Adolescents' engagement in moral, drug-related prudential, and multifaceted forms of delinquency was associated with less supportive judgments about laws within the same domain. FINDINGS contribute to civic development research by demonstrating domain specificity in adolescents' beliefs about laws and suggest that these beliefs are linked with engagement in similar types of delinquency.© 2016 The Authors. Journal of Research on Adolescence © 2016 Society for Research on Adolescence. Language: en

We propose that thoughts about one's own creativity are related to implicit views about the similarity of one’s traits to those of creative exemplars. In this study, 298 undergraduates were instructed either to imagine an example of an innovative product or to imagine themselves creating a product in one of three domains (art, music, or gadgetry). Following the manipulation, participants rated the fitness of a list of creative traits relative to their first or third person creative exemplar. Fitness ratings were generally higher for third person exemplars than for first person exemplars. Though ratings also varied by domain, there was a significant interaction between perspective and domain, such that first-person ratings (i.e., self ratings) did not vary by exemplar domain, while third-person ratings (i.e., an external exemplar) did vary by domain. Implications and future directions for the study of implicit theories and creative performance and achievement are discussed.

Tenaciousness and persistence contribute to achievement in key areas such as school and work. Research on Grit has helped demonstrate such effects, but also has raised questions regarding whether Grit is best examined as a global or a domain-specific construct, whether it is most insightful to treat Grit as a single property or to model its perseverance and consistency domains separately, and what Grit contributes to analyses that is not already captured by extant constructs highly correlated with Grit measures. These questions are addressed in the present study, with focus on the possible impact of Grit on the nature and quality of citizens' judgments in the political sphere, and with data from 2500 respondents on a nationally representative U.S. survey. Analyses reveal domain-specific Grit effects on political knowledge, rejection of conspiracy theories, and differentiation between high- and low-quality political candidates. In contrast with research that has identified strong effects for Grit's perseverance dimension, effects on political judgment emanate primarily from consistency of interest.

This study investigated the link between hunger and individuals' inclination to make hedonic choices in several distinct consumption domains. Participants made a set of binary choices between hedonic and utilitarian items, both from the food domain (for example, between chocolate and carrots) and from domains unassociated with food (for instance, between an apartment with a nice view and an apartment close to work). Next, participants indicated their hunger level, after which they replied to items measuring time orientation. The results revealed that hunger (vs. satiation) increased participants' proclivity to make hedonic choices across domains. This effect was moderated by the domain specificity of the items to be consumed and was mediated by participants' time orientation. Thus, although hunger resulted in a generalized pleasure-seeking propensity, leading to more hedonic choices regarding virtually anything, hungry (vs. satiated) participants showed a particularly powerful increase in their desire to acquire hedonic food (vs. non-food) items, and this effect was driven by a shift in their time orientation, with a more prominent focus on present pleasures. The article has important implications for time-specific marketing messages of hedonic consumer goods and offers creative ways to counteract shortsighted consumer choices that may be used to promote public health.

We examine how perceived similarity between sequential risks affects individuals' risk-taking intentions. Specifically, in six studies we find that in sequential choice settings individuals exhibit significant positive state dependence in risk-taking preferences, such that they are more likely to take a risk when it is similar to a previously taken risk than when it is dissimilar. For example, if an individual has previously taken a health/safety risk, that individual is more likely to take a second health/safety risk than a second risk that is in the financial domain. Since similarity between risks is malleable and can be determined by situational and contextual variables, we show that we can change subsequent risk-taking intentions in a predictable manner by manipulating similarity through framing. Finally, we establish that increased feelings of self-efficacy and self-signaling through the prior risk-taking experience drive state dependent risk-taking preferences. We further show that the effe...

In a study of the domain specificity of intellectual learned helplessness, we collected data from 376 students in 14 classrooms. We measured feelings of intellectual helplessness for mathematics and language skills, anxiety about performance in each of these domains, and general working memory. Multilevel modeling analyses found that feelings of helplessness in language skills were negatively related to grades in language but were unrelated to grades in mathematics. Similarly, feelings of helplessness in mathematics were negatively related to grades in mathematics but were unrelated to grades in language. Controlling for anxiety or working memory did not change these relationships, nor did they vary across the age of students. The results support conceptualizations in which learned helplessness has a domain specific component.

When choosing between a piece of cake now versus a slimmer waistline in the future, many of us have difficulty with self-control. Food-caching species, however, regularly hide food for later recovery, sometimes waiting months before retrieving their caches. It remains unclear whether these long-term choices generalize outside of the caching domain. We hypothesized that the ability to save for the future is a general tendency that cuts across different situations. To test this hypothesis, we measured and experimentally manipulated caching to evaluate its relationship with operant measures of self-control in pinyon jays (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus). We found no correlation between caching and self-control at the individual level, and experimentally increasing caching did not influence self-control. The self-control required for caching food, therefore, does not carry over to other foraging tasks, suggesting that it is domain specific in pinyon jays.

Implicit theories are beliefs that pertain to the nature of person attributes. Entity theorists believe that a person's attributes are fixed entities, whereas incremental theorists believe that a person's attributes are malleable. Here, the theory was tested using confirmatory factor analysis and examining the relationship between the broad constructs of implicit beliefs about intelligence, persons, and morality and specific measures related to the broad domains. A model drawn from the theory provided strong evidence for implicit theories. Further, evidence in support of domain specific measures was also found. An additional study investigated a hypothesis regarding incremental belief endorsement. Discussion centers on the usefulness of implicit belief measures for basic and applied research.

This study provides new evidence concerning task specificity in creativity—examining through a cross-cultural perspective the extent to which performance in graphic versus verbal creativity tasks (domain specificity) and in divergent versus convergent creativity tasks (process specificity) are correlated. The relations between different creativity tasks in monocultural and multicultural samples of Chinese and French children were compared. Electronic versions of the Wallach and Kogan Creativity Test (WKCT, Wallach & Kogan, 1965; Lau & Cheung, 2010) and the Evaluation of Potential Creativity (EPoC; Lubart, Besancon, & Barbot, 2011; Barbot, Besancon, & Lubart, 2011) were used. Both measures showed satisfactory psychometric properties and cross-cultural structural validity. The results showed that culture has an impact on the structure of creative ability: It appeared that correlation patterns were different across Chinese and French groups and across monocultural and multicultural groups. Such results show that it is crucial to take task specificity into account when investigating the effect of culture on creativity. Indeed, our study implies that cultural differences that are found using one specific creativity task might not be automatically generalizable to all sorts of creativity tasks. Limitations are discussed and perspectives for future research on culture and task specificity in creativity are proposed.

Prior research suggests that liberals are more complex than conservatives. However, it may be that liberals are not more complex in general, but rather only more complex on certain topic domains (while conservatives are more complex in other domains). Four studies (comprised of over 2,500 participants) evaluated this idea. Study 1 involves the domain specificity of a self-report questionnaire related to complexity (dogmatism). By making only small adjustments to a popularly used dogmatism scale, results show that liberals can be significantly more dogmatic if a liberal domain is made salient. Studies 2–4 involve the domain specificity of integrative complexity. A large number of open-ended responses from college students (Studies 2 and 3) and candidates in the 2004 Presidential election (Study 4) across an array of topic domains reveals little or no main effect of political ideology on integrative complexity, but rather topic domain by ideology interactions. Liberals are higher in complexity on some topics, but conservatives are higher on others. Overall, this large dataset calls into question the typical interpretation that conservatives are less complex than liberals in a domain-general way.

a b s t r a c t There is evidence for reliable individual differences in the tendency to use an intuitive (i.e., sponta- neous, affect-based) and a deliberative (i.e., effortful, planned, and analytic) decision mode. Even though other individual characteristics in decision making (e.g., risk attitude) seem to be domain-specific, it is commonly assumed that a person's decision style is relatively stable across decision domains. Using a domain-specific extension of the Unified Scale to Assess Individual Differences in Intuition and Delibera- tion (USID), we found that preference for intuition and preference for deliberation showed considerable variability across domains (e.g., choosing a dress vs. choosing a doctor). In addition, domain-specific pre- ferences for intuition were consistently correlated with self-rated expertise in making decisions in the respective domain. Our results indicate that a person's domain-general decision style does not necessar- ily generalize across decision domains, and that the domain-specificity of preferences for intuition seems to be driven partly by differences in expertise.

Visual perspective taking is a fundamental feature of the human social brain. Previous research has mainly focused on explicit visual perspective taking and contrasted brain activation for other- versus self-perspective judgements. This produced a conceptual gap to theory of mind studies, where researchers mainly compared activation for taking another's mental perspective to non-mental control conditions. We compared brain activation for visual perspective taking to activation for non-mental control conditions where the avatar was replaced by directional (arrow, lamp) or non-directional (brick-wall) objects. We found domain-specific activation linked to the avatar's visual perspective in right TPJ, ventral mPFC and ventral precuneus. Interestingly, we found that these areas are spontaneously processing information linked to the other's perspective during self-perspective judgements. Based on a review of the visual perspective taking literature, we discuss how these findings can explain some of the inconsistent/negative results found in previous studies comparing other- versus self-perspective judgements.

Acquiescence, which is defined as agreeing to items regardless of content, is a well-known bias in self-report instruments. This paper investigates the relevance, domain specificity, and the stability of acquiescence in personality questionnaires. Data from two large samples representative for the German (N = 1999) and for the Austrian adult population (N = 3266) were investigated with structural equation models. In both studies respondents answered, besides others, a short Big Five inventory. The three core findings are: (1) acquiescence systematically affects the variance of personality items and biases the association with other variables, (2) acquiescence is consistent across different question types, and (3) acquiescence in personality items is moderately stable over time. Implications for research and the application of personality questionnaires are discussed.

The interconnection between identity and memory is widely accepted, but the processes underlying this association remain unclear. The present study examined how specific experiential components of self-defining memories relate to identity processing styles. We also investigated whether those relationships occurred in a domain-specific manner. Participants (n = 583) completed the Identity Style Inventory-3, which we adapted to measure identity in the school and friend domains, as well as scales assessing their friend and school satisfaction. They then described a memory related to each of these domains and rated the level of need satisfaction and need for cognitive closure characterising each memory. Results from structural equation modeling revealed that need satisfaction in the school-related memory was positively associated with an informational identity style at school and with satisfaction at school, whereas need satisfaction in the friend-related memory was positively associated with an informational identity style in both the school and friend domain, and with satisfaction with friends. In addition, need for cognitive closure in both the friend- and school-related memory was associated with normative friend and school identity processing styles. These findings reveal that specific experiential components of self-defining memories are associated with certain identity processing styles. Furthermore, this relationship appears to be mostly domain-specific.

This study highlights the importance of teachers in relation to the emotions students experience in class. First, in line with the work of Kenny, we argue that the specific relationship that evolves between teachers and students drives students' emotional experiences. We decompose variability in student emotions not only into the commonly investigated student and teacher facets but also into facets representing specific pairings of teachers with classes and students (so-called relationship effects). Second, using interpersonal theory, we assess the degree to which the interpersonal quality of teaching accounts for variability in student emotions. Cross-classified multilevel modelling of 8042 student ratings (N = 1668 secondary school students, M-age = 14.94) of 91 teachers indicated that a considerable amount of variability that is usually assigned to the student level may be due to relationship effects involving teachers. Furthermore, the way that teachers interpersonally relate to their students is highly predictive of student emotions. In sum, teachers may be even more important for student emotions than previous research has indicated. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Actively open-minded thinking (AOT) is often used as a proxy for reflective thinking in research on reasoning and related fields. It is associated with less biased reasoning in many types of tasks. However, few studies have examined its psychometric properties and criterion validity. We developed a shortened, 17-item version of the AOT for quicker administration. AOT17 is highly correlated with the original 41-item scale and has highly similar relationships to other thinking dispositions, social competence and supernatural beliefs. Our analyses revealed that the AOT is not a unitary construct, but comprises four distinct dimensions, some of which concern attitudes towards knowledge, and others concern attitudes towards people. This factor structure was replicated in another data-set, and correlations with other measures in four data-sets (total N = 3345) support the criterion validity of these dimensions. Different dimensions were responsible for the AOT's relationships with other thinking dispositions.

The main aim of this study was to explain the domain-specificity of early prosocial behavior in different domains (i.e., helping, comforting, and cooperation) by simultaneously assessing specific socio-cognitive factors (i.e., self-other-differentiation and joint attentional skills) that were hypothesized to be differentially related to the three domains of prosocial behavior. Based on a longitudinal study design, observational and parental report data were collected when toddlers (N = 42) from German urban middle-class families were 15 and 18 months of age. At 15 months, regression analyses indicated differential relationships between socio-cognitive development and prosocial behavior (i.e., joint attentional skills were positively related with helping and, as hypothesized, both joint attentional skills and self-other differentiation were positively related with cooperation). Furthermore, self-other differentiation at 15 months predicted increases in coordination between 15 and 18 months. Finally, between 15 and 18 months, parental reports of socio-cognitive measures increased significantly while behavioral measures of both socio-cognitive concepts and prosocial behavior were stable across time. In sum, these results support the theoretical assumption of domain-specific socio-cognitive influences that constitute differential development of prosocial behavior. Implications of the results for theory and future studies are discussed from different perspectives with a focus on an interference interpretation calling for the integration of socialization approaches to the study of prosocial development.

This study investigated the role of social support in the complex pattern of associations among stressors, work-family interferences and depression in the domains of work and family. A questionnaire was administered to a nationwide sample of 11,419 Chinese science and technology professionals. Several structural equation models were specified to determine whether social support functioned as a predictor or a mediator. Using Mplus 5.0, we compared the moderation model, the independence model, the antecedent model and the mediation model. The results revealed that the relationship between work-family interference and social support was domain specific. The independence model fit the data best in the work domain. Both the moderation model and the antecedent model fit the family domain data equally well. The current study was conducted to answer the need for comprehensive investigations of cultural uniqueness in the antecedents of work-family interference. The domain specificity, i.e. the multiple channels of the functions of support in the family domain and not in the work domain, ensures that this study is unique and culturally specific.

The study examined the relations between academic achievement and self-concepts in a sample of 1,067 seventh-grade students from 3 core ability streams in Singapore secondary education. Although between-stream differences in achievement were large, between-stream differences in academic self-concepts were negligible. Within each stream, levels of students’ achievement and their self-concepts were systematically related only when considered in the matching academic domain and the appropriate level of specificity. In English, lower achievers in the high-ability stream tended to underestimate their achievement, whereas higher achievers in the low-ability stream tended to overestimate their achievement. This pattern, however, was not evident in mathematics and the general academic domain. Taken together, the findings highlight the importance of considering the interplay of domain specificity and same-stream peers in academic self-concepts.

To study implicit concepts of creativity in computer science in the United States and mainland China, we first asked 308 Chinese computer scientists for adjectives that would describe a creative computer scientist. Computer scientists and non-computer scientists from China (N = 1069) and the United States (N = 971) then rated how well those adjectives described creative computer scientists using a 5-point Likert Scale. Factor analysis revealed that the concept of a creative computer scientist had four dimensions: (1) smart/effective, (2) outgoing, (3) creative thinking and (4) unsociable. Differences in the implicit concepts across disciplines, ethnicity, gender, age, and working experience were analyzed. We discuss the implications of these findings for our understanding of the domain specificity of creativity.

A B S T R A C T Glaveanu is right that there is a crisis in creativity research, but his prescription would make things worse, not better. It is the attempt to build grand, domain-transcending, all- encompassing theories that has crippled creativity research and led to a field in which it is the norm for research results to contradict each other. Creativity is more like expertise (where every domain has its own definition and understand- ing of what constitutes expertise) than intelligence (where g reigns, albeit not without critics). The skills, traits, and moti- vations that lead to creative performance in physics, poetry, and painting are not fungible: one's intrinsic motivation to write poetry cannot be transmuted into a love of painting, one's openness to experience in art does not make one more open to new ideas in physics, and one's physics- related divergent-thinking skill will not lead to more creative poems. Intrinsic motivation, openness to experience, and divergent thinking may promote creativity in many (but prob- ably not all) domains, but they are different in each domain, as will be their effects. Treating them as domain-general skills or attributes invites confusion. We need more fragmen- tation, in the sense of more domain-specific theories, if we want to make progress in understanding creativity.

Given the importance of students' competence beliefs in science learning, many researchers have focused on the interplay between self-concept and performance in various domains. However, little research has been undertaken on the structure of competence beliefs and the domain specificity in scientific subjects such as chemistry. This study, consequently, aims to analyze the structure of competence beliefs by taking into account components of self-concept and self-efficacy as well as domain and construct effects. By using the data of 459 German high-school students of grade levels 10 to 13, it was found that structural models, which distinguish between general self-concept, chemistry self-concept and chemistry self-efficacy, represented the data reasonably well. The results provide evidence for (1) the empirical distinction between self-concept and self-efficacy within the domain of chemistry; (2) significant differences between general academic and domain-specific self-concept; and (3) substantial relationships among students' competence beliefs and school achievement. Furthermore, teachers' orientations towards hands-on inquiry activities and students' enjoyment in science were strongly related to self-concept and self-efficacy. Based on present competence-oriented curricula, it was possible to clarify the relationship among self-concept and self-efficacy in chemistry.

Given the well-documented negative effects of academic self-handicapping, researchers should be able to (a) draw valid conclusions about the nature and magnitude of these maladaptive effects, and (b) create efficient intervention procedures that help reduce self-handicapping. To accomplish these goals, reliable knowledge about the structure of academic self-handicapping is needed. In this article, I therefore analyzed the domain specificity of academic self-handicapping by assessing the use of handicapping strategies across different school subjects in two samples of German high school students. In Studies 1 and 2, confirmatory factor analyses revealed better fit indices for domain-specific compared to domain-general models. Moreover, the subject-specific handicapping factors were differentially related to students' subject-specific self-concept, interest, and achievement. I conclude that academic self-handicapping should be seen from a domain-specific perspective yielding important implications for educational practitioners.

The commentaries raise questions about modularity, and about the evidence required to establish evolutionary influences on behavior. We briefly discuss evidence leading evolutionary psychologists to assume that human choices reflect evolutionary influences, and to assume some degree of modularity in human information processing. An evolutionary perspective is based on a multidisciplinary nomological network of evidence, and results of particular experiments are only one part of that network. The precise nature of, and number of, information processing systems, is an empirical question. Consumer psychologists need not retrain as biologists to profit from using insights and findings from evolutionary biology to generate new hypotheses, and to contribute novel insights and findings to the emerging nomological network of modern evolutionary science.

Procrastination, putting off until tomorrow what one had intended to do today, is a well-known phenomenon in everyday life. In an attempt to understand the character of procrastination, a large body of research has been accumulating over the last 40 years. The present study was to evaluate the need to distinguish between procrastination in different life-domains by gathering first hints as to whether procrastination is domain specific or domain general. In an online survey on 260 students (mean age = 23.56; SD = 3.74) the procrastination frequency in 6 different life-domains (academic and work, everyday routines and obligations, health, leisure, family and partnership, social contacts) was examined. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the analysis of mean-level differences revealed that procrastination is domain specific, but not extremely so. The results encourage further investigations into the domain specificity of procrastination and suggest that future diagnoses of and interventions for procrastination will profit from considering the life-domain procrastination occurs in.

Risk taking is often associated with creativity, yet little evidence exists to support this association. The present article aimed to systematically explore this association. In two studies, we investigated the relationship between five different domains of risk taking (financial, health and safety, recreational, ethical and social) and five different measures of creativity. Results from the first (laboratory-based) offline study suggested that creativity is associated with high risk taking tendencies in the social domain but not the other domains. Indeed, in the second study conducted online with a larger and diverse sample, the likelihood of social risk taking was the strongest predictor of creative personality and ideation scores. These findings illustrate the necessity to treat creativity and risk taking as multi-dimensional traits and the need to have a more nuanced framework of creativity and other related cognitive functions.