Taxpayers' willingness to cooperate with the state and its institutions in general, and their willingness to pay taxes in particular, depend on a variety of variables. While economists stress the relevance of external variables such as tax rate, income and probability of audits and severity of fines, psychological research shows that internal variables are of similar importance. We present a co...

Studies of the negativity bias have demonstrated that negative information has a stronger influence than positive information in a wide range of cognitive domains. At odds with this literature is extensive work now documenting emotional and motivational shifts that result in a positivity effect in older adults. It remains unclear, however, whether this age-related positivity effect results from...

In formal learning settings there will always be instances of resistance to learning from students, resulting in either open conflict or withdrawal and consequent disillusionment on the part of both students and teachers. This paper presents a set of principles and associated practices for responding to disengagment from learning in constructive ways. This framework, motivational interviewing, ...

Motivational interviewing (MI) is a counseling style that has been shown to reduce heavy drinking among college students. To date, all studies of MI among college students have used a format that includes a feedback profile delivered in an MI style. This study was a dismantling trial of MI and feedback among heavy-drinking college students. After an initial screen, 279 heavy-drinking students w...

The purpose was to test, among women, the relationship between negative self-schemas and styles of attachment with men and women and two types of appearance investment (Self-evaluative and Motivational Salience). Predominantly Caucasian undergraduate women (N=194) completed a modified version of the Relationship Questionnaire, the Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form, and the Appearance Schema...

Decades of research suggested that positive affective states broaden cognitive processes, whereas negative affective states narrow cognitive processes. More recent research suggests, however, that these conclusions may be premature. These past experiments often compared positive affects low in motivational intensity with negative affects high in motivational intensity. These past experiments, t...