Free access to Autism articles to celebrate World Autism Awareness Day

Selection of articles

From Autism

To mark World Autism Awareness Day 2012 SAGE has freed access to the top 3 downloaded articles for the Autism journal.

• Evidence-Based Practices and Autism
• Social Stories^TM to improve social skills in children with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review
• Increasing social responsiveness in a child with autism: A comparison of music and non-music interventions

Visit the landing page to find, for a limited period, free access to the top 10 cited and top downloaded articles for this journal.

When pooping babies become more appealing: The nonconscious pursuit of goals

When pooping babies become more appealing the effects of nonconscious goal pursuit on experienced emotions

From Psychological Science

This study considers the intensity of emotions people feel due to goals they nonconsciously pursue. Traditionally, emotions were seen as an obstacle to goal pursuit and self-control, in recent years, however, this view has begun to change. Emotion is functional in nature: It serves to increase the probability of goal achievement. To test the effect of nonconscious goal pursuits on emotions, in this study, female participants where primed with a motherhood goal by viewing baby related images. It revealed how the subtle activation of a motherhood goal was influenced by goal-relevant baby pictures, but not goal irrelevant pictures. The findings not only extend the existing literature on nonconscious goal pursuit, but also suggest a novel determinant of emotions. Learning which goals people nonconsciously pursue may thus help to explain why people experience the emotions they do, and may allow for the prediction of their future emotional responses.

Envy rather than admiration motivates people to better themselves

Why envy outperforms admiration

From Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

This paper considers what motivates people to improve themselves. Across four studies the authors find that benign envy stimulates better performance. They reveal that admiration feels good but does not lead to a motivation to improve oneself. This has been labelled happy self-surrender, a feeling that the other is so good at something that one can only look with appreciation at how good the other is. Benign envy (not malicious envy), on the other hand, feels frustrating but it does lead to a motivation to improve. Labelled unhappy self-assertion, a negative feeling about oneself that arises from a comparison to the outstanding other but that does elevate effort and performance. So, the answer to the question whether to admire or to be envious might depend on what matters most: feeling better or performing better.

Brains plus beauty don’t add up: objectifying women lowers their math performance

When what you see is what you get: the consequences of the objectifying gaze for women and men

From Psychology of Women Quarterly

Women who are looked at as sexual objects not only react as sexual objects, they also exhibit less proficiency with math, according to this research. Undergraduates from a large Midwestern university were studied; findings suggest that the objectifying gaze affected women’s behavior and lowered performance, but not men’s. The authors observe “The objectifying gaze is particularly problematic for women, it may lead to a vicious cycle in which women are first objectified and, as a result, underperform, confirming the notion that women’s looks are more important than what they can do.”

The success of failure: The paradox of performance pay

From Review of Public Personnel Administration

Although pay for performance seems theoretically and intuitively appealing and fair, the reality is very different for many.  It is claimed that “people tend to believe things they want to believe”. This article discusses how a system based on merit may in fact be seen as a punishment as it: can focus on the short term; encourage mediocrity; reduce creativity; promote self-interest; and destroy teamwork.