The greater power of bad events over good ones is found in everyday events, major life events (e.g., trauma), close relationship outcomes, social network patterns, interpersonal interactions, and learning processes. Bad emotions, bad parents, and bad feedback have more impact than good ones, and bad information is processed more thoroughly than good. The self is more motivated to avoid bad self-definitions than to pursue good ones. Bad impressions and bad stereotypes are quicker to form and more resistant to disconfirmation than good ones. Various explanations such as diagnosticity and salience help explain some findings, but the greater power of bad events is still found when such variables are controlled. Hardly any exceptions (indicating greater power of good) can be found. Taken together, these findings suggest that bad is stronger than good, as a general principle across a broad range of psychological phenomena.

Given assertions of the theoretical, empirical, and practical importance of self-control, this meta-analytic study sought to review evidence concerning the relationship between dispositional self-control and behavior. The authors provide a brief overview over prominent theories of self-control, identifying implicit assumptions surrounding the effects of self-control that warrant empirical testing. They report the results of a meta-analysis of 102 studies (total N = 32,648) investigating the behavioral effects of self-control using the Self-Control Scale, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, and the Low Self-Control Scale. A small to medium positive effect of self-control on behavior was found for the three scales. Only the Self-Control Scale allowed for a fine-grained analysis of conceptual moderators of the self-control behavior relation. Specifically, self-control (measured by the Self-Control Scale) related similarly to the performance of desired behaviors and the inhibition of undesired behaviors, but its effects varied dramatically across life domains (e.g., achievement, adjustment). In addition, the associations between self-control and behavior were significantly stronger for automatic (as compared to controlled) behavior and for imagined (as compared to actual) behavior.

No abstract

Cross-sectional data from 1359 boys and girls aged 10–14 years investigated whether parenting behaviours are directly or indirectly (through building self-control) associated with emotional (depression, stress, low self-esteem) and behavioural (delinquency, aggression) problems among adolescents. Replicating existing findings, both types of problems were directly, negatively related to adaptive parenting behaviour (high parental acceptance, strict control and monitoring, and little use of manipulative psychological control). Extending existing findings, self-control partially mediated the link between parenting behaviour and adolescent emotional and behavioural problems. Contrary to earlier suggestions, there was no sign that high self-control was associated with drawbacks or increased risk of psychosocial problems.

Flashbulb memories (FBMs) are detailed recollections of the context in which people first heard about important events. The present study investigates three models of the formation and maintenance of FBM. Two models have previously been proposed in the literature (Brown & Kulik, 1977;Conway et al., 1994). A third model of FBM that integrates theories ofFBM and recent developments in the field of emotions is proposed. The present study compares these three competing models by investigating the FBMs that Belgian citizens developed upon learning of the unexpected death of their king Baudouin. Structural equation modeling revealed that, as compared to the two previously proposed models, the third model, which takes into account emotional processes, better explains FBM.People have detailed memories for circumstances surrounding their discovery of important national events, such as assassinations of public figures (see, e.g., Brown & Kulik, 1977;Christianson, 1989;Colegrove, 1899;Winograd & Killinger, 1983). They remember the specifics of the context in which they first heard about the news: When they heard the news, where they were, what they were doing and with whom, and how they felt upon hearing the news are just a few of the details commonly remembered (see, e.g., Brown & Kulik, 1977). Brown and Kulik called this phenomenon flashbulb memories (FBMs) to indicate surprise and brevity. Even though FBMs are not as accurate or as permanent as the photographic metaphor suggests (Larsen, 1992;Neisser & Harsh, 1992), their forgetResearch reported in this paper was supported by FRFC Grant 8.4510.94. from the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research and by a grant from the Fonds de Developpement Scientifique of the University of Louvain. It was also facilitated by the support granted by the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris, to the Consortium for European Research on Emotion (CERE). We gratefully acknowledge the help of Denise Philippot, Philippe Tilquin, and Annick Beerten in collecting the data. We also wish to thank Geoffrey R. Loftus and two anonymous reviewers who provided invaluablecomments and suggestions on an earlier draft. O. L. is Research Assistant at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research. A.E. is now at the Department of Psychology, University of Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to C. Finkenauer, Department of Psychology, University of Louvain, Place Cardinal Mercier, 10, B-1348 Louvain-Ia-Neuve, Belgium (e-mail: finkenauer@clis. ucl.ac.be).-Accepted by previous editor, Geoffrey R. Loftus ting curve is far less affected by time than in the case of other types of memories investigated in basic memory research (Bohannon & Symons, 1992;Christianson, 1989; McCloskey, Wible, & Cohen, 1988;Pillemer, 1984).FBMs are cases of autobiographical memories. Because it is well established that emotions have an important influence on autobiographical memory (see, e.g., Conway, 1990;Nigro & Neisser, 1983;Robinson, 1980), it is imperative to cons...