Protestant work ethic's relation to intergroup and policy attitudes: A meta‐analytic review

The Protestant work ethic (PWE), the belief that hard work leads to success, is prevalent in many cultures and has been related to negative attitudes toward disadvantaged groups (prejudice) and social policies targeting them. Given recent theorizing and findings suggesting that PWE is not necessarily associated with prejudice among all people or in all contexts, this meta‐analysis examined the direction and strength of PWE's relation to prejudice (37 eligible studies) and policy attitudes (16 studies) among published and unpublished studies across 38 years. Results revealed not only significant positive relationships between PWE and both types of intergroup attitudes but also significant moderators of these relationships. There were significantly larger effect sizes for PWE's relationship with both prejudice and policy attitudes among samples in Western countries (Canada, England, New Zealand, USA), and marginally significantly larger effect sizes for PWE's relationship with both types of attitudes the older the mean age of the sample (within Western countries). PWE's relationship with intergroup attitudes also varied by the target group of the attitudes. Findings support a more nuanced view of PWE's relationship with intergroup attitudes, suggesting that PWE does not always promote greater prejudice; rather its consequences are culture and context bound. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cultural Conflict and the Feminine Role: An Experimental Study

Summary

Levenson's multidimensional I-E Scale was administered to 625 male and female university students and adults in America and Greece. The scores were categorized by sex, country, and employment status (job-holding adults or students) on each of the three control dimensions and then subjected to 2 × 2 × 2 analyses of variance. There were no significant sex main effects for any of the three I-E dimensions, thus calling into question previous cross-cultural findings that women were more external than men. Americans and Greeks did not differ on the Personal Control dimension, but Greeks did believe that they live in a more unpredictable environment than the Americans and also one in which powerful others control their outcomes. The results also indicated that students report having less of a sense of responsibility for their own actions than adults, but the two groups did not differ significantly on the Powerful-others or Chance dimensions. Finally, differences in the patterns of scoring across I-E content areas among subjects suggested the usefulness of utilizing a multidimensional I-E scheme in future cross-cultural personality research.     

The Protestant work ethic,religious beliefs,and homonegative attitudes

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) on negative attitudes towards gay men and lesbian women (homonegativity). The influence of religious beliefs and the notion of homosexuality as a choice were also examined in combination with PWE in regards to homonegativity. Previous research suggested that those who subscribe to the PWE have more negative attitudes towards societal out-groups (e.g., African–Americans). Thus, it was hypothesized that those with high PWE scores would display more homonegative attitudes. A significant correlation between PWE and homonegativity supported this hypothesis. Multiple regression analyses revealed that PWE interacted with religious beliefs, and religious beliefs interacted marginally with the idea of homosexuality as a choice. Those with high religious beliefs and who strongly believed that homosexuality was a choice were more likely to have negative attitudes towards homosexuals. The implications of these findings are discussed, with particular respect to reducing homonegative attitudes.     

Roles of cognitive load and self-relevance during emotional information searching on decision-making

Older adults have been found to favor positive stimuli over negative stimuli; further, developing a negative preference may be a cognitively demanding process. In the present study, we focused on the joint effects task self-relevance and cognitive load have on older adults' emotional information preferences when performing decision-making. To examine this, we used multi-attribute decision tasks and process-tracing procedure to measure their searching process. The study composed of a 2 (age: young/old) × 2 (cognitive load: load/non-load) × 3 (attribute valence: positive/neutral/negative) × 3 (task self-relevance: high/medium/low) mixed design. Sixty-one young adults and 62 older adults viewed 5 (alternatives) × 5 (attributes) decision matrices that contained positive, negative, and neutral information, with the total views and mean time spent viewing each different valence (positive, negative, and neutral information) set as dependent variables. The results indicated that both young and old adults have no emotional information preference in regard to self-relevance. When under no cognitive load, both positive and negative information were viewed more than neutral information; however, under cognitive load, preference for negative information decreased; this effect size was more robust in older adults. There was also a main effect of self-relevance on total views and mean checking time, with attributes concerning higher self-relevance tasks being more likely to attract attention. Older adults exhibited a consistent hedonic focus, even in highly self-relevant contexts; however, this effect disappeared under cognitive load. Overall, the findings suggest that cognitive resources play an important role in emotional information processing during decision processes.     

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy to Improve Mood in People with Epilepsy: A Randomised Controlled Trial

This study compared a 9-week individualised Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) programme for people with epilepsy (PWE), with a wait-list control. Fifty-nine PWE were randomised and 45 (75%) completed post-treatment outcomes. People with lower quality of life (QoL), particularly for cognitive functioning, were more likely to drop out. Analyses based on treatment completers demonstrated significant improvements on the Neurological Depressive Disorders Inventory for Epilepsy (p = .045) and Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale-Depression subscale (p = .048). Importantly, CBT significantly reduced the likelihood of clinical depressive symptoms (p = .014) and suicidal ideation (p = .005). Improvements were not observed for anxiety, QoL or maintained overtime for depression. Results suggest that CBT was effective, however, and could be improved to increase patient retention and long-term outcomes.     

Children's Judgments of Certainty and Uncertainty on a Problem Where the Possible Solutions Differ in Likelihood

In this study the author examined why children and adults think they need to eat. Preschoolers through adults were provided with physiological, social, psychological, and routine causes for eating breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner, and were asked to either agree or disagree with the causal responses provided. A 4 Reason × 4 Meal repeated measures analysis of variance revealed significant main effects for meals and reasons, as well as significant Meal × Reason and Meal × Reason × Grade interactions. The effect sizes ranged from 0.1 to 0.7. Across all age groups, participants acknowledged physiological needs and desires (fulfilling hunger and needs to stay healthy) and routine (e.g., it is dinner time) as the primary causes for eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner. However, for snack physiological needs were the primary reason. Second-grade students onward spontaneously produced biological justifications such as the need for energy and nutrition as important reasons for food consumption. These results lend support to the developmental model that children's and adults’ understanding of eating changes in middle childhood.     

The impacts of task relevance and cognitive load on adults’ decision information search

ABSTRACT

Higher relevance may increase older adults’ engagement in cognitively demanding activities; however, whether this effect will maintain when available cognitive resources are limited? Consequently, we investigated the joint impact of task relevance and cognitive load on older and younger adults’ decision search behaviors. We adopted a 2 (age: young/old) × 2 (cognitive load: without load/with load) × 2 (task relevance: high/low) mixed design. Sixty-one younger and 63 older adults completed high-relevance and low-relevance decisions. Our results revealed that older (vs. younger) adults took more time and more alternative-based search before decision-making. Both age groups sampled less information with an additional memory task. Additionally, they spent more time and effort to sample more information on high-relevance (vs. low-relevance) decisions; however, such differences disappeared when with an additional memory task. Task relevance promoted both age groups' search engagement, but this effect was subjected to their available cognitive resources.     

The positive role of hope on the relationship between loneliness and unhappy conditions in Hungarian young adults: How pathways thinking matters!

ABSTRACT

In this study, we examined loneliness and hope components as predictors of unhappy conditions (viz., anxious symptoms, depressive symptoms, & suicidal ideation) in young adults. The sample was comprised of 489 Hungarian college students. Results of conducting hierarchical regression analyses indicated that loneliness and hope pathways (but not hope agency) were important unique predictors of anxious symptoms, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation. Moreover, in part, consistent with the notion that hope might buffer the negative effects of loneliness on unhappy conditions, evidence for a significant Loneliness × Hope Pathways interaction effect in predicting each of the three indices of unhappy conditions was found. In contrast, the Loneliness × Hope Agency interaction effect was not found to be significant. Some implications of the present findings for the study and treatment of unhappy conditions in adults are discussed.     

Predicting protestant work ethic beliefs

Two correlational studies attempt to determine the aetiology of Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) beliefs by looking at the relationship between it and various theoretically related variables. In the first study, three demographic and seven psychographic variables were regressed onto the PWE using step-wise multiple regression. Five of the ten predictors were significant indicating that people with high internal and powerful other locus of control beliefs, limited educaztion, conservativel free-enterprise economic beliefs, and strong postponement of gratification beliefs and practices were most likely to endorse the PWE. In the second study parents and college-age children completed the same questionnaire to indicate family resemblances in PWE beliefs. Using a within-family analysis it was found that there were family resemblances in PWE, economic and voting beliefs and that sons were less similar to their parents than were daughters. Results provide partial support for both McClelland's and Weber's theses, and underline other results suggesting the role of psychological conservatism in the development of PWE beliefs.     

The effect of age and sensation seeking on pedestrian crossing safety in a virtual reality street

A wide range of individual, interpersonal and environmental factors influence the safety of pedestrians crossing the street, including human development (children take more risks than adolescents and adults) and sensation seeking (individuals higher in sensation seeking have greater risk). The interaction between those two variables has not been carefully studied, however. Does the effect of sensation seeking on pedestrian safety vary across human development as cognitive and other skills improve? This study investigated the primary effects of age and sensation seeking, plus their joint effects, on pedestrian crossing in a virtual reality environment. 209 children (10–13 years old), adolescents (14–18 years old) and young adults (20–24 years old) screened to be high and low level in sensation seeking participated. A 3 (age group: child vs adolescent vs young adult) × 2 (sensation seeking: high vs low) × 2 (traffic condition: easy vs harder crossing) mixed factorial design was conducted. Three pedestrian safety outcomes – start delay, missed opportunities and dangerous crossings – were considered. Results showed that when the traffic condition was easier to cross within, the start delay to enter traffic gaps was significantly shorter for children than for adolescents and young adults. There were no significant differences across age groups when the traffic condition was harder to cross within. Pedestrians also missed more opportunities to cross the road when the traffic condition was harder to cross within. Pedestrians low in sensation seeking missed more opportunities to cross than those high in sensation seeking. All age groups had more dangerous crossings during the harder crossing scenario than in the easier one, and adolescents had more dangerous crossings than young adults or children. Finally, the results of hierarchical regression models predicting dangerous crossings showed that traffic condition had a significant predictive effect on children's dangerous crossing behavior, and both high sensation seeking and harder traffic conditions predicted adolescents’ dangerous crossing behavior. No included variables significantly predicted adults' dangerous crossing behavior. We conclude that both age and sensation-seeking contribute to pedestrian safety. The effect of sensation seeking does not vary widely by age group, but its effect on adolescents was somewhat stronger than in the other age groups studied.     

Moral judgment and the development of causal schemes

The present study investigated (i) the relationship between blame and perceived causality; (ii) the effect of the nature of causes on causal inference. Seventy-two persons from three age groups (5, 9 years and adults) responded to behavioural events which varied in outcome intensity, the nature of the cause (internal/external) and its presence (present/absent). The latter two factors had a marked effect on attributed blame and inferred causes as an age × nature × presence of cause interaction was found in both cases. However, inferred causes were not systematically related to attributed blame. Outcome severity led to more extreme blame ratings in all groups but only affected the causal scheme used by adults. The results are discussed in terms of over-attribution to persons and a more precise criterion for the use of the multiple sufficient cause scheme is evaluated.     

Mental imagery in a visuospatial working memory task and modulation of activation

Ability to process information during a mental imagery task relying on visuospatial working memory and the advantages offered by the possibility of focusing the activation on specific items were examined in younger and older adults. The mental imagery task used for the study required participants to mentally move on a two-dimensional (5×5) or three-dimensional (3×3×3) matrix, while having to hold in memory either the whole pathway (WP condition) or just the final position reached (FP condition). The results revealed age-related differences in ability to modulate activation of visuospatial information. In particular, older adults, unlike the younger counterparts, did not benefit when the task allowed just part of the presented material to be considered. In particular, they drew less advantage from the three-dimensional matrix than the younger group. The findings are discussed in terms of the importance of processes reducing visuospatial working memory activation of irrelevant information and of the difficulties encountered by older adults in the modulation of activation.     

Gender concept development of preschool-aged children in the United States and Egypt

Thirty-one American and 31 Egyptian children were given the Slaby-Frey Gender Concept Test to measure gender understanding of children from two cultures assumed to differ in level of androgyny. The subject's sex, age, parent's education, and siblings' sex and age were explored in relation to gender concept. A multivariate analysis of variance (Nationality × Sex of Subject) yielded a significant nationality effect. American children had a higher mean score on gender identity than Egyptian children. In addition, a Pearson product-moment correlation revealed significant positive relationships between the age of the subject and two gender constructs, identity and stability. Future research on specific cognitive, developmental, and cultural influences on the gender development of young children was proposed.     

Lay theories and intergroup relations: A social-developmental perspective

Abundant research suggests that the study of lay theories helps to explain intergroup relations. Building on this work as well as “interactionist” theories for understanding social behaviour from developmental and social psychology, we propose an integrative social-developmental perspective examining how lay perceivers' characteristics (e.g., age, race, psychological motivations) interact with the environments in which they are nested to impact lay theory use over time and during life transitions. Using this perspective to guide our investigation of the Protestant work ethic (PWE) and colourblind theory, we show that a single lay theory can have a socially tolerant or intolerant meaning. We review work with US children and adults (Asians, Blacks, Latinos, Whites) as well as research with Colombian children and adults (Mestizos), showing similarities and differences in perceivers' uses of PWE and the colourblind theory. Even when both meanings are prevalent in a given culture, they are not necessarily equally emphasised in all environments or for all people living in those environments, nor are they responded to in the same way by all people. We discuss the implications of these results for theorising on lay theories and offer directions for future work in this area.     

American College Students and the Protestant Work Ethic

Abstract

The concept of the Protestant work ethic (PWE), originally proposed by Weber (1958), was examined in a study of 422 American college students. Although the PWE has been heavily studied, no definitive conclusions have been reached regarding its genesis and whether it is dispositional in nature or more heavily reliant on demographic variations. Mirels and Garrett's (1971) PWE Scale was used to measure the ethic. The authors hypothesized that older, graduate, and non-American students would express a greater belief in the ethic. The results indicated that it was the younger, undergraduate, and non-American students who expressed greater belief in the PWE.     

社会距离和性别对公平关注的影响

本研究使用单次匿名最后通牒博弈任务，采用2（性别: 男性, 女性）×3（社会距离: 自我决策, 替朋友决策, 替他人决策）×5（提议类型: 1/9, 2/8, 3/7, 4/6, 5/5）的混合实验设计，通过操作反应者的不同社会距离，考察资产分配情境下自我-他人决策的性别差异。研究结果发现：（1）相比于自我决策和替朋友决策，女性被试替他人决策时更愿意接受提议1/9，2/8和3/7，而提议4/6和5/5的接受率不受社会距离的影响；男性被试中社会距离和提议类型的交互作用不显著；（2）不平等提议的反应时随社会距离增加而逐渐降低，而平等提议的反应时不受社会距离的调节；（3）替他人决策时女性的接受阈限显著低于男性，而自我决策及替朋友决策时接受阈限不存在性别差异。     

The Protestant Work Ethic,Expectancy Violations,and Criminal Sentencing1

To test the hypothesis that endorsement of the Protestant work ethic would be related positively to sensitivity to criminal behavior that violated expectations, American college students (N = 159) read scenarios describing a crime committed by a typical or an atypical offender. After answering questions about the crime, they completed Mirels and Garrett's (1971) Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) scale. Extent of punishment was positively related to PWE for atypical criminal behavior. Yet, high PWEs also were more likely to perceive an affluent criminal as experiencing greater remorse for a blue‐collar crime than a white‐collar crime. We relate our results to perceptions of criminal behavior, information‐processing tendencies among individuals endorsing the PWE, and jury selection considerations.     

Ethnic differences in endorsement of the Protestant work ethic: the role of ethnic identity and perceptions of social class

The authors examined ethnic differences in endorsement of the Protestant work ethic (PWE; M. Weber, 1905) among Black (n = 96) and White (n = 149) college students and tested whether differences in ethnic identity and perceptions of social class mediated the relationship between ethnicity and the endorsement of PWE values. Blacks were higher in levels of ethnic identity, more likely to see themselves as working or middle class, and less likely to endorse the PWE. Only perceptions of social class partially mediated the relationship between ethnicity and PWE values. The authors concluded that perception of social class is an important construct that might influence the cultural psychology of different ethnic groups. The authors recommended further research involving PWE and other cultural variables.     

Relational Priming Based on a Multiplicative Schema for Whole Numbers and Fractions

Why might it be (at least sometimes) beneficial for adults to process fractions componentially? Recent research has shown that college‐educated adults can capitalize on the bipartite structure of the fraction notation, performing more successfully with fractions than with decimals in relational tasks, notably analogical reasoning. This study examined patterns of relational priming for problems with fractions in a task that required arithmetic computations. College students were asked to judge whether or not multiplication equations involving fractions were correct. Some equations served as structurally inverse primes for the equation that immediately followed it (e.g., 4 × 3/4 = 3 followed by 3 × 8/6 = 4). Students with relatively high math ability showed relational priming (speeded solution times to the second of two successive relationally related fraction equations) both with and without high perceptual similarity (Experiment 2). Students with relatively low math ability also showed priming, but only when the structurally inverse equation pairs were supported by high perceptual similarity between numbers (e.g., 4 × 3/4 = 3 followed by 3 × 4/3 = 4). Several additional experiments established boundary conditions on relational priming with fractions. These findings are interpreted in terms of componential processing of fractions in a relational multiplication context that takes advantage of their inherent connections to a multiplicative schema for whole numbers.