A social cognitive explanation of situational and individual effects on moral sensitivity

Models of moral decision making describe the process as beginning with the recognition of moral content in the decision environment. This recognition ability, or moral sensitivity, represents a key input to moral decision making. Adopting a social cognitive perspective, this paper studies the degree to which moral sensitivity is explained in terms of moral schema activation. In a single experiment, two situational factors (moral content priming and issue moral intensity) and two individual characteristics (moral identity and need for cognition) are tested for their effects on moral sensitivity. Results support the social cognitive explanation of moral sensitivity. The moral schema's propensity for activation, development, and accessibility significantly influence the ability to recognize moral issues in the decision environment.     

Identifying the situational triggers underlying avoidance of communication situations and individual differences therein

People are actively involved in the selection and avoidance of the situations they face during everyday life. Moreover, such selection/avoidance behavior is subject to sizeable individual differences. Yet, to a large extent this phenomenon has been underinvestigated, and a full understanding of selection/avoidance remains lacking. In the present paper, we take a first step to a more in-depth understanding of situation avoidance, which is conceptualized in terms of individual profiles or signatures across situations. Two key objectives with regard to those signatures are being addressed, that is: (a) identifying the critical situational triggers that elicit avoidance behavior, and (b) identifying the most important individual differences in the link between these situational triggers and avoidance, along with their underlying process dynamics. To achieve these objectives, we performed an empirical study on avoidance of communication situations. This study revealed a set of person types that meaningfully differ in sensitivity to a few key situational features. These person types further appeared to differ from one another on several dispositional cognitive/affective forecast variables.     

Homicide-suicides in Fiji: offense patterns,situational factors,and sociocultural contexts

Although there is growing literature on lethal violence in developing nations, homicide-suicides have rarely been studied. Addressing this issue, this paper analyzes all homicide-suicides that occurred in Fiji between 1982 and 1992. The study's results are consistent with prior research in Western developed nations, demonstrating that homicide-suicides constitute a minuscule proportion of all homicides, occur primarily between intimate relations, are precipitated by intrafamilial discord, and occur in the domestic setting. Contrary to prior research, however, perpetrators of homicide-suicide were equally divided between men and women and no firearms were utilized.     

When nasty breeds nice: Threats of violence amplify agreeableness at national, individual, and situational levels

Humans have perennially faced threats of violence from other humans and have developed functional strategies for surviving those threats. Five studies examined the relation between threats of violence and agreeableness at the level of nations, individuals, and situations. People living in countries with higher military spending (Study 1) and those who chronically perceive threats from others (Study 2) were more agreeable. However, this threat-linked agreeableness was selective (Studies 3-5). Participants primed with threat were more agreeable and willing to help familiar others but were less agreeable and willing to help unfamiliar others. Additionally, people from large families, for whom affiliation may be a salient response to threat, were more likely than people from small families to shift in agreeableness. Returning to the national level, military spending was associated with increased trust in ingroup members but decreased trust in outgroups. Together, these findings demonstrate that agreeableness is selectively modulated by threats of violence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Taiwanese adolescent cognitive autonomy and identity development: the relationship of situational and agential factors

Taiwanese professionals have adopted information about adolescent psychosocial development from Western societies. However, scholars know little about whether they have properly applied the models to both rural and urban youth. The purpose of this study was to examine the development of cognitive autonomy and ego identity in Taiwanese adolescents from Taipei City and surrounding rural counties. We controlled for gender and examined both situational (residential location, family income, and school type) and agential factors (culture value affiliation, attachment, and resiliency) to determine the extent to which each predicted psychosocial developmental outcomes. Among all the factors in this study, resiliency had the most distinctive relationship with adolescent psychosocial development. Each factor successfully predicted specific aspects of psychosocial development for these youth. We conclude with a discussion of the utility of using Western models of development.     

Effect of situational factors on the self-attributions of females and males

The simultaneous effects of the sex-role appropriateness of the task and the presence or absence of competition upon the attributions made by males and females were studied with 192 college students. Contrary to predictions, males rated themselves as luckier than females in the competitive conditions. However, as predicted, females made fewer self-serving attributions for the male than the female task.     

The relationship of motive disposition and situational incentives to individual differences in choking under pressure

Motive disposition theory posits that individuals exhibit stable differences in their achievement, affiliation, and power motives – shaping their capacity to perceive performance, social affiliative, or competitive contexts as rewarding. Whereas this approach has been employed in research on individual differences in motor performance, it has not been considered in predicting individual differences in choking under pressure. Typical pressure manipulations often use competitive or team settings which also constitute prime examples of power and affiliation incentives. Consequently, we hypothesized participants' affiliation (vs. power) motive to be related to golf putting performance in team (vs. competitive) settings. In addition, due to the performance feedback provided by the task, it should also generally appeal to participants high in achievement motivation. Specifically, after a familiarization phase a total of 115 participants completed a baseline assessment of golf putting performance, followed by an experimental block manipulating the task's incentives (competition, team, control) between participants. Analysis of participants' previously assessed motives revealed that both participants' affiliation and achievement motive were positively related to performance (variable error) under pressure. No effects emerged for the power motive. These findings highlight the role of personality differences in predicting motor performance variability in pressure situations. We discuss the specific contributions of projective and self-report motive measures and touch upon possible avenues for coaches and practitioners to counter choking effects.     

影响说谎行为的情境因素——基于自我概念维持理论的视角

情境因素会影响人们的说谎行为。本文基于自我概念维持理论的视角,从个体内部状态（自我控制资源、宗教表征/道德观念启动）和外部因素（金钱奖励、人际因素）两方面介绍情境因素对说谎行为的影响,并指出未来研究应关注自我觉察水平这一情境因素以及情境因素影响说谎行为的心理机制和神经机制。     

中国人三重自我建构加工中的相对优先性:来自ERP的证据

借助事件相关电位技术,采用启动范式的变式探讨了中国人三重自我建构的加工特点。结果发现,具体哪种自我建构占据加工优势取决于具体的加工阶段:早期加工阶段集体自我占加工优势;晚期加工阶段个体自我占加工优势;而在N2成分上,三种自我建构加工优势相当。该结果在一定程度上支持了情境性假设,拓展了三重自我建构理论的研究,为该领域的理论争论提供了新的认知神经科学证据。     

Diversity in in-group bias: structural factors, situational features, and social functions

Four experiments addressed the different forms and functions of in-group bias in different contexts. The authors proposed 2 functions: an identity-expressive function and an instrumental function (or promotion of positive social change). The authors manipulated status differentials, the stability of these differences, and the communication context (intra- vs. intergroup) and measured in-group bias and both functions. As predicted, identity expression via in-group bias on symbolic measures was most important for stable, high-status groups. By contrast, material in-group bias for instrumental motives was most prevalent in unstable, low-status groups but only when communicating with in-group members. This latter effect illustrates the strategic adaptation of group behavior to audience (i.e., displaying in-group bias may provoke the out-group and be counterproductive in instrumental terms). Stable, low-status groups displayed more extreme forms of in-group bias for instrumental reasons regardless of communication context (i.e., they had nothing to lose). Results are discussed in terms of a contextual-functional approach to in-group bias.     

Ten years of career success in relation to individual and situational variables from the employee development literature

Individual, situational, and socio-demographic variables from the employee development literature were combined with theory and research on career success in a ten-year study of 289 workers from across many jobs and industries in the workforce. Support for employee development by one's employer ten years prior and a trend of increasing/accumulating support contributed to career success, providing the first long-term confirmation of the value to careers from support for development by employers. Proactive personality had unique effects on success not accounted for by a broad array of other variables, strengthening conclusions from prior research about the predictive value of proactive personality which were based on data not controlling for these variables. Finally, achievement goal orientation influenced success in a unique way via “profile effects:” Goal orientation dimensions interacted to predict success, suggesting simple linear effects (e.g. being more learning-oriented) may be inadequate in explaining career success. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Ten years of career success in relation to individual and situational variables from the employee development literature

Individual, situational, and socio-demographic variables from the employee development literature were combined with theory and research on career success in a ten-year study of 289 workers from across many jobs and industries in the workforce. Support for employee development by one's employer ten years prior and a trend of increasing/accumulating support contributed to career success, providing the first long-term confirmation of the value to careers from support for development by employers. Proactive personality had unique effects on success not accounted for by a broad array of other variables, strengthening conclusions from prior research about the predictive value of proactive personality which were based on data not controlling for these variables. Finally, achievement goal orientation influenced success in a unique way via “profile effects:” Goal orientation dimensions interacted to predict success, suggesting simple linear effects (e.g. being more learning-oriented) may be inadequate in explaining career success. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Employee adjustment to stress: The role of coping resources, situational factors, and coping responses

Abstract The present study was designed to examine further the stress-adjustment relationship in employees. Specifically, the relations among employees' coping resources (self-esteem, generalized control beliefs, neuroticism, and social support), their appraisals of a recent stressful event experienced at work (appraised stress, self-efficacy, and situational control beliefs), the coping strategies (problem- and emotion-focused coping) used to deal with the event, and levels of employee adjustment (psychological well-being and job satisfaction) were examined. Data were collected from 153 male and female employees in a public sector department, employed in a range of middle-management administrative activities. The data provided support for a modified version of a model that proposed that both situational appraisals and coping strategies are mediating processes in the stress-adjustment relationship. There was evidence that employees' coping responses to the recent stressful event experienced at work were related to concurrent levels of adjustment. As predicted, the use of problem-focused coping, in general, had positive relationships with the measures of adjustment, whereas the effects of emotion-focused coping were generally negative (there was, however, some evidence that the effects of coping were dependent on event controllability). There was also evidence that coping resources had both direct and indirect effects (via coping and via situational appraisals) on employee adjustment. The latter effects were most marked for generalized control beliefs and self-esteem. Situational appraisals (in particular, efficacy expectancies) also had indirect effects on employee adjustment, through their effects on coping responses.     

School and individual factors on game addiction: A multilevel analysis

This study investigated the protective or risk factors of game addiction at individual and school-level using multilevel modelling. Data from Korea Children and Youth Panel Survey was used for the analyses. The findings revealed that individual-level variables, including gender, delinquency, family intimacy, stress, self-esteem and self-control, were significant predictors of game addiction. Furthermore, protective school climate contributed to decreasing the level of game addiction and risky school climates positively predicted game addiction. The effect of individual-level variables on game addiction was different depending on the type or level of school-level variables. Based on the findings, implications and suggestions for future studies were discussed.     

A model of involvement in work-related learning and development activity: the effects of individual,situational, motivational,and age variables

Eight hundred employees from across the U.S. work force participated in a detailed 13-month longitudinal study of involvement in learning and development activities. A new model was posited and tested in which the hypothesized sequence was as follows: worker age --> individual and situational antecedents --> perceived benefits of participation and self-efficacy for development --> attitudes toward development --> intentions to participate --> participation. The results depict a person who is oriented toward employee development as having participated in development activities before, perceiving themselves as possessing qualities needed for learning, having social support for development at work and outside of work, being job involved, having insight into his or her career, and believing in the need for development, in his or her ability to develop skills and to receive intrinsic benefits from participating. Given the aging work force, a detailed treatment of age differences in development is presented. Implications for new ideas in practice and future research are discussed.     

Assessment of the school readiness section of the early detection inventory: Preschool prediction across situational factors

The efficiency of (a) a school readiness test, (b) mental age, and (c) specific sensory and perceptual skills was tested as predictors of word recognition at the end of the first school year. Five hundred and eigth children in four schools with three significantly different socioeconomic backgrounds were tested in kindergarten. Two schools were in the same middle-class area: one was a traditional classroom school, the other was open space in structure. When the variables were examined by means of stepwise regression analysis and partial correlations, the school readiness test appeared as the most efficient predictor in each of the four schools, as well as in the total group. Mental age and auditory skills ranked either second or third in importance depending on the school situation.