Regulatory Focus and Political Decision Making: When People Favor Reform Over the Status Quo

Two studies examined the impact of self‐reported use of promotion‐related (i.e., eagerness) and prevention‐related (i.e., vigilance) strategies when making “risky” or “conservative” decisions about economic reform under good, average, or poor economic conditions. Consistent with regulatory focus theory ( Higgins, 1997, 1998, 2000 ), in both studies strategic vigilance was associated with making a conservative choice, whereas strategic eagerness was associated with making a risky choice. In addition, along with perceptions of economic conditions, chronic strength of prevention focus (Study 1) or situationally induced prevention focus (Study 2) was associated with using strategic vigilance, whereas chronic strength of promotion focus (Study 1) or situationally induced promotion focus (Study 2) was associated with using strategic eagerness. Finally, regulatory focus and economic perceptions indirectly predicted economic reform decisions through their impact on strategy use. Our studies are the first to demonstrate that vigilant or eager strategy use is associated with “conservative” or “risky” political decisions.     

期望与绩效的关系:调节定向的调节作用

经典动机理论认为高期望能提高绩效水平,本研究结合调节定向理论进一步回答这种效应"何时"存在或"如何"产生的问题。研究1通过测量期望水平、并用任务框架操作调节定向,检验了情景启动的调节定向对期望与行为间关系的影响;研究2采取更严格的被试内设计通过任务难度操作期望,考察了作为个体长期差异的调节定向的作用。结果表明:①调节定向调节成功期望与绩效之间的关系:对于促进定向,成功期望与绩效正相关;对于预防定向,期望与绩效相关不显著。②动机可以部分解释调节定向与期望的交互作用机制:高水平的成功期望会提高促进定向个体的动机强度,进而产生高的绩效结果;其对预防定向个体的动机强度的影响不显著。     

Colloquy: Do Interacting Groups Perform Better Than Aggregates of Individuals?

Recent examples of research about group processes melding individual‐cognitive and social communicative factors have resulted in the application of concepts relevant to individual cognition to groups as a whole. Although based on a helpful metaphor, the practice risks resurrecting discredited “group mind” concepts. One particular concept, “transactive memory system,” implies that a group can “know” all of the knowledge of its individual members. Several studies showing that groups remember more information than do its individual members appear on their face to support this notion. However, a reanalysis of the results of these studies using Lorge‐Solomon (1955) Model B reveals that the groups were not successful at pooling their members' knowledge. This conclusion implies that group interaction does not lead to efficient group information exchange.     

VALIDATING PREDICTED ACTIVITY PREFERENCES OF INDIVIDUALS WITH SEVERE DISABILITIES

We examined the accuracy of 24 staff members' predictions of activities preferred by 14 individuals with severe disabilities. For each of 144 activities, staff members assigned a client preference rating of “likes a lot,” “likes,” or “dislikes.” Two activities from each category were randomly selected for each individual with disabilities. Pairs of selected activities were presented to the individuals, who were prompted to choose an activity. Staff members' activity preference ratings correctly predicted the choices made by the individuals with disabilities for 78% of the trials. The more divergent the preference ratings of the paired activities, the more likely staff members were to predict correctly the activity selected by a participant.     

Well,I feel differently: The importance of considering affective patterns in groups

While it is widely recognized that groups represent strong contexts that influence the affective states of their members, this convergent framing has resulted in the neglect of the systematic study of what occurs when group members' affective states differ. This is an unfortunate oversight. The study of how group members' qualitatively different affective states influence their mindsets and behaviors and interact to drive collective group processes and has the potential to greatly inform broader theory on affective and social influence in groups. To address group affective divergence in the context of established convergence processes, I reframe the consideration of group affect around group affective patterns. Then, I draw on the broader group's literature to set a research agenda for the study of group affective patterns. This agenda allows for the more nuanced examination of how multiple discrete affective states influence each other and align with other group member attributes (e.g., personality, attitudes) to impact group processes and outcomes.     

The Effects of Regulatory Focus on Braking Speed1

According to regulatory focus theory ( Higgins, 1997 ), promotion focus is concerned with accomplishments and aspirations leading to strategic eagerness; whereas prevention focus is concerned with safety and responsibilities leading to strategic vigilance. In this study, we investigate how regulatory focus theory can predict braking behavior in driving. In Study 1, participants' assessed regulatory focus strength as measured by chronic personality differences in regulatory focus predicted braking speed, in that chronic prevention‐oriented participants initiated braking earlier, as compared to promotion‐oriented people. In Study 2, we experimentally induced regulatory focus and showed that induced prevention focus enhanced braking speed (i.e., faster), as compared to induced promotion focus.     

Bridging the Distance Between Us: How Initial Responses to Sales Team Conflict Help Shape Core Selling Team Outcomes

Intra-team conflict within core selling teams can shape team outcomes. Using congruency theory, we propose how conflict responses impact the relational distance between individuals in a core selling team, creating positive/negative team outcomes. Our framework suggests managers may improve team outcomes by monitoring sales team members' responses to conflict, encouraging internal cognitive voice behaviors, and intervening in teams not using internal cognitive voice behaviors when relational or process conflict exists. Our model helps explain the paradox in which an individual who is part of a “winning” team (one achieving its team goals) may still choose to exit the team.     

矛盾视角下调节焦点在领导力领域的应用

根据调节焦点理论, 个体在追求目标和选择行动策略的过程中存在两种调节焦点：促进型调节焦点的个体以利益最大化为目标, 倾向用“接近式”的方式达成目标; 防御型调节焦点的个体以损失最小化为目标, 倾向用“避免式”的方式达成目标。近年来, 调节焦点理论在领导力领域的研究中得到了广泛应用, 但关于两种调节焦点之间的关系及两者共同作用的研究却十分稀少。在回顾调节焦点在领导力领域研究的应用现状的基础上, 本文指出了矛盾视角的必要性和可行性, 并基于矛盾理论, 提出了未来研究的发展方向。     

The Analysis of Character Traits in Group Therapy

The author describes a support group led by two psychiatrists for individuals with AIDS set in the participants' residence, the AIDS Community Residence Association (ACRA) House. Similar to other AIDS groups described in the literature, the residents spoke of existential fears such as losing their physical beauty or intellect. In contrast to the intimate and familial atmosphere of many other AIDS groups, the members' strong sense of invasion by the facilitators and their ongoing ambivalence were striking. This reaction toward the group and the co-leaders appeared to be metaphorically related to the “invasion” of illness and health care workers into their lives. As members better tolerated and expressed these thoughts and feelings, a greater intimacy and sense of “family” emerged.     

Parents May Hold the Keys to Success in Immersion Treatment of Adolescent Obesity

This study examined the potential impact of parents on the long-term results of an immersion program for the treatment of adolescent obesity. Teenagers participated in a 4- to 8-week therapeutic camp. Those who continued losing weight 8- to 12-months postcamp were identified as “Losers”; those who regained weight were considered “Gainers.” Parents from both groups were interviewed about their own current lifestyle habits 1 to 1.5 years after camp ended. Results indicate that more of the initially overweight parents from the Loser group lost weight during the follow-up period than the overweight parents of Gainers. Losers' parents also reported better implementation of several aspects of the weight control program. The present results suggest that helping parents adopt lifestyle changes for themselves, even within the context of relatively short immersion treatments, may maximize outcomes for obese teenagers.     

The Philosophical Personality

The authors adopt a critico‐sociological methodology to investigate the current state of the philosophical profession. According to them, the question concerning the status of philosophy (“What is philosophy?”) cannot be answered from within the precinct of philosophical reason alone, since philosophy—understood primarily as a profession—is marked by a constitutive type of self‐ignorance that prevents it from reflecting upon its own sociological conditions of actuality. This ignorance, which is both cause and effect of the organization and investment of philosophical desire, causes philosophers to lose themselves in an ideological myth (“the philosopher as idea(l)”) according to which philosophers are unaffected by the material conditions in which they exist. This myth prevents philosophers from noticing the extent to which their activity is influenced by extra‐philosophical determinants that shape, empirically, who becomes a professional philosopher (“the philosopher as imago”) and who doesn't. This article explores the relationship between philosophy's “idea(l)” and its “imago” as a way of shedding light on some of the mechanisms that make philosophy inhospitable for so many women, people of color, and economic minorities.     

Beware of “reducing prejudice”: imagined contact may backfire if applied with a prevention focus

Imagined intergroup contact—the mental simulation of a (positive) interaction with a member of another group—is a recently developed, low‐risk, prejudice‐reducing intervention. However, regulatory focus can moderate of the effects of prejudice‐reducing interventions: a prevention focus (as opposed to a promotion focus) can lead to more negative outcomes. In two experiments we found that a prevention focus altered imagined contact's effects, causing the intervention to backfire. In Experiment 1, participants who reported a strong prevention‐focus during imagined contact subsequently reported higher intergroup anxiety and (indirectly) less positive attitudes toward Asians. We found similar moderating effects in Experiment 2, using a different outgroup (gay men) and a subtle regulatory focus manipulation. Theoretical and practical implications for imagined contact are discussed.     

Group Productivity and Telematic Communication

Abstract

Evidence offered by Bottger and Yetton has suggested that group performance is a function of member abilities and strategies to use them. This model completed previous ones offered by Steiner and Davis which were developed under the assumption that group communication occurs in a face-to-face situation. However, since the 1980s, a considerable amount of research has focused upon new ways of communication through new technologies. Findings from psychosocial studies suggest that the use of computers for communication changes group processes and outcomes. In this context, a new research question emerges, which is concerned with group performance as a function of the communication channel. New models should be developed for a better understanding of group performance in mediated communication context. This study presents results from a laboratory experiment comparing three communication media: face-to-face, electronic mail, and video-conference, in a multi-decision task (“moon survival”). Its main objective has been to replicate Bottger and Yetton's model but to incorporate the communication channel mentioned above as a moderator variable of group performance. Variables considered have been input variables (members' resources for achieving task); process variables (group composition according to consensus reached, adequate use of resources, and quality of conflict management), and group performance. Our results show the existence of different patterns for predicting group performance according to the communication channel employed. In this sense, in a face-to-face situation groups perform mainly on the basis of their members' knowledge of the task, as in Steiner's model. The performance of video-conference groups was due to the decision schemes, that is, how groups use their resources (the Davis model). Bottger and Yetton's model has been partially replicated in electronic mail situations. The management of the process is crucial for explaining group performance, but it may be necessary to code it in a different way. Therefore, the positive conflict management will be different from face-to-face and video-conference.     

Followers’ satisfaction from working with group-prototypic leaders: Promotion focus as moderator

What is the effect of followers’ promotion focus on their satisfaction from working with a leader who is prototypic of their group? We propose that high (vs. low) promotion-focused followers will respond more positively to a group-prototypic leader as a way to advance the in-group (“promote us”), which would increase their satisfaction from working with that leader. Results from an organizational survey and a scenario experiment supported the predicted two-way interaction between promotion focus and leaders’ group prototypicality: the positive relation between leaders’ group prototypicality and followers’ satisfaction from working with their leader was significantly greater for high than low promotion-focused employees. No such interactive effect was found for employees’ level of prevention focus. We discuss how these findings extend social identity theory’s analysis of leadership.     

Enforcing Christian Nationalism: Examining the Link Between Group Identity and Punitive Attitudes in the United States

This article examines whether the convergence of an individual's religious and national identities promotes authoritarian attitudes towards crime and deviance. Drawing on theories of social control and group conformity, as well as Christian nationalism's influence on intolerance toward out‐groups, I argue that the inability to distinguish between religious and national identities increases desire for group homogeneity and therefore increases willingness to utilize formalized measures of social control. Analysis of 2007 Baylor Religion Survey data demonstrates that adherence to Christian nationalism predicts three indicators of authoritarian views toward controlling crime and deviance: support for capital punishment, stricter punishment for federal crime, and for society to “crackdown on troublemakers.” These effects are robust to the inclusion of a comprehensive battery of 20 socioeconomic, political, and religious controls, and are consistent with previous research on Christian nationalism showing it is not religious commitment or traditionalism per se that leads to intolerant attitudes, but rather the conflation of one's religious identity with other social identities, in this case national. These findings indicate that, beyond sociopolitical and religious influences, the belief that the United States is, and should be, a “Christian nation” increases desires for group conformity and strict control for both criminals and “troublemakers.”     

The Role of Regulatory Focus in the Experience and Self‐Control of Desire for Temptations

This research examines the role of regulatory focus in the experience and control of desire for temptations, the fulfillment of which conflicts with other salient goals of the consumer. Relative to a prevention focus (i.e., an orientation away from negative outcomes), our findings demonstrate that a promotion focus (i.e., an orientation toward positive outcomes) not only increases the intensity of desire experienced on encountering a temptation, but also increases success of its subsequent resistance. Differences in self‐control efficacy are found to be mediated by the type of self‐control strategies consumers use in the 2 foci. Convergent evidence obtained in 4 studies, considering situational and dispositional aspects of regulatory focus, indicates that when temptations are encountered by consumers, regulatory focus is an important determinant of the degree of desire, and the nature and outcome of self‐control.     

Self-regulatory Theory and Weight-Loss Maintenance

We examined the relationships between promotion and prevention focus and caloric consumption in reaction to a dietary lapse scenario among weight loss maintainers. Participants were 65 adult females who had attained and maintained a weight loss of 10 % or more for at least 1 month. After engaging in a dietary lapse in a feeding laboratory, participants completed a “bogus” taste test, during which they could consume as much food as they liked. It was hypothesized that promotion and prevention focus would predict caloric consumption, mediated by depressive and anxious affect. Prevention focus, but not promotion focus, was positively associated with proportion of daily calories consumed. Affect was not a mediator. Prevention focus may be deleterious for dietary maintenance following dietary lapses. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed in light of prior research. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research also are presented.     

Clash of the climates: Examining the paradoxical effects of climates for promotion and prevention

Organizations often communicate seemingly paradoxical strategic imperatives to their employees that reflect a focus on promotion (take risks) and prevention (be prudent), as outlined by regulatory focus theory. When consistently emphasized and reinforced in an organization, these strategic inclinations can emerge as divergent climates for promotion and prevention that cloud the organization's perceived identity and reduce collective organizational commitment among employees. With a coherent organizational identity acting as both a sensemaking tool and a means of potential self-enhancement for employees, we use social identity theory to hypothesize that similarly emphasized promotion and prevention climates are negatively related to employees’ collective organizational commitment and indirectly, negatively related to organizational productivity. We test our hypotheses in a sample of 107 manufacturing organizations, using polynomial regression with response surface analysis to examine how similarly emphasized promotion and prevention climates relate to collective commitment and organizational productivity. Our analyses reveal that as organization-level promotion and prevention climate scores became more similar, collective organizational commitment decreases. Furthermore, we find that similarly emphasized promotion and prevention climates are negatively related to organizational productivity via collective commitment. We reconcile these findings with the organizational paradox and ambidexterity literatures and implicate promising avenues for future research.     

Renting to Owning: An Exploration of the Theory of Planned Behavior in the Homeownership Domain

Psychology researchers often avoid running participants from subject pools at the end of the semester because they are “unmotivated.” We suggest that the end of the semester induces a situational prevention focus (i.e., sensitive to losses) unlike the beginning of the semester, which may induce a situational promotion focus (i.e., sensitive to gains). In two experiments, we presented participants with math problems at the beginning or end of an academic semester. End-of-semester participants performed better minimizing losses as compared to maximizing gains, whereas the opposite was true for beginning-of-semester participants.