Religiosity as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

In this study, the author examines the association between authoritarianism, social dominance orientation (SDO), and religiosity. She tested these associations in three sociopolitical contexts (i.e., Italy, Finland, and Estonia) based on representative samples. In all three countries, religious people were found to be more authoritarian and less socially dominant. Dallago, Cima, Roccato, Ricolfi, and Mirisola (2008) showed that religiosity decreases the correlation between SDO and authoritarianism in Italy. Their results are replicated in this study, using a more advanced measure of religiosity. The author also obtained cross-cultural confirmation in Finland. In both countries, she found hardly any relation between authoritarianism and SDO at high levels of religiosity; moderate relations were found at moderate levels of religiosity, and strong associations were found amongst nonreligious respondents. The association between authoritarianism and SDO was not influenced by religiosity in Estonia, a country with a history of communism and a high secularization rate.     

Social Comparison,the Threat of AIDS,and Adolescent Condom Use1

This study tested hypotheses from social comparison theory about adolescent condom use. Questionnaires were administered to 457 twelfth-grade students (284 sexually active). Three different operationalizations of social comparison were used—comparative ratings, affiliative preferences, and derogation; each produced different results. Low condom users who felt threatened by AIDS made more downward comparative ratings regarding condom use than did unthreatened low users. In contrast, low users preferred upward affiliations with high users. Adolescents with higher self-esteem derogated adolescents with AIDS less as threat increased. Adolescents with lower self-esteem who made downward comparative ratings were more satisfied with their own past condom use. Satisfied low condom users were less likely to intend condom use in the future. The results provide evidence that downward comparison may act indirectly to deter behavioral change.     

父母教养方式对青少年社会适应的影响:人格类型的调节作用

采用青少年父母教养方式问卷、青少年小五人格问卷和青少年社会适应评估问卷对六城市的2288名中学生进行调查,探讨父母教养方式对青少年社会适应的影响及人格类型在其中的调节作用。结果发现:(1)青少年父母教养方式可分为民主型、权威型、专制型和忽视型四种,所占比例分别为35.2%、16.9%、20.8%、27.1%,不同父母教养类型的青少年在社会适应、人格五因素各维度上的差异达到显著水平;(2)除撤回爱护与行事效率之间相关不显著外,父母教养行为与青少年社会适应各维度相关均达到显著水平;(3)人格类型可以调节父母教养行为对青少年社会适应的预测作用,表现在支持陪伴、自主准予及知晓度对积极适应的影响以及规则引导、自主准予及知晓度对消极适应的影响。     

Students' Preferences for Information About Their Test Performance: A Social Comparison Study1

College students received their test scores and letter grades for an actual examination and were asked to indicate their degree of interest in obtaining information (average score, highest score, etc.) in order to evaluate their performance. Overall, the students were most interested in knowing the average test score and least interested in knowing the lowest test score and the number of others who received worse test scores. There was some evidence supporting Festinger's unidirectional drive hypothesis in that most of the students were moderately interested in knowing how many others obtained better scores. Surprisingly, students who failed the examination displayed the greatest interest in the available information. There was little evidence suggesting defensive comparison on the part of low scorers. The results have implications for the self evaluation of ability, for social comparison research, and for educational practice.     

HPA-Axis Activation as a Key Moderator of Childhood Trauma Exposure and Adolescent Mental Health

Individual differences in a child’s sensitivity to stress may influence whether youth exposed to trauma develop symptoms of psychopathology. We examined the interaction between HPA-axis reactivity to an acute stressor and exposure to different types of childhood trauma as predictors of mental health symptoms in a sample of youth. Youth (n?=?121, ages 9–16; 47% female) completed a standardized stress task, including 5 post-stress salivary cortisol samples. Parents also completed the Child Behavior Checklist as a measure of child internalizing and externalizing symptoms in the past month, and completed the Early Trauma Inventory (ETI) as a measure of their child’s trauma exposure. More emotional abuse and non-intentional trauma were associated with greater internalizing symptoms. Youth exposed to physical abuse who demonstrated slower HPA-axis reactivity had elevated internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Youth exposed to emotional abuse or non-intentional traumatic events who demonstrated faster HPA-axis reactivity had elevated internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Profiles of exaggerated or attenuated HPA-axis reactivity to acute stress may be risk factors for psychopathology in children facing different stressful social environments.     

Fertility Preferences and Social Exchange Theory1

Interviews with 583 married women aged 18 to 49 revealed that a summary index of motivation for additional children was positively related to preference for a/another child and negatively related to future employment intentions. Desire for children, once formed, had an effect on employment intentions; however, neither employment intentions nor satisfaction with employment affected desire for children. Satisfaction with parenthood and the general rewards of parenthood were positively related to present number of children while motivation for an additional child was negatively related to present number of children. Little evidence was found to indicate that a “rational” social exchange model of fertility choice is more applicable for some sociodemographic groups than for others. In general, however, results provided support for the social exchange model expounded.     

Exchange Ideology as a Moderator of Job Attitudes-Organizational Citizenship Behaviors Relationships1

Following work on organizational citizenship behaviors (cf. Organ, 1988). the present study examined job satisfaction, perceptions of organizational support, and organizational commitment as predictors of organizational citizenship behaviors. Regression analyses on data collected from workers in a small tooling plant indicated that exchange ideology moderated the relationships between ratings of OCB's and organizational support scores. For tool workers whose attitudes and behaviors were more dependent on organization reinforcement, OCB ratings were positively related to organizational support. However, for those whose attitudes and behaviors were more independent of organization reinforcement. OCB ratings were considerably less related to organizational support scores. The pattern was similar for OCB ratings and job satisfaction scores. These data are consistent with those reported previously (e.g., Eisenberger. Huntington. Hutchinson, & Sowa, 1986) and suggest that the salience of job attitudes in the decision to manifest organizational citizenship behaviors may be influenced by the individual's exchange ideology.     

Coping With a Health Threat: A Study of Food Safety1

The coping strategies used to respond to the perceived health threat of contaminated food are examined. Six hundred and thirty randomly selected adults in the state of Iowa responded to a mailed questionnaire asking their attitudes and behaviors concerning food safety. A principal component analysis of coping measure identified two distinct coping strategies–problem solving and fatalism/avoidance/ trust. Multiple regression analysis showed that the respondents who tended to be health conscious (i. e., engaged in health protective behaviors and had better quality diets) and perceived unsafe food as a personal threat and a social problem were more likely to select problem solving as a coping mechanism. The respondents who were low in health consciousness were more likely to select the approaches of fatalism/ avoidance. Social class variables did not differentiate coping strategies.     

Value as a Moderator in Subjective Well-Being

We investigated individual differences in the processes of subjective well-being (SWB). There were considerable individual differences in the domain that was most strongly associated with global life satisfaction. Individuals also differed significantly in the types of activities that they found satisfying. Moreover, these individual differences in the patterns of SWB were systematically related to value orientations. A 23-day daily diary study revealed that intraindividual changes in satisfaction were strongly influenced by the degree of success in the domains that individuals value. The present findings highlight the meaningful individual differences in the qualitative aspects of subjective well-being.     

Self-Relevance as a Moderator of Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification

We examined the influence of self-esteem on reactions to favorable or unfavorable feedback. We also varied the relevance of this information for participants' self-image—the information was either low or high in self-relevance. When asked how important it was to personally perform well, low self-esteem persons were more likely to engage in self-enhancement in the low than in the high self-relevant context. This finding supports predictions derived from Swann and Schroeder's (1995) analysis. Furthermore, low self-esteem participants engaged in self-enhancement strategies to a greater extent than high self-esteem participants in the low self-relevant condition, whereas an opposite pattern was obtained in the high self-relevant condition. Our analysis bridges the gap between two opposing schools of thought—one that believes that low self-esteem persons will evidence especially strong self-enhancement tendencies and the other that believes that it is high not low self-esteem persons that will demonstrate especially strong self-enhancement tendencies. We discuss the importance of self-relevance for determining when self-enhancement and self-verification will and will not occur.     

Gender Role Ideology as a Moderator of the Relationship between Social Power Tactics and Marital Satisfaction

The study examined whether the Power Interaction Model is applicable for explaining the choice of power tactics in conflict situations among Israeli married couples. In addition, gender role ideology was tested as a moderator of the relationship between power usage and marital satisfaction. Seventy-eight couples reported on self usage and spouse’s usage of power tactic behaviors during conflicts and completed questionnaires assessing marital satisfaction, gender role ideology (traditional, liberal) and demographics. Findings indicated greater agreement within couples for harsh rather than for soft tactic preference. As expected, preference for harsh tactics was associated with lower marital satisfaction yet gender role ideology moderated this association. The role of conflict and power usage in traditional and liberal families was addressed.     

Holland Type as a Moderator of Personality-Performance Predictions

This study explored the value of using Holland's theory of vocational personality types and work environments for improving predictions of personality-performance relations. Upper level undergraduates representing the RIASEC environments completed the Self-Directed Search and a measure of the Five-Factor Model of personality that were used to predict grades. Overall, agreeableness and conscientiousness accounted for approximately 2% to 3% of the variance in performance. However, when the data were analyzed further by RIASEC environment, more than 9% of the variance in performance was accounted for with personality scores. This study supports assertions in the literature that predictions of performance using global traits, such as conscientiousness, can be improved using appropriate moderators. Furthermore, important relations between personality and performance can be masked if job context is ignored.     

Sacrifice in a Supportive Marriage: Social Support as a Moderator Buffers the Negative Effects of Sacrifice in Marriage

There is a long and interesting history in the study of the positive and negative effects of sacrifice, but few researchers have focused on how one’s marital partner being the recipient of sacrifice may lead to different outcomes. Based on conservation of resources theory, we suggested that a partner’s social support could be a potential moderator between sacrifice and well-being. To examine our hypothesis, we invited 141 Taiwanese couples to participate in our study. As expected, we found that only for those individuals whose partners provided less social support to them, the more they sacrificed, the lower marital satisfaction and the higher depressive symptoms they reported. In contrast, this effect was not found for the context in which a partner provided more social support. In addition, the negative correlation between a partner’s sacrifice and one’s depressive symptoms became stronger when an individual provided more support to their sacrificing partner. Our findings highlight that the relationship between sacrifice and well-being are contingent upon context, and are particularly dependent on whether the recipient of sacrifice can provide a supportive relationship.     

Partner Preferences as a Function of Gender,Age, Political Orientation and Level of Education

An important current debate concerns the originof gender differences in partner preferences. Thesedifferences have been explained both in terms ofevolutionary theory and in terms of social role theory. The present study determines the relativestrengths of both perspectives by investigating, apartfrom gender, the influence of three other importantfactors on partner preferences and for which the two approaches offer divergent hypotheses: age,political orientation and level of education of therespondent. About 95% of the participants were WhiteDutch citizens, the rest were Dutch with one or twoparents from a different ethnic background.Participants were requested to write down the mostimportant characteristics of a potential partner(open-ended format), followed by an instruction toindicate the importance of 39 pre-selected characteristics. Resultsshow that men and women have highly similar preferencesfor characteristics in a potential partner. In addition,it is demonstrated that on crucial characteristics from an evolutionary perspective (i.e.,physical attractiveness and status) significantinteractions between age, political orientation, levelof education and/or gender of the respondents emerge.Most results offer support for a social role theoryof human mate selection. It is concluded that becausegender on its own merely explains a small proportion ofthe total variance in human mate selection, it is important to include other factors, not onlyin order to facilitate our understanding of the fullcomplexity of partner preferences, but also in order tomake theoretical progress in this area.     

Type A as a Moderator of Stressors and Job Complexity: A Comparison of Achievement Strivings and Impatience-Irritability

This study examined two components (achievement strivings and impatience-irritability) of the Type A Behavior Pattern as moderators of job stressors and job complexity on health and job satisfaction. It was predicted that achievement strivings would moderate the impact of job stressors and impatience-irritability would impact responses to job complexity. Data from 525 employed adults provided mixed support for the moderator hypotheses. Relations between job stressors and both health and job satisfaction were strongest among employees reporting high levels of achievement strivings. Impatience-irritability had no moderating effect. For job complexity, only one moderator effect was found. Mental demands were positively related to job satisfaction among those reporting low levels of impatience-irritability. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

应急救援团队的个体与团队情境意识：社会网络关系的调节作用

采用地震后建筑物倒塌,被困人员转运的任务情景,以99名消防指挥系大四学员为被试,研究个体情境意识和团队情境意识的关系,以及社会网络关系中的网络密度和结构洞指标在其中的调节作用。结果表明：(1)个体情境意识与团队情境意识不相关,即团队情境意识不是个体情境意识的简单相加;(2)共享情境意识对团队情境意识有负向影响：个体情境意识之间的差异越大,团队情境意识就越高;(3)对于网络密度较大的团队,结构洞对共享情境意识和团队情境意识的关系起到正向调节的作用;(4)对于网络密度较小的团队,结构洞对共享情境意识和团队情境意识的关系起到负向调节的作用。     

Stereotype Threat in Men on a Test of Social Sensitivity

This study provides evidence of stereotype threat in men on a test of a feminine ability called social sensitivity, that is, the ability to decode nonverbal cues. Men who were told that the test assessed social sensitivity and produced better scores for women than men performed worse on the test than did men who were told that the test assessed information processing. Because social sensitivity can be an automatic skill and stereotype threat uses mental capacity, this effect was moderated by self-reported strategy usage. Mens performance worsened in the threat condition only when they reported more deliberative and less intuitive strategies for decoding nonverbal cues.