How employees respond to personal offense: the effects of blame attribution, victim status, and offender status on revenge and reconciliation in the workplace

This study investigated the relationships between blame, victim and offender status, and the pursuit of revenge or reconciliation after a personal offense. Results from a sample of 141 government agency employees showed that blame is positively related to revenge and negatively related to reconciliation. In addition, victim-offender relative status moderated the relation between blame and revenge such that victims who blamed sought revenge more often when the offender's status was lower than their own. The victims' own absolute hierarchical status also moderated this relation such that lower, not higher, status employees who blamed sought revenge more often.     

Early adolescent empathy, parental support, and antisocial behavior

In this two-wave prospective study, the authors investigated whether level of dispositional affective empathy moderated the association between parental support and antisocial behavior in early adolescents. The sample consisted of 823 Dutch boys and girls (mean age = 12.8 years) enrolled in the first year of secondary education. Higher levels of affective empathy were associated with less delinquent and aggressive behavior. Contrary to expectations, structural equation modeling did not indicate that youth with higher levels of affective empathy were susceptible to parental support. Further analyses showed that gender moderated the association between parental support and future delinquent and aggressive behavior. Only for girls, were high levels of parental support associated with lower levels of antisocial behavior.     

Social Identity and Youth Aggressive and Delinquent Behaviors in a Context of Political Violence

The goal of the current study was to examine the moderating role of in‐group social identity on relations between youth exposure to sectarian antisocial behavior in the community and aggressive behaviors. Participants included 770 mother‐child dyads living in interfaced neighborhoods of Belfast. Youth answered questions about aggressive and delinquent behaviors as well as the extent to which they targeted their behaviors toward members of the other group. Structural equation modeling results show that youth exposure to sectarian antisocial behavior is linked with increases in both general and sectarian aggression and delinquency over one year. Reflecting the positive and negative effects of social identity, in‐group social identity moderated this link, strengthening the relationship between exposure to sectarian antisocial behavior in the community and aggression and delinquency towards the out‐group. However, social identity weakened the effect for exposure to sectarian antisocial behavior in the community on general aggressive behaviors. Gender differences also emerged; the relation between exposure to sectarian antisocial behavior and sectarian aggression was stronger for boys. The results have implications for understanding the complex role of social identity in intergroup relations for youth in post‐accord societies.     

How Job Insecurity Affects Political Attitudes: Identity Threat Plays a Role

This study tests the assumption that job insecurity threatens people’s work-related identities and thereby affects their political attitudes. Work-related identity threat in times of job insecurity is proposed to happen in two ways: people will fear to lose an important part of their identity (their identity as employed people), and they can also be afraid to gain a negative identity (their feared future self of becoming unemployed). Both identity threats are proposed to lead to more antiegalitarian attitudes and more political leaning to the right. A four-wave study among 969 employed British employees delivers support for some of the assumptions. In line with the expectations, results of time-stable structural equation modeling show that job insecurity indeed threatens the identity as an employed person, which leads to an increase in antiegalitarian attitudes over time. Different than expected, identity threat in the form of a heightened identification with the unemployed was not found. Also, people who identified more as unemployed people actually reported fewer antiegalitarian attitudes and shifted their political standing more to the left.     

The Development of Aggression in 18 to 48 Month Old Children of Alcoholic Parents

This study examined the development of aggressive and oppositional behavior among alcoholic and nonalcoholic families using latent growth modeling. The sample consisted of 226 families assessed at 18, 24, 36, and 48 months of child age. Results indicated that children in families with nonalcoholic parents had the lowest levels of aggressive behavior at all time points compared to children with one or more alcoholic parents. Children in families with two alcoholic parents did not exhibit normative decreases in aggressive behavior from 3 to 4 years of age compared to nonalcoholic families. However, this association was no longer significant once a cumulative family risk score was added to the model. Children in families with high cumulative risk scores, reflective of high parental depression, antisocial behavior, negative affect during play, difficult child temperament, marital conflict, fathers’ education, and hours spent in child care, had higher levels of aggression at 18 months than children in low risk families. These associations were moderated by child gender. Boys had higher levels of aggressive behavior at all ages than girls, regardless of group status. Cumulative risk was predictive of higher levels of initial aggressive behavior in both girls and boys. However, boys with two alcoholic parents had significantly less of a decline in aggression from 36 to 48 months compared to boys in the nonalcoholic group.     

Full-Time versus Part-Time Employees: Understanding the Links between Work Status, the Psychological Contract, and Attitudes

Research findings comparing the work attitudes of full-time and part-time employees have been inconsistent and inconclusive. Furthermore, empirical studies have tended to be atheoretical, and there are few convincing psychological explanations to explain differences where found. This article tests the psychological contract as an explanatory framework for attitudinal differences across work status (i.e., whether employed on a part-time or full-time basis). The model is tested across samples from two different organizations using structural equation modeling. The analysis reveals that part-time and full-time employees differed on a number of attitudes and that psychological contract fulfillment could be used to explain differences in certain attitudes (e.g., satisfaction) but not others (e.g., affective commitment). Analyses also show that the relationships between psychological contract fulfillment and outcomes were rarely moderated by work status, suggesting that part-time employees will respond in a similar way as full-time employees to adjustments in their psychological contract.     

Age-based stereotype threat and negative outcomes in the workplace: Exploring the role of identity integration

Previous studies have shown that the presence of age-based stereotypes in the workplace is often associated with lower levels of work engagement and adjustment among older employees. This study examines possible mediators and moderators of this relationship using data from a sample of 2,348 older (age > 50) employees at the Italian national rail company. We test a model in which the effects of age-based stereotype threat on organizational involvement, future time perspective, and psychological well-being are mediated by work–age identity integration (how much individuals see their age and organizational identities as compatible and blended). Secondly, we explored whether these effects are moderated by gender and job status. Results indicate that age-based stereotypes are associated with negative outcomes for employees’ work and personal adjustment, and that these relationships are partially mediated by variations in work–age identity integration.     

Association of Normative Beliefs and Anger with Aggression and Antisocial Behavior in Russian Male Juvenile Offenders and High School Students

Examined the association of anger experience and two types of normative beliefs with physical aggression and nonaggressive antisocial behavior in 361 juvenile offenders and 206 high school students in Russia. All participants were male and ranged in age from 14 to 18 years. Higher frequency of aggressive acts was significantly associated with higher levels of anger and stronger beliefs that physical aggression is an appropriate course of action in conflicts. After statistically controlling for nonaggressive antisocial behavior, the relationship between physical aggression and antisocial beliefs was not significant. Similarly, with physical aggression controlled, nonaggressive antisocial behavior was uniquely associated with approval of deviancy, but not with anger or beliefs legitimizing aggression. Juvenile offenders reported higher levels of anger experience and higher frequency of aggression and antisocial behavior compared to high school students. There were no differences in normative beliefs between these two groups. This specificity of association of social-cognitive and emotion-regulation processes to aggressive and nonaggressive forms of antisocial behavior may be relevant to understanding the mechanisms of cognitive-behavioral therapy for conduct disorder and antisocial behavior.     

Assessing the Directionality of Deindividuated Behavior: Effects of Deindividuation,Modeling, and Private Self-Consciousness on Aggressive and Prosocial Responses

This study investigated the effects of deindividuation, modeling, and private self-consciousness on antisocial and prosocial responses. Groups of four participants (N = 72) were exposed to factorial combinations of situational cues (deindividuating vs. individuating) and modeling prosocial vs. no model vs. antisocial) and subsequently were given the choice to behave either aggressively or altruistically toward another person. Subjects receiving deindividuating cues produced higher levels of aggression and dispensed greater sums of money compared with individuated participants. Subjects exposed to a prosocial model administered more money than did subjects exposed to the no-model or aggressive model. Although an expected main effect of models on aggression approached significance, a predicted Situational Cues x Model interaction did not. This investigation suggests that subjective deindividuation is a neutral condition. When antisocial environmental cues are present, deindividuated persons are likely to engage in aggressive actions, whereas prosocial cues influence deindividuated group members to behave altruistically. Although deindividuated group members are affected by stimuli such as models, they are not influenced to a greater degree than are individuated people. Finally, these results suggest that when the situational manipulations designed to reduce private self-awareness are salient and powerful, they may affect behavior more than do dispositional levels of private self-consciousness.     

Stereotype threat: Antecedents and consequences for working women

Three studies investigated antecedents and consequences of stereotype threat for female employees. The results of Studies 1 and 2 suggest that social comparisons with men are associated with feelings of stereotype threat whereas social comparisons with women are not. Stereotype threat, in turn, was associated with conflict surrounding women's identity as female employees and with decreased perceived likelihood of achieving career goals. Study 3 extended these findings by demonstrating that feelings of stereotype threat are also negatively related to workplace attitudes and turnover intentions. Furthermore, the effect of stereotype threat on these job attitudes and intentions was itself mediated by identity conflict and perceived likelihood of achieving career goals. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Elevated trajectories of externalizing problems are associated with lower awakening cortisol levels in midadolescence

A growing body of research suggesting a negative association between basal levels of cortisol and persistent antisocial behavior has emerged. The present study examined relations between awakening cortisol levels and antisocial trajectories from ages 5 to 15 years among individuals in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Antisocial behavior was defined by semiparametric group modeling techniques, which revealed antisocial patterns parallel to Moffitt's (1993) taxonomy of antisocial trajectories. In contrast to the claim that biological diatheses are uniquely characteristic of individuals who demonstrate an early-onset pattern of antisocial behavior, our results suggest that individuals with elevated patterns of antisocial behavior between 5 and 15 years of age-irrespective of the timing of onset or desistance-are more likely to evidence lower awakening cortisol levels compared with individuals with persistently low levels of antisocial behavior.     

Face needs,intragroup status,and women's reactions to socially aggressive face threats

Socially aggressive face threats (SAFTs) are messages that threaten one's identity or positive face. Given the potential negative consequences of being a recipient of such behavior, the role of positive face needs, intragroup status, and the face‐threatening nature of social aggression in predicting correlates of negative affect experienced as a result of being a target of SAFTs, including the face threat of the response, forgiveness, and well‐being was investigated. On the basis of the survey responses from 199 college‐aged women, findings indicated that targets' positive face needs and intragroup status are directly and indirectly associated with forgiveness and overall well‐being. Implications for these findings in relation to theorizing about face and intragroup identity, as well as limitations and suggestions for future research were provided.     

Effects of the Interaction Between Reaction Component of Personal Need for Structure and Role Perceptions on Employee Attitudes in Long‐Term Care for Elderly People1

This study examined the interaction of reaction component of personal need for structure (reaction to lack of structure, RLS) and role perceptions in predicting job satisfaction, job involvement, affective commitment, and occupational identity among employees working in long‐term care for elderly people. High‐RLS employees experienced more role conflict, had less job satisfaction, and experienced lower levels of occupational identity than did low‐RLS employees. We found individual differences in how problems in roles affected employees' job attitudes. High‐RLS employees experienced lower levels of job satisfaction, job involvement, and affective commitment, irrespective of role‐conflict levels. Low‐RLS employees experienced detrimental job attitudes only if role‐conflict levels were high. Our results suggest that high‐RLS people benefit less from low levels of experienced role conflicts.     

When winning is everything: On passion, identity, and aggression in sport

ObjectivesTo examine the interplay between harmonious and obsessive passion and aggressive behavior in sports. It was hypothesized that players who are obsessively-passionate about basketball should report higher levels of aggressive behaviors than harmoniously-passionate players in general, and especially under self threat.MethodsUsing the Dualistic Model of Passion (Vallerand et al. (2003), Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 756–767) as a guiding framework, basketball players indicated their level of passion and aggression during typical basketball situations using a self-reported questionnaire.ResultsIn Study 1, results demonstrated that athletes with a predominant obsessive passion for basketball reported higher levels of aggression on an aggression scale than athletes with a harmonious passion. In Study 2, harmoniously-passionate and obsessively-passionate athletes were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: self-threat and self-affirmation. We predicted that under self-threat, obsessively-passionate players should report higher levels of aggressive behavior than harmoniously-passionate players. However, no differences were expected between obsessively and harmoniously-passionate players in the self-affirmation condition. These hypotheses were supported.ConclusionsThe present findings reveal that having an obsessive passion is associated with aggressive behavior, especially under identity threat. Thus, the love for one's sport may lead to some maladaptive interpersonal behavior, especially if such love is rooted in a sense of identity that is contingent on doing well in that sport.     

Cognitive and emotional covariates of violence exposure among former prisoners: links to antisocial behavior and emotional distress and implications for theory

In this study, formerly incarcerated men (N = 123) were assessed for their experiences with violence in the community as well as their current behavioral and mental health status (antisocial behavior and emotional distress). Participants also completed measures of two constructs theorized to moderate relations between exposure to violence and outcomes: cognitive beliefs supporting aggressive responding and negative emotional reactivity to witnessed violence. Data on key social-demographic background factors affecting outcomes were also collected. Analyses showed that, after controlling the effects of background factors, relationships between experiences with violence in the community and behavioral/mental health were moderated by cognitive beliefs and emotional reactivity. At high levels of support for aggressive responding, significant positive links were observed between exposure to violence and antisocial behavior as well as emotional distress. At high levels of negative reactivity to violence, a significant positive link was observed between exposure to violence and emotional distress (but not antisocial behavior). Findings are discussed with respect to research and theory on the effects of exposure to violence in high-risk adult populations.     

Low self-esteem is related to aggression, antisocial behavior, and delinquency

The present research explored the controversial link between global self-esteem and externalizing problems such as aggression, antisocial behavior, and delinquency. In three studies, we found a robust relation between low self-esteem and externalizing problems. This relation held for measures of self-esteem and externalizing problems based on self-report, teachers' ratings, and parents' ratings, and for participants from different nationalities (United States and New Zealand) and age groups (adolescents and college students). Moreover, this relation held both cross-sectionally and longitudinally and after controlling for potential confounding variables such as supportive parenting, parent-child and peer relationships, achievement-test scores, socioeconomic status, and IQ. In addition, the effect of self-esteem on aggression was independent of narcissism, an important finding given recent claims that individuals who are narcissistic, not low in self-esteem, are aggressive. Discussion focuses on clarifying the relations among self-esteem, narcissism, and externalizing problems.     

Leadership laissez-faire,menace identitaire et engagement organisationnel

Research on the impact of supervisors’ laissez-faire leadership, a frequent form of passive leadership, is still in its infancy. In the present study, we explore the possibility that laissez-faire leadership by supervisors engenders a feeling of threat among employees regarding their organizational identity. In other words, the lack of attention given to employees by supervisors would create the feeling among employees that their identity as members of the organization is devalued. This perceived identity threat would result in reduced affective, normative, and continuance commitment. We examined these hypotheses in a study using three measurement times, with a time interval of three months. Based on a final sample of 300 participants and latent variable structural equation modeling analyses, the results indicate that supervisors’ laissez-faire leadership engenders a perceived identity threat among employees, which then contributes to reduce affective, normative, and continuance commitment. Finally, laissez-faire leadership was also directly and negatively related to continuance commitment. We discuss how these findings contribute to enhance our understanding of the effects of laissez-faire practices by supervisors.     

Skin conductance level reactivity moderates the association between harsh parenting and growth in child externalizing behavior

Skin conductance level reactivity (SCLR) was examined as a moderator of the association between harsh parenting at age 8 years and growth in child externalizing behavior from age 8 to age 10 (N = 251). Mothers and fathers provided reports of harsh parenting and their children's externalizing behavior; children also provided reports of harsh parenting. SCLR was assessed in response to a socioemotional stress task and a problem-solving challenge task. Latent growth modeling revealed that boys with higher harsh parenting in conjunction with lower SCLR exhibited relatively high and stable levels of externalizing behavior during late childhood. Boys with higher harsh parenting and higher SCLR exhibited relatively low to moderate levels of externalizing behavior at age 8, but some results suggested that their externalizing behavior increased over time, approaching the same levels as boys with higher harsh parenting and lower SCLR by age 10. For the most part, girls and boys with lower harsh parenting were given relatively low and stable ratings of externalizing behavior throughout late childhood. Results are discussed from a developmental psychopathology perspective with reference to models of antisocial behavior in childhood.     

Justice, citizenship, and role definition effects

A limitation of the organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) literature is that theory and empirical evidence suggest that some employees define OCBs as part of their job. A theoretical framework that addresses this problem is tested in this article. The framework focuses on 2 effects: a role enlargement effect (i.e., employees with more favorable attitudes define OCB as inrole behavior, which, in turn, results in greater citizenship) and a role discretion effect (i.e., the relationship between employees' attitudes and their citizenship will be stronger among employees who define OCB as extrarole behavior). In tests of this framework with 2 independent samples of supervisor-subordinate dyads, role definitions were found to moderate several relationships between procedural justice and OCB, providing support for the role discretion effect. Implications for OCB theory and research are discussed.     

Parental, peer, and teacher influences on the social behavior of Hong Kong Chinese adolescents

Intensive interviews and self-report questionnaires were used to investigate parental, peer, and teacher influences on the prosocial and antisocial behaviors of Hong Kong Chinese adolescents. Students came from 5 academically different high schools. Results indicated that perceived parental influence was positively associated with frequency of prosocial behavior and negatively associated with frequency of delinquent behavior. Students with good relationships with their parents and peers showed lower frequencies of antisocial behaviors than did students with bad relationships. Adolescents in different identity statuses (achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, diffusion; E. H. Erikson, 1968) showed different patterns of prosocial and antisocial behaviors. For example, adolescents in the identity achievement group exhibited high frequencies of prosocial behaviors and low frequencies of antisocial behaviors, but those in the identity moratorium group exhibited quite high frequencies of both prosocial and antisocial behaviors.