Incentives and Seat Belts: Changing a Resistant Behavior Through Extrinsic Motivation

Because previously-attempted methods of increasing automobile seat belt usage have proven to be either ineffective or unworkable, a series of field experiments was carried out to test a technique of behavior influence utilizing a modest, positive incentive. In three separate studies, seat belt use of 4,745 drivers was observed as they drove out of a parking lot, after receiving one of several safety reminder leaflets. Some versions of the leaflet offered a gift certificate to a certain proportion of drivers who wore seat belts; other versions offered no incentive. The results showed that an incentive, regardless of the probability of payoff, raised belt use from about 15% to nearly 40%. Implications for future research and applications are discussed.     

Lay Theories of Personality: Cornerstones of Meaning in Social Cognition

Lay theories (or ‘implicit theories’) are cornerstones for social cognition: people use lay theories to help them make sense of complex and ambiguous behavior. In this study, we describe recent research on the entity and incremental theories (the belief that personality is fixed or malleable). In so doing, we demonstrate that each theory does not act alone. Instead, each is associated with a set of allied beliefs, the sum total of which cohere into two distinct meaning systems. We present evidence that these meaning systems produce systematic differences in a range of fundamental social cognition processes, with important implications for the field’s understanding of trait/situation attribution, moral judgment, person memory, and stereotyping. We further argue that because meaning systems serve a central meaning‐making function, people are motivated to believe that the meaning system they are using is effective and accurate. Accordingly, we present evidence that people exhibit processing distortions and compensatory mechanisms to minimize the impact of information that violates their meaning system. We discuss the implications of these findings for the field’s understanding of basic social cognition.     

Explaining Helping Relationships Through Learning Theories and the Question of Human Agency

It is argued that counselors too readily accept the mechanistic terminology of learning theories to account for client behavior, when in fact such terminology is not capturing what really takes place in the consulting room. Following a definition of agency, classical causation theory is presented. Psychology has patterned itself after Newtonian precepts, which rely upon material and efficient causation. As an antidote to this narrow usage, the concept of telosponsivity is presented. A telosponse is behavior carried out “for the sake of” purposes, and draws from the meaning of formal and final causation. Oppositional meanings in experience are what makes telosponsivity both possible and, indeed, necessary. A review of one counseling theory is carried out, and it is then shown how the mechanistic biases of psychology have been incorporated into this theoretical account. Corrective theoretical measures, in line with an agential view of behavior, are then recommended.     

内部动机与外部动机的关系

内部动机与外部动机的关系问题在20世纪90年代重新成为动机研究的热点。该文综述了内部动机与外部动机关系的实验研究与理论研究状况。认为实验研究经历了外部动机削弱内部动机、外部动机与内部动机共存、外部动机能够对内部动机产生促进作用三个阶段,研究者的心理学立场是造成分歧结果出现的重要原因;不同的理论模式各有所长,尤其是自我决定理论的新进展“有机辨证元理论”中关于需要的阐述是近期动机研究的亮点,在更高层次上实现了对内部动机与外部动机关系的整合。并提出探讨内部动机与外部动机具体成分之间的关系,检验特质状态与情境状态中二者的相互作用,及心理需要对情境与动机的中介机制应当成为未来研究的方向     

On the Assessment of Situational Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation: The Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS)

The purpose of the present research was to develop and validate a situational (or state) measure of motivation, the Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS). The SIMS is designed to assess the constructs of intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, external regulation, and amotivation (E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan, 1985, 1991) in field and laboratory settings. Five studies were conducted to develop and validate the SIMS. Overall, results show that the SIMS is composed of 4 internally consistent factors. The construct validity of the scale is also supported by correlations with other constructs as postulated by current theories. Moreover, the SIMS is responsive to experimental induction as evidenced by data gathered through a laboratory study. In sum, the SIMS represents a brief and versatile self-report measure of situational intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, external regulation, and amotivation.     

内部动机、外部动机与创造力的关系研究

本研究以277名文科三、四年级的大学生为被试,综合考察在故事、连线和命名任务下,内部动机,外部动机对创造力表现的影响。多变量方差分析发现,对于三个测验的共同部分,内部动机和外部动机的主效应均显著,但交互作用不显著。分别对每个任务进行方差分析发现,对于连线任务而言,内部动机和外部动机的主效应均显著;对于命名任务而言,外部动机的主效应显著,内部动机的主效应不显著;对于故事任务而言,内部动机和外部动机的主效应不显著。内部动机与外部动机之间在三个任务中均不存在显著的交互作用。多重回归分析发现,对于不同的任务,内部动机与外部动机的贡献显著不同。     

Naturalizing Ethics: the Biology and Psychology of Moral Agency

Moral agency is a central feature of both religious and secular conceptions of human beings. In this paper I outline a scientific naturalistic model of moral agency making use of current findings and theories in sociobiology,developmental psychology, and social cognitive theory. The model provides answers to four central questions about moral agency: (1) what it is, (2) how it is acquired, (3) how it is put to work, and (4) how it is justified. I suggest that this model can provide religious and secular moral theories with a basis for a common understanding of moral agency.     

Lay Theories Concerning Causes and Treatment of Depression

This study compared perceptions of the causes of, therapies for, and means of coping with, depression between two groups of currently nondepressed adults: one with a history of major depression and one with no history of depression. Currently nondepressed participants were selected so that effects of past experience of depression could be distinguished from those of current mood. Recovered depressed participants (RD) (n = 25) and Never depressed participants (ND) (n = 25) recruited via newspaper advertisements completed self-report measures of (a) the perceived utility of either professional or self-help coping strategies for managing their own experiences of depression; (b) likely effectiveness of several major therapies for depression; and (c) perceived accuracy of several etiological theories of depression. RD participants rated depression as being less amenable to everyday self-help methods of coping and more in need of professional intervention. However, RD and ND subgroups did not differ significantly in their perceptions of the plausibility of etiological theories of depression in general, nor in their ratings of the likely helpfulness of major therapies.     

Gender Differences in the Effects of Extrinsic Motivation on Creativity*

Four studies were conducted to assess gender differences in the effects of extrinsic motivation on creativity. The first study replicated an earlier one (Baer, 1997) in which expectation of evaluation lowered the creativity of middle school girls, but not boys. The second study investigated the effects of doing work for reward; again, middle school girls' creativity suffered, but not boys'. The third study, also with middle school subjects, investigated the impact of expecting ungraded feedback; this reduced both the overall negative impact of expecting evaluation and the gender difference in this regard. The fourth study investigated the impact of evaluation expectation on second-grade subjects and found that boys', but not girls', creativity was increased when they expected evaluation.     

Toward a Psychology of Human Agency

ABSTRACT— This article presents an agentic theory of human development, adaptation, and change. The evolutionary emergence of advanced symbolizing capacity enabled humans to transcend the dictates of their immediate environment and made them unique in their power to shape their life circumstances and the courses their lives take. In this conception, people are contributors to their life circumstances, not just products of them. Social cognitive theory rejects a duality between human agency and social structure. People create social systems, and these systems, in turn, organize and influence people's lives. This article discusses the core properties of human agency, the different forms it takes, its ontological and epistemological status, its development and role in causal structures, its growing primacy in the coevolution process, and its influential exercise at individual and collective levels across diverse spheres of life and cultural systems.     

拥挤的动机：公益投资中的公共服务动机与外部激励

现代公共管理日益重视公共服务动机,但如何激励公共服务动机,却悬而未决。针对已有研究的局限,采用公益投资博弈的实验范式,考察了激励类型、性别和PSM水平对动机-绩效关系的影响。发现：1）PSM能显著预测公益投资绩效;2）金钱激励撤销后对所有被试均造成了不良后果（动机挤出）;4）荣誉激励能显著提升男性被试的公益投资绩效,且不造成消极后果;但会给女性带来PSM的挤出。未来研究还应考察PSM是否存在内隐层面,并应当考虑文化适合性。     

当代社会心理学发展的双重走向论评

本文以社会心理研究的不同学科取向、文化取向和方法论取向做为三条主要线索,对当代社会心理学发展的多元化道路和整合社会心理学的努力进行了分析评价。认为社会心理学发展的多元化道路主要是由于社会心理的多质性和社会心理学的边缘学科性质所决定的,社今心理学发展过程中的整合努力则主要是由于社会心理的整体性和社会心理学的学科统一性所决定的。分化与整合作为当代社会心理学研究和发展的一对予盾统一体,伴随了社会心理学发展的百年进程,推动着当代社会心理学新的发展。     

心理学的整合理论

1　心理学不统一或分裂的原因　　一是笛卡尔二元对立思维模式的影响。这种二元论将学术理论观点分为客观与主观以及质化与量化等等。这样对立的区分模式在心理学中已成为一种思维和研究定势 ;二是心理学领域中存在科学文化与人文文化的对立。金布尔发现心理学中存在五个与之相关的对立范畴。沃特森则认为有 18个 ,黑特认为有 12个。我国的研究者指出这些对立还表现在自然科学模式对人文科学模式和价值中立对价值负荷说等方面的对立。表层研究与深层研究的对立以及自下而上与自上而下研究等方面的对立 ;三是方法论的对立。实证主义和现象学…