Can Constructive Thinking Predict Decision Making?

We assume that executive function constitutes an integrated set of cognitive processes that mediate working memory, planning, inhibition, flexibility, and decision making. Despite the acknowledged theoretical connection between executive function processes and emotional intelligence, such relationships have rarely been investigated. The purpose of this study was to examine the potential relationship between constructive thinking, conceived as a component of emotional intelligence, and executive function, as indexed by various existing neuropsychological and experimental instruments. We used the Constructive Thinking Inventory as a measure of emotional intelligence. We found that some constructive thinking subscales were able to predict distinct executive function variables. Emotional Coping, Categorical Thinking, and Esoteric Thinking subscales explained performance on various measures of executive function. Thus, we conclude that intervention programs designed to train a specific component of emotional intelligence, namely constructive thinking, could also facilitate performance in executive function processes, and vice versa. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relations among Personality Characteristics,Environmental Events,Coping Behavior and Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction

This study extended current positive psychological research by examining the mediating role of coping behavior in the relations between environmental and intrapersonal variables as predictors of adolescent global life satisfaction, based on Evans’ (Soc Indic Res 33:47–88, 1994) proposed model. Specifically, we assessed the relations between personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism) and environmental experiences (stressful life events) predicting early adolescents’ global life satisfaction as mediated by approach and avoidance coping behaviors using a sample of 529 students from one middle school in the southeastern United States. The results supported portions of Evans’ model. Statistically significant relations were found for a number of individual pathways between personality and environmental variables (i.e., predictors) and coping variables (i.e., mediators) as well as between approach coping (i.e., one mediator) and life satisfaction (i.e., outcome). Additionally, a small but statistically significant pathway was found between extraversion and life satisfaction when mediated by approach coping. Results suggest that personality, environmental stressors and coping behaviors may play a role in the development of life satisfaction among early adolescents.     

Associations Between Adolescents’ Family Stressors and Life Satisfaction

Extant literature suggests that family stressors co-occur with elevated adolescent psychopathology. Few studies have examined the relationship between family stressors and life satisfaction, a positive indicator of mental health. The current study explored the relationships between specific family stressors (i.e., low socioeconomic status, disrupted family structure, cumulative major life events, and perceived interparental conflict) and adolescents’ life satisfaction in a sample of 181 middle school students. Participants completed psychometrically sound self-report measures of the aforementioned constructs. Results from a simultaneous regression analysis indicated that the four forms of family stress accounted for 37 % of the variance in life satisfaction; experiencing major life events (β = ?0.31, p < .05) and perceiving interparental conflict (β = ?0.41, p < .05) emerged as unique predictors of life satisfaction. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Influence of Employees’ Attachment Styles on Their Life Satisfaction as Mediated by Job Satisfaction and Burnout

The aim of this study was to obtain better insight into the associations between attachment styles and employees’ life satisfaction. This was achieved by examining the mediating roles of burnout and job satisfaction. Three hundred and thirty-nine employees, from a convenience community sample, participated in the current study. Results of the mediation model indicated that the associations between avoidance and life satisfaction were mediated by burnout and job satisfaction. However, the associations between attachment anxiety and life satisfaction were mediated by burnout but not by job satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications for organizations and for attachment theory at work are discussed.     

How and When Do Core Self-Evaluations Predict Career Satisfaction? The Roles of Positive Goal Emotions and Occupational Embeddedness

We draw on theories of self-verification and situational strength to examine how and when core self-evaluations (CSE) predict career satisfaction. We tested our hypotheses using a time-lagged study with 139 alumni of two business schools across three measurement waves. Results showed that compared to individuals with lower CSE those with higher CSE were more satisfied with their careers because they associated more positive emotions with pursuing their career goals. However, a high degree of occupational embeddedness attenuated the indirect effect of the CSE–career satisfaction relationship through positive goal emotions and compensated for low levels of positive goal emotions. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.     

Parents’ Attachment Styles and Adolescents’ Regulatory Emotional Self-efficacy: The Mediating Role of Adolescents’ Attachment to Parents in China

Guided by attachment theory, this longitudinal study examined the mediating role of parent-adolescent attachment on the relation between parents’ attachment styles and adolescents’ regulatory emotional self-efficacy (RESE, including managing negative affect and expressing positive affect). Five hundred seventy-three Chinese junior high school students (46% male; aged 11–14 years, M = 12.76 years, SD = 0.74) completed measures of RESE at T1, parent-adolescent attachment at T2 (six months later), and RESE at T3 (another six months later), while 573 students’ parents (one student only has a parent, 241 fathers and 332 mothers) completed measures of adult attachment styles (anxiety and avoidance) at T1. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that father-adolescent attachment mediated the association between fathers’ attachment anxiety and adolescents’ self-efficacy beliefs in managing negative affect, while mother-adolescent attachment marginally mediated the relation between mothers’ attachment anxiety and adolescents’ self-efficacy beliefs in managing negative affect and expressing positive affect. These findings suggest that parents’ attachment anxiety could predict their children’s attachment to parents, in turn, impacting their children’s regulatory emotional self-efficacy.

     

Adolescents’ Conflict Resolution Styles Toward Mothers: The Role of Parenting and Personality

In the present research, we examined associations between contextual and individual factors and adolescents’ conflict resolution with mothers. In Study 1, we explored links between maternal responsiveness and psychological control and adolescent conflict resolution styles (positive problem solving, conflict engagement, withdrawal, and compliance) with two informants. In Study 2, we examined the unique contribution of adolescents’ personality above and beyond perceived parenting in the prediction of conflict resolution styles. Results of both studies indicated that responsiveness was related positively to problem solving and negatively to withdrawal. Psychological control was positively associated with destructive resolution styles. Study 2 indicated that extraversion predicted more problem solving and conflict engagement, and less withdrawal. Agreeableness predicted more problem solving and less conflict engagement. Finally, certain personality traits moderated associations between parenting and conflict resolution, indicating that some adolescents are more sensitive to these parenting dimensions than others.     

The Affective Temperaments and Well-Being: Swedish and Iranian Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction and Psychological Well-Being

The aim was to investigate the role of the affective temperament model (AFTs) in distinguishing variations in well-being among adolescents from Sweden (n = 222) and Iran (n = 120). Participants self-reported positive (PA) and negative affect (NA), life satisfaction (LS) and psychological well-being (PWB). The model categorizes participants in four different temperaments using the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS): self-actualizing (high PA and low NA), high affective (high PA and high NA), low affective (low PA and low NA), and self-destructive (low PA and high NA). Across cultures, self-actualizing adolescents reported higher LS and PWB. The PWB sub-scale of self-acceptance was positively related to LS regardless of temperament profile or cultural background. Nevertheless, Iranian adolescents with self-destructive profiles reported higher LS than high affective Iranians. The AFTs model is suggested to offer something unique by taking into account the interaction of PA and NA.     

Sexism, Vocational Goals, and Motivation as Predictors of Men’s and Women’s Career Choice

In the present study we analyzed the impact of vocational goals, sexist attitudes toward women, and motivation on career choice, in a sample of 448 Spanish college students (65.2% women and 34.1% men). Although we found some similarities between men and women in terms of their motivational orientations (extrinsic vs. intrinsic) and vocational goals, men’s extrinsic motivations appear to differ depending on the college major. We also found differences in sexist attitudes toward women by gender and chosen major: both male and female students enrolled in technical majors reported the most sexist attitudes (both hostile and benevolent). These findings underline the importance of taking sexist attitudes toward women into account in attempts to explain gender differences in career choice, something which has been largely overlooked in the research to date.     

High School Final Year Students’ Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy,Attachment Styles and Gender Role Orientations

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relation between final year high school students’ career decision-making self-efficacy and attachment styles. The research group consisted of 808 final year students selected at random and receiving high school education in the province of Trabzon, Turkey in the 2013–2014 academic years. Participants completed a Personal Data Form prepared by the researchers, the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale in order to measure career decision-making self-efficacy, the Relationship Scales Questionnaire and the BEM Gender role Inventory. Results showed that career decision making efficacy was significantly correlated with the secure and fearful and attachment styles, and career decision making self-efficacy varied according to gender roles. Subjects with masculine and feminine gender roles had greater career decision making self-efficacy than those with indeterminate roles, and those with androgynous roles had greater career making self-efficacy than those with masculine, feminine or indeterminate gender roles.     

Correlates of Career Satisfaction in Canada—the Immigrants’ Experience

This paper explores the correlates of career satisfaction among Canadian managers, professionals and executives, specifically the career satisfaction experience of both visible minority and non-visible minority immigrants. Survey data collected from over 13,000 managers, professionals and executives in 43 Canadian organizations were analysed using the ordinary least squares multiple regression technique. Results indicate that immigrants experience lower career satisfaction than native-borns and visible minority immigrants have lower career satisfaction than non-visible minority immigrants. Employee and employer characteristics, objective employment outcomes and subjective perceptual measures were found to be positively associated with career satisfaction for immigrant and native-born respondents.     

Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction During the Transition to Post-Comprehensive Education: Antecedents and Consequences

The present four-wave longitudinal study, conducted in Finland, investigated the extent to which life satisfaction changed among adolescents during the transition from comprehensive school to an academic or a vocational track. The participants were 15-year-old adolescents (Time 1: N = 687, Time 2: N = 642, Time 3: N = 818, Time 4: N = 749) who filled in the Diener et al. (J Pers Assess 49: 71–75, 1985). Satisfaction With Life Scale twice during their final term of comprehensive school and twice after the transition either to upper secondary or vocational education. At comprehensive school they reported their academic achievement, expected educational track, educational aspirations, self-esteem, and background information, while at the last measurement point they reported their school engagement and attained educational track. Latent Growth Modeling showed, first, that life satisfaction increased during the educational transition. Second, the higher the adolescents’ academic achievement and self-esteem, the higher the level of their life satisfaction during the transition. Third, among girls, the lower their self-esteem, the more their life satisfaction increased during the educational transition. Fourth, among both boys and girls, a high level of life satisfaction during the transition predicted academic track and school engagement at the last measurement point. Finally, among girls, an increase in life satisfaction during the transition predicted school engagement and an academic track. The results support the stage-environment fit theory according to which the nature of the educational environment is more important than the transition per se for changes in adolescents’ life satisfaction (see Eccles and Midgley in Research on motivation in education. Academic Press, New York, pp. 139–186, 1989).     

Forecasting and Ethical Decision Making: What Matters?

This study examined how the number and types of consequences considered are related to forecasting and ethical decision making. Undergraduate participants took on the role of the key actor in several ethical problems and were asked to forecast potential outcomes and make a decision about each problem. Performance pressure was manipulated by ostensibly making rewards contingent on good problem-solving performance. The results indicated that forecast quality was associated with decision ethicality, and the identification of the critical consequences of the problem and consequences for others were associated with both higher quality forecasts and more ethical decisions. In addition, the identification of a larger number of consequences was negatively associated with ethical decision making. Performance pressure did not impact forecast quality or ethicality of decisions. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Mothering,Fathering, and Italian Adolescents’ Problem Behaviors and Life Satisfaction: Dimensional and Typological Approach

In this study, we explored the relationship between mothering, fathering and Italian adolescents’ problem behaviors and life satisfaction by using both typological and dimensional approaches. From a typological perspective, we examined variations in adolescent adjustment as a function of maternal and paternal parenting styles. From a dimensional perspective, we examined the relationships between crucial dimensions of perceived mothering and fathering (acceptance and strictness) and their contribution to adolescents’ adjustment, for girls and boys separately. A total of 213 adolescents (99 boys and 114 girls), aged from 14 to 16 years of age, completed self-report measures on perceived parenting styles, internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and life satisfaction. Overall, the results confirmed the relationship between maternal and paternal styles and adolescents’ adjustment. Still, the data have not led to the identification of an optimal parenting style among the Italian adolescents because the authoritative, the authoritarian, and the indulgent styles emerged as most favorable in relation to the different dimensions of adjustment and life satisfaction, whereas the neglectful style was most linked to behavioral problems and to low satisfaction. When the focus was on the dimensions, the results showed that for boys, maternal and paternal strictness were negatively related to behavioral problems—both internalizing and externalizing—and positively related to general satisfaction. Meanwhile, for girls, maternal and paternal strictness were negatively related only to externalizing problems. Paternal acceptance was negatively related to girls’ behavioral problems, while maternal acceptance was positively related to girls’ general satisfaction.     

Does Traditional Stereotyping of Career as Male Affect College Women’s,but Not College Men’s,Career Decision Self-Efficacy and Ultimately Their Career Adaptability?

Sex Roles - In South Korea, strong beliefs about traditional gender roles in accordance with Confucian and patriarchic atmosphere still strongly influence daily life and the career development...     

The Effect of Induced Positive and Negative Emotion and Openness-to-Feeling in Student’s Consumer Decision Making

How do emotional states affect risk-taking and consumer decisions? Serial experiments were conducted to demonstrate and explain the relationships among emotions, risk-taking, and consumer decisions. Study 1 showed that participants whose emotional condition was negative were more likely to systematically engage in risk-taking behavior than those exhibiting positive emotions, and the emotional effects were moderated by openness to feeling (OF) as a function of individual personality. Studies 2–5 were mainly to examine the effects of emotional conditions on consumer decision. The results of studies 2–5 substantiated our prediction that participants in positive emotional states were less likely to respond to puffer advertising and sales promotion, thus increasing the share of an option that is “average” in all dimensions, and more likely to have a compromise effect than in those in a negative emotional condition. Studies 2–5 also found that the emotional effects were moderated by individuals’ openness to their own feelings. The effects are discussed in relation to the literature on emotions, risk-taking, and consumer decisions.     

Pre-Pandemic Peer Relations Predict Adolescents’ Internalizing Response to Covid-19

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - The goal of the current longitudinal study was to investigate the role of adolescents’ peer victimization and aggression prior to COVID-19...     

Child’s Difficult Temperament and Mothers’ Parenting Styles

The study examined the associations between children’s temperamental characteristics and mothers’ parenting styles, and the mediating and moderating role of maternal well-being in these associations. Mothers of 152 Finnish first grade children (79 girls and 73 boys) filled in questionnaires measuring their parenting styles (i.e., affection, behavioral control, and psychological control) and psychological well-being (i.e., depressive symptoms and self-esteem), and their children’s temperament. The results showed that children’s low positivity was associated with low maternal affection, whereas children’s negative emotionality was associated with mothers’ high controlling attempts in terms of psychological and behavioral control. The impacts of children’s low levels of positivity and high levels of activity on mothers’ psychological control were mediated via maternal well-being: the more active and the less positive a mother perceived her child to be, the lower was her well-being and, consequently, the more psychological control she applied. Moderating effects of psychological well-being were not found.     

The Role of Hope, Spirituality and Religious Practice in Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction: Longitudinal Findings

This longitudinal study presents the first examination of the relation between hope, spirituality, religious practice and life satisfaction of students in Portugal. A sample of 227 adolescents aged 15–19 completed the Portuguese versions of the Children Hope Scale, Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale and a single item for each spirituality and religious practice variable. The results from the cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses suggest that hope and spirituality, but not religious practice, were strongly linked to adolescents’ life satisfaction. Hope significantly predicted life satisfaction at a single time point, 6-months and 1-year later, and spirituality scores added significant variance beyond hope scores. All the variables demonstrate moderate to high stability across 6-months and 1-year time frame; no significant changes were found between the variables across the administrations. These results parallel recent studies of adult and child life satisfaction and suggest strategies to promote life satisfaction in adolescents.