Does habit weaken the relationship between intention and behaviour? Revisiting the habit‐intention interaction hypothesis

Habitual behaviours are elicited when a familiar context activates cue‐behaviour associations that have been learned through previous performance. A core hypothesis within habit theory is that, by virtue of its automaticity, habit weakens the impact of intention on action, such that in facilitating conditions, action will be guided more by habit than momentary intentions. This has led to recommendations that habit formation be harnessed as a mechanism for sustaining desirable behaviour over time, when people would otherwise relapse due to loss of motivation. This article reviews theory and evidence around the hypothesized interaction between habit and intention as determinants of behaviour. We first qualify the hypothesis by clarifying that it pertains only to determinants of the instigation of action, rather than execution. Next, drawing on a systematic review of 52 behaviour‐prediction studies, we highlight mixed empirical support for the interaction. We argue that ostensibly inconsistent findings can be reconciled by recognizing the distinction between the direction and strength of intention, and identifying the “facilitating conditions” that may determine the relative influence of habit and intention on behaviour. Evidence demonstrates that when self‐control is diminished, people act habitually regardless of intention direction or strength. When people possess self‐control, habits can help people to act on favourable but weakened intentions, but intentions that oppose habitual tendencies can override habitual influence. This has important implications for behaviour change: even if habit has formed, a minimal level of favourable conscious motivation may be required to sustain behaviours over time. Social psychology might fruitfully move beyond asking whether habit moderates the intention‐behaviour relationship, and instead probe how and in which conditions habits and intentions interact.     

Construct validation of a trait self‐regulation model

A confirmatory factor model of trait self‐regulation was tested in a sample of 246 eleventh‐graders in Korea. The good model fit and the pattern of factor correlations indicated that the third‐order factor, trait self‐regulation, was composed of two second‐order factors, trait metacognition and trait motivation; trait metacognition was composed of planning and self‐checking, and trait motivation was composed of effort and self‐efficacy. Trait metacognition and trait motivation were highly related, but were two distinguishable trait constructs. Importance of understanding both state and trait attributes of student characteristics in determining individual differences in learning and performance was discussed. It was suggested that teachers examine students' trait self‐regulatory behaviours via measuring their trait planning and self‐checking behavioural tendencies and their effort and self‐efficacy levels prior to providing self‐regulatory skill training.     

Item‐level Frame‐of‐reference Effects in Personality Testing: An investigation of incremental validity in an organizational setting

A recent line of research has investigated the frame‐of‐reference effect on personality scale scores, in which self‐report personality items are contextualized to the specific performance setting (e.g., work, school) within which the performance criterion is gathered. Contextualization has been shown to increase both the reliability and the criterion‐related validity of the personality scale scores by facilitating the self‐presentation of respondents, and by more closely measuring the personality construct relevant to the performance domain. The current research extends this area of personality research in two ways. First, this study tests the generalizability of the effectiveness of item‐level contextualization within an organizational setting. Second, this study also provides the necessary test of the incremental validity of this contextualized approach to personality measurement above and beyond the traditional, noncontextualized approach. The results confirm that a work‐specific personality measure, contextualized at the item level, adds to the prediction of job performance above and beyond that obtained by a noncontextual measure of the same personality traits. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Enacting modesty in Chinese culture: The joint contribution of personal characteristics and contextual features

This research revealed the joint impact of personality traits, social axioms, role relationships and the privacy of social situations on the enactment of three types of modesty, namely, avoiding attention, self‐effacement, and enhancement of others, among Hong Kong Chinese teenage females. The modest personality trait was found to relate positively to these modest behaviours. An individual's belief in reward for application significantly predicted self‐effacement, and the belief in social cynicism significantly predicted avoiding attention and enhancement of others. Contextual variables as measured by the role relationships and the privacy of the social setting also significantly affected the levels of these modest behaviours.     

Secondary student motivation orientations and standards‐based achievement outcomes

Background Individual student characteristics such as competence motivation, achievement values, and goal orientations have been related in meaningful ways to task attainment. The standards‐based National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) was developed in New Zealand with the intention of strengthening connections between student learning behaviours and achievement outcomes. Aim This study investigates interrelationships between self‐reported motivation orientations and achievement outcomes on the NCEA, a standards‐based, criterion‐referenced assessment system for senior secondary students. Sample Participants were 3,569 Year 11–Year 13 students at 20 nationally representative secondary schools in New Zealand. Method Survey data were factor analysed followed by regression analyses to examine relationships across demographic factors, self‐report survey results, and NCEA achievement outcomes. Results Several theoretically meaningful self‐reported motivation orientations were strongly related to actual achievement including doing my best (high achievement) and doing just enough (low achievement). These dimensions varied by gender, ethnicity, and school zone decile. Conclusions These findings illustrate how particular design features of a standards‐based assessment system relate to student attitudes and achievement. They also highlight the need for longitudinal research to investigate patterns over time as well as the possible impact of interventions to alter motivation and/or academic task performance.     

Seeing is Knowing: On the Predictive Accuracy of Self‐ and Informant Reports for Prosocial and Moral Behaviours

Under certain circumstances, well‐known others (so‐called informants) may possess unique insights into targets' personality traits beyond the targets' self‐views. Specifically, as proposed by the self–other knowledge asymmetry model, an incremental predictive ability of informants is most likely for traits and corresponding behaviours that are clearly visible to others and highly evaluative in nature. In two studies, we provide an empirical test of this proposition and extend prior research to one of the most important domains of interpersonal interaction: prosocial and moral behaviours. Specifically, we investigate the unique predictive power of informant reports in trait Honesty–Humility for fairness in the dictator game and dishonesty in a cheating paradigm. Importantly, while both these classes of behaviour are highly evaluative in nature, only fairness is clearly visible to others. Correspondingly, in line with the self–other knowledge asymmetry model, our results reveal unique predictive accuracy of informant reports for fairness. For dishonesty, by contrast, there was no conclusive evidence for incremental predictive power of informant reports. This implies that informants may indeed provide valuable information beyond targets' self‐reports on trait aspects driving fair behaviour, but that targets themselves are their own best experts when it comes to judging trait aspects driving dishonest behaviour. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Social Networking Websites,Personality Ratings,and the Organizational Context: More Than Meets the Eye?1

We examined the psychometric properties of the Big Five personality traits assessed through social networking profiles in 2 studies consisting of 274 and 244 social networking website (SNW) users. First, SNW ratings demonstrated sufficient interrater reliability and internal consistency. Second, ratings via SNWs demonstrated convergent validity with self‐ratings of the Big Five traits. Third, SNW ratings correlated with job performance, hirability, and academic performance criteria; and the magnitude of these correlations was generally larger than for self‐ratings. Finally, SNW ratings accounted for significant variance in the criterion measures beyond self‐ratings of personality and cognitive ability. We suggest that SNWs may provide useful information for potential use in organizational research and practice, taking into consideration various legal and ethical issues.     

Let There Be Variance: Individual Differences in Consecutive Self‐control in a Laboratory Setting and Daily Life

The large body of research used to support ego‐depletion effects is currently faced with conceptual and replication issues, leading to doubt over the extent or even existence of the ego‐depletion effect. By using within‐person designs in a laboratory (Study 1; 187 participants) and an ambulatory assessment study (Study 2; 125 participants), we sought to clarify this ambiguity by investigating whether prominent situational variables (such as motivation and affect) or personality traits can help elucidate when ego depletion can be observed and when not. Although only marginal ego‐depletion effects were found in both studies, these effects varied considerably between individuals, indicating that some individuals experience self‐control decrements after initial self‐control exertion and others not. However, neither motivation nor affect nor personality traits such as trait self‐control could consistently explain this variability when models were applied that controlled for variance due to targets and the depletion manipulation (Study 1) or days (Study 2) as well as for multiple testing. We discuss how the operationalization and reliability of our key measures may explain these null effects and demonstrate that alternative metrics may be required to study the consequences of the consecutive exertion of self‐control. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology     

A General Model of Preventive and Interventive Self‐Control

The field of self‐control has witnessed an unprecedented boom, not least due to the immense implications of successful and unsuccessful self‐control for people’s lives. However, successful and unsuccessful self‐control can take many different forms, and many conceptual problems have been raised as to what self‐control is about and how to best study it. Integrating different literatures, we provide a general model of self‐control which distinguishes between preventive (i.e., anticipatory) and interventive (i.e., momentary) forms of self‐control. The proposed Preventive‐Interventive Model (PI‐Model) of Self‐Control combines seven basic components: preventive strategies, desire, conflict, control motivation, volition, opportunity constraints, and behavior enactment. The resulting taxonomy helps to distinguish self‐control from standard motivational processes, to define the concept of temptation, and to identify different types of self‐control failure including self‐monitoring failure, motivational self‐control failure, and volitional self‐control failure. Further, the model helps to outline five broad mechanisms through which people may be able to proactively boost self‐control success.     

The ‘why’ and ‘why not’ of job search behaviour: their relation to searching,unemployment experience,and well‐being

Two studies (n = 273 and 254) used self‐determination theory (SDT) to examine unemployed people's motivation both to search and not to search for a job. The self‐regulation questionnaire format (Ryan & Connell, 1989) was used to assess participants' autonomous and controlled job‐search motivation (the ‘why’ of job search) as well as their amotivation for searching. Additionally, both autonomous and controlled motivation for not searching (the ‘why not’ of job search) was assessed. Results provide validity for these five motivational constructs and indicate, in line with SDT, that the constructs predicted reports of search behaviour, affective experiences, and well‐being. The addition of autonomous and controlled motivation for not searching contributed additional predictive power beyond the motivational constructs that focused only on searching. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How normative and social identification processes predict self‐determination to engage in derogatory behaviours against outgroup hockey fans

Bringing together self‐determination theory, intergroup theories based on the social identity approach, and normative approaches, three studies conducted among hockey fans tested if social norms and social identity predict greater self‐determined motivation to engage in derogatory behaviours against an outgroup team and higher frequency of these behaviours. Higher self‐determination was conceptualised as an indicator of internalisation. In Study 1, hockey fans who identified more strongly as fans of the Montreal Canadiens (N = 181) displayed a stronger positive association between the perceived norm in favour of outgroup derogation and self‐determined motivation to engage in derogatory behaviours against fans of an outgroup team. This interaction also emerged on the frequency with which the derogatory behaviours were enacted. In Studies 2 and 3 (Ns = 105 and 116), this norm by social identity interaction was replicated on both the self‐determination and the frequency outcomes for fans of a diversity of teams in the National Hockey League. In Study 3, these findings were observed over and above a manipulation that framed derogatory behaviours as being either harmful or beneficial. Results are discussed in light of motivational theories, normative approaches, and intergroup theories based on the social identity approach. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Construct Validity of Multi‐Source Performance Ratings: An Examination of the Relationship of Self‐, Supervisor‐, and Peer‐Ratings with Cognitive and Personality Measures

Although more and more organizations prefer using multi‐source performance ratings or 360° feedback over traditional performance appraisals, researchers have been rather skeptical regarding the reliability and validity of such ratings. The present study examined the validity of self‐, supervisor‐, and peer‐ratings of 195 employees in a Dutch public organization, using scores on an In‐Basket exercise, an intelligence test, and a personality questionnaire as external criterion measures. Interrater agreement ranged from .28 to .38. Variance in the ratings was explained by both method and content factors. Support for the external construct validity was rather weak. Supervisor‐ratings were not found to be superior to self‐ and peer‐ratings in predicting the scores on the external measures.     

The impact of attitudinal ambivalence on weight loss decisions: Consequences and mitigating factors

This research takes a new look at individuals' attitudes and intentions towards losing weight. Study 1 examines the relationship among those interested in losing weight and individual self‐evaluative ambivalence on attitude towards trying to achieve a weight loss goal and the intentions to achieve the weight loss goal. For Study 2, a between‐subjects experimental design, where attitudinal ambivalence and prior outcome feedback were manipulated and self‐efficacy was measured, is conducted to examine attitude towards eating healthier and intention to change eating behaviours. Findings across the two studies show that attitudinal ambivalence about the self and the individual's abilities and motivation to change the health behaviour produces a negative relationship between health‐related attitudes and intentions. We provide implications of how self‐efficacy and the provision of outcome feedback can alleviate the negative effect and improve the individuals' intentions to try to achieve a weight loss goal. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Using the Implicit Association Test to Assess Risk Propensity Self‐concept: Analysis of its Predictive Validity on a Risk‐taking Behaviour in a Natural Setting

The present work analyses the predictive validity of measures provided by several available self‐report and indirect measurement instruments to assess risk propensity (RP) and proposes a measurement instrument using the Implicit Association Test: the IAT of Risk Propensity Self‐Concept (IAT‐RPSC), an adaptation of the prior IAT‐RP of Dislich et al. Study 1 analysed the relationship between IAT‐RPSC scores and several RP self‐report measures. Participants' risk‐taking behaviour in a natural setting was also assessed, analyzing the predictive validity of the IAT‐RPSC scores on risk‐taking behaviour compared with the self‐report measures. Study 2 analysed the predictive validity of the IAT‐RPSC scores in comparison with other indirect measures. Results of these studies showed that the IAT‐RPSC scores exhibited good reliability and were positively correlated to several self‐report and indirect measures, providing evidence for convergent validity. Most importantly, the IAT‐RPSC scores predicted risk‐taking behaviour in a natural setting with real consequences above and beyond all other self‐report and indirect measures analysed. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Criterion Validity is Maintained When Items are Evaluatively Neutralized: Evidence from a Full‐scale Five‐factor Model Inventory

The original version and an evaluatively neutralized version (with items rephrased to reduce popularity) of a personality inventory were compared. The results revealed (i) similar criterion validity across three different sets of self‐rated behaviours, (ii) stronger relations to the rated social desirability of criteria for the original version and (iii) less correlation between factors for the neutralized version. We take the results to indicate that evaluative neutralization is a viable technique for reducing social desirability in self‐ratings. Implications for test construction are discussed. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Cybernetic coping scale

The Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ; Folkman & Lazarus, 1985 ) remains one of the widely used measures of self‐report coping behaviours, despite an acknowledgement of its relatively poor psychometric properties. In contrast, the Cybernetic coping scale (CCS; Edwards & Baglioni, 1993 ) appears to have improved psychometric characteristics, but is scarcely employed within published research. To examine the factor structure and criterion validity of the CCS, a longitudinal study was conducted using a diverse sample of New Zealand employees from a range of organizations. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the CCS was found to have construct validity over time. However, a 14‐item CCS model produced the best goodness‐of‐fit and improved item properties. The implications of this improved CCS are discussed in terms of longitudinal research designs, and the necessity for the inclusion of robust self‐report coping measures.     

Single‐item big five ratings in a social network design

To develop and validate an ultra‐short measure to assess the Big Five in social network designs, the unipolar items of the Ten‐Item Personality Inventory were adapted to create a bipolar single‐item scale (TIPI‐r), including a new Openness item. Reliability was examined in terms of the internal consistency and test–retest stability of self‐ratings and peer‐rating composites (trait reputations). Validity was examined by means of convergence between TIPI‐r and Big Five Inventory (BFI) scores, self‐peer agreement and projection (intra‐ individual correlation between self‐ and peer‐ratings). The psychometric quality of the TIPI‐r differed somewhat between scales and the different reliability and validity criteria. The high reliability of the peer‐rating composites motivates to use the TIPI‐r in future studies employing social network designs. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding response patterns in dyadic conflict: An interactive approach combining self‐construal and opponent's dominance‐submissiveness

Previous works on the effect of self‐construal in interpersonal behaviours tend to adopt a main effect approach. The present research proposes an interactive approach in understanding two response patterns in dyadic conflict by combining self‐construal and the stance of the opponent. Independent self‐construal was hypothesised to be associated with a self‐centred pattern of conflict response, which is characterised by taking contending responses regardless of whether the stance of the opponent is dominant or submissive. Relational self‐construal was hypothesised to be associated with a tuning‐in pattern of conflict response, which is characterised by showing contending responses when the opponent is submissive but yielding responses when the opponent is dominant. With trait self‐construal measured and opponent's stance manipulated, Study 1 provided initial support for the hypotheses. Study 2 showed a three‐way interaction effect between trait self‐construal, manipulated self‐construal and the opponent's stance on actual conflict responses during discussion of a scenario. The effect of self‐construal manipulation was only observed among people who were low in trait independent self‐construal and average in trait relational self‐construal. The results pinpoint the importance of considering personal and opponent factors simultaneously in understanding the dynamics of dyadic conflict processes.     

Great man or great myth? A quantitative review of the relationship between individual differences and leader effectiveness

This study presents a meta‐analysis of 25 individual differences proposed to be related to effective leadership, with an emphasis on comparing trait‐like (e.g. personality and intelligence) to state‐like individual differences (e.g. knowledge and skills). The results indicate that although both trait‐like (achievement motivation, energy, dominance, honesty/integrity, self‐confidence, creativity, and charisma) and state‐like (interpersonal skills, oral communication, written communication, administrative/management skills, problem‐solving skills, and decision making) individual differences were consistent predictors of effective leadership, the impact of trait‐like and state‐like individual differences was modest overall and did not differ substantially (ρ= .27 and .26, respectively). Finally, organizational level of the leader, method of predictor and criterion measurement, and organization type moderated the relationship between individual differences and effective leadership.     

Optimizing the validity of personality assessments: The importance of aggregation and item content

The predictive validity of a psychological measure can be improved by minimizing measurement errors through increases in the length of the assessment (aggregation) and, for an assessment of finite length, by making use of objective strategies for choosing from all available component measures. Two prominent considerations in selecting individual measures to be aggregated involve standards of (a) item content (construct approach) and (b) item/criterion association (empirical approach). Personality trait scales of different lengths were assembled for this study in order to represent features of the construct and empirical methods of selection. It was observed that (a) although reliability and validity generally increased with test length, aggregation beyond a certain point can fail to be expedient; and (b) although the prediction performance of empirically derived measures initially surpassed that of construct based assessments, the superiority of the empirical scales did not generalize to trait criteria that were not used as a basis for item selection. The data are interpreted as providing support for a theory-based program of test development where substantive considerations involving item content play a major role. The findings are also viewed as encouragement for conventional conceptualizations about organized dimensions of behavior.