Negative Threat Appeals and Earthquake Preparedness: A Person-Relative-to-Event (PrE) Model of Coping With Threat1

Individual preparation, or the lack thereof, for the occurrences of external events that threaten the well-being of individuals is an issue of worldwide concern. The present studies were designed to investigate the impact of a particular type of persuasive communication (i.e., fear-arousing or negative threat appeals) on preparedness behavior regarding the possible occurrence of a damaging earthquake. A general model of coping, the person-relative-to-event (PrE) model, emphasizing the relationship between level of appraised threat and person resources, was applied to this issue. It was predicted that negative threat appeals using combinations of levels of factors that cause a person to appraise their resources as sufficient in quantity and quality to obviate or minimize the negative consequences of a threatening earthquake would increase levels of earthquake preparedness to a greater extent than would communications that do not. Results of Study I were partially supportive of these predictions. In Study 2, patterns of changes in preparedness behavior fit predictions generated by the PrE model to a greater extent when felt responsibility for preparing for the occurrence of an earthquake was high than when it was low. Implications of the research and theory underlying this investigation are discussed.     

A Person-Relative-to-Event (PrE) Approach to Negative Threat Appeals and Earthquake Preparedness: A Field Study1

The person-relative-to-event (PrE) model of fear-arousing or negative threat appeals predicts that increasing levels of threat when resources are appraised as sufficient relative to the magnitude of the threat will increase problem-focused coping. Conversely, increasing levels of threat when resources are appraised as insufficient relative to threat magnitude will decrease problem-focused coping. These hypotheses were tested in the context of a field study in which homeowners living in a local city were the participants. Results generally supported the PrE model in that preparedness increased over a I-month period as level of appraised threat increased, but only for those who also appraised resources as sufficient relative to threat. The possibility that perceived difficulty of preparation for a threatening event should be added to the PrE model as an essential component is discussed.     

Beyond Protection Motivation: An Integrative Theory of Health Appeals

We develop an integrated theory of health communication by combining protection motivation theory (PMT; Rogers, 1983) with the stages of change described in the transtheoretical model (Prochaska & DClemente, 1982). Our study challenges the assumption implicit in PMT that perceptions of vulnerability, severity, response efficacy, and self-efficacy are equally weighted across individuals. Rather, we propose that people at different stages of readiness to change are differentially affected by levels of these predictor variables. Results from our experiment confirm that vulnerability, severity, and efficacy (response and self) are the main motivators to change behavior during the precontemplation, contemplation, and action stages, respectively. Furthermore, we explore how specific categories of beliefs identified by the transtheoretical model are associated with perceptions of vulnerability, severity, response efficacy, and self-efficacy.     

Protection Motivation Theory and Skin Cancer Risk: The Role of Individual Differences in Responses to Persuasive Appeals

Undergraduates who sunbathed were assessed on personality variables and then randomly assigned to read one of 4 essays (with photos) that manipulated threat and coping appraisal information about sunbathing, skin damage, and skin cancer symptoms and prevention. High threat-appraisal information was by far the most powerful predictor of intentions to take precautionary measures against skin cancer. Coping appraisal information was associated with reduced perceptions of hopelessness concerning skin cancer risk. Individual-difference variables (i.e., appearance concern, need for cognition, health locus of control) predicted maladaptive coping modes and, to a lesser extent, adaptive behavioral intentions. Results suggest that tailoring persuasive appeals to individuals may modestly improve preventive efforts, and that invoking perceived threat effectively motivates most people.     

A Protection Motivation Theory application to date rape education

Date rape risk communication is a key component of education-based Date Rape Prevention Programs, common across colleges. In such programs, risk assessment in date rape is approached cautiously in order to avoid a tone of "victim blaming." Since it is important in the assessment of any risk to understand the surrounding social context of the risky situation and the individual's unique relationship with that social context, this study examines Protection Motivation Theory as it applies to handling the risk of date rape without victim blaming. The paper links individual personality and social contexts with risk communication. The study sample comprised 367 undergraduate women enrolled in a large Southern Public University. The study examines the relationships between dating activity, social competency, and type of information provided with the dependents variables of date rape related protection behavior (intent), belief, and knowledge. A factorial multiple analysis of covariance analysis found that the dependent variables had a significant relationship with aspects of social competency and dating activity. The exposure to varying information about date rape was not significantly related to the dependent variables of date rape-related protection behavior (intent), belief, and knowledge. The identification of social competency and dating activity status as protective factors in this study makes a significant contribution to the practice and research efforts in date rape education.     

A Meta-Analysis of Research on Protection Motivation Theory

This article reports the first meta-analysis of the literature on protection motivation theory (Rogers, 1975, 1983; Rogers & Prentice-Dunn, 1997), a model of disease prevention and health promotion that has generated research for over two decades. The literature review included 65 relevant studies ( N = approximately 30,000) that represented over 20 health issues. The mean overall effect size ( d += 0.52) was of moderate magnitude. In general, increases in threat severity, threat vulnerability, response efficacy, and self-efficacy facilitated adaptive intentions or behaviors. Conversely, decreases in maladaptive response rewards and adaptive response costs increased adaptive intentions or behaviors. This held true whether the measures were based on intentions or behaviors, and suggests that PMT components may be useful for individual and community interventions.     

Protection Motivation Theory: Prediction of Intentions to Engage in Anti-Nuclear War Behaviors1

The present study examined potential mediators of intentions to engage in behaviors related to the prevention of nuclear war. Protection motivation theory (Rogers, 1975, 1983) suggested that perceived severity of the consequences of nuclear war, perceived likelihood of occurrence of nuclear war, perceived efficacy of responses designed to prevent nuclear war, and perceived capability of engaging in those responses would combine additively and interactively to predict behavioral intentions. The theory further suggested that the effects of a fear-arousing communication on behavioral intentions would be mediated indirectly by changes in the predictor variables. Thus, a second purpose of the study was to evaluate the effects of the program “The Day After”, which dramatically depicted a nuclear holocaust, on viewers' affect (fear-arousal) and cognitions. Surprisingly, the program had no effects on viewers that we could document. We were, however, able to predict behavioral intentions, for both viewers and nonviewers (n= 282), from subjects' affect and cognitions, providing support for protection motivation theory in a new domain.     

Prediction and Intervention in Health-Related Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of Protection Motivation Theory

Protection motivation theory (PMT) was introduced by Rogers in 1975 and has since been widely adopted as a framework for the prediction of and intervention in health-related behavior. However. PMT remains the only major cognitive model of behavior not to have been the subject of a meta-analytic review. A quantitative review of PMT is important to assess its overall utility as a predictive model and to establish which of its variables would be most useful to address health-education interventions. The present paper provides a comprehensive introduction to PMT and its application to health-related behavior, together with a quantitative review of the applications of PMT to health-related intentions and behavior. The associations between threat- and coping-appraisal variables and intentions, and all components of the model and behavior were assessed both by meta-analysis and by vote-count procedures. Threat- and coping-appraisal components of PMT were found to be useful in the prediction of health-related intentions. The model was found to be useful in predicting concurrent behavior, but of less utility in predicting future behavior. The coping-appraisal component of the model was found to have greater predictive validity than was the threat-appraisal component. The main findings are discussed in relation to theory and research on social cognition models. The importance of the main findings to health education is also discussed, and future research directions are suggested.     

Perceived Coaching Behaviors and College Athletes' Intrinsic Motivation: A Test of Self-Determination Theory

We investigated whether a shared mental model is present in elite ice hockey and handball teams. In total, 231 male players participated in the study. Shared mental models were found to exist. Relationships between shared mental models and coaching efforts to develop a general training shared mental model and an opponent-specific model were explored. The relationship between role clarity and shared mental model, general training shared mental model, and opponent-specific model was positive. The shared mental model is a useful construct for analyzing elite team practice and coaching behavior. Coaches and sport psychologists should be aware that establishing a shared mental model in elite teams is essential in facilitating performance.     

Motivation in Personal Construct Theory: A Conceptual Critique

Kelly's attempt to derive apparently motiwtional phenomena (hostility, guilt, etc.) solely from the confirmation or disconfirmation of personal constructs cannot adequately explain such phenomena. His account of hostility assumes that some beliefs are so resistant to change that the person seeks to compel confirmation of them; however, this resistance is incompatible with Kelly's own Choice Corollary. Anxiety is said to derive from the fact that disconfirmation would leave one's world in chaos, but “chaos” is shown to be an illogical concept. Humor, in turn, cannot be explained just by cognitive incongruity, since incongruity may as well lead to anxiety or hostility. Finally, guilt cannot be explained without reference to underlying fears of punishment and their rationalization in terms of supposedly objective moral concepts. Nevertheless, Kelly's Repertory Grid technique, supplemented by laddering, may be useful in indicating primary needs, moral convictions, and sources of anxiety.     

Partial Loss of Territory Due to Anthropogenic Climate Change: A Theory of Compensating for Losses in Political Self‐determination

The unique problem of lost territory poses one of the most important and complex challenges of compensating for loss and damage due to anthropogenic climate change. Anthropogenic climate change will cause a significant increase in the sea level for centuries to come. A rising sea level endangers many low‐lying coastal areas but also entire states. However, the inundation of an entire state will remain a rare event. Partial loss of territory will be far more pervasive. As measured by the number of states, the area of land, and, in particular, the number of people affected, the phenomenon of partial territorial loss is much more significant. I address this from the perspective of compensatory justice. In particular, I offer (i) background on basic concepts, (ii) an overview and critique of existing accounts, and propose (iii) a novel interpretation of territory as well as (iv) a corresponding criterion of a duty to compensate before (v) I flesh out the overall theory, (vi) take into consideration implications and details of application, and (vii) respond to potential objections.     

Academic Procrastination in Two Settings: Motivation Correlates,Behavioral Patterns,and Negative Impact of Procrastination in Canada and Singapore

Two studies are reported examining academic procrastination and motivation in 1,145 university students from Canada and Singapore. In Study 1, relationships between procrastination and motivation variables were found to be similar across contexts, with self‐efficacy for self‐regulated learning most strongly associated with procrastination in both contexts. In Study 2, patterns of procrastinating behavior and the negative impact of procrastination were examined and compared in Canadian and Singaporean undergraduates. Participants in both contexts reported writing to be the academic task most prone to procrastination. More Singaporeans than Canadians were classified as negative procrastinators (i.e. rated procrastination as a negative influence on academic functioning). In both contexts, negative procrastinators spent more time procrastinating than neutral procrastinators and displayed lower self‐efficacy for self‐regulated learning. On décrit deux recherches portant sur la motivation et la procrastination universitaire (tendance à remettre au lendemain) de 1145 étudiants du Canada et de Singapour. Dans la première étude, les relations entre la motivation et la procrastination sont apparues être analogues dans les deux pays, la variable la plus fortement associéà la procrastination étant l'auto‐efficience pour l'apprentissage autorégulé. Dans la deuxième étude, les schémas comportementaux de procrastination et son impact négatif ont été analysés et comparés chez les étudiants de 1° cycle canadiens et singapouriens. Les sujets des deux pays ont mentionné la rédaction comme étant la tâche universitaire la plus soumise à la procrastination. Davantage de Singapouriens que de Canadiens été classés en procrastinateurs négatifs (c'est‐à‐dire que la procrastination est considérée comme étant un handicap pour les études). Dans les deux cas, les procrastinateurs négatifs gaspillaient plus de temps que les procrastinateurs neutres et manifestaient une moindre auto‐efficience pour l'apprentissage autorégulé.     

Adolescents' Cognitive Appraisals of Cigarette Smoking: An Application of the Protection Motivation Theory1

High-school students (N = 690) provided their cognitive appraisals of protection motivation theory (PMT; Prentice-Dunn & Rogers, 1986) factors in the context of cigarette smoking. A logistic regression analysis revealed that PMT predicted adolescents' current smoking behavior. Cognitions, including greater personal vulnerability to smoking-related diseases, minimizing the severity of the consequences of smoking, perceiving adolescent male smokers to be popular and mature, and perceiving limited health benefits for not smoking were found to be significant predictors of current smoking behavior. Intending to quit smoking in the near future was related to smoking occasionally, as opposed to regularly, and to perceiving the long-term risks of smoking to be severe. Possible applications for intervention programs are discussed.     

Motivational Predictors of Change in Oral Health: An Experimental Test of Self-Determination Theory

We tested the hypothesis that a psychosocial dental intervention formulated in terms of self-determination theory would increase patients’ perceived competence and autonomous motivation for dental care and would decrease their plaque and gingivitis over a seven month period, compared to standard dental treatment. We also tested a process model in which the intervention was expected to increase perceived dental competence and autonomous motivation, that they would be positively associated with oral health behaviors (i.e., brushing and flossing), which was expected to decrease plaque and, in turn, decrease gingivitis. We also examined whether: changes in perceived competence and autonomous motivation would mediate the effect of the intervention on dental-health behaviors; dental-health behaviors would mediate the links from changes in perceived competence and autonomous motivation to change in plaque; and change in plaque would mediate the relation of dental health behaviors to change in gingivitis. Finally, we examined the fit of the overall model with structural equation modelling. Results supported all predictions.

From Theory of Rhetoric to the Practice of Language Use: The Case of Appeals to Ethos Elements

In their book Commitment in Dialogue, Walton and Krabbe claim that formal dialogue systems for conversational argumentation are “not very realistic and not easy to apply”. This difficulty may make argumentation theory less well adapted to be employed to describe or analyse actual argumentation practice. On the other hand, the empirical study of real-life arguments may miss or ignore insights of more than the two millennia of the development of philosophy of language, rhetoric, and argumentation theory. In this paper, we propose a novel methodology for adapting such theories to serve as applicable tools in the study of argumentation phenomena. Our approach is both theoretically-informed and empirically-grounded in large-scale corpus analysis. The area of interest are appeals to ethos, the character of the speaker, building upon Aristotle’s rhetoric. Ethotic techniques are used to influence the hearers through the communication, where speakers might establish, but also emphasise, weaken or undermine their own or others’ credibility and trustworthiness. Specifically, we apply our method to Aristotelian theory of ethos elements which identifies practical wisdom, moral virtue and goodwill as components of speakers’ character, which can be supported or attacked. The challenges we identified in this case and the solutions we proposed allow us to formulate general guidelines of how to exploit rich theoretical frameworks to the analysis of the practice of language use.

     

Rules and Self-Rules: Effects of Variation Upon Behavioral Sensitivity to Change

The Psychological Record - Four experiments compared the effects of self-rules and rules, and varied and specific schedules of reinforcement. Participants were first exposed to either several...     

Negative Affective Responses to Stress among Urban Police Officers: A General Strain Theory Approach

ABSTRACT

The larger literature on police stress indicates that much of their stress emanates from two sources: organizational and environmental. These sources coexist in officers’ lives but function differently across police agencies. Officer experiences with stress also tend to lead to emotional reactions, some of which can be negative and increase the risk of misconduct. Agnew’s general strain theory provides one useful theoretical framework within which the relationship between officer strain and negative emotions can be investigated. Using data from three urban Texas police agencies, this study investigates the main sources of police strain as predictors of anger, depression, and burnout. Further, differences in negative emotions across agencies are also examined. Results show that organizational stress is significantly related to all three negative emotions across agencies. Implications and future research directions are highlighted.     

Perceived Health: A Test of Incremental Validity in Relation to Smoking Outcome Expectancies,Motivation to Smoke and Desire to Quit Smoking

This study examined the role of perceived health in predicting theoretically‐relevant aspects of smoking behavior among 161 young adult regular smokers (67 females; mean age = 21.9 years (SD = 7.2), cigarettes per day (M) = 12.2 (SD = 5.7)) recruited from the general community. Consistent with prediction, results indicated that relative to anxiety sensitivity, gender, number of cigarettes smoked per day and nicotine dependence, perceived physical health uniquely and significantly predicted expectancies for negative affect reduction and expectancies that smoking would lead to negative personal consequences. Additionally, perceived health incrementally predicted motivation to smoke to reduce negative affect. In contrast to expectation, perceived health was unrelated to motivation to quit smoking. Results are discussed in relation to the role of perceived health as a cognitive vulnerability factor for specific types of smoking patterns.     

Illicit Sexual Behavior: A Test of Self-Control Theory

Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990 Gottfredson , Michael and Travis Hirschi . 1990 . A General Theory of Crime . Standford , CA : Standford University Press . [Google Scholar]) contend that all deviance is subsumed under self-control theory and that individuals who commit any one deviant act will tend to commit other deviant acts as well. This research tests the correlation of illicit sexual behaviors with crime as they relate to measures of self-control. Secondly, this research examines the Gottfredson and Hirschi argument that their theory is a “general theory” and predicts all forms of deviance whereby low self-control is a predictor of both sexual deviance and crime. These analyses report illicit sexual behaviors are positively correlated with criminal behaviors providing support for Self-Control Theory. Furthermore, the analyses of this data support that low self-control is a predictor of illicit sexual behaviors and crime.     

道德动机动态系统理论：一种道德发展的新科尔伯格取向

在科尔伯格道德认知发展阶段理论、动态系统理论和自我决定理论基础上,Kaplan提出了道德动机的动态系统理论,把道德动机界定为认知和情绪成分自我组织和自我调节的动态发展过程。该理论有其特定的提出背景、基本观点和主要内容,并且具有一定的实证证据支持。未来研究应着力解决道德认知与情绪的关系、环境因素的影响、横断研究与纵向研究的结合以及研究工具的完善等问题。