Personalized persuasion: tailoring persuasive appeals to recipients' personality traits

Persuasive messages are more effective when they are custom-tailored to reflect the interests and concerns of the intended audience. Much of the message-framing literature has focused on the advantages of using either gain or loss frames, depending on the motivational orientation of the target group. In the current study, we extended this research to examine whether a persuasive appeal's effectiveness can be increased by aligning the message framing with the recipient's personality profile. For a single product, we constructed five advertisements, each designed to target one of the five major trait domains of human personality. In a sample of 324 survey respondents, advertisements were evaluated more positively the more they cohered with participants' dispositional motives. These results suggest that adapting persuasive messages to the personality traits of the target audience can be an effective way of increasing the messages' impact, and highlight the potential value of personality-based communication strategies.     

Achievement perspectives and perceived ability: how far do interactions generalize in youth sport?

Objectives: to explore the generalization of a central prediction of achievement goal theory (AGT), that maladaptive motivation patterns occur only when low (Lo) perceived ability accompanies comparative (Co) achievement perspectives. This prediction was tested independently for (a) dispositional orientations and (b) perceptions of the motivational climate in (i) a cross-sectional study of enjoyment, and (ii) a longitudinal study of persistence.Method: track and field athletes (n=138) aged 11 to 16 years completed measures of dispositional orientation, perceived motivational climate, perceived ability and enjoyment. The climate instrument was revised for conceptual equivalence to the dispositional one. One year later athletes were identified as persisters or non-persisters with their clubs.Results: in the enjoyment study, a series of orthogonal comparisons supported the predictions for both dispositional and situational profile groups: CoLo groups reported less enjoyment than the remaining groups. In the persistence study, logistic regression supported the prediction for situational but not dispositional data: three interactions showed that withdrawal was most likely in low perceived ability athletes who (a) perceived a Co climate, or (b) had a self-referenced (Sr) disposition, but also (c) in athletes with Sr dispositions who perceived a Co climate.Conclusions and recommendations: the interactive prediction of AGT was supported in three conditions. Alternative explanations are discussed for the fourth condition. It is recommended that further research should identify the boundary conditions under which AGT is operational, and related theories that explain additional variance.     

An Examination of the Actor-Observer Effect in Young Drivers' Attributions for Their Own and Their Friends' Risky Driving

The attributions of 70 young drivers for their own and their friends' risky driving were examined using open-ended questions to determine if there were self-other differences consistent with the actor-observer effect. Six response categories were created, 4 of which were rated as more dispositional than situational by a subsample of the participants and 2 of which were rated as more situational than dispositional. While the largely dispositional category "Showing off, acting cool" was used significantly more for friends than for self, and the largely situational "In a hurry, late" was used significantly more for self than for friends, there was only limited support for the actor-observer effect overall. The participants also rated their friends as taking more risks than themselves. The actor-observer differences are suggested to be influenced primarily by motivational factors and the context in which young people observe their friends' driving. New approaches to traffic safety interventions are suggested.     

Spiritual pathology and religious coping as predictors of forgiveness

Spiritual pathology, religious coping, and dispositional forgiveness were investigated in two studies with graduate students at a Christian university-based seminary. Spiritual pathology was operationalised using measures of spiritual instability and spiritual grandiosity. Study 1 (N?=?194) examined patterns of correlation between positive and negative religious coping items, spiritual pathology, and dispositional forgiveness. Spiritual instability correlated with numerous positive and negative religious coping items while spiritual grandiosity did not. Dispositional forgiveness correlated with more positive than negative religious coping items. Study 2 (N?=?214) tested regression models with these variables. Spiritual grandiosity showed a significant quadratic (concave down) effect in predicting dispositional forgiveness while the linear effect was not significant. A hierarchical regression model showed positive religious coping, spiritual instability, and the quadratic effect for spiritual grandiosity each predicted unique variance in dispositional forgiveness after controlling for spiritual impression management. Negative religious coping was not related to dispositional forgiveness when included with these variables.     

Goal orientation, motivational climate, and dispositional flow of high school students engaged in extracurricular physical activity

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of goal orientation, motivational climate, and dispositional flow in physical education lessons on extracurricular involvement in physical activity. Questionnaires were administered to 1,103 (792 athletes; 311 nonathletes) secondary school students (M age = 14.3 yr., SD = 0.7). Analysis showed significant mean differences between groups on goal orientation and dispositional flow in physical education lessons, but none for perception of motivational climate. These findings suggest that dispositional variables are related to extracurricular involvement in physical activity.     

Dispositional and situational moderators of female and male causal attributions

To increase understanding of the relationships between gender and causal attributions, dispositional and situational variables were examined to determine if they affected causal attributions differently if the subjects were females or males. Four dispositional variables—locus of control, neuroticism, achievement motivation, and self-esteem—and five situational variables—expectancy of success, self-reported commitment, perceived productivity, perceived task complexity, and actual performance—were examined for their moderating effects on the gender-causal attributional relationships. The dispositional variables did not moderate any causal relationships. By comparison, four situational variables—performance, commitment, productivity, and complexity—moderated at least one of the gender-attribution relationships. It was concluded that more attention should be directed to the identification of situational moderators.     

Situational and Dispositional Goal Adjustment in the Context of Metastatic Cancer

Striving toward goals is associated with higher levels of subjective well‐being; however, many potential roadblocks to goal achievement exist. The current study extends the understanding of goal regulation processes in its examination of the relationships between dispositional and situational goal adjustment to a profound stressor and their associations with psychological adjustment. Women (N = 103; M age = 57.2 years; 82% Caucasian) with metastatic breast cancer completed semistructured interviews and self‐report measures at study entry and 3 months later. Measures of dispositional and situational goal reengagement were significantly correlated, but dispositional and situational goal disengagement were unrelated. Greater dispositional and situational goal disengagement abilities were associated with fewer cancer‐related intrusive thoughts at Time 1. Dispositional and situational reengagement were positively associated with life satisfaction and sense of purpose and negatively associated with depressive symptoms at Time 1. However, greater initial situational goal disengagement predicted an increase in depressive symptoms over time. Both how an individual typically responds to goal blockage, as well as how an individual is currently responding to a specific blocked goal, appear related to psychological adjustment.     

Situational and dispositional factors as antecedents of ingratiatory behaviors in organizational settings

This study examined both situational and dispositional antecedents of four ingratiatory behaviors: other-enhancing, opinion conformity, favor rendering, and self-promotion. The two situational variables (i.e., role ambiguity and leader-member exchange) and the four dispositional variables (i.e., self-esteem, need for power, job involvement, and shyness) were considered as antecedents to each of the ingratiatory behaviors. Results from a sample of 136 full-time employees suggested that each of the ingratiatory behaviors had a unique set of antecedents and that the dispositional variables explained significant additional variance beyond the variance explained by the situational variables.     

They Killed Our Lord: The Perception of Jews as Desecrators of Christianity as a Predictor of Anti-Semitism

Drawing on religious coping theory, we examined whether the appraisal that Jews desecrate Christian values (the stressor) is linked to anti-Semitic attitudes (the response). Further, we considered whether religious ways of understanding and dealing with this stressor (religious coping) mitigate or exacerbate the ties between religious appraisals of Jews and anti-Semitic responses. College students completed measures of desecration, anti-Semitism, and religious ways of coping with appraisals of Jews as desecrators of Christianity. Greater desecration was associated with greater anti-Semitism, after controlling for demographic variables and dispositional measures (e.g., particularism, pluralism, church attendance, Christian orthodoxy, fundamentalism, and authoritarianism). Religious coping in ways that emphasized expressions of Christian love were associated with lower anti-Semitism; ways of coping that emphasized being punished by God and Jews as demonic were tied to greater anti-Semitism. Perceptions of Jews as desecrators were predicted by higher levels of authoritarianism and religious orthodoxy, less closeness to Jews, greater exposure to messages of desecration, and less exposure to messages that counter the perception of desecration.     

The Role of Sympathy and Altruistic Personality Traits in Helping: A Reexamination

The purposes of this study were (a) to examine the role of social evaluative concerns in the self-report of sympathy and in the relation of sympathy to helping; and (b) to determine the role of "altruistic personality" traits and situationally induced vicarious emotional responses in the intention to help. Dispositional and situational self-reports of sympathy and other vicarious emotional reactions were obtained for persons who also were given the opportunity to assist a needy other. Moreover, dispositional measures of concern with social evaluation and an altruistic orientation were obtained, and a bogus pipeline manipulation was instituted for half the study participants. Both dispositional and situational self-reported sympathy were positively related to helping, as were other personality indices viewed as reflecting altruistic characteristics. The relations for the dispositional indices of sympathy were not due solely to social evaluative concerns or to other egoistic concerns. The effects on intended helping of dispositional sympathy, perspective taking, and the tendency to ascribe responsibility for others to the self appeared to be both direct and mediated by situational sympathetic responding. Finally, situational sadness did not mediate the effects of sympathetic responsiveness.     

Religious orientations,prototypicality threat,and attitudes toward church–state separation

We investigated whether stronger religious fundamentalism predicted negative attitudes toward church–state separation as a consequence of perceiving low in-group prototypicality (IGP). Across two studies (N = 635), Christians from the United States reported their religious orientations (intrinsic, extrinsic-personal, extrinsic-social, fundamentalism) before we measured (or manipulated) their perceptions of IGP. The dependent variables were attitudes toward church–state separation (S1, S2) and attitudes toward religious–national integration (S2). Results showed that stronger religious fundamentalism predicted negative attitudes toward church–state separation. Results also showed that fundamentalists’ negativity toward church–state separation was stronger when Christianity was not perceived as prototypical of America's identity. Religious fundamentalism did not predict attitudes toward church–state separation when perceiving high IGP. Religious fundamentalism predicted support of religious–national integration irrespective of IGP. The results suggest that fundamentalists will oppose the separation of church and state when they perceive their religion is not prototypical of their national identity.     

The Religious Support Scale: construction,validation, and cross-validation

Cutrona and Russell's social support model was used to develop a religious support measure (C. E. Cutrona & D. W. Russell, 1987), including 3 distinct but related subscales respectively measuring support from God, the congregation, and church leadership. Factor analyses with the main sample's data (249 Protestants) and cross-validation (93 additional Protestants) supported the scales' reliability and validity. All 3 types of religious support were related to lower depression and greater life satisfaction. Moreover, several relationships between the 3 subscales and psychological functioning variables remained significant after controlling for variance because of church attendance and social support. Results suggest that religious attendance does not automatically imply religious support, and that religious support can provide unique resources for religious persons, above and beyond those furnished by social support. Findings are discussed regarding relevance to community psychology.     

Integrating situational and dispositional determinants of job satisfaction: findings from three samples of professionals

Job satisfaction can be conceptualized as a function of situational conditions, personal characteristics, and interactions between both groups of variables. The authors compared the relative predictive power of these determinants in 3 samples of professionals (total N = 1,065). Perceived job characteristics (qualification possibilities, social support, stress, autonomy, participatory leadership) uniquely explained 7-22% of the variance in job satisfaction, and dispositional factors (Big Five, occupational self-efficacy, work centrality, mastery goals) uniquely explained 8-12% of the variance. Dispositional influences were partially mediated by perceived job characteristics. Interactions between situational and dispositional factors were of little significance. The authors concluded that perceived job characteristics (especially autonomy and participatory leadership) are important determinants of job satisfaction, and neuroticism is an important determinant as well. Highly educated professionals' job satisfaction also seems to be driven by qualification possibilities.     

Young Tennis Players’ Competitive Task Involvement and Performance: The Role of Goal Orientations,Contextual Motivational Climate,And Coach-Initiated Motivational Climate

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of situational and dispositional factors in contributing to competitive task involvement and performance in young tennis players. One hundred fifty-one adolescent tennis players and their coaches participated in the study. Participants responded to instruments measuring pre-game dispositional goal orientations and perceptions of the motivational climate and post-game task involvement in the competition by assessing concentration, loss of self-consciousness, and autotelic experience, perceptions of coach-initiated motivational climate in competition, and self-evaluation of game performance. In addition, coaches evaluated the players’ performance. Results showed that task involvement was predicted by players’ perceptions of a coach-initiated learning motivational climate in competition. Loss of self-consciousness was predicted by the players’ perceptions of a coach-initiated performance climate in competition. Finally, coaches’ and players’ assessment of performance were predicted by autotelic experience, concentration, and by perception of coach-initiated learning and performance orientation in competition.     

How communication goals determine when audience tuning biases memory

After tuning their message to suit their audience's attitude, communicators' own memories for the original information (e.g., a target person's behaviors) often reflect the biased view expressed in their message--producing an audience-congruent memory bias. Exploring the motivational circumstances of message production, the authors investigated whether this bias depends on the goals driving audience tuning. In 4 experiments, the memory bias was found to a greater extent when audience tuning served the creation of a shared reality than when it served alternative, nonshared reality goals (being polite toward a stigmatized-group audience; obtaining incentives; being entertaining; complying with a blatant demand). In addition, the authors found that these effects were mediated by the epistemic trust in the audience-congruent view but not by the rehearsal or accurate retrieval of the original input information, the ability to discriminate between the original and the message information, or a contrast away from extremely tuned messages. The central role of epistemic trust, a measure of the communicators' experience of shared reality, was supported in meta-analyses across the experiments.     

The Influence of Public Self-Consciousness and the Audience's Characteristics on Withdrawal from Embarrassing Situations

ABSTRACT Two studies examined the impact of public self-consciousness (PSC) and the audience's characteristics on withdrawal from embarrassing situations In Study 1 subjects verbally responded to a series of hypothetical events of an embarrassing nature before audiences described as either strangers or friends Subjects high in PSC expressed similar tendencies to withdraw no matter who the audience was, whereas low PSC subjects reported that they were less likely to withdraw when the audience was composed of friends as compared to strangers Study 2 had high and low PSC subjects perform an embarrassing act in front of either a friend or two types of strangers–those they either would or would not interact with in the future Low PSC subjects withdrew sooner from an audience of strangers they would have to interact with than from either an audience of friends or strangers they would never see again Again, high PSC subjects responded similarly to the three audiences They tended to withdraw quickly no matter who the audience was Discussion focuses on the role situational and dispositional factors play in withdrawal from embarrassing situations     

The nonconscious influence of religious symbols in motivated performance situations

Anthropological, sociological, and psychological theories suggest that religious symbols should influence motivational processes during performance of goal-relevant tasks. In two experiments, positive and negative religious (Christian) symbols were presented outside of participants' conscious awareness. These symbols influenced cardiovascular responses consistent with challenge and threat states during a subsequent speech task, particularly when the speech topic concerned participants' mortality, and only for Christian participants; similar images lacking Christian meaning were not influential. Results suggested that these effects were due to the learned meaning of the symbols and point to the importance of religion as a coping resource.     

We Are a Religious People; We Are a Vengeful People

We evaluate the relation between religiousness and vengeance using multiple indicators of religiousness (religious orientation and church variables) and behavioral as well as self-reports of vengeance. Results from hierarchical regression analyses revealed that intrinsic religious orientation was negatively and extrinsic religious orientation positively related to self-reports of revenge but not to behavioral indicators of revenge. Only quest orientation was related to behavioral indicators of revenge with those higher on quest setting relatively lower levels of shock following a provocation and giving more money to an obnoxious confederate. Of the church variables, the number of religious activities was negatively and frequency of monetary donations positively related to self-reported vengeance. Only frequency of monetary donations, however, was uniquely related to one of the behavioral indicators of revenge, level of shock, with those who give more frequently also retaliating with higher levels of shock.     

The 2 × 2 Model of Goal Orientation and Burnout: The Role of Approach–Avoidance Dimensions in Predicting Burnout

Burnout is typically viewed as resulting from situational factors (e.g., workload). However, as burnout is partly a reaction to frustrated goal striving, dispositional goal orientation may also be important. We used Hobfoll's ( 1989 ) conservation of resources model to develop hypotheses for relationships between goal orientation and 3 dimensions of burnout. Self‐report questionnaire measures of the 2 × 2 model of goal orientation (Elliot & McGregor, 2001 ) and burnout were administered to undergraduate students. Structural equation modeling revealed that all 4 dimensions of goal orientation were related to burnout. Avoidance‐related dimensions were positively associated and approach‐related dimensions were negatively associated with burnout. The findings suggest the importance of considering the role of motivational dispositions in development, prediction, and prevention of burnout.     

The homosexual subculture at worship: A participant observation study

The author worked for ten months as Director of Christian Education at a church serving the homophile community of a large metropolitan area. Using the method of participant observation, he concluded that the group is attempting to solve two problems centering on their sexual orientation and their religious needs. Past social conditioning has told the group that they cannot be bothChristian andhomosexual. The group resolves this cognitive dissonance by emphasizing the message that God loves all men, including homosexuals. This religious message is, contrary to expectations, expressed in theologically conservative language.