Threats to autonomy: motivational responses to risk information

Two studies considered the role of autonomy in people's motivational response to health‐risk information. In Study 1, ‘non‐smoker’ participants (N = 59) completed a measure of autonomy and read either health‐risk information about smoking or neutral information. Those who read the health‐risk information reported less autonomous motivation for not smoking than did those who read the neutral information. However, level of autonomy moderated this effect: lower autonomy participants reported less autonomous motivation after reading the health‐risk information than after reading the neutral information but there was no such effect for higher autonomy participants. Study 2 (N = 100) supported the results of Study 1 using a sample of smokers, with a significant interaction between autonomy and health‐risk condition predicting autonomous motivation. Higher autonomy participants reported greater autonomous motivation to quit smoking after reading health‐risk information than after reading neutral information. There was no effect of condition for lower autonomy participants. Autonomous and controlled motivation was also considered in relation to the antecedents of intention outlined in the TPB. The findings are discussed in relation to the differential motivational impact of risk information on people with higher or lower autonomy. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Personality and motivational antecedents of activism and civic engagement

This article conceptually links theory and research on volunteerism to different forms of political activity, specifically activism and civic engagement. Multiple perspectives and measures of personality as antecedents of volunteerism, activism, and civic engagement are outlined, including individual differences in motivations, interpersonal orientations, and traits. Next, self-report data from 624 people involved in AIDS service organizations (as clients, volunteers, staff, or supporters) are utilized to empirically explore the best personality predictors of AIDS activism and civic engagement. Other-focused rather than self-focused motivation better predicted AIDS activism and civic engagement. The only measure of interpersonal orientation consistently related to these outcomes was communal orientation; as well, only the trait of extraversion was related to both outcomes. In analyses testing the predictive power of constellations of personality measures, other-focused motivation better predicted AIDS activism and civic engagement than the other measures of motivation, interpersonal orientation, and traits. Finally, meditational analyses supported a developmental sequence in which other-focused motivation leads to specific activism, which, in turn, encourages broader civic engagement. The discussion focuses on theoretical implications for understanding the impact of personality on different forms of citizenship behaviors and of the applicability of the Volunteer Process Model for studying political activity and civic engagement.     

Personality factors in relation to violent crimes

The personalities of a group of 54 persons (51 men and 3 women), imprisoned for the perpetration of violent crimes, were evaluated. The results were then compared to a normative group. This study considers personality factors and dimensions on three levels: (a) Basic factors: the "Big Five", (b) Personality disorders and clinical syndromes, (c) Personality dimensions related to personal wellbeing and social adaptation said to define a psychologically healthy individual. The results of the study show that it is not possible to define a basic personality profile for this group of violent delinquents based on the "Big Five" factors. It is, however, possible to find two habitual patterns of behaviour if the Millon Model (1990) is applied. These two behaviour patterns and attitudes towards life situations will be named "Dependent with compulsive traits" and "Psychopath tendencies". Both relate to indicators of mental health.     

Social environmental factors and psychological responses to acute exercise for socially physique anxious females

ObjectivesThis study examined whether social-environmental factors influenced the psychological responses to participation in a single session of group fitness exercise for females with heightened body image concerns.Design/MethodsSocially physique anxious female college age students participated in this study (N=99). A randomized 2×2 factorial design was used to examine the effect of leadership style (health versus appearance oriented) and mirrors (present or absent) on affective responses, enjoyment, self-efficacy, and future intentions.ResultsANCOVA revealed that participants in the health oriented class reported more positive affective experiences than those in the appearance oriented classes with effect sizes (ES) ranging from .47 to .61. They also enjoyed exercise more (ES=.40) and reported being more likely to join a similar class in the future (ES=.69). Mirrors did not influence psychological responses by themselves or in conjunction with leadership style.ConclusionsExercise leader behavior influences the quality of the exercise experience for individuals with social physique anxiety by creating a health or appearance oriented class atmosphere.     

Personality,threat and affective responses to cultural diversity

The present study tried to reconcile assumptions from Terror Management Theory that individual differences in openness to diversity are enhanced by existential threat with own recent findings suggesting that individual differences are diminished by threat. A model was supported assuming that it is the nature of the threat that determines which pattern will hold. We predicted that for stress‐related but not for social traits, threat enhances individual differences in reactions to diversity. Students were confronted with a videotaped meeting of a homogeneous versus diverse work group. Threat was induced using a Terror Management Intervention. Indeed, whereas for Emotional Stability individual differ ences in responses to diversity were restricted to conditions of threat, for Social Initiative, individual differences solely occurred under normal circumstances. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Student characteristics and motivational and process factors in relation to styles of career development

In this study student background characteristics and certain personological characteristics, including motivations for schooling and types of learning strategies employed, are investigated in relation to affective and cognitive aspects of adolescent career development. A Career Development Inventory, Learning Process Questionnaire, Word Knowledge test and General Information Questionnaire (addressing demographic and career decision-making topics) were administered to national random samples of 14-year-old and grade 11 students. Canonical correlation analyses distinguished at least three styles of career development (possibly four), and associations with student characteristics suggested the motives and strategies that might plausibly enter into the various modes.     

Personality,motivational, and social cognition predictors of leisure-time physical activity

ObjectiveThe purpose of the present study was to investigate associations between personality traits of extraversion and neuroticism, autonomous motivation, and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) constructs and leisure-time physical activity. The study examined whether autonomous motivation and the TPB constructs mediate the association between personality traits and physical activity, and whether personality traits moderate the relationship of autonomous motivation and the TPB constructs with physical activity.MethodsMiddle-aged women (N = 441) completed self-report measures of personality traits, autonomous motivation, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control (PBC) and intention. Moderate-to-vigorous leisure-time physical activity (MVPA) was measured using accelerometers approximately seven weeks later. Participants’ past accelerometer-based MVPA was available from four years earlier.ResultsOnly autonomous motivation and past MVPA directly predicted MVPA. Neuroticism and past MVPA were indirectly related with MVPA through autonomous motivation. No support for a moderator role of personality traits was found.ConclusionsCurrent data suggest that autonomous motivation and past experience are prominent determinants of accelerometer-based leisure-time MVPA, but not beliefs and intentions.     

Rating scale of therapists' systemic responses in an individual treatment context

This study involves the development of a process study instrument that measures therapists' systemic responses in an individual treatment context. The scale captures the quintessential elements of the family systems approach, namely, interventions that address interactional sequences of behaviors and contextual concerns. Two hundred and thirty sessions from 15 clients were rated using this scale. An interrater reliability of .62 was attained at the session level; at the client level, reliability reached an average of .89. Analyses with the 15 cases did not reveal a significant relationship between process variables and outcome measures. However, exploratory analysis of 11 clients, excluding cases that might have other overriding factors that impact treatment outcome, revealed significant findings confirming the predictive validity of the scale.     

Managing motivational conflict: How self-esteem and executive resources influence self-regulatory responses to risk

This article explores how self-esteem and executive resources interact to determine responses to motivational conflict. One correlational and 3 experimental studies investigated the hypothesis that high and low self-esteem people undertake different self-regulatory strategies in "risky" situations that afford opportunity to pursue competing goals and that carrying out these strategies requires executive resources. When such resources are available, high self-esteem people respond to risk by prioritizing and pursuing approach goals, whereas low self-esteem people prioritize avoidance goals. However, self-esteem does not influence responses to risk when executive resources are impaired. In these studies, risk was operationalized by exposing participants to a relationship threat (Studies 1 and 2), by using participants' self-reported marital conflict (Study 3), and by threatening academic competence (Study 4). Executive resources were operationalized as cognitive load (Studies 1 and 2), working memory capacity (Study 3), and resource depletion (Study 4). When executive resources were ample, high self-esteem people responded to interpersonal risk by making more positive relationship evaluations (Studies 1, 2, and 3) and making more risky social comparisons following a personal failure (Study 4) than did low self-esteem people. Self-esteem did not predict participants' responses when executive resources were impaired or when risk was absent. The regulatory function of self-esteem may be more resource-dependent than has been previously theorized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Personality factors related to black teenage pregnancy and abortion

48 pregnant adolescents who applied for therapeutic abortions (TAs) were compared with 55 adolescents who planned to have their babies (Terms) and 67 adolescents who were not pregnant (Controls) on the California Psychological Inventory (CPI). All the subjects were single, black, and ages 15-16. CPI results point to psychological differences with the Controls being most socialized, followed by the TAs, and then the Terms. Term girls seem to be experiencing a void and appear to be trying to fill it by assuming an adult role and having a baby; the TAs do not seem to have these same needs. In addition, those girls who became pregnant and described the relationship with the putative father as casual, appear on the CPI to have more daily problems, lack socialization, be less clear thinking, and have poor self-control. Pregnant girls who have good communication with their mothers showed no differences on the CPI from girls with poor communication with their mothers.     

Personality scale and item correlates of WAIS abilities

A cross-validation methodology was employed to identify 16PF scales and items that significantly correlated with performance on the verbal, spatial, and memory/numerical abilities measured by the WAIS in a nonpsychiatric sample of 489 adults. For both men and women larger personality-ability correlations resulted in all analyses for verbal ability than for spatial or memory/numerical ability. The 16PF scale analysis offered results generally consistent with Cattell's research. The item analyses produced rather similar results for both sexes for verbal and spatial abilities. For verbal ability three major correlates resulted: communicative competence, equanimity/low anxiety, and a desire for times alone. Though few in number the item correlates of spatial ability suggested a dispassionate, nontemperamental style of interaction with one's environment as the major correlate. Memory/ numerical ability was somewhat independent of 16PF item responses for women, but was associated with fastidiousness in men. Possible cause-effect relationships were suggested and implications for future research discussed.     

Personality factors and cervical premalignancy

The purpose of the study was to attempt a discrimination between stages of cervical premalignancy in terms of the four Eysenckian dimensions. It consisted of a quasi-prospective design applied to the presumed continuum of cervical premalignancy. The Ss were 88 women addressed by a physician or self-addressed for Pap smear examinations. Prior to the Pap smear they completed a demographic questionnaire and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire providing scores of extraversion (E), neuroticism (N), psychoticism (P) and lie (L). By the Pap smear results there were four groups of women: healthy, suffering from vaginal or cervical inflammations, suffering from human papillomaviruses (HPV), and suffering from dysplasias or cervical intraepithelial neoplasms (CIN). ANOVA and discriminant analyses showed that the Eysenckian dimensions discriminated correctly with above chance significance between the groups, mainly between the healthy and inflammatory, on the one hand, and the HPV and CIN, on the other hand (on the basis of N and E scores), and less well between the healthy and inflammatory (on the basis of L scores), and least between the HPV and CIN (on the basis of P scores). As expected, in the healthy and inflammatory groups as compared with the HPV and CIN groups, N and P scores were higher whereas E and L scores were lower. The results indicate the correspondence between physiological and psychological characteristics and suggest especially the alternating relation between neuroticism and physical pathology.     

Personality, ideology, prejudice, and politics: a dual-process motivational model

Early theorists assumed that sociopolitical or ideological attitudes were organized along a single left-right dimension and directly expressed a basic personality dimension. Empirical findings, however, did not support this and suggested that there seem to be 2 distinct ideological attitude dimensions, best captured by the constructs of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, which express 2 distinct sets of motivational goals or values. We outline a dual-process motivational (DPM) model of how these 2 dimensions originate from particular personality dispositions and socialized worldview beliefs and how and why their different underlying motivational goals or values generate their wide-ranging effects on social outcomes, such as prejudice and politics. We then review new research bearing on the model and conclude by noting promising directions for future research.