Religious commitment and positive mood as information about meaning in life

Two studies examined the role of religious commitment in moderating the relationship between positive affect (PA) and meaning in life. In Study 1, Sample 1, religiosity was found to moderate the relationship between naturally occurring PA and meaning in life, showing that high levels of religiosity attenuated the effects of PA on meaning in life. In Study 1, Sample 2, religiosity similarly moderated the effects of induced mood on meaning in life. In addition, this pattern of results was shown to be unique to meaning in life compared to another life domain (life satisfaction). In Study 2, subliminally priming Christians with positive religious words (e.g., “Heaven”) was further shown to weaken the association between PA and meaning in life, whereas subliminal primes of negative religious words (e.g., “hell”) weakened the association between religious commitment and meaning in life. A competition of cues model is proposed to account for these effects.     

Relation,consensus, and commitment as foundations of moral growth

In her book, In a Different Voice, Gilligan failed to include a discussion of her earlier borrowing from Perry and of his critical use of relation, conversation and commitment. Gilligan's book is persuasive in its argument that an alternative to exclusively formalistic ethics needs to be recognised. However, the integration of central ideas from Perry offers some significant extensions of the usefulness of her work and establishes dialectical conversation as essential to mature valuing.     

Relations of college students' attitudes toward prevention of HIV and AIDS

This study investigated current attitudes towards HIV prevention in a sample of 1061 college students enrolled at a midwestern university. The survey was a self-administered set of 8 demographic questions and 15 questions about attitudes. The findings indicated sex difference in overall attitudes, with females having more positive attitudes than male peers with regard to HIV prevention. Also, analysis of variance indicated ethnicity was related to overall attitudes toward HIV prevention. It appears that education which might reduce the prevalence of HIV infection should consider programs specific to sex and ethnicity.     

Developmental status and AIDS attitudes in adolescence.

We postulated that among adolescents and young adults, the development of consistent and responsible attitudes with respect to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) precautions would follow a pattern similar to that of the development of a sense of identity. Late-adolescent trainee teachers and nurses (N = 262) were administered identity and intimacy measures and a questionnaire measuring attitudes toward and knowledge of AIDS prevention. Attitudes were shown to be conceptually complex, with dimensions expressing the identity statuses of diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, and achievement. Few relationships were found between AIDS attitudes and sex, course, measures of identity, or intimacy. However, attitudes toward AIDS precautions and identity status were predictive of future intention to use a condom. Intimacy level was negatively related to such an intention, suggesting that those in steady relationships may not recognize the need for AIDS protection.     

Similarity of attitudes and instrumentality as determinants of aggression by policemen

The influences of two determinants of aggression were investigated by means of a two by two factorial design. Aggression was operationally defined in terms of the amount and intensity of obnoxious sounds which the subject delivered to the confederate while the latter was trying to perform a task involving estimation of distances. In order to manipulate the first independent variable one half of the group of subjects were led to believe that the victim was someone who had many attitudes similar to their own. The other subjects thought they had to cope with a partner whose attitudes were dissimilar. The second independent variable was manipulated by suggesting to one half of the group of subjects that they would be able to earn increasing sums of money (up to a fixed maximum) depending on the loudness of sounds they were prepared to deliver to their partner. In the non-reward condition money was not mentioned. The subjects were young policemen. The data showed a strong effect of the similarity variable, with significantly more aggression being shown to a dissimilar partner. However, external reward did not lead to a clear increase of aggression. In the discussion attention is given to the relevance of these data to the problem of control of violence in our society.     

The determinants of the symmetry or asymmetry of social orientation schemata

Both the distances and the angles at which doll pairs are placed have been shown to vary according to the type of social encounter represented by the figures. The present study investigated the conditions under which asymmetrical orientations occur. It was argued that figure orientations reflect the need for and tolerance of eyecontact on the part of the interactors they represent, and that, therefore, asymmetrical orientation patterns would occur in an encounter in which one interactor had high eye-contact needs or tolerance, and the other low eye-contact needs and tolerance. Subjects placed doll pairs to represent three situations in which one interactor was expected to have a high level of direct gaze and the other a low level (asymmetrical situations), and three situations in which eye-contact needs and tolerance were the same for both interactors (symmetrical situations). Orientation asymmetry was considerably greater in the asymmetrical situations than in the symmetrical situation, and in the case of placements representing the asymmetrical situations the high eye-contact interactor was almost always the more directly facing of the two figures.     

Accessibility and fit as determinants of the salience of social categorizations

The present article proposes a theoretical model of factors affecting the salience of social categorizations. The model is strongly related to the accessibility×fit formulation by Bruner (1957) and to Oakes' (1987) functional perspective on category salience. The results of an experimental series using the ‘Who said what?’ paradigm are presented, which examined several hypotheses derived from the model. In Study I it was shown that the salience of a social categorization with high chronic accessibility (sex categorization) was related to perceptions of issue relevance (normative fit) and intercategory differences (meta‐contrast ratio). Furthermore, in line with the salience model measures to increase the situational accessibility, (i.e. a priming procedure) of categorizations with low chronic accessibility (educational group and home town categorizations) failed to affect category salience as long as participants perceived no comparative and normative fit of these categorizations (Study II). Under conditions where comparative fit of these categorizations was perceived, however, the priming procedure successfully enhanced category salience (Studies II and III). Results are largely consistent with the hypotheses derived from the salience model and support Oakes' functional approach to category salience. Finally, the complex interrelation between situational accessibility and perceived fit will be discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hope and positive religious coping as predictors of social justice commitment

The present study tested a theoretical model of dispositional hope and positive religious coping as unique predictors of social justice commitment over and above impression management in a sample of graduate students (N?=?214) in helping professions at an Evangelical Protestant university in the USA. This empirical study utilised a cultural psychology approach with a theoretical framework developed from (a) an earlier cultural psychology study of hope and social justice using the social philosophies of Martin Luther King, Jr, Cornel West, and Paulo Freire and (b) several liberation and Pietistic theologians. Results supported the discriminant validity hypothesis with dispositional hope and positive religious coping each predicting social justice commitment over and above a measure of spiritual impression management. Implications are considered for contextually sensitive training and future empirical and interdisciplinary research on social justice commitment.     

Efficacy and social support as predictors of parenting stress among families in poverty

Using a sample of low‐income mothers enrolled in Early Head Start (n = 65), this study tested the hypothesis that parenting stress is affected by social support and self‐efficacy, in addition to family risk status and family income. Specifically, it was proposed that social support and self‐efficacy are psychological resources that are associated with lower parenting stress levels, and would moderate the impact of family income on parenting stress. A significant proportion of variance in parenting stress was explained by self‐efficacy, family risk, and the interaction of self‐efficacy and family income; family income alone was not a significant predictor of parenting stress levels. Mothers higher in self‐efficacy had lower levels of parenting stress, and income was less associated with parenting stress levels for mothers high in self‐efficacy. Social support was not associated with lower parenting stress levels, nor did social support moderate the effect of income on parenting stress. Family risk was also a strong and reliable predictor of parenting stress, suggesting that family circumstances are perhaps better predictors of parenting stress levels than income alone. These findings suggest that parenting stress among low‐income parents should be viewed as a function of psychological, as well as financial, resources.     

Persuasive argumentation and social comparison as determinants of attitude polarization

Several of our studies indicate that persuasive-arguments theory by itself is an adequate explanation of polarization. Sanders and Baron (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 1977, 13, 303–314) criticize this research. More generally, they contend that both argumentation and comparison are involved, “with persuasive arguments facilitating the shifts motivated by social comparison.” We feel that their critique is unconvincing. Relevant portions of the standard literature are reviewed to demonstrate that social comparison is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for polarization. Finally, we speculate about how persuasive-arguments theory could be extended to argument-poor settings (e.g., Asch's line comparison situation).     

Deviance and the neutralization of moral commitment: An empirical analysis

Neutralization theory was proposed by Sykes and Matza (1957) as a theory of juvenile delinquency. Its major propositions are: (1) Delinquents maintain moral commitment to conventional norms, and (2) the ability to neutralize moral commitment facilitates juvenile delinquency. The present research attempts to evaluate neutralization theory for predicting variation in self‐reported expected illegal behavior in a random sample of 350 adults. Data analysis indicates that (1) neutralization is conceptually and empirically distinct from moral commitment, and (2) the interaction between moral commitment and neutralization significantly explains expected involvement in future deviance.     

Factors influencing the attitudes and commitment of volunteer alcohol counsellors

The attitudes of volunteer counsellors towards clients with alcohol problems and the counsellors' commitment to their agencies were investigated. A questionnaire was devised, incorporating the Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Perception Questionnaire, and was distributed to volunteer counsellors working within Volunteer Alcohol Counsellors' Training Scheme (VACTS) recognised agencies in England. Two hundred and thirty counsellors were eligible to complete questionnaires, representing approximately half of the total population of volunteer counsellors in VACTS agencies; 141 questionnaires were completed. The results indicated the importance of role recognition by agencies in enhancing counsellor attitudes towards their work; levels of experience, in terms of length of service and the number of clients seen, also appeared to be significant. Future agency commitment seemed to be positively influenced by four agency incentives, defined as role recognition, role support, training, and accreditation. Differing modes of supervision correlated positively with counsellors' attitudes towards clients and with their future agency commitment. It is concluded that voluntary agencies have an important role to play in maintaining positive attitudes and retaining their volunteer staff.     

To work or not to work: nonfinancial employment commitment and the social desirability bias

The so-called "lottery question," which asks whether individuals would stop or continue working if there were no economic reasons to do so, was used to evaluate non-financial employment commitment. Data were collected through a survey conducted among a representative sample of the adult population in Israel. The sample included 501 respondents, who were interviewed via telephone in their homes by professional interviewers from a national survey agency. The additional contribution of social desirability to the prediction of nonfinancial employment commitment, beyond the contribution of age, is significant. There is a higher likelihood of indicating a desire to continue working under conditions of high social desirability rather than under those of low social desirability. It is suggested that, in order to examine the actual scope of nonfinancial employment commitment, some measures of detecting or reducing the social desirability bias should be taken.