Two strategies for responding to stressors: Managing conflict and clarifying work expectations

The ability to take personal control of stressors may help reduce the effects of stress. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the use of two stress management strategies, conflict management and clarification of work expectations, can predict reductions in stressors—role conflict, role ambiguity, quantitative work overload, and time pressure—as well as overall stress reactions. The four stressors were selected because of their relevancy to middle managers whose companies had downsized. One hundred and twenty middle managers from midwestern companies participated in the study. Results indicate that the two stress management strategies do significantly predict lower scores on both the specific stressors tested and on levels of overall stress reactions.     

Type A behavior and processing of social conflict information

Research suggests that the Type A pattern as assessed by the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS) involves a number of stress-engendering cognitive/social responses. To identify potential responses responsible for social stress, the study tested the relationship between JAS Type A behavior and several cognitive/social variables relevant to assertiveness situations. Male undergraduates completed two measures of cognitive complexity and rated the reasonableness of another's request. Also, subjects were evaluated for positive content (i.e., consideration of the other) in role-played assertion responses. Type A behavior correlated with lower differentiation when sorting aspects of an assertion situation, lower integrative complexity when thinking about conflict topics, and less inclusion of consideration content.     

Children's responding to live interadult conflict: The role of form of anger expression

Children's responses to interadult arguments were examined as a function of three forms of disputes: covert, verbal, and physical. Four- to seven-year-olds' overt-behavioral responses to liveenactments of arguments between a male and a female were videotaped and coded for behavioral distress and anger/aggression, and children were then interviewed. Although children exhibited overt-behavioral distress in response to all forms of disputes, physical arguments evoked the highest levels of distress. Some gender differences in responding were observed. In comparison to boys, girls exhibited more overt distress during the arguments, and wanted to stop physical arguments more frequently. The results extend findings based on the videotape methodology of the presentation of interadult arguments indicating that form of anger expression impacts children's emotional responding to interadult conflict. We wish to thank the families for contributing their time and effort to this study.     

Global challenges as inspiration: A classroom strategy to foster social responsibility

Social responsibility is at the heart of the Engineer’s Creed embodied in the pledge that we will “dedicate [our] professional knowledge and skill to the advancement and betterment of human welfare...[placing] public welfare above all other considerations.” However, half century after the original creed was written, we find ourselves in a world with great technological advances and great global-scale technologically-enabled peril. These issues can be naturally integrated into the engineering curriculum in a way that enhances the development of the technological skill set. We have found that these global challenges create a natural opportunity to foster social responsibility within the engineering students whom we educate. In freshman through senior-level materials engineering courses, we used five guiding principles to shape several different classroom activities and assignments. Upon testing an initial cohort of 28 students had classroom experiences based on these five principles, we saw a shift in attitude: before the experience, 18% of the cohort viewed engineers as playing an active role in solving global problems; after the experiences, 79% recognized the engineer’s role in solving global-scale problems. In this paper, we present how global issues can be used to stimulate thinking for socially-responsible engineering solutions. We set forth five guiding principles that can foster the mindset for socially responsible actions along with examples of how these principles translate into classroom activities. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2005 conference, Ethics and Social Responsibility in Engineering and Technology, Linking Workplace Ethics and Education, co-hosted by Gonzaga University and Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 9–10 June 2005.     

On the development of communicative understandings: An early strategy for interpreting and responding to messages

Young children's apparently sophisticated understanding of language is explained by a simple heuristic which produces responses fortuitously appropriate to many of the messages directed to them. Specifically, the strategy recruits action responses to language unless some element, either linguistic or nonlinguistic, indicates otherwise. Two experiments tested for the existence of the heuristic by examining the responses of children, 19–34 months of age, to sentences susceptible of more than one interpretation. In the first experiment such sentences were spoken in as neutral a context as possible. In the second, the same sorts of sentences were presented in contexts supporting either action or informing responses. The results of both experiments indicate that young children interpret and respond to language in terms of an action-based strategy. Moreover, the observed effects of context show that even young children engage in a continuous, context-sensitive process of interpretation. The data are discussed with regard to speech act theory and its role in a developmental theory of understanding.     

Local communities responding to ecological challenges—A psycho‐social approach to the Natura 2000 Network

The institutionalization of biodiversity conservation through legal instruments has led to mixed reactions at both the individual and community levels, with conflict and resistance co‐existing with support. The overall purpose of this paper is to describe how rural communities living in areas included in the Natura 2000 Network of protected sites, where local practices of land use are regulated by new legal directives, receive biodiversity conservation goals. Previous studies suggest that this reception is strongly shaped by place identification, but their contradictory results demand further clarification. This study examines the role of psycho‐social variables identified by previous studies as potentially relevant moderators of identification: (a) Vested interest in natural resources, (b) evaluation of the designation process of protected areas and (c) institutional trust. It further extends previous research by analysing the support given to contextually relevant ecological practices. Results reveal a positive link between place identification and attitudes in the high vested interest condition and show that support for conservation practices is better predicted in the high vested interest and low trust conditions. The discussion focuses on the relevance of analysing contextually relevant psycho‐social moderators when attempting to understand how local communities' relation with biodiversity conservation is affected by legislative innovation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shifting social identities as a strategy for deflecting threatening social comparisons

Results of three studies suggest that the multifaceted nature of identity provides a strategic basis for reducing the threat involved in upward social comparisons. After performing worse than a comparison standard, people may strategically emphasize aspects of their identity that differentiate them from the standard, thereby making the standard less relevant for self-evaluation. On the basis of previous research showing that persons low in self-esteem are less likely to make effective use of self-protection strategies, we hypothesized that this strategy of deflecting the threat involved in upward comparison (i.e., decreasing perceived comparability by emphasizing an unshared social identity) would be used primarily by persons who are characteristically high in self-esteem. This pattern was confirmed in three studies. Moreover, use of the strategy was associated with relatively more positive affect following threatening upward comparisons.     

Age-related and situation-related social desirability responding among Chinese teachers

Social desirability responding (SDR) was affected by situation and age. However, most research is only concerned with overall SDR without considering the separation of impression management and self-deception. The purpose of this article is to explore the possible different effects of age and situation on the different components of SDR. A total of 158 teachers completed the BIDR at a 2 (high vs. low SDR situation) x 2 (20-29 vs. 30-39 years old) between-group experiment. The results of multivariate analyses, with gender and tenure controlled, suggested that the effects of age and situation on the four specific components were mixed. Impression management enhancement (IME) and denial (IMD) were significantly affected by situations. The older group had significantly higher self-deception enhancement (SDE) and IME scores than the younger one. Females had significantly higher IME scores than males. More age stages and the main effect of gender should be considered in the future.     

Skin color as post-colonial hierarchy: a global strategy for conflict resolution

The post-colonial hierarchy is a critical dynamic of global coexistence. Power is associated with those sovereignties characterized by light-skinned populations. Those characterized by dark skin are denigrated and assumed less qualified to negotiate global issues as equals. Although political objectives are expected to stimulate conflict, skin color is directly correlated with the present world order. Moreover, most post-colonial sovereignties are heterogeneous in one way or another and yet do not engage in destructive conflict. From a global perspective, conflict resolution will require post-colonial sovereignties--particularly those of relative light skin--to forfeit their self-serving denigration of others. Strategies for conflict resolution should ignore skin color and incorporate measures designed to improve problem solving, moral reasoning, and the general etiquette skills of those engaged in any negotiation process.     

Property rights and the resolution of social conflict

It has long been argued that ownership depends upon social groups' establishing and adhering to rights such as the right to use and to exclude others from using one's own property. The authors consider the application of such rights in the interactions of young peers and siblings, and the extent to which parents support their children in establishing and maintaining the entitlement of owners. They show that children, but not their parents, give priority to ownership in settling property disputes, and argue that diverging models of children's relationships account for these differing perspectives of children and parents.     

Self-regulation and social pressure reduce prejudiced responding and increase the motivation to be non-prejudiced

Self-regulation constrains the expression of prejudice, but when self-regulation falters, the immediate environment can act as an external source of prejudice regulation. This hypothesis derives from work demonstrating that external controls and internal self-regulation can prompt goal pursuit in the absence of self-imposed controls. Across four studies, we found support for this complementary model of prejudice regulation. In Study 1, self-regulatory fatigue resulted in less motivation to be non-prejudiced, compared to a non-fatigued control. In Study 2, strong (vs. weak) perceived social pressure was related to greater motivation to be non-prejudiced. In Study 3, dispositional self-regulation predicted non-prejudice motivation when perceived social pressure was weak or moderate, but not when it was strong. Finally, in Study 4 self-regulatory fatigue increased prejudice when social pressure was weak but not when it was strong.     

Effects of social identity salience on motivational orientation and conflict strategies in intergenerational conflict

With the upsurge of older adults still working, the labour force is becoming increasingly diverse in age. Age diversity in an organisation can increase the likelihood of intergenerational conflict. The present study aims to integrate the dual concern model and social identity theory to explain the underlying mechanisms of intergenerational conflict by examining the effects of social identity salience on motivational orientation and conflict strategies. A 2 (subgroup identity salience: low vs. high younger/older group membership) × 2 (superordinate identity salience: low vs. high organisational group membership) factorial design with a structured questionnaire on motivational orientation and conflict strategies in relation to a hypothetical work conflict scenario was implemented among 220 postgraduate university students in Hong Kong. Results revealed that subgroup and superordinate identities had a combined influence on conflict strategies but not in motivational orientation. Subgroup and superordinate identification promoted integrating and compromising strategies, superordinate identification promoted obliging strategy, subgroup identification promoted dominating strategy and no identification promoted avoiding strategy. Age did not moderate these relationships. This study contributes to the development of the integrated model of conflict.     

Efficiency of a strategy for detecting back random responding on the personality assessment inventory

The efficiency of a new strategy to identify back random responding (BRR) on the Personality Assessment Inventory (L. C. Morey, 1991) was studied using random manipulations of item responses from community (904 adult nonpatients) and clinical (1,079 adult patients) respondents. The strategy involved a comparison of short-form and full-instrument T scores on 2 scales found to be particularly sensitive to BRR in a recent study. This strategy was found to be reasonably sensitive and specific to even relatively low levels of BRR.     

Prototype matching: a strategy for social decision making

College students responded to a series of questionnaires while they were in the process of selecting housing from a choice of seven available options for the coming fall. Questionnaires concerned their self-concepts, their housing prototypes, their preferences in housing, and their goals in housing selection. Overall analyses of the self-to-prototype matching strategy suggest that most students indeed prefer the type of housing for which their prototype of the "representative" resident most closely matches their self-perceptions. More important, we obtained individual differences in attention to self-fit in situations. Of individuals who reported that they had interpersonal goals in the housing selection task, those who reported that many personality characteristics (both positive and negative) were untrue of self were more systematic in their use of the self-to-prototype matching rule, this was also true of low self-monitors. Neither pattern of individual differences obtained for students with practical goals in the housing decision.     

A search asymmetry for interocular conflict

When two different images are presented to the two eyes, the percept will alternate between the images (a phenomenon called binocular rivalry). In the present study, we investigate the degree to which such interocular conflict is conspicuous. By using a visual search task, we show that search for interocular conflict is near efficient (15 ms/item) and can lead to a search asymmetry, depending on the contrast in the display. We reconcile our findings with those of Wolfe and Franzel (1988), who reported inefficient search for interocular conflict (26 ms/item) and found no evidence for a search asymmetry. In addition, we provide evidence for the suggestion that differences in search for interocular conflict are contingent on the degree of abnormal fusion of the dissimilar images.