Are Nonfatal Suicide Attempts Instrumental in Achieving Personal and Interpersonal Goals?

This study focused on the well-being of the survivors of suicide attempts and the well-being of their interpersonal relationships after the attempt. The data came from a sample of 392 college students from 10 Muslim majority countries who reported having attempted suicide in the last 4 years. Suicide was conceptualized as a goal-directed behavior embedded in a sociocultural context and motivated by personal or interpersonal goals. We tested a process that linked culturally shaped self-construal to the postsuicidal personal and interpersonal well-being. We posited that this process would operate through the attitudes towards suicide, motives for suicide, the strength of the intention to die. Our model indicated that the acceptability of suicide was positively associated with escape motives, and this association was even stronger for the individuals with interdependent self-construals. Escape motives were negatively associated with postsuicidal personal and interpersonal well-being, but communication motives were not associated with these outcomes. We also found evidence that having an interdependent self-construal might be beneficial for postsuicidal personal and interpersonal well-being. Our results further suggested that the postsuicidal personal and interpersonal well-being of highly interdependent individuals may depend on the interpretation of their act of suicide by their close others.     

Religion as Moderator of the Sense of Control–Health Connection: Gender Differences

ABSTRACT

Objectives. Sense of personal control is a key marker of successful aging, yet little is known about its relation to religiousness and personal adversity among older adults. This study investigated the relation between two different religious orientations, a church-centered religiousness and a non-church-based spiritual seeking, sense of control, physical health, and gender in late adulthood.

Methods. The participants consisted of a community sample of men and women (N = 156) in their late sixties and mid-seventies who were born in the San Francisco Bay Area. Three-way ANOVAs were used to test in separate analyses, the effects of religiousness and spiritual seeking on sense of control among men and women who were either in good or poor physical health.

Results. Both religiousness and spiritual seeking buffered women, but not men, against loss of sense of control due to poor physical health. The buffering effect of religiousness and spiritual seeking was associated with different psychological characteristics: high life satisfaction for religiousness and engagement in life review for spiritual seeking. For men, the absence of a buffering effect of either religiousness or spiritual seeking was associated with disengagement from involvement in daily activities.

Discussion. Our findings highlight (1) the importance of employing multidimensional models of religion in studying its effect on psychosocial functioning in late adulthood and (2) the possibility that men and women who are high in religiousness and spiritual seeking regulate their sense of control using different adaptive strategies.     

Religiousness, Spiritual Seeking, and Authoritarianism: Findings from a Longitudinal Study

We use long-term longitudinal data from a sample (N = 155) of older age mainline Protestants, Catholics, and a small number of conservative Protestants to investigate the relations among church-centered religiousness, spiritual seeking, and authoritarianism. In late adulthood, religiousness was related positively, and spiritual seeking was related negatively, to authoritarianism; these relations held even after excluding conservative Protestants and controlling for education, gender, age cohort, and personal flexibility. We find a similar pattern using measures of religiousness, spiritual seeking, and control variables scored in early adulthood, a time interval of close to 40 years.     

The Social Production of Altruism: Motivations for Caring Action in a Low-Income Urban Community

Contemporary social science paints a bleak picture of inner-city relational life. Indeed, the relationships of low-income, urban-residing Americans are represented as rife with distress, violence and family disruption. At present, no body of social scientific work systematically examines the factors that promote loving or selfless interactions among low-income, inner-city American individuals, families and communities. In an effort to fill that gap, this ethnographic study examined the motivations for altruism among a sample of adults (n = 40) who reside in an economically distressed housing community (i.e., housing project) in New York City. Content analyses of interviews indicated that participants attributed altruism to an interplay between 14 motives that were then ordered into four overarching categories of motives: (1) needs-centered motives, (2) norm-based motives deriving from religious/spiritual ideology, relationships and personal factors, (3) abstract motives (e.g., humanism), and (4) sociopolitical factors. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Enchantment with Tibetan Lamas in the United States

This article explores the relationships of non‐Tibetan American disciples with Tibetan spiritual teachers (lamas) in terms of theory, practice, and experiential meaning. Contrary to some previous studies, data for this article indicate that submission to the lama is not an end in itself, but rather ideally provides an opportunity for disciples to become lamas themselves. Many disciples may find personal empowerment, oriented around the theme of compassionate social action. Understanding that surrender to the spiritual teacher is only a means to a personally empowering goal clarifies our understanding of many Asian religious practices in the West.     

基础社会动机与社会心理服务体系建设

基础社会动机体系, 是人类为实现生存繁衍的终极目标, 管理社会生活中的威胁、挑战与机会, 形成的一套激发、调控行为的内在动力, 从进化心理的角度提出了人们社会生活中的核心需求与动机。众多研究显示, 它不仅对社会行为有广泛影响, 而且当激活条件持续存在时, 会持续影响个体及一定区域人群的心理和行为。因此, 基础社会动机可以成为评估社会经济秩序稳定性及获得感、幸福感、安全感的重要心理指标。目前国内有关研究尚少。未来研究应以基础社会动机为切入点, 探索社会心理服务体系建设的基础心理需求指标体系, 探寻我国文化背景下基础社会动机与社会经济行为、社会生态环境的相互作用, 为社会治理相关政策的制定提供心理学依据。     

“I’m Not the Same,but I’m Not Sorry”: Exploring Dialogical Positioning in the Self-Transformation of a Former Politically Violent Militant

This article traces the personal and cultural voices expressed in the life-story interview of a former politically violent militant regarding her engagement with and disengagement from the armed struggle. Rather than looking at the macro and meso aspects related to politically motivated violence, we examine micro-narratives which express individual arguments, sociocultural discourses, and negotiations within and between them, These are voiced in the dynamics that take place within the self-system at times of key identity transitions (e.g., from being a committed militant to becoming a former militant). In this vein, we highlight how the embodied emotional chords of personal positions, the development of meta-positions, and the positioning and repositioning movements within the dialogical self, facilitate the emergence of new and more adaptive meanings in the personal meaning system of former militants.     

Testing multiple motives in feedback seeking: The interaction of instrumentality and self protection motives

Research indicates that information received from feedback seeking is valuable for both individual and organizational outcomes. Previous research examining the feedback seeking process has consistently suggested that individual's feedback behaviors are directly influenced by three motives. Specifically, individuals are instrumentally motivated to obtain valued information but are also motivated to protect and/or enhance their ego and to protect others' impressions of them (Ashford, Blatt and VandeWalle, 2003). The current study simultaneously examined these motives by testing the interactive effects of them on feedback seeking behavior. As predicted, they did significantly interact and the results present a deeper understanding of these motives and how employees weigh various factors in deciding whether to seek feedback within the organization.     

Information Seeking Within Organizations

In this article, both the literature on employee feedback‐seeking behavior and the literature on information seeking by organizational newcomers are reviewed. This review highlights the various motives that affect the decision of whether or not to seek information, shows how the strength of those motives is affected by both characteristics of the individual and characteristics of the organizational context, and reviews evidence that information seeking has beneficial outcomes. The author then offers an integrated model of antecedents, dynamics, forms, and outcomes of employee information seeking and concludes with suggestions for how future research can extend current understanding of employee information seeking.     

The Development and Validation of a Model Explaining Sexual Behavior Among College Students Implications for AIDS Communication Campaigns

College students' risky sexual behavior places them at relatively higher than average risk for HIV infection. This study examines various explanations for college students' risky behavior, and proposes and tests a model of factors influencing college students' sexual behavior. A LISREL estimation of the model shows that the model fits the data. The results also show that (1) sensation-seeking predispositions and the sexual motive for a pleasurable relationship are indirectly or directly related to all measures of sexual behavior (i.e., number of partners, incidence of unprotected sex, and percentage of condom use); (2) sexual motives driven by concern for health have only an indirect effect on percentage of condom use; and (3) optimistic bias, personal relevance, perceptions about partners, and images of condoms are related to sensation seeking, sexual motives, and sexual behavior. In addition, interpersonal influence from sexual partners appears to both facilitate and inhibit safer sexual behavior. Suggestions are provided regarding campaigns designed for AIDS prevention among college students.     

Giving up and giving in: the costs and benefits of daily sacrifice in intimate relationships

This research provided the first empirical investigation of how approach and avoidance motives for sacrifice in intimate relationships are associated with personal well-being and relationship quality. In Study 1, the nature of everyday sacrifices made by dating partners was examined, and a measure of approach and avoidance motives for sacrifice was developed. In Study 2, which was a 2-week daily experience study of college students in dating relationships, specific predictions from the theoretical model were tested and both longitudinal and dyadic components were included. Whereas approach motives for sacrifice were positively associated with personal well-being and relationship quality, avoidance motives for sacrifice were negatively associated with personal well-being and relationship quality. Sacrificing for avoidance motives was particularly detrimental to the maintenance of relationships over time. Perceptions of a partner's motives for sacrifice were also associated with well-being and relationship quality. Implications for the conceptualization of relationship maintenance processes along these 2 dimensions are discussed.     

Approach and avoidance sexual motives: Implications for personal and interpersonal well‐being

This research provides the first empirical investigation of how approach and avoidance motives for engaging in sex in intimate relationships are associated with personal well‐being and relationship quality. A 2‐week daily experience study of college student dating couples tested specific predictions from the theoretical model and included both longitudinal and dyadic components. Whereas approach sex motives were positively associated with personal and interpersonal well‐being, avoidance sex motives were negatively associated with well‐being. Engaging in sex for avoidance motives was particularly detrimental to the maintenance of relationships over time. Perceptions of a partner's motives for sex were also associated with well‐being. Implications for the conceptualization of sexuality in relationships along these two dimensions are discussed.     

The influence of motives and goal orientation on feedback seeking

This study examined the relationships between feedback seeking, goal orientation, performance and four motives which, though generally considered to underlie the feedback seeking process, have not previously been measured comprehensively. Both the likelihood and the number of instances of feedback seeking were measured in two samples (employees and students) in association with perceived or selfassessed above- and below-average performance. Self-assessed performance was a major predictor of feedback seeking; also influential were goal orientation and the goal orientation-performance interaction. Increased feedback seeking was associated with the desire for useful information motive, and reduced feedback seeking with the ego defence and defensive impression management motives. The desire for useful information motive mediated the influence of performance-prove goal orientation for employees, and that of a learning goal orientation for students.     

The ‘coming of age’ for Southern African psychobiography

This study investigated the effects of perceived values (personal, artistic, and sociocultural) of tourists’ attitude and behavioural intention to visit Africa. Participants were tourists (176 men and 124 women) who visited the Museum of African Art based on Jeju Island in the Republic of Korea. Results, following hierarchical analysis, suggest personal value and sociocultural value rather than artistic value to predict tourists’ attitude and behavioural intention to visit Africa. The findings of this study imply that personal and sociocultural predispositions lead to the tourists’ likely adoption of a tourist destination beyond familiarities with artistic works associated with the destination. Tourism promotion campaigns aimed at promoting African as a destination should customise messages to address the personal and sociocultural predispositions of would-be international tourists.     

Book Review of Current approaches in the cognitive science of religion IIKKA PYYSIAINEN & VEIKKO ANTTONEN Continuum International Publishing Group,London, 2002, 277 pp. £19.99 (pb) ISBN 0 8264 5710 X

Spiritual confession has a prominent role in the practices of many religious and spiritual traditions. This paper proposes a definition of spiritual confession and reviews confession practices in Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Native American, and 12-step traditions. Psychological research on confession and disclosure processes is reviewed, and functions of confession are identified, based on prior empirical and theoretical work. Identified functions include: reducing guilt and shame, seeking social connection, seeking meaning and coherence, impression management, and spiritual functions. Finally, experimental studies focused on spiritual confession are reviewed, and specific suggestions for future research are proposed.     

Postgraduate research students: People in context?

This article seeks to explore learning, development and academic success, using postgraduate research students' experiences and relating them to submission and completion rates. The perceptions and circumstances of a sample of postgraduate research students from one cohort in a large civic university were examined via questionnaire and interviews. Significant associations between data gained via questionnaire and outcome of research study are presented, together with qualitative illustrations from comments and interviews with participating individuals. A developmental, sociocultural understanding of the learner is discussed. This supports a brief review of a package of practical measures designed to assist universities to support research students, especially those who may have difficulty negotiating the experience of research study, and their supervisors, and ultimately improve retention and submission rates.     

Stories of family caregivers of people with dementia in Greece: Implications for counselling

A substantial body of literature has identified high rates of burden, psychological morbidity, social isolation, health and financial difficulties among dementia caregivers. The present qualitative study adopted an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis approach in order to explore the lived experiences of dementia family caregivers within the Greek sociocultural context. The sample was purposive and consisted of 10 women dementia family caregivers from Athens and Thessaloniki. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted and analysed according to IPA. The participants’ personal accounts included themes related to ethical/existential and cultural aspects of family caregiving; changes in family relationships; impact of the caregiving experiences; sources of support and help seeking; positive and meaningful aspects of the care experience. The research findings are discussed in the context of Gilligan’s moral psychological theory, and cultural dimensions of family caregivers. Implications for counselling interventions aiming at supporting caregivers are presented.     

Proactivity with image in mind: How employee and manager characteristics affect evaluations of proactive behaviours

This paper investigates image cost as a potential downside of proactivity. Drawing on attribution theory, we examine how people construct subjective evaluations of one manifestation of proactivity, feedback‐seeking behaviour. Using a scenario methodology, we examined how employees' performance history, their manager's implicit person theory (IPT), and the frequency of their feedback‐seeking affect how managers evaluate employees' feedback seeking. Results indicate that manager attribute average performers' feedback seeking significantly less to performance‐enhancement motives than superior performers' seeking. Results further show that the frequency of feedback seeking and a manager's IPT interact in influencing managers' attributions for feedback seeking, with more entity oriented managers attributing frequent feedback seeking significantly more to impression‐management motives than infrequent feedback requests. These results highlight the importance of not only the instrumental benefits of employee proactivity, but also its potential costs.     

Agency‐Communion and Interest in Prosocial Behavior: Social Motives for Assimilation and Contrast Explain Sociocultural Inconsistencies

Identifying the “prosocial personality” is a classic project in personality psychology. However, personality traits have been elusive predictors of prosocial behavior, with personality‐prosociality relations varying widely across sociocultural contexts. We propose the social motives perspective to account for such sociocultural inconsistencies. According to this perspective, a focal quality of agency (e.g., competence, independence, openness) is the motive to swim against the social tide—agentic social contrast. Conversely, a focal quality of communion (e.g., warmth, interdependence, agreeableness) is the motive to swim with the social tide—communal social assimilation. We report two cross‐sectional studies. Study 1 (N = 131,562) defined social context at the country level (11 European countries), whereas Study 2 (N = 56,395) defined it at the country level (11 European countries) and the city level (296 cities within these countries). Communion predicted interest in prosocial behavior comparatively strongly in sociocultural contexts where such interest was common and comparatively weakly where such interest was uncommon. Agency predicted interest in prosocial behavior comparatively strongly in sociocultural contexts where such interest was uncommon and comparatively weakly where such interest was common. The results supported the social motives perspective. Also, the findings help to reestablish the importance of personality for understanding prosociality.     

“If You Love Me Keep My Commandments”: Religiosity Increases Preference for Rule-Based Moral Arguments

Two experiments demonstrated that religiosity affects the way people resolve moral dilemmas. Participants were presented a series of immoral actions and were asked to justify the wrongness of the action by appealing to either the violation of a rule (rule-based argument) or the negative consequences resulting from the action (outcome-based argument). In Study 1, it was shown both among British and American samples that religious individuals preferred rule-based moral arguments to consequentialist moral arguments more than nonreligious individuals, and covariance with political conservatism did not account for this effect. Study 2 replicated these results with revisions to the materials and extended measures. In this study, dimensions of religiosity—particularly Christian Orthodoxy—predicted rule-based morality independent of a personal need for structure, need for cognition, and right-wing authoritarianism. These results imply that religious individuals who are committed to orthodox religious teaching display a deontological style of morality for reasons that extend beyond a need for structure, cognitive simplicity, or submission to authority.