The Relationship Between Parental Control and Scholastic Achievement of Children From Single- and Two-Parent Families

Abstract

A survey examined the relation between 264 Canadian students' value priorities (Rokeach, 1967) and their attitudes toward nuclear weapons and reasoning about the issue of allowing nuclear weapons in Canada. Regression analyses revealed that their attitudes became more favorable toward nuclear weapons as they placed more importance on the value of national security and less importance on peace. Over and above these attitudinal differences, however, they differed in the extent to which they regarded national security and peace as relevant to the issue of nuclear weapons. Hence, these findings were consistent with Kristiansen and Zanna's (1988) value justification hypothesis, which claims that people with different attitudes will attempt to justify them by appeals to different values. In addition, the degree to which subjects displayed integratively complex reasoning about nuclear weapons was a function of their attitudes: Those who opposed or favored nuclear weapons displayed less complex reasoning than those with more neutral attitudes. Finally, the integrative complexity of subjects' reasoning was not a function of the extent to which they deemed national security and peace as highly and equally important values. Possible explanations for this failure to replicate Tetlock's (1986) value pluralism model of ideological reasoning are considered.     

The Measurement of Cognitive Complexity and Its Relationship With Political Extremism

Three studies tested the relationship between political extremism and cognitive complexity in an adult sample (N = 135), a sample of students (N = 145), and a sample of political party members (N = 47). According to value pluralism theory, advocates of extreme ideologies exhibit low levels of cognitive complexity. Context theory, in contrast, states that extremists think in a more complex and sophisticated way about politics. In accordance with context theory, significant positive correlations between cognitive complexity and extremist ideology were found in all samples. The results of these studies also revealed weak correlations among the cognitive complexity instruments used in previous research. Problems concerning the measurement of cognitive style and cognitive complexity are discussed.     

Socio-cognitive conflict, emotions and complexity of thought in real-life morality

A new taxonomy of real-life dilemmas was tested in two studies. In Study 1, 35 respondents assessed six types of real-life dilemmas in terms of socio-cognitive conflict. Support was found for a classification of dilemmas into three levels of socio-cognitive conflict. In Study 2, 191 young women responded to measures of social perspective-taking and emotional empathy and reported a real-life moral dilemma as well as their feelings while making decisions about it. The dilemmas were classified into personal and impersonal and into three levels of socio-cognitive conflict. Dependent variables were the integrative complexity of the arguments and the reported feelings (sympathy, upset, and remorse). Dispositional empathy and perspective taking predicted level of socio-cognitive conflict and feelings of sympathy but not integrative complexity. Personal dilemmas aroused more feelings of upset than did impersonal ones. Low socio-cognitive conflict dilemmas evoked less complex thinking and less intensive feelings of upset and sympathy than did moderate and high socio-cognitive conflict dilemmas.     

Empathy, values, morality and Asperger's syndrome

The aims of this study were, first, to re-address the issue of empathy among people with autism conditions; second, to explore the relationships between empathy and values among autistic populations and controls; and third, to explore the capacity for moral agency among those affected by autism. We compared responses of an Asperger group (N = 41) and a control group (N = 139) to measures of self-reported empathy (Davis's IRI) and value priorities (Schwartz's PVQ). Control group results were largely in line with previous studies, such that empathy subscales of perspective taking and empathic concern showed their strongest positive and negative relations to the Schwartz self-transcendence/self-enhancement dimensions. Results for the Asperger group showed that although on the one hand there were self-reported difficulties in perspective taking and the cognitive recognition of affect, and that on the other hand there were less connections between the empathy and value measures, there was nevertheless a comparable prioritization of moral values. Conclusions suggest that different people may acquire moral values through different mechanisms.     

The Self Between Cacophony and Monologue: A Conceptualization and Empirical Examination of Dialogical Complexity

Theory of dialogical self distinguishes between cacophonous, monological, and dialogical structure of the self. So far these structures have not been examined within systematic quantitative studies. Focusing on this issue, we conceptualized the three structures as degrees on a dimension of dialogical complexity. To assess dialogical complexity, we proposed a numerical index derived from the personal position repertoire and examined it empirically. We compared the index of dialogical complexity with indices of cognitive complexity (derived from the repertory grid technique), integrative complexity, and presence of dialogical relationships in narratives (both derived from the thematic apperception test). In our sample of a total of 60 nonclinical respondents, the index of dialogical complexity was not correlated with cognitive complexity. It was weakly negatively but significantly correlated with integrative complexity. Respondents who yielded a higher score of dialogical relationships in narratives formed the dialogical structure of the self according to the dialogical complexity index. Respondents who yielded less dialogical relationships in narratives obtained a wider range of dialogical complexity scores that indicated more cacophonous or monological structures. We conclude that the relationships with integrative complexity and with presence of dialogical relationships in narratives support the original conceptualization of dialogical complexity. However, due to limitations of the study, the results are not decisive, and further examination of dialogical complexity including clinical samples is needed.     

Integrative Complexity of Public Beliefs Toward Wildfire Management: Development of a Scale

Integrative complexity is a useful tool for examining the complex way people think about dichotomous, highly charged issues. However, the qualitative nature of this research is lengthy and requires much work from respondents and investigators alike. This paper presents the process by which a combination open‐ended and fixed‐item scale was developed to measure the complexity of thought that is consistent with integrative complexity. We used the controversial issue of wildfire management in developing the scale because it has become a pervasive natural resource concern that has divided the public's perceptions regarding its management. The resulting scale is designed for use in large surveys across any number of natural resource issues.     

A Cognitive Evaluation of Frame-of-Reference Rater Training: Content and Process Issues

A multivariate, cognitive evaluation model was used to examine the previously noted effects of frame-of-reference (FOR) training on rating accuracy. The tested model emphasized two content-related issues associated with FOR training: (a) the content of the training itself and the extent that raters agreed with it, which provided an index of the amount of overlap between the theory of performance taught in training and a rater's implicit theory of performance following training; and (b) the content of raters' performance impressions of ratees based on a comprehensive and integrative model of the cognitive representations of persons— Associated Systems Theory (Carlston, 1992, 1994). Undergraduates (N= 172) were trained with FOR or control procedures using two different performance theories, observed and rated videotaped manager performance on three performance dimensions, and engaged in written free-recall of target performance vignettes. A structural model was tested incorporating a latent differential rating accuracy construct. FOR training was associated with higher demonstrated levels of agreement and with changes in ratee representation that were more abstract and more target-referent (i.e., less idiosyncratic) than control training. Agreement was found to be associated with enhanced rating accuracy and more self-referent impressions; however, target-referent impressions were shown to be related to better rating accuracy. Discussion focuses on the interrelated nature of content and process issues in performance appraisal. Using the AST framework, it is also proposed that longstanding manager/subordinate dyads could be expected to benefit the most from FOR training.     

Brazilian-Portuguese empathy quotient: evidences of its construct validity and reliability

Empathy is the ability to read other's mind and understand their intentions. This paper examines the psychometric properties of the Brazilian-Portuguese version of a short form of the empathy quotient (EQ, 15 items). The EQ-15 was administered to 237 participants from the general population from Jo?o Pessoa, Brazil. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the tripartite model with cognitive, emotional and social empathy factors. In line with other studies, gender differences were only observed for the first two factors, with female participants scoring higher on both, which suggests that the social factor might not constitute a truly dimension of empathy. Strong evidence for convergent and discriminant validity was only observed for the cognitive factor. The poor psychometric parameters of the emotional and social factors are argued to reflect the complexity and contrasting ideas of their items. The possibility of elaborating specific items for the emotional and social factors is also discussed.     

The Longitudinal Relationship Between Media Violence and Empathy: Was It Sympathy All Along?

Previous research with adolescents has reported a negative relationship between media violence and empathy. There are, however, two important conceptual issues in this earlier literature that deserve further research attention. First, studies often treat empathy as a one-dimensional construct while it consists of both an affective and cognitive component. Second, while aiming to measure empathy, several studies have measured sympathy instead. Driven by these concerns, this study was designed to investigate the longitudinal relationship between media violence, affective empathy, cognitive empathy, and sympathy. Using data from a two-wave panel study with 943 adolescents (10–14 years old), a cross-lagged model tested whether media violence exposure negatively influences empathy and sympathy (desensitization) or whether empathy and sympathy negatively influence media violence exposure (selection). Results were in line with desensitization. However, rather than showing that media violence leads to a decrease in empathy (which previous studies have shown), results indicate a decrease in sympathy instead. These findings provide clarification to existing work as well as offer methodological and practical implications.     

Risks of drawing inferences about cognitive processes from model fits to individual versus average performance

With the goal of drawing inferences about underlying processes from fits of theoretical models to cognitive data, we examined the trade off of risks of depending on model fits to individual performance versus risks of depending on fits to averaged data with respect to estimation of values of a model’s parameters. Comparisons based on several models applied to experiments on recognition and categorization and to artificial, computer-generated data showed that results of using the two types of model fitting are strongly determined by two factors: model complexity and number of subjects. Reasonably accurate information about true parameter values was found only for model fits to individual performance and then only for some of the parameters of a complex model. Suggested guidelines are given for circumventing a variety of obstacles to successful recovery of useful estimates of a model’s parameters from applications to cognitive data.     

Explanations in cognitive science: unification versus pluralism

The debate between the defenders of explanatory unification and explanatory pluralism has been ongoing from the beginning of cognitive science and is one of the central themes of its philosophy. Does cognitive science need a grand unifying theory? Should explanatory pluralism be embraced instead? Or maybe local integrative efforts are needed? What are the advantages of explanatory unification as compared to the benefits of explanatory pluralism? These questions, among others, are addressed in this Synthese’s special issue. In the introductory paper, we discuss the background of the questions, distinguishing integrative theorizing from building unified theories. On the one hand, integrative efforts involve collaboration between various disciplines, fields, approaches, or theories. These efforts could even be quite temporary, without establishing any long-term institutionalized fields or disciplines, but could also contribute to developing new interfield theories. On the other hand, unification can rely on developing complete theories of mechanisms and representations underlying all cognition, as Newell’s “unified theories of cognition”, or may appeal to grand principles, as predictive coding. Here, we also show that unification in contemporary cognitive science goes beyond reductive unity, and may involve various forms of joint efforts and division of explanatory labor. This conclusion is one of the themes present in the content of contributions constituting the special issue.

     

Manager–salesperson congruence in customer orientation and job outcomes: The bright and dark sides of leadership in aligning values

To create customer-oriented organizations, managers are often asked to promote a values-based vision. Yet, many managers struggle with transferring their values to employees making strategic value changes difficult. Despite this challenge, research has yet to demonstrate how managers effectively align values within the sales force, or the impact alignment has on job outcomes. Therefore, we develop and empirically test a conceptual framework to examine the role of transformational leadership in aligning salesperson customer orientation (CO) values. We find that transformational leadership is a strong mechanism in creating perceived value congruence, yet may have a surprising dark side. Results suggest that transformational managers achieve congruence by raising or, contrary to conventional wisdom, lowering salesperson CO values to meet the perceived values of the manager. Response surface modelling results support the importance of perceived manager values. Customer-oriented salespeople have higher job satisfaction and sales performance when they perceive their manager to also have high CO. When values are misaligned, job satisfaction increases more for low CO salespeople as perceptions of manager CO increase. Exploratory findings show that performance was higher under situations of perfect alignment but also under severe misalignment suggesting that values generate performance under complementary or supplementary conditions.     

Can empathy close the racial divide and gender gap in death penalty support?

Public opinion data indicate that the majority of US respondents support the death penalty. Research has consistently indicated, however, that Blacks and females are significantly less likely to support capital punishment than their White and male counterparts. Past research efforts attempting to account for these differences have, at best, only partially accounted for them: the racial divide and gender gap in death penalty support, while narrowed, remained evident. This study proposes that empathy, particularly ethnocultural empathy, may be a key explanatory correlate of death penalty support and that racial and gender differences in empathy may fully explain the observed racial and gender differences in death penalty support. This study uses three forms of empathy measures (cognitive, affective, and ethnocultural) to test this hypothesis using survey data from a sample of undergraduate students. Our results show that neither a variety of other “known correlates” of death penalty support nor cognitive or affective empathy scales were able to fully account for the observed racial difference in death penalty support. Ethnocultural empathy, however, was successful in reducing the effect of race on death penalty support to nonsignificance. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to have done so.     

Thinking graphically: Connecting vision and cognition during graph comprehension

Task analytic theories of graph comprehension account for the perceptual and conceptual processes required to extract specific information from graphs. Comparatively, the processes underlying information integration have received less attention. We propose a new framework for information integration that highlights visual integration and cognitive integration. During visual integration, pattern recognition processes are used to form visual clusters of information; these visual clusters are then used to reason about the graph during cognitive integration. In 3 experiments, the processes required to extract specific information and to integrate information were examined by collecting verbal protocol and eye movement data. Results supported the task analytic theories for specific information extraction and the processes of visual and cognitive integration for integrative questions. Further, the integrative processes scaled up as graph complexity increased, highlighting the importance of these processes for integration in more complex graphs. Finally, based on this framework, design principles to improve both visual and cognitive integration are described.     

Will Bootstrap Clustering Resuscitate Repertory Grid Assessment of Cognitive Complexity? Convergence with Integrative and Dialogical Complexity Suggests It Could

This article is concerned with an introduction and examination of a new cognitive complexity index derived from repertory grid data. Our approach follows Heckmann's and Bell’s introduction of bootstrap clustering of grid data. In order to examine the validity of the new index, we reanalyze data from an older study. The reanalysis showed that the new index correlated significantly with other independent complexity indices: integrative complexity and dialogical complexity. The directions of correlations were in accordance with complexity theories that underlie the indices. These findings support the validity of the cognitive complexity index based on bootstrap clustering.     

社会转型时期大学生的价值优先性

本研究以Schwartz开发的价值观量表(SVS)为工具,以北京地区1077位大学生为被试,运用结构方程模型、方差分析等方法考察社会变迁背景下大学生价值观的内容和结构。研究结果发现(1)大学生价值观由4类高阶价值和10类基本价值构成,在总体结构上不存在性别差异。(2)大学生的价值优先性呈现出三个基本特征:价值取向多元、利益指向多元、现实性。鉴于对研究局限的认识,本研究亦对后续研究方向提出建议。     

Initial perceptions in negotiations: evaluation and response to ‘logrolling’ offers

In negotiations, where several issues are under consideration and parties have different priorities among these issues, integrative agreements can be reached through ‘logrolling’: concessions on low priority issues in exchange for gains on higher priority issues. The present research focuses on the potential role of initial offers in the development of integrative agreements. We show first, that in a simulated competitive market the specific composition of initial offers influences the final agreements, beyond the effect predicted by their overall value. In order to obtain some insight into the judgmental processes that might play a role, we explore the way in which inexperienced negotiators presented with a hypothetical negotiation context evaluate and respond to logrolling versus distributive initial offers. Three hypotheses were tested: logrolling offers convey an implicit message of cooperation, logrolling offers promote understanding of the mutual interest structure of the task, and, finally, logrolling offers establish within‐issue anchors. Results do not support the first two hypotheses: logrolling offers were not necessarily judged more attractive than distributive ones, and they did not seem to affect the deeply rooted fixed‐pie assumption. However, initial offers did establish within‐issue anchors: counter‐offers were affected by the specific composition of the initial offers beyond the effect of their overall value. This anchoring process resulted in logrolling offers yielding a higher profit for their initiator, as well as higher combined profits for both parties. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two ways to be complex and why they matter: implications for attitude strength and lying

Integrative complexity broadly measures the structural complexity of statements. This breadth, although beneficial in multiple ways, can potentially hamper the development of specific theories. In response, the authors developed a model of complex thinking, focusing on 2 different ways that people can be complex within the integrative complexity system and subsequently developed measurements of each of these 2 routes: Dialectical complexity focuses on a dialectical tension between 2 or more competing perspectives, whereas elaborative complexity focuses on complexly elaborating on 1 singular perspective. The authors posit that many variables have different effects on these 2 forms of complexity and subsequently test this idea in 2 different theoretical domains. In Studies 1a, 1b, and 2, the authors demonstrate that variables related to attitude strength (e.g., domain importance, extremism, domain accessibility) decrease dialectical complexity but increase elaborative complexity. In Study 3, the authors show that counterattitudinal lying decreases dialectical complexity but increases elaborative complexity, implicating a strategic (as opposed to a cognitive strain) view of the lying-complexity relationship. The authors argue that this dual demonstration across 2 different theoretical domains helps establish the utility of the new model and measurements as well as offer the potential to reconcile apparent conflicts in the area of cognitive complexity.     

The Effects of Emotional Involvement and Psychological Distance on Integrative Complexity1

Integrative complexity is a measure of information processing that is scored either from archival documents or from written material generated for experimental purposes. Low complexity is associated with a lack of attention to diverse dimensions of, or perspectives on, a topic. Moderate complexity is characterized by the differentiation of such dimensions or perspectives. Finally, high complexity is shown by conceptual integration of the differentiated components. A large number of situational variables have been identified as affecting the level of complexity at which decision makers operate; however, emotional factors have been studied only indirectly (e.g., inferred from the individual's being in an apparently stressful situation). The current study presented university students with fictional scenarios describing interpersonal conflict that were designed to vary the psychological distance between the writer and the people involved in the problem. The complexity level of essays in which the students analyzed and described solutions for the conflict was positively related to both increasing psychological distance and to self-rated emotional involvement, regardless of distance. The distance results may have been due to an unconsidered variable, social perspective. Complexity was significantly and positively correlated with the self-rated effort expended in writing the essay. The findings partially confirm the cognitive manager model of complexity: The complexity of decision strategies is affected by the balance between the importance of the problem and the resources (cognitive and other) that must be invested to operate at different levels of complexity. The data have implications for understanding the impact of emotional involvement on cognitive complexity.     

Empathy and universal values explicated by the empathy-altruism hypothesis

ABSTRACT

Research reports that empathy is on the decline in present-day society, together with an increasing trend in self-enhancing values. Based on the empathy-altruism hypothesis, we investigated whether these constructs are interlinked by analyzing the relationships between emotional and cognitive empathy and 10 universal values. In the first study, using a middle-aged U.S. sample, the results showed that empathy was strongly and positively related to altruistic values and negatively to self-enhancing values in a pattern that aligned with the empathy-altruism hypothesis. In a second confirmation study, these findings were replicated and extended, while also controlling for the Big Five personality traits, to discount that empathy is only captured by basic personality. Only emotional empathy, not cognitive empathy, accounted for up to 18% additional variance in altruistic values, which further confirmed the emphasis on feelings, as postulated by the empathy-altruism hypothesis.