Progress Takes Work: Effects of the Locomotion Dimension on Job Involvement,Effort Investment,and Task Performance in Organizations1

This research examined the relation between individual differences in the tendency toward locomotion, which is defined as a proclivity toward psychological movement; and job involvement, effort commitment, and performance in organizational contexts. Four separate studies found support for the notion that locomotion is related positively to effort investment in work activities. Locomotion also was related positively to job involvement and successful performance, as assessed by a self‐report measure and by manager ratings. Finally, the positive relation between locomotion and effort was mediated partially by job involvement, and the positive relation between locomotion and performance was mediated by effort investment. These findings are discussed in reference to the varied implications of the locomotion dimension for human functioning in organizations.     

A study of factors that influence unemployed persons

The following research analyzes, through a field study, several relevant personality traits, or variables, that may be used to help the unemployed by directing them to entrepreneurship. Three sample groups (unemployed, employed, and entrepreneurs) were compared using several intrinsically motivating variables: knowledge, inclination to entrepreneurship, self‐efficacy, achievement needs, and propensity to act. The results showed that these variables are related and can be used as a medium of intervention to achieve the desired ends.     

Political conservatism as motivated social cognition

Analyzing political conservatism as motivated social cognition integrates theories of personality (authoritarianism, dogmatism-intolerance of ambiguity), epistemic and existential needs (for closure, regulatory focus, terror management), and ideological rationalization (social dominance, system justification). A meta-analysis (88 samples, 12 countries, 22,818 cases) confirms that several psychological variables predict political conservatism: death anxiety (weighted mean r = .50); system instability (.47); dogmatism-intolerance of ambiguity (.34); openness to experience (-.32); uncertainty tolerance (-.27); needs for order, structure, and closure (.26); integrative complexity (-.20); fear of threat and loss (.18); and self-esteem (-.09). The core ideology of conservatism stresses resistance to change and justification of inequality and is motivated by needs that vary situationally and dispositionally to manage uncertainty and threat.     

The social cognition of immigrants' acculturation: effects of the need for closure and the reference group at entry

Three studies found support for the notion that immigrants' acculturation to the host culture is interactively determined by their need for cognitive closure (A. W. Kruglanski & D. M. Webster, 1996) and the reference group they forge on their arrival. If such reference group is fashioned by close social relations with coethnics, the higher the immigrants' need for closure, the weaker their tendency to assimilate to the new culture and the stronger their tendency to adhere to the culture of origin. By contrast, if the reference entry group is fashioned by close relations with members of the host country, the higher their need for closure, the stronger their tendency to adapt to the new culture and the weaker their tendency to maintain the culture of origin. These findings obtained consistently across 3 immigrant samples in Italy, 1 Croatian and 2 Polish, and across multiple different measures of acculturation.     

The Thrill of Creative Effort at Work: An Empirical Study on Work,Creative Effort and Well-Being

The connections between creative effort at work and four measures of subjective well-being are studied using data on a sample of 922 Jewish Israeli adults who are salaried employees. The paper finds that self-reported creative effort aimed at making work more enjoyable is positively associated with global evaluation of life; with purpose and meaning in life, and with positive emotions. No significant link with negative emotions was found. This study also finds significant associations with three additional intrinsic features of work-creative tasks; independence at work and intellectual work-and various measures of subjective well-being, even when controlling for age, gender, marital status, having children, education, time worked, financial satisfaction, subjective health and religiosity. The robustness of the links between intrinsic features of work and subjective well-being demonstrate that work serves not only as a means to material ends, but also as a direct source of personal happiness, meaning and satisfaction.     

Regulatory mode preferences for autonomy supporting versus controlling instructional styles

Background Three studies carried out in educational settings examined determinants of teacher's instructional styles and students' degree of satisfaction with the learning climates created by such styles. Aims Based upon regulatory mode theory, Studies 1 and 2 tested the hypotheses that teachers' locomotion orientation will be positively related, and their assessment orientation will be negatively related, to autonomy supportive (vs. controlling) instructional styles. Study 3 tested the hypothesis that students' regulatory mode will exhibit a fit effect with the prevalent learning climate in their school. Samples Participants for Study 1 were 378 teachers (278 females); for Study 2 were 96 teachers (65 females); and for Study 3 were 190 students (all males). Method Participants completed questionnaires that included measures of teaching styles (Studies 1 and 2), perceived learning climate and satisfaction (Study 3), and regulatory mode orientations (Studies 1 and 3). In Study 2 regulatory mode orientations were experimentally induced. Results Results confirmed that teachers' autonomy supportive versus controlling styles were positively related to their locomotion orientations and negatively related to their assessment orientation, and that students with a stronger locomotion (vs. assessment) orientation reported a higher level of satisfaction when the learning climate was perceived as autonomy supportive (vs. controlling). Conclusions The present studies show that teachers' preference for adopting an instructional style is influenced by their regulatory mode orientations, and that the effects of a learning climate on students' satisfaction are contingent on a fit between type of learning climate and students' regulatory mode orientations.     

Oral Health-Quality of Life Predictors Depend on Population

In the framework of the development and evaluation of oral health interventions that take into account people’s oral health-related quality of life (OH-QoL), it is important to know what determinants and effects of OH-QoL are. Because the processes involved in the experience of OH-QoL may differ for different populations, this study mapped the relations of general health perception, social factors, dental anxiety and oral hygiene behavior on the one hand with OH-QoL on the other hand, in two different samples that mainly differed on the experience they had with dental care and dental pathology: In 112 patients of the Center for Dentistry and Oral Hygiene and in 339 first year psychology students. The relations of three of the four variables with OH-QoL differed in both samples. Although not all relations could be interpreted unequivocally in this cross-sectional design, the data illustrate that the main difference between both samples (i.e., patients indicated for oral treatment versus students outside treatment) influenced the psychological processes involved in OH-QoL. This implicates that oral health interventions directed at increasing OH-QoL may have to be adapted to populations.     

The effects of physical fitness and feeling vigorous on self-rated health

OBJECTIVE: We prospectively studied the hypothesized beneficial effects of feeling vigorous and of objective physical fitness (gauged based on functional capacity) on subsequently assessed self-rated health (SRH), controlling for possible confounders known to be precursors of SRH and of our predictors. We also investigated the reverse-causation hypothesis that SRH predicts subsequent vigor and functional capacity. DESIGN: Participants were apparently healthy employees (N = 779) who underwent a routine health check at two points of time, Time 1 (T1) and Time 2 (T2), about 18 months apart. We used regression analysis, predicting T2 SRH by T1 SRH, the control variables, and T1vigor and functional capacity. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Vigor was assessed using the Shirom-Melamed Vigor Measure; objective physical fitness was indicated by functional capacity following a treadmill exercise, and self-rated health was measured by a single item. RESULTS: As hypothesized, we found that the change in T2 SRH was positively predicted by T1 vigor, functional capacity, and their interactive term. Testing the reverse causation paths, we found that T1 SRH did not predict subsequent functional capacity and was a relatively weak predictor of subsequent vigor. CONCLUSION: The affective state of vigor and objectively assessed functional capacity interact to predict subsequent changes in self-rated health.     

Effects of tailoring ingredients in auditory persuasive health messages on fruit and vegetable intake

Objective: Health messages can be tailored by applying different tailoring ingredients, among which personalisation, feedback and adaptation. This experiment investigated the separate effects of these tailoring ingredients on behaviour in auditory health persuasion. Furthermore, the moderating effect of self-efficacy was assessed.

Design: The between-participants design consisted of four conditions. A generic health message served as a control condition; personalisation was applied using the recipient’s first name, feedback was given on the personal state, or the message was adapted to the recipient’s value.

Main outcome measures: The study consisted of a pre-test questionnaire (measuring fruit and vegetable intake and perceived difficulty of performing these behaviours, indicating self-efficacy), exposure to the auditory message and a follow-up questionnaire measuring fruit and vegetable intake two weeks after message exposure (n = 112).

Results: ANCOVAs showed no main effect of condition on either fruit or vegetable intake, but a moderation was found on vegetable intake: When self-efficacy was low, vegetable intake was higher after listening to the personalisation message. No significant differences between the conditions were found when self-efficacy was high.

Conclusion: Individuals with low self-efficacy seemed to benefit from incorporating personalisation, but only regarding vegetable consumption. This finding warrants further investigation in tailoring research.     

Lay Epistemic Theory: The Motivational,Cognitive, and Social Aspects of Knowledge Formation

We review and integrate three separate research programs emanating from the theory of lay epistemics (Kruglanski, A. W. (1989). Lay Epistemics and Human Knowledge: Cognitive and Motivational Bases. New York: Plenum). The need for cognitive closure is an epistemic motivation that propels knowledge formation and has widely ramifying consequences for individual, interpersonal, and group phenomena. The unimodel investigates the process of new knowledge formation from the ‘information given.’ The work on epistemic authority highlights the centrality of social source effects, including the self as a source, in human epistemic behavior. These three research programs examine facets of epistemic behavior that function interdependently to produce the knowledge that guides individual and social functioning.