Internalized equality and protest against injustice: The role of disadvantaged group members’ self-respect in collective action tendencies

Recent research shows that self-respect (defined as seeing yourself as a person with equal rights) predicts assertive but not aggressive responses to injustice in interpersonal contexts. The present research focuses on the antecedents of self-respect and its consequences for collective action tendencies among members of disadvantaged groups. Across three studies (N = 227, N = 454, N = 131) using different contexts and samples (discrimination of Muslims in Germany; women regarding gender inequality), experiences with equality-based respect (defined as being treated as someone of equal worth) predicted self-respect. Moreover, across all three studies, self-respect predicted intentions for cooperative or normative but not support for hostile or non-normative protest. The results demonstrate the potential of self-respect for facilitating collective action in the face of injustice while still enabling positive intergroup relations.     

If you want to be one of us,then become like us: The evaluation of naturalization applicants by host nationals

Immigrant naturalization is a rite of passage, making assimilationist attitudes particularly pronounced among host nationals. Three experimental studies investigate whether heritage culture maintenance violates expectations that citizenship should be deserved by proving strong attachment to the host nation (i.e., neoliberal communitarianism). Study 1 (N = 293) demonstrates that naturalization applicants’ high degree of heritage culture maintenance impairs application evaluations. Perceived attachment to the host nation and citizenship deservingness mediated this effect. Study 2 (N = 220) replicates results across two national contexts and reveals that heritage culture maintenance impairs evaluations only among naturalization applicants from devalued countries. Study 3 (N = 117) manipulates attachment to the host nation and shows that perceived citizenship deservingness mediates the negative effects of naturalization applicants' low attachment to the host nation on application evaluations. Overall, assimilationist attitudes among host nationals are best explained by the combination of neoliberal and communitarian criteria of evaluation.     

A comprehensive measure of attitudes and behaviour: Development of the Support for Gender Equality among Men Scale

In this article, we develop and validate the 16-item Support for Gender Equality among Men Scale across four studies. Drawing on exploratory (Study 1, n = 322) and confirmatory (Study 2, n = 358; Study 4, n = 192) factor analysis, we determine a two-factor structure: public and domestic support for gender equality. In Study 3 (n = 146) and Study 4, we validate the scale by establishing its relationship with, among others, several prominent measures of sexism, a behavioural measure, and social desirability. The scale fills a psychometric gap in the literature: To date, no validated measure of support for gender equality, measuring both attitudes and behavioural intentions and focusing specifically on men, exists. Considering the recent increase in interest in men as allies of the feminist movement the scale functions as a useful tool to explore the topic in depth in future research.     

More Royalist Than the King? Immigration Policy Attitudes Among Naturalized Citizens

Social psychological research has analyzed immigration attitudes mostly from the perspective of natives without an immigrant background. Nevertheless, an increasing number of migrants obtain national citizenship and take a stance towards immigration policies. By studying immigration policy attitudes reported by naturalized citizens, this article develops a dual-pathway model of immigrant political incorporation featuring pathways of either absorption or transformation. Based on a unique sample of immigrants who just accomplished the naturalization procedure (N = 566), we investigate participants' preferences for permissive or restrictive immigration policies as a function of their naturalization motives and expectations about how immigrants should acculturate in the receiving society (i.e., acculturation orientations). Our findings provide evidence for both processes of political absorption and transformation. On the one hand, belongingness motives underlying naturalization were connected to orientations towards host culture adoption, which in turn predicted support for restrictive immigration policies. On the other hand, instrumental motives were connected to orientations towards heritage culture maintenance, which in turn predicted support for permissive immigration policies. To conclude, we discuss the social psychological dynamics involved in the transition from national outsiders to national insiders and highlight the effects of naturalization on power relations between national majority and immigrant minority groups.     

Antecedents of fathers’ perception of child behavior at child age 12 months

This study investigates whether fathers’ adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and attachment style reported during pregnancy predict fathers’ perception of child behavior assessed 12 months postpartum, expressed by the Parenting Stress Index (PSI), Child Domain. Prospective fathers (N = 835) were recruited to “The Little in Norway (LiN) study” (Moe & Smith) at nine well-baby clinics in Norway, with data collection composed of five time points during pregnancy and two time points postpartum (6 and 12 months). The main analyses included linear regression, path-analysis modeling, and intraclass correlation based on mixed effects modeling. First, linear regression analyses showed that neither fathers’ ACE nor attachment style significantly predicted perceived child behavior postpartum directly. Furthermore, path analyses showed that ACE and less secure attachment style (especially avoidant attachment) measured early in pregnancy strongly predicted negatively perceived child behavior, mediated by fathers’ mental health symptoms during pregnancy and partner disharmony postpartum. Second, intraclass correlation analyses showed that fathers’ perceived child behavior showed substantial stability between 6 and 12 months postpartum. Family interventions beginning in pregnancy may be most beneficial given that fathers’ early experiences and perceptions of attachment in pregnancy were associated with later partner disharmony and stress.     

How Experts Adapt Their Gaze Behavior When Modeling a Task to Novices

Domain experts regularly teach novice students how to perform a task. This often requires them to adjust their behavior to the less knowledgeable audience and, hence, to behave in a more didactic manner. Eye movement modeling examples (EMMEs) are a contemporary educational tool for displaying experts’ (natural or didactic) problem-solving behavior as well as their eye movements to learners. While research on expert-novice communication mainly focused on experts’ changes in explicit, verbal communication behavior, it is as yet unclear whether and how exactly experts adjust their nonverbal behavior. This study first investigated whether and how experts change their eye movements and mouse clicks (that are displayed in EMMEs) when they perform a task naturally versus teach a task didactically. Programming experts and novices initially debugged short computer codes in a natural manner. We first characterized experts’ natural problem-solving behavior by contrasting it with that of novices. Then, we explored the changes in experts’ behavior when being subsequently instructed to model their task solution didactically. Experts became more similar to novices on measures associated with experts’ automatized processes (i.e., shorter fixation durations, fewer transitions between code and output per click on the run button when behaving didactically). This adaptation might make it easier for novices to follow or imitate the expert behavior. In contrast, experts became less similar to novices for measures associated with more strategic behavior (i.e., code reading linearity, clicks on run button) when behaving didactically.     

Why leave the teaching profession? A longitudinal approach to the prevalence and persistence of teacher turnover intentions

Social Psychology of Education - Teacher turnover has been recognized as a significant problem in the education worldwide. This study focuses on exploring reasons behind the turnover intentions,...     

Seeing red? Colour biases of foraging birds are context dependent

Animal Cognition - Colours are commonly used as visual cues when measuring animals’ cognitive abilities. However, animals can have innate biases towards certain colours that depend on...     

Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Associations between Leisure Time Physical Activity,Mental Well-Being and Subjective Health in Middle Adulthood

Previous studies have shown that participation in leisure time physical activity is related to better mental well-being and subjective health. However, the associations between different types of leisure time physical activities and different dimensions of mental well-being have rarely been studied. In addition, longitudinal research, analyzing possible causal relations between these variables, is lacking. To investigate these research questions, data gathered at ages 42 and 50 (present N = 303) for the Finnish Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development were used. Physical activity was assessed as frequency of participation at ages 42 and 50, and at age 50 also as frequency of participation in different types of physical activities. Mental well-being was captured by emotional, psychological and social well-being and subjective health by self-rated health and symptoms. Cross-sectionally, different types of physical activities were related to different dimensions of well-being. Walking had positive associations with psychological and social well-being, rambling in nature with emotional and social well-being, and endurance training with subjective health. Rambling in nature was also positively related to subjective health but only among men. Longitudinally, mental well-being predicted later participation in leisure-time physical activity, whereas no longitudinal associations between subjective health and physical activity were found. The results suggest that leisure time physical activities are related to current mental well-being and subjective health in midlife. Across time, good mental well-being seems to be a resource promoting engagement in physical activity.

     

Physical activity,motor ability,and school readiness of 6-yr.-old children

The aim of this investigation was to study the relationships between physical activity, motor ability, and school readiness in 6-yr.-old children. In total, 294 healthy children from Tartu were studied (161 boys and 133 girls). The physical activity of children was reported by parents and teachers using the questionnaire of Harro. The motor ability of children was evaluated using various tests from the Eurofit test battery as well as the 3-min. endurance shuttle run test. The Controlled Drawing Observation rest was used as a predictor of school readiness and development of mental abilities. Indoor physical activities predicted 19-25% of total variance in motor scores for these preschool children. Motor ability tests, which demand children's total attention and concentration, appear related to the chosen measures of school readiness.