Lay Theories of Happiness

Over 230 young people completed a battery of questionnaires measuring personality, self-esteem, and happiness as well as one developed specifically for this study on their theories of the causes of happiness. The 36 causes factored into six internally coherent and interpretable factors. Self-reported happiness, extraversion and sex were correlated with the lay theory factors. Four of the six factors were modestly (r < 0.20) correlated with the Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI) scores. Path analysis, using the OHI as the dependent variable, showed self-esteem, extraversion and neuroticism direct predictors of happiness but that among the lay theories, only lay theories about optimism and contentment were direct predictors. Personality and demographic variables did predict the lay theories but the latter did not act as moderator or mediating factors between the former and happiness. The role and function of lay theories with respect to happiness are discussed.     

Zulu mothers' beliefs about their own and their children's intelligence

Zulu women (N = 133) were given a structural interview concerning their own and their children's multiple intelligences. The best predictor of their own self-estimated overall intelligence rating was mathematical and spatial intelligence. Mothers showed few significant differences in their estimates of their sons and daughters' overall or multiple intelligences. However, they rated their daughters' interpersonal intelligence higher than those of their sons, and their sons' bodily-kinesthetic intelligence higher than those of their daughters. The mothers believed that overall their children were about 6 IQ points more intelligent than themselves. Although mothers estimated their own spatial, inter-, and intrapersonal intelligence to be higher than those of their children, they also believed that their children had higher mathematical intelligence.     

Effects of social media use on desire for cosmetic surgery among young women

Current Psychology - A large body of research has documented the influence of traditional media formats (e.g. television programs, adverts) on young women’s consideration of cosmetic surgery....     

Profiles of bystanders' motivation to defend school bully victims from a self‐determination perspective

This study was aimed at exploring which latent profiles emerge based on ratings of self‐determined motivation to defend victims of bullying, and to explore if they are related to bystander roles and victimization in bullying, as well as student–teacher relations. Data were collected from 1,800 Swedish and Italian students, with an age range between 10 and 18 years (M = 12.6, standard deviation = 1.74). The students completed a survey in their classrooms. Latent profile analysis was used to explore the possible clusters of individuals with similar ratings on the motivational variables. Multivariate analysis of variances were conducted to explore differences between the profiles in relation to their roles when witnessing bullying and to student–teacher relationships. Four latent profiles emerged. The profiles represented respondents (a) high in prosocial motivation, (b) high in externally extrinsic motivation, (c) intermediate in externally extrinsic motivation, and (d) with identified/introjected motivation. Multivariate analyses showed that reports of bystander roles when witnessing bullying, teacher–student relationships, and bullying victimization, significantly differed over the motivational profiles. The bystanders were unevenly distributed across the four groups and most individuals were categorized in the prosocial motivation group. Female and male bystanders were evenly distributed across clusters. The prosocial motivation group experienced victimization to a lesser extent than the other profile groups. Students in the intermediate externally extrinsic group were more likely to take the pro‐bully and outsider role during bullying. Concerning student–teacher relationships, the prosocial motivation group reported the closest relationships with their teachers, while the intermediate externally extrinsic group reported the most conflictual relationships.     

How Colleagues Can Support Each Other's Needs and Motivation: An Intervention on Employee Work Motivation

Organisations have flattened and increasingly rely on teamwork. Therefore, colleagues play an increasingly important role in stimulating employee motivation. Adopting Self‐Determination Theory as a guiding framework, the aim of this field experiment was to examine whether team members can be trained in supporting each other's basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness and, hence, increase each other's need satisfaction and autonomous motivation, while decreasing controlled motivation. We delivered training to 146 participants nested in 26 participating teams and assessed basic need satisfaction and autonomous and controlled motivation before and after the intervention. Multilevel regression analyses indicated that employees in the experimental (i.e. intervention) condition had a stronger increase in need satisfaction and autonomous motivation than employees did in the control condition, and that the increase in autonomous motivation was mediated by an increase in need satisfaction. This study provides added value for theory on need satisfaction and demonstrates that a relatively brief intervention among team members may be effective in creating employee need support and increasing autonomous motivation.     

Voluntary Action and Rational Sin in Anselm of Canterbury

Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) holds that freedom of the will is a necessary condition for moral responsibility. This condition, however, turns out to be trivially fulfilled by all rational creatures at all times. In order to clarify the necessary conditions for moral responsibility, we must look more widely at his discussion of the nature of the will and of willed action. In this paper, I examine his theory of voluntariness by clarifying his account of the sin of Satan in De casu diaboli. Anselm agrees with Augustine that the sinful act cannot be given a causal explanation in terms of a distinct preceding act of will or desire or choice. He thus rejects volitionalist accounts of Satan's sin and thus of voluntary action in general. He moves beyond his predecessor, however, in insisting on the necessity of an explanation in terms of reasons, and his theory of the dual nature of the rational will is designed to meet this demand. A comparison of Satan's case with the case of the miser of De casu diaboli 3, finally, shows that Anselm's account requires that acts of the will or ‘willings’ qualify as voluntary, a suggestion as interesting as problematic.     

The higher you climb: Dark side personality and job level

The purpose of this study was to explore the idea that there are dark side personality differences in the profiles of people at different levels in organizations. This study replicates and extends existing leadership research by focusing on self‐defeating behavioral tendencies. A Danish consultancy provided data on 264 adults based on assessment reports. This paper explored linear and quadratic relationships between personality and de facto job level. More senior managers scored high on Cluster B/Moving Against Others scales of Bold, Colorful and Imaginative, and low on Cautious and Dutiful. These Danish data are compared to data from Great Britain and New Zealand which show very similar findings. Practice should take into account that dark side personality traits associated with an assertive, sometimes hostile, interpersonal orientation, predict leadership level up to a point.     

Personality and aesthetic preference in Spain and England: two studies relating sensation seeking and openness to experience to liking for paintings and music

In two studies, one employing Spanish students and the other English students, questionnaire measures of Sensation Seeking and Openness to Experience were correlated with liking for major music types, several short music excerpts, and eight categories of painting (presented as slides). Inter‐correlations between music preference measures, painting preference, and personality are reported. In both samples, the Sensation Seeking Scale (Form V) and, particularly, the Experience Seeking sub‐scale were associated with a factor contrasting liking for ‘hard rock’ music and ‘violent–abstract’ art with liking for ‘neutral–realistic’ art and ‘easy listening’ music. Several substantial relationships between aesthetics measures and Openness to Experience (from the NEO‐PI‐R) were also found, though mostly in the English sample. The results reinforce the view that personality dimensions such as Sensation Seeking and Openness are important influences on aesthetic judgment. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does sex sell? The effect of sexual programme content on the recall of sexual and non-sexual advertisements

This study looked at the recall of sexual and non‐sexual television advertisements embedded within programmes, with or without, sexual content. It was predicted that there would be a detrimental effect of sexual programme content, and a beneficial effect of sexual advertisement content on ability to recall advertisements. Further, when programme and advertisement content were congruous (i.e. both sexual), this also would hinder recall. Participants aged between 18 and 31 were placed in one of four conditions and were shown either ‘Sex and the City’ (sexual programme) or ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ (non‐sexual programme) with sexual or non‐sexual advertisements embedded in each. Participants were then asked to recall advertisement details from the advertisements. The results indicated that there was a main effect of programme type, demonstrating that sexual programme content hindered recall of advertisements. However, there was no main effect of the type of advertisements seen (sexual or non‐sexual) on recall, nor was there a negative effect on recall when programme and advertisement content were congruous. An interaction between advertisements and sex of participants showed that males recalled sexual advertisements better and females recalled non‐sexual advertisements better. Limitations of the study are considered. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.