Differentiating the Effects of Informational and Interpersonal Justice in Co‐Worker Interactions for Task Accomplishment

To extend the research on interactions‐based justice and integrate it with the research on trustworthiness, the present article examines the role of informational and interpersonal justice in co‐worker interactions for task accomplishment. Based on social exchange theory and fairness heuristic theory, the two justice dimensions would trigger different types of responses based on the principle of reciprocity and how they manage different types of uncertainties in a work relationship. As a result, they lead to different outcomes in the context of two co‐workers having a disagreement about work. It was hypothesised that informational justice is related to acceptance of the co‐worker's view primarily through perception of ability‐based trustworthiness, whereas interpersonal justice is related to satisfaction with the co‐worker primarily through perception of benevolence‐based trustworthiness. A survey of employees and a simulation study showed that the effect of informational justice on acceptance of the co‐worker's view is mediated more by ability‐based trustworthiness than by benevolence‐based trustworthiness, whereas the reverse is true for the mediation of the effect of interpersonal justice on satisfaction with the co‐worker. Theoretical implications are discussed concerning the differentiation of the two highly correlated justice dimensions, together with practical implications regarding their relative usefulness.     

Orthographic Knowledge Important in Comprehending Elementary Chinese Text by Users of Alphasyllabaries

Orthographic knowledge in Chinese was hypothesized to affect elementary Chinese text comprehension (four essays) by 80 twelve-year-old ethnic alphasyllabary language users compared with 74 native Chinese speakers at similar reading level. This was tested with two rapid automatized naming tasks; two working memory tasks; three orthographic knowledge tasks in Chinese; and equivalent tasks in English. Multivariate analyses of covariance showed that the two groups were differentiated on most of the linguistic and cognitive tasks. Confirmatory factor analyses found four factors as hypothesized: text comprehension, verbal working memory, orthographic knowledge in Chinese, and orthographic knowledge in English. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that orthographic knowledge in Chinese explained a considerable amount of individual variation in elementary Chinese text comprehension.     

When My Object Becomes Me: The Mere Ownership of an Object Elevates Domain‐Specific Self‐Efficacy

Past research on the mere ownership effect has shown that when people own an object, they perceive the owned objects more favorably than the comparable non‐owned objects. The present research extends this idea, showing that when people own an object functional to the self, they perceive an increase in their self‐efficacy. Three studies were conducted to demonstrate this new form of the mere ownership effect. In Study 1, participants reported an increase in their knowledge level by the mere ownership of reading materials (a reading package in Study 1a, and lecture notes in Study 1b). In Study 2, participants reported an increase in their resilience to sleepiness by merely owning a piece of chocolate that purportedly had a sleepiness‐combating function. In Study 3, participants who merely owned a flower essence that is claimed to boost creativity reported having higher creativity efficacy. The findings provided insights on how associations with objects alter one's self‐perception.     

The Influence of Presentation Format of Story on Narrative Production in Chinese Children Learning English-as-a-Second-Language: A Comparison Between Graphic Novel,Illustration Book and Text

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - Past studies have shown that multimodal presentation of story can improve story-retelling performance in the first language. The purpose of the present study...     

Diversity climate promises in ideological psychological contracts: racial differences in responses to breach and fulfilment

ABSTRACT

Diversity, a major societal force that exerts an important influence on contemporary workplaces, may play a role in shaping present-day workers’ psychological contracts. In two studies, we explored diversity as an ideological commitment in psychological contracts and its impacts on workers and organizations. In Study 1, a three-wave longitudinal study following workers from pre- to post-hire, organizations’ use of diversity recruitment was positively associated with job-seekers’ perceptions that ideological diversity climate promises were made pre-employment. In addition, we found that subsequent perceptions of breaching these promises have negative effects on worker attitudes and behaviours above and beyond the consequences of traditional (i.e., transactional and relational) psychological contract breach. Unexpectedly, fulfilment and breach of ideological diversity climate promises were more weakly related to racial minority than majority group workers’ attitudes and behaviours. In Study 2, using both between- and within-person experimental designs, we largely replicate this counter-intuitive moderating effect and uncover that racial minority versus majority workers’ differential reactions can be explained by their prior experiences with racial discrimination. Our work substantiates that diversity is an important ideological commitment and provides novel insights as to the mechanisms and consequences of ideology for workers’ psychological contracts.