Making Decisions in Foreign Languages: Weaker Senses of Ownership Attenuate the Endowment Effect

Although the number of bilingual consumers is expanding, research on the impact of language on consumer decision making is scarce. The current research examines the endowment effect, which is a fundamental consumer decision‐making regularity, under native versus foreign language processing. I show that the endowment effect, which refers to higher valuation of a given product by sellers than buyers, is attenuated when sellers and buyers process information in a foreign language due to a decrease in sellers’ valuation of the product. I further document empirical evidence for the underlying mechanism of this finding. Thinking in a foreign language diminishes the impact of affective reactions on sellers’ judgment, which results in lowered sense of psychological ownership. This lowered sense of psychological ownership significantly decreases sellers’ valuation to a level comparable to the valuation of buyers. The implications of these results for theory and practice, and avenues for future research are discussed.     

The Effect of COVID -19 Crisis on Hopelessness,Loneliness and Spiritual Well-Being of Patients with Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes in Turkey

Journal of Religion and Health - This study aims to examine the relationship between the levels of hopelessness, loneliness, and spiritual well-being of patients with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes...     

Positive intergroup contact decreases the likelihood that prejudicial attitudes become avoidant behavioral tendencies

We investigated whether existing intergroup contact experiences moderated the associations between prejudicial attitudes and behavioral tendencies towards outgroups across five studies in Turkey (total N = 1,281). Findings showed that among Turks who reported higher levels of cross-group friendship quantity (Study 1) and greater positive (but not negative) contact (Study 2) with Kurds, prejudicial attitudes did not predict negative outgroup behavioral tendencies. Confirming these studies, Study 3 indicated that the association between homophobic attitudes and outgroup avoidance/approach tendencies was weaker among individuals who reported more LGBTI friends. Study 4 replicated the latter finding among children using Syrians as the target outgroup. Study 5 further showed that the buffering role of intergroup contact occurred only among participants who held less certain attitudes towards Syrian refugees. Findings provide insights into how existing contact experiences shape the relationship between negative attitudes towards outgroups and relevant behavioral intentions.     

Parenting,Mental Health and Culture: A Fifth Cross-Cultural Research on Parenting and Psychological Adjustment of Children

We examined psychological disorders across cultures and their associations with parental factors (control, inconsistency, and rejection). A questionnaire assessing psychological disorders was administered to male and female adolescents in nine countries. The results showed that psychological disorders differ across cultures. Parental factors are associated with each other and have a great deal of shared variance. The associations between psychological disorders and all parental factors were examined together in one regression and significant associations were found with maternal control, paternal temporal inconsistency, maternal situational inconsistency, paternal rejection and maternal rejection. Parental rejection appears to be a robust and influential factor influencing adolescents’ psychological disorders. The total variance of psychological disorders explained by all the parenting factors was low. The results revealed the flaws of reductionism in research and highlight the importance of studying associations of psychological disorders with various parental factors simultaneously and in conjunction with other familial, social and genetic factors.     

Couple Types, Ethnicity and Marital Satisfaction in Malaysia

The objective of this paper is to identify couple types and investigate the effects of couples types and ethnicity on marital satisfaction in Malaysia. A nation-wide survey involving one thousand married respondents was conducted. Using Fitzpatrick’s (1988) typology, four types of marriages were identified through cluster analysis, which included Traditional, Independent, Separate and Mixed couples. The main effect of couple types, ethnicity and effects of their interaction were found to have contributed significantly towards marital satisfaction. Malay respondents were most satisfied as Traditionals, while Chinese and Indian respondents were most satisfied as Independents. Results are discussed with reference to the current socio-cultural context of Malaysia.     

Suicide in Batman, southeastern Turkey

The southeastern part of Turkey has comparatively high female suicide rates. We aimed to research social, economic, cultural, and psychiatric reasons of suicides in Batman in a case-controlled psychological autopsy study comparing suicides with matched community controls. The female suicide rate was 9.3 per 100.000 and the female/male ratio was 1.72/1. The suicides most frequently occurred in young females, mean age 20.7. The most frequent method (45%) was hanging. The most frequent stressful life events were health problems and family disruption. High suicide rates among females may be related to negative social status of females living in the region.     

Honesty–Humility and the HEXACO Structure of Religiosity and Well-Being

Past research has shown that general and intrinsic religiosity is related to higher Big Five Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and, to some extent, Extraversion. With the rise of the six-factor HEXACO (Honesty–Humility, Emotionality, eXtraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness) model of personality, however, a more differentiated look at religiousness and personality is called for. It has been suggested that religiosity is more associated with Honesty–Humility than with Agreeableness. The new personality factor, Honesty–Humility has also been shown to have null or weak relations with happiness. In 5 studies involving 1375 participants from Iran, Poland, and Malaysia, the relations of Honesty–Humility and other HEXACO dimensions to religious orientation and well-being outcomes were investigated. As expected, Honesty–Humility was one of the strongest personality correlate of religiosity. Higher scores on religiousness were also associated with Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and to some extent, Extraversion showing that the main personality characteristics of religiosity are consistent across religious contexts and personality models. Relations of Honesty–Humility to psychological well-being scales were consistently positive and stronger than its relations to subjective well-being measures, suggesting that Honesty–Humility may not be “bad” for pleasure attainment and pain avoidance, but it is definitely “good” for living a virtuous, fully functioning life.     

Gaining insight into a novice teacher’s initial journey through reflective practice

This small-scale case study conducted in Trabzon, Turkey, aimed at uncovering the attitude of a tertiary-level novice teacher towards reflective practice in English as a foreign-language setting. The data were derived from the pre- and post-study interviews with the novice teacher, her reflective papers on her audio-recorded lessons, her classroom observation notes about the experienced teacher and the informal researcher observations. The researchers’ role was to design the process, familiarise the teacher with the focus of reflection, conduct the interviews, analyse and interpret the reflective papers of the teacher. The results show that reflective practice may be challenging in terms of emotions for a novice teacher as it may be hard to confront an outsider’s view. The results point to beneficial impact of the self-initiated reflection on the way to teachers’ continuous professional development.     

Amanah and Muslim Identity: Relationships with Religious and Psychological Adjustment in Malaysia

Amanah refers to the accountability of Muslims to their community. In Malaysian Muslim university students (N = 209), an Amanah Scale predicted a stronger sense of identity along with more adaptive religious and psychosocial functioning. Multiple regression analyses identified Accountability to Society as especially influential, but Accountability to Allah exhibited at least some problematic implications. Amanah mediated Identity linkages with some measures of religious and psychological adjustment, but also suppressed Identity relationships with greater self-knowledge and lower anxiety. These data confirmed the importance of communal commitments in Muslim mental health, suggested that accountability may have limited liabilities as well as more obvious psychosocial advantages, and identified possible complexities in the assessment of Accountability to Allah.

     

Domain-specific anger expression assessment and blood pressure during rest and acute stress

Anger expression has been linked to hypertension, although assessment of anger expression has not accounted for situational influences. We predicted that anger expression style varies across social situations. Two studies assessed reported anger expression in three domains (home, work, and during free time) and compared findings to those obtained using a global assessment. Participants reported expressing anger more openly when at home and they tend to exert greater control when at work. The domain-specific assessment was also more sensitive to sex differences than the general assessment. The second study examined the influence of this domain-specific anger expression assessment on blood pressure (BP) at rest and during acute challenge. In addition to replicating the first study, the second study showed that open anger expression particularly at work was associated with elevated BP. These studies represent a first step towards improving assessment of anger expression and determining how anger might relate to hypertension risk.