Who Belongs to Me? Social Relationship and Personality Characteristics in the Transition to Young Adulthood

Not much is known about how social network characteristics change in the transition out of school and what role Big Five personality plays in this context. The aim of this paper was twofold. First, we explored changes in social network and relationship characteristics across the transition out of secondary school. Second, we examined within‐person and between‐person effects of personality on these social network changes. Results based on a series of multilevel models to a longitudinal sample of 2287 young adults revealed four main findings. First, social networks increased in size, and this increase was mainly due to a larger number of nonkin. Stable social networks during the transition consisted mainly of family ties but were generally characterized by high closeness. Second, extraversion and openness consistently predicted network size, whereas agreeableness predicted network overlap. Third, increases in emotional closeness were found only for kin; closeness was generally lower for unstable relationships. Fourth, changes in emotional closeness were related to personality, particularly neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness for stable relationships; for unstable relationships, however, closeness was related to extraversion and openness. The article concludes by discussing the role of personality for social relationship development and the active moulding of social networks in young adulthood. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Interpretive sensory-access theory and conscious intentions

It is typically assumed that while we know other people's mental states by observing and interpreting their behavior, we know our own mental states by introspection, i.e., without interpreting ourselves. In his latest book, The opacity of mind: An integrative theory of self-knowledge, Peter Carruthers [2011. The opacity of mind: An integrative theory of self-knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press] argues against this assumption. He holds that findings from across the cognitive sciences strongly suggest that self-knowledge of conscious propositional attitudes such as intentions, judgments, and decisions involves a swift and unconscious process of self-interpretation that utilizes the same sensory channels that we employ when working out other people's mental states. I provide an overview of Carruthers’ book before discussing a pathological case that challenges his account of self-knowledge and mentioning empirical evidence that undermines his use of a particular kind of data in his case against introspection of conscious attitudes.     

Why Do Members of Disadvantaged Groups Strike Back at Perceived Negativity Towards the In‐group?

Against the background of riots in communities across London in 2011, this paper examines the implications of negative meta‐stereotypes on stigmatized group members' reactions towards members of privileged out‐groups within their communities. We hypothesized that concerns over negative opinions that the dominant out‐group is expected to hold of the in‐group (i.e. meta‐stereotypes) would be negatively associated with group members' perceptions of societal fairness and that this relationship would be mediated by members' recall of personal experiences with discrimination. We further hypothesized that views about societal fairness that are challenged in this way would lower an inclination to express discontent with the status quo via normative means while at the same time, increase nonnormative expressions. Results from two surveys (study 1, N = 50; study 2, N = 132) provided support for these hypotheses and are discussed in terms of their meaning for community relations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Justifying Defense Against Non-Responsible Threats and Justified Aggressors: the Liability vs. the Rights-Infringement Account

Even among those who find lethal defense against non-responsible threats, innocent aggressors, or justified aggressors justified even in one to one cases, there is a debate as to what the best explanation of this permissibility is. The contenders in this debate are the liability account, which holds that the non-responsible or justified human targets of the defensive measures are liable to attack (that is, they do not have a right not to be attacked), and the justified infringement account, which claims that the targets retain their right not to be attacked but may be attacked anyway, even in one to one situations. Given that we normally think that rights are trumps, this latter claim is counter-intuitive and rather surprising, and therefore in need of justification and explanation. So far only Jonathan Quong has actually tried to provide an explanation; however, I will argue that his explanation fails and that Quong’s own account of liability is misguided. I then address Helen Frowe’s critique of the liability account. She makes the important concession that the tactical bomber (a justified aggressor) has to compensate his victims, but she tries to block the conclusion that he must therefore be liable. I will demonstrate that her attempt to explain away liability fails once that concession is made.     

Enjoying influence on others: Congruently high implicit and explicit power motives are related to teachers’ well-being

The present study examined the associations of implicit and explicit power motives with the well-being of teachers. Teachers (N = 170) participated in an online assessment, which included measures for implicit motives (assessed by the operant motive test), explicit motives, and well-being. We expected congruently high power motives to be linked with the highest levels of well-being. We tested this assumption using polynomial regressions with response surface analysis. Results were consistent with our hypothesis. Additionally, there was an effect of directional motive incongruence (a combination of a low implicit and a high explicit power motive was associated with higher well-being than a high implicit/low explicit combination), which did not hold when controlling for emotional stability. Results for achievement were comparable, but weaker, and there was no effect for motive incongruence. No significant associations were found for motive (in)congruence in the affiliation domain. Our findings underline the importance of the power motive in understanding individual differences in teachers’ well-being.     

Looking for Assistance in the Dark: Pay Secrecy,Expertise Perceptions,and Efficacious Help Seeking Among Members of Newly Formed Virtual Work Groups

Purpose

Adopting an information processing perspective, we argue that in pay-for-performance contexts, pay secrecy may adversely affect the ability of members of newly formed, virtual work groups to source assistance from those most able to provide it, referred to here as efficacious help-seeking.

Design/Methodology/Approach

We conducted a repeated-measures laboratory study in which one hundred forty-six participants interacted with three confederates, each with a varying level of skill. Participants’ help-seeking behaviors were recorded and efficacious help-seeking was examined as a function of the four pay transparency conditions.

Findings

Our findings reveal that accurate perception of task expertise of the highest paid work group member mediates the impact of pay transparency on members’ efficacious help-seeking. The findings also show that the positive relationship between pay transparency and efficacious help-seeking is amplified for average and high performers and that for these same individuals a shift from secrecy to transparency is accompanied by a significant increase in efficacious help-seeking.

Implications

This study extends pay secrecy research by shifting the focus away from fairness, instrumentality, and sorting and toward information processing. More specifically, the study highlights how pay and pay comparisons can influence inter-relating behaviors in organizations in general and expertise identification and help seeking behaviors in particular.

Originality/Value

We believe this is the first study to directly examine how the availability of pay comparison information determines inter-relating behaviors in organizations. The study offers insight for pay policy in organizations that rely upon employee help-seeking, showing that efficacious help-seeking can be enhanced through transparent pay practices. This is particularly evident in the virtual teams examined in the present study.

     

Functional brain organization for number processing in pre‐verbal infants

Humans are born with the ability to mentally represent the approximate numerosity of a set of objects, but little is known about the brain systems that sub‐serve this ability early in life and their relation to the brain systems underlying symbolic number and mathematics later in development. Here we investigate processing of numerical magnitudes before the acquisition of a symbolic numerical system or even spoken language, by measuring the brain response to numerosity changes in pre‐verbal infants using functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). To do this, we presented infants with two types of numerical stimulus blocks: number change blocks that presented dot arrays alternating in numerosity and no change blocks that presented dot arrays all with the same number. Images were carefully constructed to rule out the possibility that responses to number changes could be due to non‐numerical stimulus properties that tend to co‐vary with number. Interleaved with the two types of numerical blocks were audio‐visual animations designed to increase attention. We observed that number change blocks evoked an increase in oxygenated hemoglobin over a focal right parietal region that was greater than that observed during no change blocks and during audio‐visual attention blocks. The location of this effect was consistent with intra‐parietal activity seen in older children and adults for both symbolic and non‐symbolic numerical tasks. A distinct set of bilateral occipital and middle parietal channels responded more to the attention‐grabbing animations than to either of the types of numerical stimuli, further dissociating the specific right parietal response to number from a more general bilateral visual or attentional response. These results provide the strongest evidence to date that the right parietal cortex is specialized for numerical processing in infancy, as the response to number is dissociated from visual change processing and general attentional processing.     

Does psychosocial stress exacerbate avoidant responses to cancer information in those who are afraid of cancer? A population-based survey among older adults in England

Objective: Communication of cancer information is an important element of cancer control, but cancer fear may lead to information avoidance, especially when coping is low. We examined the association between cancer fear and cancer information avoidance, and tested whether this was exacerbated by psychosocial stress.

Design: Cross-sectional survey of 1258 population-based adults (58–70 years) in England.

Main outcome measures: Cancer fear (intensity and frequency), perceived psychosocial stress and cancer information avoidance. Control variables were age, gender, ethnicity, marital status and education.

Results: A quarter (24%) of respondents avoided cancer information. Ordinal logistic regression analyses showed main effects of psychosocial stress (OR = 1.17, 95% CI 1.07–1.29) and cancer fear: cancer information avoidance was lowest in those with no cancer fear (13%), followed by those with moderate (24%; OR = 2.15, 95% CI: 1.49–3.12), and high cancer fear (35%; OR = 3.90, 95% CI: 2.65–5.73). In the adjusted model, the interaction between cancer fear and stress was significant (OR = 1.14, 95% CI 1.004–1.29, p < .05): 40% of those with high fear/high stress avoided cancer information compared with 29% with high fear/low stress.

Conclusion: Cancer fear and psychosocial stress interact to produce disengagement with cancer-related information, highlighting the importance of affective processes to cancer control efforts.