Morality in Groups: On the Social‐Regulatory Functions of Right and Wrong

Applying what we know about group‐based identities and concerns allows us to improve our understanding of the ways in which morality is relevant to social judgments of right and wrong. We distinguish between three different social functions of moral standards and moral judgments. The identity defining function of morality indicates where people want to belong, and how they are regarded by others. The group dynamic function indicates consensual definitions of what is right and wrong that guide individual behavioral choices. The intergroup relations function of group morality, speaks to the way people tend to communicate with and behave towards members of other groups that have different moral standards.     

Attachment Representation Moderates the Effectiveness of Behavioral Parent Training Techniques for Children with ADHD: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Microtrial

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Behavioral parent training is an evidence-based intervention for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but knowledge on...     

From a single-level analysis to a multilevel analysis of single-case experimental designs

Multilevel modeling provides one approach to synthesizing single-case experimental design data. In this study, we present the multilevel model (the two-level and the three-level models) for summarizing single-case results over cases, over studies, or both. In addition to the basic multilevel models, we elaborate on several plausible alternative models. We apply the proposed models to real datasets and investigate to what extent the estimated treatment effect is dependent on the modeling specifications and the underlying assumptions. By considering a range of plausible models and assumptions, researchers can determine the degree to which the effect estimates and conclusions are sensitive to the specific assumptions made. If the same conclusions are reached across a range of plausible assumptions, confidence in the conclusions can be enhanced. We advise researchers not to focus on one model but conduct multiple plausible multilevel analyses and investigate whether the results depend on the modeling options.     

Stereotypes of Norwegian social groups

We present a pilot study and two main studies that address the nature of stereotypes of social groups in Norway within the framework of the Stereotype Content Model (SCM). The first study focused on stereotypes of a wide range of groups across categories such as gender, age, religious conviction, socioeconomic and health status. The second study focused on stereotypes of immigrant groups. Participants (n = 244 and n = 63, respectively) rated the groups on perceived warmth, competence, status, and competition. Results from both studies support the applicability of the SCM in Norway and provides a unique insight into stereotypes of Norwegian social groups.     

Cognitive control and the COMT Val158Met polymorphism: genetic modulation of videogame training and transfer to task-switching efficiency

The study investigated whether successful transfer of game-based cognitive improvements to untrained tasks might be modulated by preexisting neuro-developmental factors, such as genetic variability related to the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT)—an enzyme responsible for the degradation of dopamine. The COMT Val¹⁵⁸Met genotype may differentially affect cognitive stability and flexibility, and we hypothesized that Val/Val homozygous individuals (who possess low prefrontal dopamine levels) show more pronounced cognitive flexibility than Met/-carriers (who possess high prefrontal dopamine levels). We trained participants, genotyped for the COMT Val¹⁵⁸Met polymorphism on playing “Half-Life 2”, a first-person shooter game which has been shown to improve cognitive flexibility. Pre-training (baseline) and post-training measures of cognitive flexibility were acquired by means of a task-switching paradigm. As expected, Val/Val homozygous individuals showed larger beneficial transfer effects than Met/-carriers. Our findings support the idea that genetic predisposition modulates transfer effects and that playing first-person shooter games promotes cognitive flexibility in individuals with a suitable genetic predisposition.     

AFFECTED BY NATURE: A HERMENEUTICAL TRANSFORMATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

The value‐action gap poses a considerable challenge to normative environmental ethics. Because of the wide array of empirical research results that have become available in the fields of environmental psychology, education, and anthropology, ethicists are at present able to take into account insights on what effectively motivates proenvironmental behavior. The emotional aspect apparently forms a key element within a transformational process that leads to an internalization of nature within one's identity structure. We compare these findings with studies on environmental activists, which appear to a significantly lesser degree hampered by the value‐action gap, thereby attempting to understand what provides them with the drive to act more consistently on their moral attitudes. Hermeneutics is found to play a crucial role in the processes that lead to lasting and consistent motivation toward proenvironmental behavior. An empirically informed hermeneutical approach could therefore provide a promising impetus for contemporary environmental ethics.     

Legitimating the legitimate: A grounded theory study of legitimacy work among Ethics and Compliance Officers

Organizations have responded to ethical scandals in part by creating the Ethics and Compliance Officer (ECO) role to help insure employee ethical and legal behavior. Because ECO work is so fundamental to behavioral ethics in organizations and we know very little about it, we conducted a grounded theory study to learn more. We learned that, although most ECOs were hired to help their organizations respond to external legitimacy challenges, ECOs face major legitimacy challenges inside their organizations. Facilitating conditions may reduce these challenges and help ECOs reach internal legitimacy. But, we also found that ECOs engage in what we term legitimacy work that relies on a number of tactics to help them gain legitimacy in the eyes of their constituents. We tie our findings to the broader legitimacy literature and draw implications for the behavioral ethics literature.     

Authenticity at Work: Development and Validation of an Individual Authenticity Measure at Work

Building on the work by Barrett-Lennard (Carl Rogers’ helping system: Journey & substance. Sage, London 1998) and Wood et al. (J Couns Psychol 55:385–399 2008), this study describes the development and validation of a theory-based measure of state authenticity at work, the Individual Authenticity Measure at Work (IAM Work). Even though this construct is obviously relevant to the work context (e.g., as regards issues of work relations, leadership and well-being), none of the instruments currently available focuses on authenticity in the area of work and organizational psychology. A total sample of 646 participants was divided in two equal sized subsamples. Exploratory factor analysis supported the underlying tripartite construct of authenticity at work, resulting in the subscales authentic living, self-alienation, and accepting external influences. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the tripartite construct and showed good psychometric properties of the state-focused measure of authenticity at work. Finally, correlation analysis showed that each subscale and the total score of authenticity was positively related to commonly used work outcomes such as job satisfaction, in-role performance, and work engagement. This study concludes that the IAM Work is a reliable and valid measure of state authenticity at work. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

A generalized longitudinal mixture IRT model for measuring differential growth in learning environments

This article describes a generalized longitudinal mixture item response theory (IRT) model that allows for detecting latent group differences in item response data obtained from electronic learning (e-learning) environments or other learning environments that result in large numbers of items. The described model can be viewed as a combination of a longitudinal Rasch model, a mixture Rasch model, and a random-item IRT model, and it includes some features of the explanatory IRT modeling framework. The model assumes the possible presence of latent classes in item response patterns, due to initial person-level differences before learning takes place, to latent class-specific learning trajectories, or to a combination of both. Moreover, it allows for differential item functioning over the classes. A Bayesian model estimation procedure is described, and the results of a simulation study are presented that indicate that the parameters are recovered well, particularly for conditions with large item sample sizes. The model is also illustrated with an empirical sample data set from a Web-based e-learning environment.     

“Plateau”-related summary statistics are uninformative for comparing working memory models

Performance on visual working memory tasks decreases as more items need to be remembered. Over the past decade, a debate has unfolded between proponents of slot models and slotless models of this phenomenon (Ma, Husain, Bays (Nature Neuroscience 17, 347-356, 2014). Zhang and Luck (Nature 453, (7192), 233-235, 2008) and Anderson, Vogel, and Awh (Attention, Perception, Psychophys 74, (5), 891-910, 2011) noticed that as more items need to be remembered, “memory noise” seems to first increase and then reach a “stable plateau.” They argued that three summary statistics characterizing this plateau are consistent with slot models, but not with slotless models. Here, we assess the validity of their methods. We generated synthetic data both from a leading slot model and from a recent slotless model and quantified model evidence using log Bayes factors. We found that the summary statistics provided at most 0.15 % of the expected model evidence in the raw data. In a model recovery analysis, a total of more than a million trials were required to achieve 99 % correct recovery when models were compared on the basis of summary statistics, whereas fewer than 1,000 trials were sufficient when raw data were used. Therefore, at realistic numbers of trials, plateau-related summary statistics are highly unreliable for model comparison. Applying the same analyses to subject data from Anderson et al. (Attention, Perception, Psychophys 74, (5), 891-910, 2011), we found that the evidence in the summary statistics was at most 0.12 % of the evidence in the raw data and far too weak to warrant any conclusions. The evidence in the raw data, in fact, strongly favored the slotless model. These findings call into question claims about working memory that are based on summary statistics.