“We Got To Live Together”: The Psychology of Encounter and the Politics of Engagement

The article is set in the normative claim that our work as political psychologists emerges from concerns with our contemporary worlds and that political psychologists should not hesitate to draw out the policy implications of their own work. Following a brief explanation of the Allport tradition of the contact hypothesis and its critics, the article proposes four analytical considerations that contribute to the further understanding of the psychology of encounter and the politics of engagement: First, the insight that the individual is already constituted as a social being, through contact; second, an exploration of the opportunities and challenges of dialogue; third, the changing nature of selfhood, agency, and identity in the contemporary world; and, finally, through deep multiculturalism, the cosmopolitical perspective, and the politics of care, the case for a viable and sustainable politics of engagement.     

家庭环境对中学生阅读能力的影响:阅读投入、阅读兴趣的中介作用

采用学生阅读能力测试卷和学生阅读状况调查问卷,对随机选取的559名中学生进行调查,并运用结构方程模型探讨了家庭环境影响阅读能力的内在机制。结果发现,家庭环境影响阅读投入的路径系数为0.18,阅读投入影响阅读兴趣的路径系数为0.51,阅读兴趣影响阅读投入的路径系数为0.80,阅读投入影响阅读能力的路径系数为0.46,各路径系数均达到显著水平(p0.05)。结果表明,(1)家庭环境通过阅读投入的完全中介作用影响阅读兴趣;阅读兴趣通过阅读投入的完全中介作用影响阅读成绩;(2)家庭环境对阅读能力的影响是通过阅读投入和阅读兴趣的循环互动作用实现的。     

与上司“心有灵犀”会让你的工作更出色吗?——追随原型一致性、工作投入与工作绩效

内隐追随作为一种关于追随角色的认知结构,包括追随原型和反原型两种。其中,追随原型表征了个体对追随角色的积极预期。本研究基于角色理论,考察了领导者-追随者的追随原型一致性对工作绩效的影响及工作投入的中介作用。采用跨层次多项式回归和响应面分析技术,对64个工作团队的数据进行分析,发现追随原型能否提升工作绩效主要取决于领导-追随双方的匹配情况。具体而言,(1)领导-追随双方的追随原型越一致,关系绩效越高。但上述结论并不适用于任务绩效。(2)在一致情况下,与"低-低"一致相比,任务绩效和关系绩效在双方追随原型的"高-高"一致时更高。(3)在不一致情况下,与"领导者的追随原型高-追随者的追随原型低"相比,任务绩效和关系绩效在"领导者的追随原型低-追随者的追随原型高"时相对更高。(4)追随原型一致性通过工作投入影响任务绩效和关系绩效。     

Contributions of Behavioral Systems Science to Leadership for a New Progressive Movement

We argue in this paper that we are in the midst of a period in which fundamental global change will be required if societies and many species, perhaps even our own, are to survive. The realities are inescapable, and the potential implications are likely to affect nearly every dimension of human life in the USA and globally. Current trends are discouraging and will be extraordinarily difficult to shift, given global structural realities. It is hard to imagine a time when effective leadership is more necessary or will be more challenging. Our thesis here is that behavioral systems science can contribute in meaningful ways to shaping and sustaining such leadership, leadership required to advance a new progressive movement.     

Strengths use and work engagement: a weekly diary study

The present study among 65 civil engineers investigates the impact of organizational support for strengths use on weekly work engagement and proactive behaviour. Positive psychology postulates that strengths use makes people feel authentic and efficacious. We argue that employees use these positive psychological states as resources that fuel work engagement and proactive work behaviour. Participants completed a general questionnaire regarding strengths use support, and a weekly quantitative diary questionnaire regarding their strengths use, self-efficacy, work engagement, and proactive behaviour over a period of five consecutive workweeks. In line with the hypotheses, the results of multilevel structural equation analyses showed that organizational strengths use support was positively related to weekly strengths use. Furthermore, the results indicated that weekly strengths use was positively related to weekly work engagement and proactive behaviour, through weekly self-efficacy (sequential mediation). Although strengths use support contributed indirectly to work engagement (mediated by strengths use and self-efficacy), there was no significant indirect relationship with proactive behaviour. Our study indicates that strengths use is associated with employees’ levels of self-efficacy, work engagement, and proactive behaviour and that organizations can help employees to use their strengths more often by giving them the opportunity to do what they are good at.     

Secondary task engagement and vehicle automation – Comparing the effects of different automation levels in an on-road experiment

Recent and upcoming advances in vehicle automation are likely to change the role of the driver from one of actively controlling a vehicle to one of monitoring the behaviour of an assistant system and the traffic environment. A growing body of literature suggests that one possible side effect of an increase in the degree of vehicle automation is the tendency of drivers to become more heavily involved in secondary tasks while the vehicle is in motion. However, these studies have mainly been conducted in strictly controlled research environments, such as driving simulators and test tracks, and have mainly involved either low levels of automation (i.e., automation of longitudinal control by Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)) or Highly automated driving (i.e., automation of both longitudinal and lateral control without the need for continuous monitoring). This study aims to replicate these effects during an on-road experiment in everyday traffic and to extend previous findings to an intermediate level of automation, in which both longitudinal and lateral control are automated but the driver must still monitor the traffic environment continuously (so-called Partial automation). N = 32 participants of different age groups and different levels of familiarity with ACC drove in rush-hour traffic on a highway segment. They were assisted by ACC, ACC with steering assistance (ACC+SA), or not at all. The results show that while subjective and objective driving safety were not influenced by the degree of automation, drivers who were already familiar with ACC increased the frequency of interactions with an in-vehicle secondary task in both assisted drives. However, participants generally rated performing the secondary task as less effortful when being assisted, regardless of the automation level (ACC vs. ACC+SA). The results of this on-road experiment thus validate previous findings from more-controlled research environments and extend them to Partially automated driving.     

Strengths use and deficit improvement: The relationship with engagement and fit with study course amongst first-year students

This study sought to test a model of students’ proactive behaviour to use their strengths and improve their deficits and how this relates with their self-reported perceptions of their fit with a study course and engagement. Participants were 692 first-year students from a higher education institution in South Africa (females=60.3%; blacks=71.3%; mean age=19.71; SD=1.93). They completed measures of strengths use, deficit improvement, perceptions of fit with a study course and engagement. Structural equation modelling was utilised to examine the relationship between students’ strengths use and deficit improvement, perceptions of fit with a study course and student engagement. In addition, the bootstrapping method was used to identify possible mediating effects of fit with a study course. The results indicated that only deficit improvement showed a significant relationship with engagement. Perceptions of fit with a study course mediated the relationship between students’ strengths use and deficit improvement.     

Psychological availability and work engagement: The moderating role of sex and race

This study sought to determine the relationship of sex and race as moderators of psychological availability on work engagement in various South African organisations. Participants were 1 059 employees predominantly from the corporate sector in Gauteng province (females = 61%, blacks = 36%). Cross-sectional survey data were collected from the employees using the Psychological Conditions Scale and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). Moderated hierarchical regression analyses tested the prediction of work engagement from psychological availability, while controlling for the sex and race of employees. Psychological availability increased the level of work engagement for both men and women, the relationship, however, was stronger for women as compared to men. White employees were less work engaged compared to other race group members. Psychological availability was higher for the black, Indian, and coloured employees compared to white employees. The results confirmed the positive relationship of psychological availability on work engagement, and that sex and race differences exist for employees in a developing country.     

Sense of Competence and Beliefs About Parental Roles in Mothers and Fathers as Predictors of Coparenting and Child Engagement in Mother–Father–Infant Triadic Interactions

The aim of this study was to assess the extent to which a sense of competence and beliefs about parental roles in mothers and fathers influence coparenting and child engagement in triadic interactions during the first 2 years of the child's life, after other influential variables such as marital satisfaction and postpartum depression have been controlled for. The sample constituted 69 mother–father–infant families, whose sense of competence, beliefs in parental roles, postpartum depression, and marital satisfaction were assessed in our laboratory at 3, 9, and 18 months with self‐reported questionnaires. Coparenting support and conflict and child engagement were assessed with the Lausanne Trilogue Play. Results show that (i) predictors of coparenting and child engagement are not the same at each time point; (ii) a sense of competence in mothers is positively linked with coparenting support, particularly at 3 months, whereas in fathers, it is negatively linked with support, particularly at 18 months; (iii) discrepancies between mothers and fathers in beliefs about the importance of the mother's role is the main predictor of coparenting conflict at 18 months; and (iv) paternal beliefs about the importance of the father's and mother's roles are the main predictor of child engagement at 18 months. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Career adaptability as a mediator between personality and career engagement

The current study examined the role of career adaptability as a mediator between personality dimensions and career engagement. This investigation was conducted using a sample of university students (N = 201) who completed the Zuckerman–Kuhlman–Aluja Personality Questionnaire, the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-Persian Form, and the Career Engagement Scale. Career adaptability dimensions related positively with activity, negatively with neuroticism, and positively with career engagement. The results indicated that career adaptability dimensions partially mediated the relationships between activity (work compulsion, general activity, restlessness, and work energy) and career engagement, whereas they were a full mediator between neuroticism (anxiety, depression, dependency, and low self-esteem) and career engagement. Among career adaptability dimensions, curiosity fully mediated the effect of sensation seeking on career engagement. These findings suggest that career adaptability is a dynamic mechanism that helps to regulate the relationship between specific dispositional traits and career adapting behaviors.