The Moral Foundations taxonomy: Structural validity and relation to political ideology in Sweden

Although Moral Foundations Theory claims that the foundations of morality are universal, there are still few studies addressing it through non-English measures. In the current research, 540 persons filled out a Swedish translation of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire, and 332 of them filled out political attitude measures. Confirmatory factor analyses suggested that the fit of the five-factor model was better than alternative models but not optimal, replicating previous findings. Concerns with fairness and prevention of harm predicted political identity leftward, mediated mainly by preference for equality, and concerns with loyalty, authority, and sanctity predicted political identity rightward, mediated mainly by resistance to change and system justification, as hypothesized. Fairness and authority concerns were the best predictors of political ideology.     

CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE CLASH OF WORLDVIEWS: AN EXPLORATION OF HOW TO MOVE FORWARD IN A POLARIZED DEBATE

The current gridlock around climate change and how to address our global sustainability issues can be understood as resulting from clashes in worldviews. This article summarizes some of the research on worldviews in the contemporary West, showing that these (ideal‐typical) worldviews have different, and frequently complementary, potentials, as well as different pitfalls, with respect to addressing climate change. Simultaneously, the overview shows that, because of their innate reflexivity and their capacity to appreciate and synthesize multiple perspectives, individuals inhabiting integrative worldviews may have particular potentials with respect to addressing climate change. In the conclusion I argue that the policy challenge is to develop strategies that inspire the different worldview groups to actualize their potentials while mitigating their pitfalls, as well as to unite and mobilize them around a single vision that speaks to them all.     

(STILL) DISAGREEING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE: WHICH WAY FORWARD?

Why does climate change continue to be a forceful idea which divides people? What does this tell us about science, about culture, and about the future? Despite disagreement, how might the idea of climate change nevertheless be used creatively? In this essay I develop my investigation of these questions using four lines of argument. First, the future risks associated with human‐caused climate change are severely underdetermined by science. Scientific predictions of future climates are poorly constrained; even more so the consequences of such climates for evolving human socio‐technological and natural ecosystems. Second, I argue that to act politically in the world, people have to pass judgments on the facts of science; facts do not speak for themselves. Third, because these judgments are different, the strategic goals of policy interventions developed in response to risks associated with future climate change are inevitably multiple and conflicting. Finally, reconciling and achieving diverse goals requires political contestation. “Moving forward” on climate change then becomes a task of investing in the discursive and procedural preconditions for an agonistic politics to work constructively, to enable ways of implementing policies when people disagree.     

Differences in Mothers' and Fathers' Readiness for Change in Parent Training

We investigated readiness for change (RFC), a construct that may contribute to the discrepancies between fathers' and mothers’ rates of participation in behavioral parent training. One hundred and twenty fathers and mothers of 2- to 7-year-old children with conduct problems completed standardized measures of RFC, child behavior problems, and parent stress as part of an intake to a parent-child interaction therapy clinic. Fathers reported less readiness for change, less confidence in their ability to make changes, were more defensive about the need to change, and saw treatment as less important than mothers. Results suggest that if clinicians match parent training interventions to mothers’ readiness, fathers may be left behind.     

Bicyclists’ speed adaptation strategies when conducting self-paced vs. system-paced smartphone tasks in traffic

The increasing prevalence of mobile phone usage while cycling has raised concerns, even though the number of cyclists involved in accidents does not increase at a comparable rate. A reason for this may be how cyclists adapt travelling speed and task execution to the current traffic situation. The aim of this study is to investigate speed adaptation among cyclists when conducting self-paced (initiated by the cyclist) vs. system-paced (initiated by somebody else) smartphone tasks in real traffic.Twenty-two cyclists completed a track in real traffic while listening to music, receiving and making calls, receiving and sending text messages, and searching for information on the internet. The route and the types of tasks were controlled, but the cyclists could choose rather freely when and where along the route to carry out the tasks, thus providing semi-naturalistic data on compensatory behaviour.The results clearly show that cyclists use conscious strategies to adapt their speed to accommodate the execution of secondary phone tasks. Regarding tactical behaviour, it was found that cyclists kept on cycling in 80% of the system-paced cases and in 70% of the self-paced cases. In the remaining cases, the cyclists chose to execute the phone task while standing still or when walking. Compared to the baseline (17.6 ± 3.5 km/h), the mean speed was slightly increased when the cyclists listened to music (18.2 ± 3.7 km/h) and clearly decreased when they interacted with the phone (13.0 ± 5.0 km/h). The speed reduction profile differed between self-paced and system-paced tasks with a preparatory speed reduction before task initiation for self-paced tasks.In conclusion, when the cyclists had the chance they either stopped or adapted their speed proactively to accommodate the execution of the phone task. For self-paced tasks, the speed reduction was finalised before task initialisation, and for system-paced tasks the speed adaptation occurred in reaction to the incoming task. It is recommended to investigate whether the observed compensatory behaviour is enough to offset the possible negative effects of smartphone use.     

Initial development and validity evidence for the processes of change in Psychological Skills Training Questionnaire

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to create and provide validity evidence for the Processes of Change in Psychological Skills Training Questionnaire (PCPSTQ).DesignThe current study used a cross-sectional research design.MethodsFive hundred fifty nine NCAA Division I, professional, and Olympic level athletes participated in the current study. To create the PCPSTQ, an initial pool of 114 items was generated by the research team. After a content validity process, 65 items were retained for analysis. Exploratory structural equation modeling was used as an analytic strategy to identify the most appropriate factor structure for the PCPSTQ. Decisions about the most appropriate model were made using multiple fit indices. To examine the construct validity of the PCPSTQ, a series of one-way ANOVAs were conducted to examine differences in processes of change use across stage of change.ResultsIn the current study, validity evidence provided support for a 7-factor process of change measure (χ² = 325.84, p < .001; Comparative Fit Index = .971; Tucker Lewis Index = .945; Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = .037; Standard Root Mean Square Residual = .020). Results also supported the construct validity of the scale as a significant difference in process of change use across stage of change was reported for all seven processes.ConclusionsResults of the current study support the factor structure and construct validity of the PCPSTQ. It appears that the processes of behavior change reported across multiple behavior change domains might also be viable for sport psychology professionals.     

Three Futures: Nightmare,Diversion, Vision

Possible futures can, for simplicity, be reduced to three broad options: “Business-as-usual economic growth” (“Nightmare”), “Green economic growth” (“Diversion”), and “Ecological sustainability” (“Vision”). We critically discuss the feasibility and sustainability of each. We find that the Nightmare option will eventually be undermined by ecological deterioration and rising resource scarcity, while the Diversion option, we argue, is doomed to failure. The Vision option is for us the only viable future, but requires unprecedented socioeconomic changes. Regardless of path, either Earth biophysical changes, or socioeconomic changes—or possibly both—will be unprecedented. Hence, predicting the future, never easy, will become much harder.