On-Road vehicle study of the experience of automated driving

Prior studies of automated driving have focused on drivers’ evaluations of advanced driving assistance systems and their knowledge of the technology. An on-road experiment with novice drivers who had never used automated systems was conducted to examine the effects of the automation on the driving experience. Participants drove a Tesla Model 3 sedan with level 2 automation engaged or not engaged on a 4-lane interstate freeway. They reported that driving was more enjoyable and less stressful during automated driving than manual driving. They also indicated that they were less anxious and nervous, and able to relax more with the automation. Their intentions to use and purchase automated systems in the future were correlated with the favorableness of their automated driving experiences. The positive experiences of the first-time users suggest that consumers may not need a great deal of persuading to develop an appreciation for partially automated vehicles.     

Discussing normative features of Future Time Perspective construct: Renewing with the Lewinian approach from a sociocognitive perspective

Since the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI), an important body of research emerges on the Time Perspective (TP) construct and more specifically on the Future Time Perspective (FTP) dimension. However, a gap is growing between the psychosocial Lewinian approach to TP and the dispositional way it is operationalized in many studies nowadays. One way of underlining the psychosocial roots of TP and to show the problematic use of FTP in a personalistic manner is to highlight normative aspects of FTP. From a sociocognitive perspective, present research aims to examine the social valorization of FTP and to determine the type of social value associated with it in a French context. Results reveal the social valorization of FTP-ZTPI dimension and permit to discuss the normativity of this construct. We suggest that FTP might be normative because it refers to certain social expectations and ideologies in the context of contemporary Western societies.     

Career indecision and career exploration among older French adolescents: The specific role of general trait anxiety and future school and career anxiety

This study examined the relationship between two forms of adolescent anxiety, career exploration and career indecision. Two-hundred and forty-two French senior high school students filled out a self-report questionnaire that measured career indecision, frequency of career exploration, general trait anxiety, and fear of failing in one’s academic and occupational careers. The results showed that adolescent career indecision and career exploration were positively and significantly related to general trait anxiety and career anxiety. Nevertheless, career anxiety accounted for an additional part of the variance in career exploration and, to a lesser extent, in career indecision. General trait anxiety accounted for an additional part of the variance in career indecision only. In addition, general trait anxiety and career anxiety mediated the relationship between career indecision and career exploration. The discussion focuses on the role of anxiety (personality trait anxiety or an emotion connected to one’s future) in career development. It also addresses the implications of these results for improving counseling practices.     

Further evidence for a bifactor solution for the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale: Measurement and conceptual implications

The Consideration of Future Consequences construct has been found to relate meaningfully to several positive outcomes in temporal research. Researchers have proposed 1-factor, 2-factor, and bifactor solutions to the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale (CFCS). Using 313 British University undergraduates, we tested four competing models: (a) a 12-item unidimensional model, (b) a model fitted for two uncorrelated factors (CFC-Immediate and CFC-Future), (c) a model fitted for two correlated factors (CFC-I and CFC-F), and (d) a bifactor model. Results supported the bifactor model, suggesting that the two hypothesized factors are better understood as grouping factors. Accordingly, the present study supports the CFCS as a unidimensional global future orientation measure. These results have important implications for the study of future orientation using the CFCS. Researchers using the CFCS are encouraged to examine a bifactor solution for the scores.     

Supportive Social Contexts and Intentions for Civic and Political Participation: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour

We investigated how general social support from family, friends and acquaintances, and community predicted intentions for civic (e.g. volunteering) and political (e.g. petitioning) participation via the constructs specified in the theory of planned behaviour. Participants were young adults living in the former East Germany, a post‐communist region, who were surveyed by telephone in 2010 (N_civic = 695, N_political = 694). Civic participation was perceived more favourably than political participation. Supportive family predicted intentions for civic participation; supportive community services predicted both types of intentions; and supportive friends and acquaintances had no significant effects. The mediating variables were subjective norms and perceived behavioural control, but not attitudes. All effects were controlled for sociodemographic variables, richness of the social network, and past experience of civic and political participation. Findings underscore the role of supportive community in fostering both civic and political participation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Promoting Ethical and Prosocial Behavior: The Combined Effect of Ethical Leadership and Coworker Ethicality

Ethical leadership encompasses the personal conduct of the leader and the leader’s expectations that followers behave ethically. Building on social learning and social exchange theory, we propose that ethical leadership interacts with coworker ethicality to predict personnel’s ethical intentions and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Using data collected from a large organizational sample, we use moderated regression analysis to test the main and interactive effects of ethical leadership and coworker ethicality on ethical intentions and OCB as it relates to conscientiousness, civic virtue, and altruism. Study 1 examines how ethical leadership and coworker ethicality interact to predict ethical intentions using a sample of 1,551 military personnel. Study 2 extends the results of Study 1 by examining how ethical leadership and coworker ethicality interact to predict OCB using a combined sample of 3,363 military and civilian personnel. Consistent with social learning theory, we found positive relationships between ethical leadership and coworker ethicality with ethical outcomes (i.e., intentions and OCB). Consistent with social exchange theory, we found that perceptions of ethical leadership strengthened the relationship between coworker ethicality and ethical intentions and OCB, highlighting the importance of leaders in shaping the behavior of organizational members.     

If You Are Going to Pay Within the Next 24 Hours,Press 1: Automatic Planning Prompt Reduces Credit Card Delinquency

People often form intentions but fail to follow through on them. Mounting evidence suggests that such intention‐action gaps can be narrowed with prompts to make concrete plans about when, where, and how to act to achieve the intention. In this paper, we pushed the notion of plan‐concreteness to test the efficacy of a prompt under a minimalist automated calling setting, where respondents were only prompted to indicate a narrower duration within which they intent to act. In a field experiment, this planning prompt significantly helped people to pay their past dues and get out of debt delinquency. These results suggest that minimalist automatic planning prompts are a scalable, cost‐effective intervention.     

Feeling bad about progress does not lead people want to change their health behaviour

Objective: When do people decide to do something about problematic health behaviours? Theoretical models and pragmatic considerations suggest that people should take action when they feel bad about their progress – in other words, when they experience negative progress-related affect. However, the impact of progress-related affect on goal striving has rarely been investigated.

Design and Methods: Study 1 (N = 744) adopted a cross-sectional design and examined the extent to which measures of progress-related affect were correlated with intentions to take action. Study 2 (N = 409) investigated the impact of manipulating progress-related affect on intentions and behaviour in an experimental design.

Results: Study 1 found that, while engaging in health behaviours had the expected affective consequences (e.g. people felt bad when they were not eating healthily, exercising regularly or limiting their alcohol consumption), it was feeling good rather than bad about progress that was associated with stronger intentions. Study 2 replicated these findings. Participants induced to feel good about their eating behaviour had marginally stronger intentions to eat healthily than participants led to feel bad about their eating behaviour.

Conclusion: The findings have implications for interventions designed to promote changes in health behaviour, as well as theoretical frameworks for understanding self-regulation.     

Predicting intention to use condoms in homosexual men: An application and extension of the theory of reasoned action

Abstract

A questionnaire based on the Theory of Reasoned Action was developed and tested to identify predictors of intention to use condoms. The questionnaire consisted of three original components: Behavioral Intentions, Attitudes and Subjective Normative Beliefs, and a new component, Behavioral Norms. Age of HIV antibody status were also collected. Internal consistency of the four components of the questionnaire was high: Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranged from 0.76 to 0.87. Logistic modelling identified the significant predictors of intentions to use a condom as Attitudes (Odds Ratio = 2.7, 95% CI 1.80?4.06, P < 0.001) and Behavioral Norms (Odds Ratio = 1.49,95% CI 1.06?2.11, P = 0.03). Contrary to the theory that demographic variables are not important predictive variables of intention, HIV antibody positive status and age were found to directly influence Behavioral Intentions to use a condom. About 50% of men older than 25 years of age intended to use a condom, irrespective of HIV status. Overall, 59% of men 25 years of age and younger intended to use a condom, but the percentage was affected by HIV status; 22% in men who were HIV positive and 63% in men who were HIV negative. These findings indicate that after modification, to include HIV antibody status, Age and Behavioral Norms, the Theory of Reasoned Action can identify significant predictors of intention to use a condom.