Do personality factors predict job satisfaction?

Two studies investigated the relationships between personality traits and aspects of job satisfaction. In Study 1, job applicants (n=250) completed the Eysenck Personality Profiler and the Work Values Questionnaire (WVQ), which requires respondents to rate various work-related facets according to the extent to which they contribute to their job satisfaction. These facets were combined into two composites (hygiene and motivator) based on previous research. The three personality superfactors accounted for a small percentage of the variance in importance ratings (about 5%). In Study 2, employees (n=82) completed a measure of the ‘Big Five’ personality traits and the Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (JSQ), which assesses both what respondents consider as important in their work environment as well as their satisfaction with their current job. Importance ratings were again combined into two composites while job satisfaction ratings were factor analyzed and three factors, differentiated along hygiene versus motivator lines, emerged. Personality traits again accounted for a small percentage of the total variance both in importance ratings and in levels of job satisfaction. It is concluded that personality does not have a strong or consistent influence either on what individuals perceive as important in their work environment or on their levels of job satisfaction.     

Evaluation, Uncertainty and Motivation

Evaluative judgements have both belief-like and desire-like features. While cognitivists think that they can easily explain the belief-like features, and have trouble explaining the desire-like features, non-cognitivists think the reverse. I argue that the belief-like features of evaluative judgement are quite complex, and that these complexities crucially affect the way in which an agent's values explain her actions, and hence the desire-like features. While one form of cognitivism can, it turns out that non-cognitivism cannot, accommodate all of these complexities. The upshot is that that form of cognitivism can explain both features of evaluative judgements, and that non-cognitivism can explain neither.     

Identification and Responsibility

Real-self accounts of moral responsibility distinguish between various types of motivational elements. They claim that an agent is responsible for acts suitably related to elements that constitute the agent's real self. While such accounts have certain advantages from a compatibilist perspective, they are problematic in various ways. First, in it, authority and authenticity conceptions of the real self are often inadequately distinguished. Both of these conceptions inform discourse on identification, but only the former is relevant to moral responsibility. Second, authority and authenticity real-self theories are unable to accommodate cases in which the agent neither identifies nor disidentifies with his action and yet seems morally responsible for what he does. Third, authority and authenticity real-self theories are vulnerable to counterexamples in which the provenance of the agent's real self undermines responsibility.     

元认知与学习动机关系的研究

对于元认知与学习动机之间的关系,已有研究采用相关分析、回归分析的方法进行了初步探讨,但无论是相关还是回归都不能使我们清楚地了解两者之间的相互作用。本研究的目的即是运用路径分析的方法对这一问题进行较为深入的探讨。路径分析表明,动机变量对元认知活动具有“供能”的作用;动机变量对元认知的影响有的是直接发生的,如考试焦虑、目标定向,有的则是以其它变量为中介而间接发生的,如动机强度、学业自我概念。     

Retaliatory motivation enhances attributions of hostility when people process ambiguous social stimuli

We hypothesized that provocation and readiness to aggress (Retaliatory Motivation) would increase the tendency to construe the ambiguous actions of others as reflecting hostile intent. Male undergraduates were either verbally provoked or not provoked by a male experimenter and half were led to believe that they would be allowed to retaliate anonymously against the provoker in the form of a potentially damaging written evaluation. Participants then rated the hostility and aggressive intent of the characters in brief ambiguous scenarios of interpersonal conflict. According to prediction, men who were provoked and anticipated retaliation against their provoker rated the scenarios as containing hostility and aggression to a significantly greater extent than did non‐provoked or merely provoked participants. Results are discussed within a motivation‐based affective relevance model of perception. Aggr. Behav. 29:155–172, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

How effortful decisions get enacted: the motivating role of decision processes,desires, and anticipated emotions

Building on recent research examining the influence of decision making on subsequent goal striving and decision enactment, we consider and elaborate on the mechanisms through which effortful decisions are made, maintained, and enacted. Our proposed framework builds on the Dholakia and Bagozzi ( 2002 ) model, distinguishes between two important types of intentions and desires, and shows that the motivation‐mustering function of the decision process is mediated by goal and implementation desires. In addition to decision processes, the roles of goal feasibility, anticipated emotions, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control are also elaborated on. Through a two‐wave field study tracking real decisions and their pursuit by participants, we find empirical support for our model of effortful decision making and enactment. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reaction to Mortality: An Interdisciplinary Organizing Principle for the Human Sciences

Ernest Becker's theory about death denial is one example of depth psychological theory. Because very important features of Becker's theory have now successfully and singularly met the rigorous empirical testing of Terror Management Theory (TMT), it must be concluded that the theory of death denial stands apart from and above alternative depth psychological theories in explaining human behavioral and attitudinal motivation. Nevertheless, TMT only touches the surface of Becker's theory in the round. This essay looks at how Becker's wider theories of death denial are applied to (1) personal psychological, (2) social psychological, (3) political, and (4) spiritual aspects of human experience and suggests that what Becker has given us is an organizing principle, a theory of considerable integrative, explanatory, and interpretive power, for a broadly interdisciplinary social science of human behavior.     

Gender and age-related differences in attitudes toward traffic laws and traffic violations

The study examined gender and age-related differences in drivers’ normative motives for compliance with traffic laws and in gain–loss considerations related to driving. Two age groups of male and female students, totaling 181 respondents, completed a questionnaire measuring several normative motives for compliance with traffic laws, perceived gains and danger involved in the commission of traffic violations, and the frequency of committing various driving violations. The results show that younger drivers and male drivers express a lower level of normative motivation to comply with traffic laws than do female and older drivers. The lowest level of perceived importance of traffic laws relative to other laws was found among young male drivers. The commission of traffic violations was found to be related more to the evaluation of traffic laws among men and younger drivers, compared to women and older drivers. The perceived danger involved in the commission of a driving violation, however, was found to constitute much more of a factor among women than among men before the commission of traffic violations. Perceived gains involved in the commission of violations were more strongly pronounced among older drivers than among younger drivers. Results are discussed concerning different types of attitude–behavior relationships in the context of driving.     

成就目标对青少年成就动机和学业成就影响的研究

本研究在迈尔（Maehr）等人研究的基础上,考察了成就目标（任务目标和能力目标）与动机和学业成就之间的关系。结果表明,任务目标通过内部动机对学业成就产生积极的影响,能力目标通过外部动机对学业成就产生消极的影响。     

Latent profiles of work motivation in adolescents in relation to work expectations,goal engagement,and changes in work experiences

Motivation plays a key role in successful entry into working life. Based on a cross-sectional and a one-year longitudinal study, we used a person-centered approach to explore work-related motivation (i.e., autonomous goals, positive affect, and occupational self-efficacy) among 577 students in 8th grade (Study 1) and 949 adolescents in vocational training (Study 2). Based on latent profile analysis, in both studies we identified four groups that were characterized by different levels of overall motivation and one group characterized by low positive affect and mean levels in autonomous goals and self-efficacy. Profiles characterized by high levels of motivation showed the highest levels of positive work expectations and goal engagement and the lowest levels of negative work expectations in Study 1 and the highest levels of person-job fit, work engagement, and job satisfaction in Study 2. Moreover, latent difference score analysis showed that motivational profiles predicted changes in person-job fit and work engagement across one year but not in job satisfaction. The results imply that career counselors should be aware of characteristic motivational patterns of clients that may require specific counseling approaches.