Cultural variations in achievement motivation despite equivalent motivational strength: Motivational concerns among Indian and American corporate professionals

We explored the possibility that persons from two cultures, Indian and American, might be similar in overall levels of motivational strength yet differ significantly in their experience and expression of achievement motivation. We anticipated that Indian, more than American, corporate professionals would incorporate not only self-based but also other-oriented concerns (e.g., for the welfare of co-workers and community members) into their experience of achievement motivation in the workplace. American and Indian corporate professionals responded to an online survey that included a novel measure tapping interpersonal concerns in achievement motivation. Despite the groups being equivalent on multiple demographic indicators and on traditional indices of both motivational strength and motivational orientation, Americans and Indians differed substantially in motivational concerns, with Indians grounding their sense of achievement motivation more strongly in concerns for extended family, co-workers and community. Implications for the study of cultural variations in personality processes are discussed.     

Is aversion to incest psychologically privileged? When sex and sociosexuality do not predict sexual willingness

As human possess powerful incest-avoidance mechanisms (which likely evolved due to the high costs of inbreeding), reactions to incestuous sexual encounters may be psychologically distinct from reactions to non-incestuous (but still non-normative) sexual encounters. Accordingly, variables such as sex and sociosexuality that normally predict openness to sexual encounters in other situations (i.e., men and sociosexually unrestricted people tend to be more sexually willing) may not do so – or do so only weakly – in incestuous situations. In Study 1, sociosexuality predicted negative judgments of non-incestuous (but still normatively proscribed) sexual acts, but not judgments of incestuous sexual acts. In Study 2, sociosexuality predicted negative reactions to imagined sex with biologically unrelated (but still normatively unusual) partners, but not reactions to imagined sex with related partners (this effect was limited to women); also, men reacted less negatively than women to imagined sex with unrelated partners, but men and women reacted equally negatively to imagined sex with related partners (the latter effect was limited to sociosexually restricted men).     

中国城区青少年对广告价值的评价:前因和后果

通过对北京市7所中学366名学生的调查,探讨了青少年对广告价值的评价以及何种因素影响青少年对广告价值的评价,广告价值的评价是否会进一步影响其决策等问题。运用AMOS 4.0建立结构方程模型对研究假设进行检验,结果表明：（1）青少年对广告价值的评价直接影响到他们的决策意图;（2）在探讨广告价值的影响因素时发现,对广告的知觉因素（信息性和娱乐性）和青少年对广告以及广告商的社会认知（观看广告的社会动机和对广告劝服技巧的认识）对广告价值的影响作用也十分显著,信息性、娱乐性与社会动机都对广告价值产生积极影响,而对广告劝服技巧的认识则对广告价值产生显著的负面影响     

La motivation et son ancrage utilitaire/désirable dans l’évaluation

Motivation has an important place among the personal characteristics that professional assessors take in account. A first study shows that different professionals do not choose the same criteria to assess motivation and also shows that normative factors affect their judgement. Then a series of studies focuses on the valorization of intrinsic motivation and on the anchoring in utility / desirability of this attribution of value. It appears that, compared with extrinsically motivated applicants, intrinsically motivated applicants are rather described by judges with desirable traits than with utility traits. This result is found as well with professionals and non professional respondents. So it seems that the valorization of intrinsic motivation would be more anchored in desirability than in utility, which is a difference with the norm of internality that is clearly anchored in utility.     

公共物品困境中的突显身份效应及合作动机对合作行为影响

从合作动机的激发与破坏的角度探讨公共物品困境中突显身份对合作行为的影响,同时考察社会价值取向与突显身份之间的关系。结果表明：突显合作者与突显不合作者两种方式都会提高被试的合作水平;两种突显方式的作用机制不同。突显合作者条件下,被试的合作行为受内在动机和外在动机的共同影响。而突显不合作者则会破坏被试合作的内在动机,外在动机对提高合作行为起主要作用;突显合作者条件下,合作取向的被试更多受内在动机的影响,而非合作取向的被试则更多受外在动机的影响。在突显不合作者的条件下,合作取向和非合作取向被试的合作行为都受外在动机的影响较大。     

Perfectionism and burnout in junior elite soccer players: The mediating influence of unconditional self-acceptance

ObjectivesIt has been argued that elite junior athletes may be especially vulnerable to the development of burnout [Coakley, D. (1992). Burnout among adolescent athletes: A personal failure or social problem. Sociology, 9, 271–285; Feigley, D. A. (1984). Psychological burnout in high-level athletes. The Physician and Sports Medicine, 12, 108–119; Raedeke, T. D. (1997). Is athlete burnout more than just stress? A sport commitment perspective. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 19, 396–418]. Few studies to date have examined the psychological mechanisms that may underpin this vulnerability. One exception was a study by Gould, Tuffrey, Udry, and Loehr [(1996). Burnout in competitive junior tennis players: I. A quantitative psychological assessment. The Sport Psychologist, 10, 332–340], which found that a form of perfectionism reflecting a preoccupation with avoiding mistakes differentiated between burnout and non-burnout tennis players. The first purpose of the present investigation was to extend this research and examine the influence of self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism on burnout in elite junior soccer players. A second purpose was to examine whether the association between perfectionism and burnout was mediated by unconditional self-acceptance.DesignA correlational design was employed.MethodOne hundred and fifty-one soccer players (M age=14.4 years, SD=2.4 years) completed an inventory that included Flett and Hewitt's (1991) Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, Chamberlain and Haaga's (2003) Unconditional Self-acceptance Scale, and Raedeke and Smith's [(2001). Development and preliminary validation of an athlete burnout measure. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 23, 281–306] Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ).ResultsStructural equation modeling indicated that unconditional self-acceptance partially mediated the relationship between the two dimensions of perfectionism and athlete burnout. Contrary to the hypotheses, self-oriented perfectionism demonstrated both a positive indirect association with symptoms of burnout, as well as a direct inverse relationship.ConclusionThe findings provide support for the contention that a contingent sense of self-worth is central to both socially prescribed and self-oriented perfectionism [Flett, Besser, Davis, &; Hewitt (2003). Dimensions of perfectionism, unconditional self-acceptance, and depression. Journal of Rational-Emotive and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 21, 119–138; Flett, Hewitt, Oliver, &; MacDonald (2002). Perfectionism in children and their parents: A developmental analysis. In G. L. Flett &; P. Hewitt (Eds.), Perfectionism: Theory, research and treatment (pp. 89–132). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association], and that this association may underpin maladaptive achievement striving and increase vulnerability to athlete burnout.     

行为的跨情境一致性及人格与行为的关系——对人格内涵及其中西方差异的理论与实证分析

旨在对行为的跨情境一致性和人格的内涵等问题进行跨文化的理论和实证分析。人格内容被划分为4个层次,包括个体的外显行为、内心体验、动机和神经生理基础等,文化对人格的不同内容都会产生一定的影响。同时,不同情境下的行为由于受到来自个体内部不同动机（自我统一性动机与适应环境要求的动机）的影响而出现跨情境的一致或不一致。文中从理论和实证角度对上述问题进行了分析,并提出了进一步研究的方向     

Role of motivation,self‐efficacy and parent support in adolescent structured leisure activity participation

An increasing body of research supports the positive physical, social and psychological health benefits of adolescent involvement in structured out‐of‐school leisure activities. Analysis of data from 1280 12–17‐year‐old Western Australian metropolitan high school students, found that several factors were associated with adolescent involvement in structured leisure activities, including parent support of the activity (both active and passive), intrinsic motivation and self‐efficacy. There were no significant gender differences in the rate of participation or hours spent participating in structured leisure activities overall. More female than male students, however, were involved in structured creative activities and male students spent significantly more time involved in structured physical group activities. Recommendations for supporting adolescent involvement in structured leisure activities are discussed.     

The unique contributions of motivations to maintain a relationship and motivations toward relational activities to relationship well-being

People experience autonomy when they perceive their behaviour to be volitional rather than driven by external controls. Previous research has studied autonomy in relationships at a general level, focusing on people’s motivations to maintain their romantic relationships, as measured by the Couple Motivation Questionnaire (CMQ; Blais et al., J Personal Soc Psychol 59:1021–1031, 1990). To supplement the CMQ, we developed the Motivations for Relational Activities (MRA) scale, which assesses the extent to which people feel autonomous and controlled in a variety of specific relational activities. The purpose of this study is to examine the unique contributions of general motivations to maintain a relationship (CMQ) and motivations toward specific relational activities (MRA) in the prediction of relationship well-being. Results showed that the MRA and CMQ both independently and significantly contributed to the prediction of relationship well-being (i.e., commitment, intimacy, satisfaction, and vitality within the relationship) and were differentiated by their associations to dimensions of personality and attachment.

A Motivational Model of Authoritarianism: Integrating Personal and Situational Determinants

We describe and test a collective security model of authoritarianism. This model sees Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) as directly caused by collective security motivation (CSM), which is in turn influenced jointly by personality (with its effects mediated through group identification and dangerous world beliefs) and social threat (with its effects mediated through dangerous world beliefs). Two studies tested this model using student samples—one was correlational ( N =  218), while the other included an experimental manipulation of threat using future scenarios ( N =  136). Structural equation analyses partially supported the model suggesting that CSM fully mediated the effects of threat and group identification on RWA, but only partially mediated the effect of personality, which also had important direct effects.