Uses and Abuses of Ideology in Political Psychology

Ideology is a central construct in political psychology. Even so, the field's strong claims about an ideological public rarely engage evidence of enormous individual differences: a minority with real ideological coherence and weak to nonexistent political belief organization for everyone else. Here, I bridge disciplinary gaps by showing the limits of mass political ideology with several popular measures and components—self-identification, core political values (egalitarian and traditionalism's resistance to change), and policy indices—in representative U.S. surveys across four decades (Ns ~ 13 k–37 k), plus panel data testing stability. Results show polar, coherent, stable, and potent ideological orientations only among the most knowledgeable 20–30% of citizens. That heterogeneity means full-sample tests overstate ideology for most people but understate it for knowledgeable citizens. Whether through top-down opinion leadership or bottom-up ideological reasoning, organized political belief systems require political attention and understanding to form. Finally, I show that convenience samples make trouble for ideology generalizations. I conclude by proposing analytic best practices to help avoid overclaiming ideology in the public. Taken together, what first looks like strong and broad ideology is actually ideological innocence for most and meaningful ideology for a few.     

Water contaminant levels interact with parenting environment to predict development of depressive symptoms in adolescents

Contaminants in drinking water, such as lead, nitrate, and arsenic, have been linked to negative physical health outcomes. We know less, however, about whether such pollutants also predict mental health problems and, if so, the conditions under which such effects are strongest. In this longitudinal study, we examined whether drinking water contaminants interact with negative family environments (parental psychological control) to predict changes in depressive symptoms in 110 adolescents—a developmental period when symptoms often first emerge. We found that for adolescents in psychologically controlling families, levels of drinking water contaminants prospectively predicted depressive symptoms 2 years later; this effect was not present in adolescents in non‐controlling families. Importantly, these associations were not accounted for by family‐ or community‐level socioeconomic resources, demographic features, or by the adolescents’ stress exposure. These findings highlight the interplay of physical and psychological environments in influencing depressive symptoms in adolescents. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/thBV-DwnGcY     

新冠肺炎疫情期间大学生价值观特征及变化趋势探究

社会价值观对于社会群体具有重要的导向和动力作用,而社会重大事件的发生会对社会价值观的走向产生影响。研究采用价值观类型量表,对908名大学生进行调查,其中包含144名湖北省大学生,探究新冠肺炎疫情期间大学生价值观的分布特征,对比湖北省和其他地区,以及与SARS时期的异同,并预测其在疫情后期的变化趋势。结果显示:(1)在大学生的总体样本中,实用型、社会型和科学型价值观依次占据重要地位;(2)湖北省大学生中社会型价值观占据主导地位,其他地区大学生中实用型价值观占据主导地位,两个样本的整体分布特征不存在显著差异;(3)两次疫情中,社会型和实用型价值观均占据主导地位,科学型价值观的地位显著提升。     

Identity Processes and Environmental Threat: the Effects of Nationalism and Local Identity upon Perception of Beach Pollution

This study examines the importance of local and national identity processes in predicting the perception of a threat to the local environment: pollution of British beaches defined in terms of European Union (EU) regulations concerning cleanliness. Place identity and social identity theories would predict that English people would exhibit positive discrimination when evaluating both their local and national beaches and would allow ingroup preferences to influence their estimates of beach pollution. The study involved administering questionnaires to 347 English students drawn from secondary schools in six seaside resorts (three with ‘polluted’ beaches, and three with ‘unpolluted’ beaches according to the EU criteria). It was hypothesized that degree of both local and national identification would predict variance in perceived levels of pollution independently of either the EU categorization or the physical evidence of pollution available. On the whole, results confirmed this main hypothesis: subjects who were more attached to their town or their nation tended to perceive their local and national beaches as less polluted. Traditional predictors of environmental evaluation (such as socio-demographic variables, environmental concern, use of the environment) did not play an important role in predicting beach pollution perception. Denial of physical assessments of pollution was interpreted as a strategy used to cope with the threat to place identity posed by the labelling of local beaches by a powerful outgroup (the EU).     

Collective complexes--total perspectives

A much greater part of our identity than we generally believe is collectively determined. Awareness of the causal link between identity, its connected values and the influence exerted by these values on perception is therefore crucial. In the implicit personality model of Peabody and Goldberg (1989), the apparent wide variety of human characteristics is broken down into three broad dimensions: general evaluation, impulse control and assertiveness. My hypothesis is that the regulation of impulses can be equated with the Jungian concept of the mother and father complexes, and assertiveness with the relation between individualism and collectivism. I have utilized Montgomery's perspective theory and Jung's concepts of the union of opposites, the complex and the shadow in order to provide an alternative interpretation of the implicit personality model. According to my interpretation, the traditional values of any culture can be read against these three dimensions. These values can be seen as the greatest treasure of a culture but, at the same time, they can also be devastating if they become complex-like.     

Agentic and communal bias in socially desirable responding

This research was designed to investigate Paulhus' communion management (CM) and self‐deceptive enhancement (SDE), socially desirable responding (SDR) scales as measures of general SDR, communal bias and agentic bias. The CM and SDE scales, as well as the Schwartz values survey (SVS), were administered to four samples drawn from different cultures and subcultures (N = 900). Participants completed the questionnaires in ‘honest’ and ‘fake good’ conditions. Although conceptions of which values were desirable varied strongly between samples and instructional sets, the CM scale was consistently related to general SDR and to communal bias. In contrast, the SDE scale was only related to general SDR. Contrary to expectations, neither scale could identify participants who ‘faked good’ under normal instructions. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social axioms and values: a cross‐cultural examination

The relationships between social axioms, general beliefs that people hold about the social world, and values, defined as desirable goals for life, were examined in five cultural groups. Results show that the correlations between social axioms and Schwartz's (1992) values are generally low, suggesting that they represent two distinct types of construct. Based on a structural equation modelling approach, results further show that generally speaking, the five axiom dimensions are related to the value types in a meaningful and interpretable manner, and that these relationships are generally similar across the five cultural groups. Implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Decomposing filial piety into filial attitudes and filial enactments

In an attempt to explore the attitude-behaviour relationship, the present study examined the mixed findings from research on filial piety by differentiating filial attitudes from filial behaviours. The Filial Behaviour Scale was developed to tap the behavioural manifestations of filial piety, and its nomological network was established in two Chinese contexts, Hong Kong and Beijing. In addition to filial attitudes, we used values, social beliefs, and self-construals to explain filial behaviours. The results of hierarchical regression analysis showed that the value factor of conservation and the social axiom of reward for application predicted filial behaviour above and beyond filial attitudes; an interdependent self-construal moderated the effect of cultural group on filial behaviour. Gender and regional differences in filial piety were also examined. Males were found to score higher on filial attitudes, but not significantly higher on filial behaviours. Regional differences existed in filial behaviours, but not in filial attitudes, with Mainland Chinese displaying a higher level of filial behaviours than their Hong Kong counterparts. These identified differences suggest the importance of differentiating filial attitudes from filial behaviours in future attempts to understand Chinese filiality.     

Examining Differential Effects of Internal and External Resources on Counselor Burnout Symptoms in South Korea

This study aims to bring to light the relationship between internal/external resources and counselors’ burnout depending on the type of clients (traumatized/bereaved vs. personal growth issues). Moderated mediation analysis was conducted with 165 counselors in South Korea. The results indicated that counselors of traumatized or bereaved clients were more likely to be affected by internal resources (countertransference management ability), whereas counselors of clients with personal growth issues were more likely to be affected by external resources (environmental resources). Implications and limitations of this study are discussed.     

A Towel Less: Social Norms Enhance Pro-Environmental Behavior in Hotels

Previous research has shown that normative appeals to engage in environmentally friendly behavior were most effective when they were accompanied by a provincial norm (e.g., when norms matched individuals’ immediate situational circumstances). Analyzing hotel guests’ towel-use during their stay, the current study tests whether messages employing provincial norms were more effective in reducing towel-use than standard environmental messages. In line with previous findings, guests of two hotels used significantly fewer towels when provincial normative appeals—rather than standard environmental messages—were communicated. These findings corroborate to the body of research demonstrating the power of social norms on environmental behavior.