A dynamic approach to psychological strength development and intervention

Many practitioners working with clients from a strengths perspective largely rely on ad hoc interventions and employ a simplistic ‘identify and use’ approach. In this article, we suggest that clients can extract greater benefits when practitioners adopt more sophisticated approaches to strengths intervention. We introduce an alternative approach that we call ‘strengths development’. This approach is distinguished by the view that strengths are not fixed traits across settings and time (the dominant, contemporary approach to personality). Instead, we adopt dynamic, within-person approaches from personality science to research, assessment, and interventions on strengths. Specifically, strengths are highly contextual phenomena that emerge in distinctive patterns alongside particular goals, interests, values, and situational factors. Strengths are potentials for excellence that can be cultivated through enhanced awareness, accessibility, and effort. Finally, we outline potential psychological risks associated with the strengths perspective that are worthy of explicit discussion with clients.     

Interaction,information and meaning

The possibility of a “unified theory of information” which avoids reifying information or attributing agency to it is explored using the patterned processes characteristic of self‐organization. Interactions are shown to create information from the level of quantum physics to human societies. The difference between meaningless and meaningful information is explained through the contextualizing role of systems.     

Person–organization (culture) fit and employee commitment under conditions of organizational change: A longitudinal study

This longitudinal study examines how person–organization fit, operationalized as congruence between perceived and preferred organizational culture, relates to employees’ affective commitment and intention to stay with an organization during the early stages of a strategic organizational change. Employees in a large energy company completed surveys before (N = 687) and after (N = 627) the change. We measured perceptions and preferences with regard to four components of organizational culture (human relations, open systems, internal process, and rational goal) derived from the Competing Values Model (Quinn, 1988), as well as affective commitment to the organization and intention to stay. Using polynomial regression and response surface analyses, we found that both perceived culture and culture fit related positively with the criterion variables within and across time. The strongest evidence for relations involving fit was obtained for those components of culture specifically targeted for change. Implications for future research and the management of organizational change are discussed.     

The motivation and inhibition of breaking the rules: Personal values structures predict unethicality

We theorized and tested the relationship of personal value systems with unethical attitudes and behavior. Results from three studies using 16 diverse multi-national samples (N = 107,087) demonstrated the complexity of motivations underlying unethicality. Across contexts and cultures, for attitudes (Study 1 meta-analysis) and behaviors in the lab (Study 2) and in real-life (Study 3), we consistently found that the values theory circumplex structure predicted the inhibition and motivation of unethicality. Unethicality was positively associated with self-enhancement values and negatively associated with self-transcendence and conservation values. However, self-transcendence and conservation values were associated with the inhibition of different types of unethicality. The relationship of openness-to-change values with unethicality was generally positive but the effect size varied depending on context.     

Meta-analysis of work–family conflict mean differences: Does national context matter?

Work–family conflict continues to be a topic of considerable interest to researchers and practitioners across the globe. In the current study, meta-analysis is used to compare cross-national mean differences in work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict across cultural, institutional, and economic aspects of context. No significant differences in work-to-family conflict were detected. Reports of family-to-work conflict were higher in more collectivistic versus more individualistic cultures, in countries with a higher versus a lower economic gender gap, and in countries other than the U.S. versus the U.S.     

Work values and the transition to work life: A longitudinal study

Research on career development has shown that work values play a key motivational role in job selection and career development. In the context of the current economic crisis, it is of particular relevance to examine the role of work values for employment in the transition from school to work. This longitudinal study examined the role of intrinsic (perceived importance of having a job that is interesting and matches one's own competences), rewards (having a good salary and high chance for promotion), and security (having a stable job) work values on subsequent employment status and person–job fit (how an individual's job matches one's own characteristics such as education and job preferences). Finnish participants reported their work values and background variables via questionnaire at ages 20 and 23 (Ns = 348 and 415 respectively). Intrinsic work values predicted a higher degree of person–job fit two years later. Rewards work values predicted lower chances of being unemployed; and security work values predicted higher chances of being unemployed later on. Family socio-economic status (SES) was not related to employment outcomes in this Finnish sample.     

A mediating role for anticipated regret in predicting retirement savings intention between groups with (without) past behaviour

A recent global trend has been the shifting of responsibility for retirement income planning from the public purse to individuals, with an associated encouragement to contribute more to retirement savings. This research investigated the influence of anticipated regret on the intention to make extra voluntary retirement savings. Results revealed that anticipated regret plays a powerful affective role in the formation of behavioural intention by conveying the influence of attitude and subjective norm to intention. Implications of the results with respect to possible interventions relating to behaviour change are considered.     

The Moderating Impact of Social Networks on the Relationships Among Core Values,Partisanship, and Candidate Evaluations

Social networks are increasingly becoming recognized as a source of influence on political attitudes and behavior. In this study, we examine the moderating impact of social networks on the relationship among several attitudes. We argue that those who regularly interact with individuals with different views from their own will be more likely to think of themselves in nonpartisan terms. It is therefore hypothesized that an individual's discussion network influences the relationship between one's support for various core values and one's partisanship. As a corollary, we argue that disagreement in discussion networks reduces individuals' reliance on partisanship when forming subsequent attitudes. To test these propositions, we employ data asking respondents to list individuals with whom they discuss politics on a regular basis and who such individuals supported in a recent election to create a measure of network disagreement. Empirical tests provide strong support for our hypotheses.