Processes of religious individualisation: stocktaking and issues for the future

Abstract

The paper spells out implications of a perspective on religious individualisation that is both comparative and analytical and discusses the various issues that this line of research has to confront. Arguing against notions of modern Western exceptionalism, it points to the selectivity of Western forms of (religious) individualisation and makes a case for the inclusion of additional forms of articulating individual agency and ‘selfhood'. The paper takes individualisation as an inter-subjective, social phenomenon and connects it to the concept of social imaginaries. Opposing standard concepts of modernisation the paper nevertheless brings processuality centre stage, emphasising contingency. The paper discusses the possibility of the convergence of contextual developmental trends and the question of transculturality of notions of self and agency. With reference to the dimension of critique included in visions of religious individualisation, the paper finally points to the effects processes of religious individualisation can have on human actors within, and beyond, the realm of spirituality, including the recognition of subjectivities and the strengthening of actors’ resilience.     

A depleted mind feels inefficacious: Ego‐depletion reduces self‐efficacy to exert further self‐control

Recent research has found that ego‐depletion undermines self‐control by motivating cognition that justifies conservation of mental resource. One potential cognitive mechanism is reduction of self‐efficacy. Specifically, we propose that ego‐depletion might demotivate self‐control by making people believe that they are inefficacious in exerting self‐control in subsequent tasks. Three experiments support the proposal. First, we demonstrated that (a) ego‐depletion can reduce self‐efficacy to exert further control (Experiments 1 to 3) and (b) the temporary reduction of self‐efficacy mediates the effect of depletion on self‐control performance (Experiment 2). Finally, we found that (c) these effects are only observed among participants who endorse a limited (versus non‐limited) theory of willpower and are, hence, more motivated to conserve mental resources (Experiment 3). Taken together, the present findings show that decrease in self‐efficacy to exert further self‐control is an important cognitive process that explains how ego‐depletion demotivates self‐control. This research also contributes to the recent discussion of the psychological processes underlying ego‐depletion.     

Envy mediates the relation between low academic self-esteem and hostile tendencies

In previous research, there has been little discussion about mediators or moderators that affect the negative relation between self-esteem and hostile tendencies. In the current article, we propose a model in which envy mediates that relation in the academic context. Across three studies, with correlational (N₁ = 303), experimental (N₂ = 76), and round-robin designs (N₃ = 330), results revealed that academic self-esteem indirectly influenced hostile tendencies through envy. In Studies 2 and 3, the indirect effect was moderated by the performance context. Results suggest that individuals with low academic self-esteem may exhibit hostile tendencies because of feelings of envy, especially in highly competitive contexts. Findings are discussed with respect to theoretical implications for research on personality and interpersonal perceptions.     

The General Factor of Personality: The “Big One,” a self-evaluative trait,or a methodological gnat that won’t go away?

Though recent research indicates that the Big Five can be subsumed under a “General Factor of Personality” (GFP), considerable dissention remains about whether the GFP is a substantive trait (either a “mega”-trait or simply, positive self-evaluation), or a response artifact. To disentangle these potential explanations, we estimated GFP saturation based on scales within a single inventory (which may share response artifacts) versus between different inventories (wherein the GFP would be more substantive). Drawing on meta-analytic findings across 370 independent samples of 155,781 individuals, GFP saturation was reduced substantially when based on between inventory data (26%) compared to within inventory data (50%). These results indicate that the GFP functions as a response artifact that may be reduced by administering scales from different inventories. However, some GFP variance also appears to represent stable tendencies that span across inventories. Overall, the GFP appears to be partly a stable, self-evaluative trait and partly a set of response tendencies specific to a particular personality inventory. We discuss the implications of these results for academic and applied personality measurement.     

Personality and physical activity: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Whether personality determines physical activity or its outcomes is relevant for theory and public health but has been understudied. We estimated the population correlations between Big-Five personality factors and physical activity and examined whether they varied according to sample characteristics and study features. Database searches were conducted according to PRISMA guidelines, for articles published in the English language prior to November 1st, 2013. Sixty-four studies including a total of 88,400 participants yielded effects (k) for Extraversion (88), Neuroticism (82), Conscientiousness (69), Openness (51) and Agreeableness (52). Significant mean r was found for Extraversion (r = .1076), Neuroticism (r = −.0710), Conscientiousness (r = .1037) and Openness (r = .0344), but not Agreeableness (r = .0020). Effects were moderately heterogeneous (I² range = 44–65%) and varied by sample characteristics (e.g., age, gender, or clinical status) and/or study features (e.g., measure quality or item format). This analysis expands results of previous reviews and provides new support for a relationship between physical activity and Openness. Future studies should use better measures of physical activity and prospective designs, adjust for statistical artifacts, and consider advances in the conceptualization of personality.     

Structural validity of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form: The bifactor model of emotional,social and psychological well-being

The Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) is a growingly popular questionnaire designed to assess three components of well-being: emotional, social, and psychological. The main goal of the present study was to evaluate the structural validity of the MHC-SF and test the bifactor model of the MHC-SF, which includes one general factor and three specific factors of well-being. Sample 1 consisted of 1095 Serbian students (aged 18–26 years), while Sample 2 included 325 Serbian adults (aged 27–63 years). The bifactor model of the MHC-SF yielded the best fit to the data across the two samples. The results showed that the general factor of well-being accounted for substantially greater amount of variance of the MHC-SF than three specific factors of well-being. After controlling for the general factor, three specific factors explained a small portion of variance in well-being. In addition, the three subscales of the MHC-SF showed low reliability as estimated by omega-subscale coefficients, indicating that these subscales comprise too small amount of reliable variance to interpret. The present findings suggest that researchers should not calculate separate scores for three types of well-being when using the MHC-SF and that alternative measures of specific components of well-being should be considered.     

Agreement of adolescent ratings with mother ratings and teacher ratings of ADHD symptom groups: A correlated trait-correlated method minus one analysis

This study examined the level of agreement of adolescent ratings with mother ratings, and adolescent ratings with teacher ratings of the inattention (IA) and hyperactivity/impulsivity (HI) symptom groups of ADHD. A total of 214 adolescents provided self-ratings of IA and HI, and their IA and HI were also rated by their mothers and teachers. The correlated trait-correlated method minus one model was applied, with adolescent ratings as the reference method, and the other two ratings as the non-reference methods. The findings indicated no additional variance in adolescent ratings for IA and HI that could not be accounted by mother ratings of IA and HI, respectively. In contrast, there was additional variance in adolescent ratings for IA and HI that could was not accounted by teacher ratings of IA and HI, respectively. The findings suggest that when diagnosing ADHD in adolescents, their reports of their own ADHD behaviors are not needed when mother reports of such behaviors are used.     

Psychology Without Psy Professionals: Exploring an Unemployed Centre Families Project as a Mental Health Resource

The activities and technologies of the psychology (Psy) disciplines, in the process of privileging professional understandings of distress, could be seen to be potentially facilitating corrosion in the capacity of the lay public to understand and ameliorate their distress. This paper draws on the experiences of people who use an Unemployed Centre Families Project in the South of England to provide an example of community mental health work that does not draw on the dominant discourses, institutions or practitioners of the Psy sciences. Through interviews with centre users, staff and volunteers, a picture emerges of a community space that provides a variety of services, projects and opportunities that have a very considerable positive impact on the mental well‐being of the centre users. This picture highlights non‐medical intersubjective processes that offer possibilities for recoveries from mental distress but that are often neglected and subordinated in the professional worlds of Psy and psychiatry. Such centres facilitate social networks and practical help, and transitions in identity can be beneficial for those experiencing mental distress. In so doing, they make prominent some of the key limitations of biomedical approaches to recovery. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The rise and fall of the Pacquiao Effect: Contrastive priming and national identification

We demonstrate in a series of field and controlled experiments that assimilative and contrastive priming effects can be observed in the pattern of self‐concept change in response to a major cultural event. Study 1 used the brief implicit association test (BIAT) to measure national identification of Filipinos online across a period of time that encompassed a national sporting event. The pattern of scores support the hypothesis that while people who were ambivalent about identifying with Filipino concepts exhibited an assimilation effect (i.e. a slight rise in identification after the fight), people who already highly identified with being Filipino experienced a contrast effect (i.e. a slight drop in identification). Study 2 replicated this result five months later with a new sample and ruled out several possible alternative hypotheses. A subsequent controlled experiment and a qualitative investigation consistently supported the hypothesis that the pattern observed in the previous studies is more consistent with assimilative and contrastive priming effects rather than disidentification.