Retribution and Restoration as General Orientations Towards Justice

We proposed two distinct understandings of what justice means to victims and what its restoration entails that are reflected in individual‐level justice orientations. Individuals with a retributive orientation conceptualize justice as the unilateral imposition of just deserts against the offender. In contrast, individuals with a restorative orientation conceptualize justice as achieving a renewed consensus about the shared values violated by the offence. Three studies showed differential relations between these two justice orientations and various individual‐level values/ideologies and predicted unique variance in preferences for concrete justice‐restoring interventions, judicial processes and abstract justice restoration goals. The pattern of results lends validity to the understanding of justice as two distinct conceptualizations, a distinction that provides much needed explanation for divergent preferences for injustice responses. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Longitudinal associations of cognitive ability,personality traits and school grades with antisocial behaviour

This study investigated the role of adolescents' cognitive ability, personality traits and school success in predicting later criminal behaviour. Cognitive ability, the five‐factor model personality traits and the school grades of a large sample of Estonian schoolboys (N = 1919) were measured between 2001 and 2005. In 2009, judicial databases were searched to identify participants who had been convicted of misdemeanours or criminal offences. Consistent with previous findings, having a judicial record was associated with lower cognitive ability, grade point average, agreeableness, and conscientiousness and higher neuroticism. In multivariate path models, however, the contributions of cognitive ability and conscientiousness were accounted for by school grades and the effect of neuroticism was also accounted for by other variables, leaving grade point average and agreeableness the only independent predictors of judicial record status. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The universality of warmth and competence: A response to brands as intentional agents

Considerable effort has been devoted towards the understanding of the ways in which people interact with brands. However, little attention has been paid to the personal differences that may impact these interactions. The framework for brands as intentional agents by Kervyn, Fiske, and Malone (this issue) is the groundbreaking application of almost three decades of research on warmth and competence as predictors of interpersonal stereotypes to the realm of brands. Our paper argues that demographic differences impact interactions with brands and offer additional explanatory power to the framework. Findings support conclusions of Kervyn et al., but they also suggest the importance of age, education, and income on warmth and competence evaluations.     

Examining the relationship between family context and children’s physical activity beliefs: The role of parenting style

Objectives

Previous research studies examining parental influences on children’s physical activity (PA) have focused primarily on parents’ own PA behavior, as well as their PA-related beliefs and socially supportive behaviors. The present study, although aligned with this mainstream parental influence research, was grounded in a broader child development perspective to examine the influence of parenting style on children’s PA beliefs and quality of parent-child communication.

Method

Self-report questionnaires were administered to 173 children ranging in age from 9 to 12 years to assess their perceptions of parenting style, parent-child communication patterns, as well as their own perceptions of fitness competence, value, and goal orientation.

Results

Children’s constellation of beliefs and attitudes regarding PA as well as their perceptions of the parent-child communication process did vary as a function of the type of parenting style they perceived their parents to use. High challenge parenting style was linked to higher perceived fitness competence and value on the part of the children. High support parenting style was linked to more positive perceived parent-child communication patterns.

Conclusion

Parenting style may be a critical underlying family process variable that impacts children’s development of a positive constellation of beliefs about PA. Future work is needed to link parenting style and children’s PA beliefs to their PA behavior.     

Perceiving a story outside of conscious awareness: When we infer narrative attributes from subliminal sequential stimuli

Perceiving a story behind successive movements plays an important role in our lives. From a general perspective, such higher mental activity would seem to depend on conscious processes. Using a subliminal priming paradigm, we demonstrated that such story perception occurs without conscious awareness. In the experiments, participants were subliminally presented with sequential pictures that represented a story in which one geometrical figure was chased by the other figure, and in which one fictitious character defeated the other character in a tug-of-war. Although the participants could not report having seen the pictures, their automatic mental associations (i.e., associations that are activated unintentionally, difficult to control, and not necessarily endorsed at a conscious level) were shifted to line up with the story. The results suggest that story perception operates outside of conscious awareness. Implications for research on the unconscious were also briefly discussed.     

Emotional intelligence: A promise unfulfilled?

Emotional intelligence (EI) is a relatively new construct in differential psychology. Proponents of EI have made strong claims for its importance in basic and applied psychology. This article considers whether the promise of EI has been fulfilled. We examine various fundamental challenges to establishing EI as a major individual differences factor, including cross‐cultural issues. We then examine strategies for assessing EI as a personal quality distinct from general intelligence and personality, and evaluate leading tests and scales for EI. Various sources of validity evidence demonstrate the value of research on EI, but we also identify various weaknesses of existing instruments. It appears that there is no strong, over‐arching general factor of EI that shapes human emotional functioning across a range of diverse contexts. Instead, we advocate a “multipolar” conception of EI that discriminates temperament, information‐processing, emotion‐regulation and acquired skills. Focusing research on more narrowly defined but conceptually coherent research domains may be a more productive strategy than seeking to define an all‐embracing general EI.     

An all‐or‐nothing thinking turns into darkness: Relations between dichotomous thinking and personality disorders1

Dichotomous thinking is an individual's propensity to think in terms of binary opposition. While this thinking style may be useful for quick decision‐making, some clinical psychologists have indicated that such a style is related to personality disorders. Oshio (2009 ) revealed that the Dichotomous Thinking Inventory (DTI) has significant positive correlations with borderline personality and narcissism. This study examines whether dichotomous thinking is associated with cluster A, B, and C personality disorders. The participants comprised 152 Japanese undergraduates (84 male and 68 female). They completed the DTI and Ten Personality Styles scale (10 PesT; Nakazawa (2006 )), developed from the definitions of personality disorders in the DSM‐IV. Structural equation modeling supported the hierarchical factor structure of personality disorders. The dichotomous thinking effects “cluster” level of disorders more than other levels. The results indicated that thinking dichotomously may lead to wide‐ranging personality disorders.     

The Personality Bases of Ideology: A One-Year Longitudinal Study

ABSTRACT

The cross-lagged effects of the Big-Five personality dimensions on Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) were examined over 1 year (N = 112). Consistent with the Dual Process Cognitive-Motivational Model, SDO and RWA exhibited markedly different personality bases. Low Agreeableness and unexpectedly high Extraversion predicted change in the motivational goal for group-based dominance and superiority (SDO), whereas Openness to Experience predicted change in the motivational goal for social cohesion and collective security (RWA). Neuroticism and Conscientiousness did not predict change in SDO or RWA over time. These findings extend previous cross-sectional (correlational) research and indicate that key dimensions of personality (primarily Agreeableness and Openness to Experience) are an important temporal antecedent of the group-based motivational goals underlying individual differences in prejudice.     

Partner Discrepancies in Distressed Marriages

ABSTRACT

Spousal discrepancy theory posits that partners with wide personality differences are at risk for marital distress. In this study, we assessed links between partner personality and interpersonal characteristics and marital distress in 244 couples who sought marital therapy. The sample was divided into three subgroups according to marital duration. Longer-married couples reflected significantly less impulsive, exploitive, and insensitive characteristics than couples in either shorter or intermediate marriages. Couples' marital distress was linked to larger discrepancies in personal distress, impulsivity, interpersonal insensitivity, and self-centered characteristics. While husbands' marital distress was linked to partner differences in personal distress and to impulsive, narcissistic, and competitive characteristics, wives' marital distress was primarily linked to partner discrepancies in self-centeredness.     

Corralling the Ingroup: Deviant Derogation and Perception of Group Variability

ABSTRACT

Two experiments investigated the relationship between the evaluation of a deviant group member and the perceived group variability among participants with varying degrees of ingroup identification. In Experiment 1 (N?=?79) ingroup identification was negatively associated with perceived ingroup variability following the presentation of a deviant ingroup member. This relationship was mediated by ratings of the deviant: the stronger the identification, the more negatively the deviant was evaluated, and the more homogeneous the ingroup was perceived. These effects were replicated in Experiment 2 (N?=?169), which also showed that there was no association between ingroup identification and the representation of the outgroup following exposure to a deviant outgroup member. The findings suggest that deviant derogation may serve to isolate undesirable members from the rest of the ingroup and protect the group's identity.