Our Followers Are Lions,Theirs Are Sheep: How Social Identity Shapes Theories About Followership and Social Influence

Two studies examine how self‐categorization theory can be used to refine our understanding of people's implicit theories about followership and social influence. Results from Study 1 show that perceivers regard followers of a group they themselves identify strongly with (rather than not at all) to be more representative of the prototype of effective followers (displaying enthusiasm, industry, good citizenship) and to be less representative of the antiprototype of effective followers (displaying conformity, incompetence, and insubordination). Results are replicated in a second experiment in which we compare the views of those self‐categorizing as either Republican or Democrat responding to followers of the Republican and Democratic Party. Results of Study 2 replicate those of Study 1 and also reveal qualitative differences in the preferred influence strategy for dealing with followers. Specifically, respondents seek to engage in persuasion when trying to change the behavior of ingroup followers, while resorting to coercion when trying to change the behavior of outgroup followers. Our results are the first to provide evidence that perceivers' theories about what followers are like and how they are influenced most effectively are structured by perceivers' identification (and dis‐identification) with the particular groups that leaders are championing.     

The Importance of Emotional Intelligence and Cognitive Style in Institutionalized Older Adults' Quality of Life

Despite previous evidence showing a positive relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and quality of life (QoL), associating older adults' emotional processing with several health indicators, few studies have explored both the IE and the a mechanisms through which they affect QoL. This cross-sectional study analyzes the mediator role of optimistic and pessimistic cognitive styles in the relationship between perceived EI (PEI) and QoL in 115 institutionalized older adults from Southern Spain. Regression analyses showed, after controlling for cognitive style, that PEI predicted a significant percentage of variance in: Health (β = .25, p < .01), Functional abilities (β = .20, p < .05), Activity and leisure (β = .17, p < .05) and Life satisfaction (β = .21, p < .05). Additionally, multiple mediation analysis revealed that cognitive style partially mediated the relationship between PEI and Health, Activity and leisure and Life satisfaction. Thus, PEI could promote personal but not external or environmental QoL aspects, highlighting the importance of developing emotional skills for healthy aging.     

高中生感恩与心理一致感的关系:积极情感与积极应对的中介效应

采用整群抽样法对449名高中生进行了感恩,积极情感,积极应对以及心理一致感的测量,通过结构方程模型分析了积极情感与积极应对在感恩与心理一致感之间的中介作用,结果如下:(1)感恩既对心理一致感有直接预测作用,占总效应的46%,又可以通过积极情感与积极应对间接作用于心理一致感,占总效应的54%,总中介效应要大于直接效应;(2)感恩到积极应对作用路径的差异值临界比(CRD)存在性别差异,男生的路径系数(γ=.43,p.01)显著高于女生(γ=-.01,p.05)。     

德行领导与员工不道德行为、利他行为:道德推脱的中介作用

以道德推脱理论为基础,运用问卷调查法,通过对776名员工的调查,探讨了德行领导对员工不道德行为和利他行为的影响及道德推脱在这一影响中的中介作用。研究发现:(1)德行领导会抑制员工不道德行为的产生、促进员工利他行为的出现;(2)道德推脱会促进员工不道德行为的产生、抑制员工利他行为的出现;(3)德行领导通过道德推脱的完全中介作用负向影响员工的不道德行为,通过道德推脱的部分中介作用正向影响员工的利他行为。     

Is Charismatic Leadership Effective When Workers Are Pressured To Be Good Citizens?

Prior research has explored how employees’ perceptions of their leaders impact their work attitudes and behaviors. Studies have shown that charismatic leaders motivate individuals to be more engaged and to exhibit more organizational citizenship behaviors. This study considers how a moderator, citizenship pressure, affects how charismatic leaders might inspire their followers to go above and beyond and be more engaged in their work. Using a sample of 243 workers, this study's findings show that charismatic leadership has a stronger positive effect on job engagement when employees perceive less citizenship pressure. Citizenship pressure did not moderate the relationship between charismatic leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. Implications of this study include an examination of the moderating influence of citizenship pressure, a relatively new construct. Practically, the implications may shed some light on leadership factors that encourage increased effort from employees and greater employee engagement. More specifically, findings suggest that persons are motivated to exhibit more OCBs to meet high expectations of charismatic leaders. However, when seeking engagement, feeling pressure to perform these OCBs has a reverse effect as more job engagement results with less citizenship pressure. Future research suggestions and limitations are discussed.     

Achievement motivation and attributional style as mediators between perfectionism and subjective well-being in Chinese university students

This study examined both the mediation effects of achievement motivation and attributional style on the relationship between perfectionism and subjective well-being in a sample of Chinese university students. Four hundred ninety-three participants with an age range of 18–24 (206 males and 287 females) completed the Hewitt and Flett Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (HMPS), the Achievement Motivation Scale (AMS), the Multidimensional–Multiattributional Causality Scale (MMCS) and the General Well-Being Schedule (GWB). Correlation analysis indicated that perfectionism was positively correlated with subjective well-being. Structural equation modeling exhibited the partial mediation effects of attributional style and achievement motivation on the relationship between perfectionism and subjective well-being. Moreover, a multi-group analysis indicated that the mediation model was not moderated by gender. These findings contribute to the complex nature of the association between perfectionism and subjective well-being. This study’s implications for future research and limitations of the present findings are discussed.     

Wisdom in the Military Context

On the basis of the Berlin wisdom paradigm, we define wisdom in the military context as expert knowledge and judgment concerning in extremis military operations. We measured wisdom in the military context by asking participants to give advice to an inexperienced officer facing an in extremis operation; subsequently, we coded their responses. Data were provided by 74 senior noncommissioned officers (NCOs) in the U.S. defense forces. In support of convergent validity, wisdom in the military context was positively related to general objective wisdom and general self-assessed wisdom. Relationships of wisdom in the military context and general objective wisdom with Big Five personality characteristics were nonsignificant, whereas general self-assessed wisdom was positively related to extraversion, agreeableness, and openness to experience, and it was negatively related to neuroticism. The findings provide initial support for the validity of the new wisdom in the military context measure. We discuss several implications for future research and practice regarding wisdom in the military context.     

A church-based peer-led group intervention for mental illness

Religion and spirituality (R/S) can be powerful supports and provide important coping resources for individuals in recovery. Faith communities seem to offer many advantages for recovery-oriented support, but have rarely been the setting for empirically examined psychosocial rehabilitation efforts. This study describes the outcomes for individuals in Living Grace Groups (LGGs), a peer-led group intervention for mental illness that is based in churches and integrates R/S. Persons at all active LGGs were surveyed before and after participation using well-validated scales for recovery, psychiatric symptoms, and spirituality. LGGs attracted individuals with a broad range of persistent psychiatric difficulties, who described religion as important to them and rated the groups as very helpful. Participants reported improvements in recovery and spirituality as well as reductions in psychiatric symptoms. R/S-integrated support groups may improve care by increasing cultural match, as well as providing more access to recovery-oriented care by tapping the resources of faith communities.     

Giving and receiving autonomy support in a high-stakes sport context: A field-based experiment during the 2012 London Paralympic Games

ObjectiveRecognizing that high-stakes competitions tend to pressure coaches toward a maladaptive controlling motivating style, we sought to evaluate the capacity of an intervention to help coaches adopt a more autonomy-supportive style as they and their athletes prepared for the 2012 London Paralympic Games.DesignWe adopted a coach-focused experimental research design that longitudinally assessed coaches' and athletes' self-report, rater-scored, and objective dependent measures.MethodWe randomly assigned 33 coaches and their 64 athletes from 10 sports into either an experimental or control group and assessed their motivation and functioning longitudinally.ResultsIn the control group, athletes and coaches both showed a significant longitudinal deterioration in all measures of motivation, engagement, and functioning. In the experimental group, none of the measures of motivation, engagement, and functioning deteriorated but, instead, were generally maintained. In terms of performance, athletes of coaches in the experimental group won significantly more Olympic medals than did athletes in the control group.ConclusionEnacting an autonomy-supportive coaching style within the context of a high-stakes sports competition functioned as an antidote to coaches' otherwise situationally-induced controlling style.