THE BASES OF INVOLVEMENT IN WORK AND FAMILY CONTEXTS*

This binational study explored the need importance patterns and involvement in work and family contexts. Results reveal that in the work context, growth needs are most important, followed by affiliative and subsistence needs. In the family context, affiliative needs are most important, followed by subsistence and growth needs. Involvement in work and family contexts was found to be influenced by the need satisfaction potential of the respective contexts. This explained the nature of relationship between work and family involvement. The cross-national generalizability and usefulness of a motivational model for research on involvement in multilife-spheres are discussed.     

CULTURE AND WORK ALIENATION: WESTERN MODELS AND EASTERN REALITIES

This paper argues that the existing theoretical explanations of work alienation and corrective management practices developed in the Western world have limited cross-cultural applicability. This argument is supported first by identifying the cultural bias inherent in the Western explanatory models of alienation and then by indicating how such a bias fails to adequately explain work alienation and its opposite work involvement phenomena in Eastern societies like India. Finally, the paper probes into the role of some critical indigenous variables responsible for the development of alienation among workers in India. The case of Indian workers provides an illustrative example of what is needed for alienation research in a developing country context: to avoid the folly of uncritically accepting the Western explanatory models and to encourage the discovery of indigenous explanations.     

Virtual muscularity: a content analysis of male video game characters

The 150 top-selling video games were content analyzed to study representations of male bodies. Human males in the games were captured via screenshot and body parts measured. These measurements were then compared to anthropometric data drawn from a representative sample of 1120 North American men. Characters at high levels of photorealism were larger than the average American male, but these characters did not mirror the V-shaped ideal found in mainstream media. Characters at low levels of photorealism were also larger than the average American male, but these characters were so much larger that they appeared cartoonish. Idealized male characters were more likely to be found in games for children than in games for adults. Implications for cultivation theory are discussed.     

Are You What Your Avatar Eats? Health-Behavior Effects of Avatar-Manifested Self-Concept

Drawing on the self-concept activation and goal-priming account of the priming effect, this study examined how self-concept—i.e., ideal self, ought self, and actual self—can be harnessed as a model for avatar customization in digital games to promote healthy-eating behavior. Female participants (N = 133) customized an avatar in a digital game to reflect either the ideal, ought, or actual self. Participants then selected food items for their avatar within the digital game as well as food items for themselves to eat afterward. Results suggest that for participants using an ought-self avatar, the extent to which they were conscious of their health was positively related to healthier food choice both within and after playing the game. No such effect emerged for participants who used an ideal- or actual-self avatar, indicating that participants formed the goal of being healthy only with regard to the ought self. This study demonstrates that avatar customization in a digital game can serve a regulatory function by representing individuals’ duties and responsibilities, thus, causing them to adopt such attributes manifested in their avatar during and after the game.     

Context Sensitivity and Balancing in Indian Organizational Behaviour

This paper attempts to explain Indian organizational behaviour with the help of two interrelated concepts: context sensitivity and balancing. Context sensitivity pertains to beliefs about person (patra), time (kal), and ecological (desh) components of the environment. Balancing is a behavioural disposition to avoid extremes and to integrate or accommodate diverse considerations. Traditional systems such as Hindu religion, caste as a form of social stratification, and agricultural mode of production have interacted with foreign invasions and alien rules to give rise to several sociocultural characteristics: (1) group embeddedness and hierarchy while relating to people (patra), (2) uncertainty about future and the resultant short-term perspective while relating to time (kal), and (3) scarcity of resources, deficient infrastructural facilities, and poverty syndrome while relating to ecology (desh). Rapid industrialization and the transplant of Western technology and work forms in the last three decades have added individualistic values and Western management practices. While responding to the three components of the environment, people exhibit both a primary expresive mode that is traditional in nature and a secondary expressive mode that is acquired as a result of the transplantation of the Western management system onto a traditional core. Superior-subordinate relationships, work behaviour, and management practices reflect both the primary and secondary modes in varying degrees.     

A Content Analysis of Female Body Imagery in Video Games

The 150 top-selling video games sold in the U.S. across nine platforms were content analyzed to study representations of female bodies. All human females in the games were captured via screenshot and body parts measured. These measurements were then compared to actual anthropometric data drawn from a representative sample of 3,000 American women. The results show that female video game characters at low levels of photorealism are systematically larger than the average American woman whereas female characters at the highest level of photorealism are systematically thinner. This study also found that games rated for children featured females that are thinner than characters in games rated for adults. These findings are discussed in terms of cultivation theory.     

Does Feeling Happy Contributes to Flexible Thinking: Exploring the Association Between Positive Emotions and Cognitive Flexibility

This study examined the association between positive emotions and cognitive flexibility. The study comprises of two experiments which examine the influence of positive/neutral writing and watching positive movie (methods of emotion induction) on cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility was observed on a shape detection task. The results do not lend support to the association between positive emotions and cognitive flexibility. The results are discussed in light of the existing literature and issues for further research are indicated.