Causality Orientations Research Articles

Kernel based multiscale partial Renyi transfer entropy and its applications

Transfer entropy is an effective method for quantifying information flow and causal orientation in nonlinear systems. Based on this, we combine noise-assisted multivariate variational mode decomposition (NA-MVMD) and transfer entropy together, while considering the case of multivariate systems, and propose kernel based multiscale partial Renyi transfer entropy. We validate the method with henon mapping and VAR model, demonstrating the robustness of the model to noise and the effect of the parameter α taken on the experiment. For the real dataset, we used multi-channel EEG signals performing a mental arithmetic task and computed the information flow of each EEG in different states at different wavebands and compared them separately. In conclusion, the method is able to measure information transfer at different scales, is robust to noise and endpoint effects, and overcomes the interference of other signals in a multivariate system on the target signal, providing a new perspective for exploring the multilevel Spatio-temporal properties of EEG.

Autonomy matters: Influences of causality orientations on Chinese adolescents’ growth mindset

Growth mindset research has received global attention. However, the psychological antecedents of growth mindset remain under-explored. We propose that autonomous orientation would foster growth mindset, whereas controlled and impersonal orientations would impede it. We found support for this proposition in two studies. In a laboratory experiment (Study 1), Chinese sixth-graders primed with the autonomous orientation scored significantly higher on growth-mindset measures than those in the control group, whereas students primed with the controlled and impersonal orientations scored significantly lower. Furthermore, in a classroom intervention experiment (Study 2), using a newly designed autonomy orientation intervention, students in the treatment group showed stronger growth mindset than those in the control group, and the effect lasted for at least three months. Overall, our findings suggest that autonomy orientation is an antecedent of growth mindset and can be used to improve growth mindset among adolescents.

ДОВІРА І ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ, ЩО СПРИЯЮТЬ УСПІШНОМУ ПЕРЕЖИВАННЮ ТРАВМАТИЧНИХ СИТУАЦІЙ

The article goal is to investigate correlations between trust and those personal constructs that contribute to successful overcoming of difficult traumatic situations: psychological hardiness, positive self-attitude, coping strategies, etc. Methods. The appropriate Wiesbaden Questionnaire for Positive Psychotherapy and Family Psychotherapy (WIPPF) was used to study trust. To study personal constructs contributing to successful overcomіng of difficult traumatic situations, the following methods were used: Ways of Coping Questionnaire (Lazarus and Folkman), Maddi’s Hardiness Survey, Stolin & Pantileev’s Personality Self- Attitude Questionnaire, Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, General Causality Orientations Scale (Dessi, Ryan). 220 respondents with the average age of 33 years, students and specialists from various specialties, 180 women, 40 men took part in the study. Results. Several negative correlations were found between the attitude to trust and indicators that reduce an individual’s ability to overcome successfully a traumatic experience: maladaptive coping strategies, evaluation of past experiences as negative, feeling the present as hopeless, fatalistic. On the contrary, several positive correlations were found between the attitude to trust and an individual’s ability to overcome successfully a traumatic experience: adaptive coping strategies, life hardiness, positive self-attitude and self-esteem, self-interest, evaluation of the past as positive, orientation to the future, internal motivation for one’s own actions and deeds. Conclusions. Trust in the world, people and oneself, existing fundamental assumptions about the benevolence and meaningfulness of the world around, about the dignity of an individual oneself support the characteristics that contribute to successful overcoming of difficult traumatic situations: hardiness, positive self-attitude, used adaptive coping strategies, etc. In turn, these characteristics contribute to effective overcoming of stressful situations, prevent traumatization because stressful life events, and thus do not allow trust to decrease.

A Longitudinal Investigation of the Changes in Work Motivation and Employees’ Psychological Health

Organizations strive to motivate employees to thrive at work. However, employees’ motivation is likely to vary over a short period (e.g., a few months) to cope with the routine dynamics of organizations’ activities. These motivation dynamics covary with employees’ affective, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes in the workplace. Moreover, employees’ psychological health, a multidimensional concept focused on the individual’s well/ill-being simultaneously, changes over time. Using the integrated theoretical frameworks of self-determination theory (SDT) and the hierarchical model of self-determined motivation (H-SDT), this research sought to examine the motivational changes following the dual-path model. In particular, this work sought to unpack the temporal dynamics in employees’ subjective well/ill-beings predicted by the changes in basic needs satisfaction/frustration through autonomous/controlled motivation, while considering the characteristics of people’s general causality orientations (trait-level motivation). Over four months, longitudinal field data were collected from the employees in several private small businesses in the consumer product retail industry. Latent growth modeling (LGM) results supported the positive dual relations between the changes in employees’ psychological health and basic psychological needs satisfaction/frustration, but neither the changes of autonomous/controlled work motivation nor the indirect change paths via autonomous/controlled work motivation were significant. Finally, we discussed the theoretical and practical implications of the findings. Limitations and possible future research directions to further this line of research on the dynamic of work motivation were also summarized.

Influence of Ambivalent Sexism on Intimate Partner Violence Tolerance and Mental Violence in a Chinese Female Sample: Relationship Causality Orientation as a Moderator.

The current study examined how the general tolerance of women's intimate partner violence and mental violence perpetration are affected by women's ambivalent sexism and relationship causality orientation. One hundred and forty-nine of 221 Chinese female participants recruited on an online platform were included in the final data analysis. The results showed that causality orientation plays a moderating role. Specifically, as controlled orientation increased, the relationship between hostile sexism and intimate partner violence tolerance became stronger. As the autonomous orientation increased, the relationship between benevolent sexism and intimate partner violence tolerance became weaker. Hostile sexism and controlled orientation positively predict women's mental violence perpetration.

Fast causal orientation learning in directed acyclic graphs

Causal relationships among a set of variables are commonly represented by a directed acyclic graph. The orientations of some edges in the causal DAG can be discovered from observational/interventional data. Further edges can be oriented by iteratively applying so-called Meek rules. Inferring edges' orientations from some previously oriented edges, which we call Causal Orientation Learning (COL), is a common problem in various causal discovery tasks. In these tasks, it is often required to solve multiple COL problems and therefore applying Meek rules could be time consuming. Motivated by Meek rules, we introduce Meek functions that can be utilized in solving COL problems. In particular, we show that these functions have some desirable properties, enabling us to speed up the process of applying Meek rules. In particular, we propose a dynamic programming (DP) based method to apply Meek functions. Moreover, based on the proposed DP method, we present a lower bound on the number of edges that can be oriented as a result of intervention. We also propose a method to check whether some oriented edges belong to a causal DAG. Experimental results show that the proposed methods can outperform previous work in several causal discovery tasks in terms of running-time.

O5-4 Technology-based physical activity interventions acceptability in obese females: a latent profile transition analysis

BackgroundTechnology-based physical activity interventions (TbPAI) have recently been shown to be effective for care of obese women (Cotie et al., 2018). Therefore, it is necessary to assess the acceptability of TbPAI to ensure dissemination and usage in the treatment of obesity (Venkatesh et al., 2012).As such, the purpose of this study was to: (1) identify acceptability profiles of three TbPAI in obesity care (e.g., active video games, mobile applications, videoconferencing); (2) examine the issues of consistency or change of acceptability profiles for the same individual across the three technology; and (3) explore whether technology acceptability profiles were associated with motivation for physical activity (PA), general causality orientations for PA and sociodemographic data.MethodsThree hundred and twelve women with a mean age of 30.7 (SD=7.1) years, and a mean BMI of 34.9 (SD=9.2) kg/m2 were recruited from health services that provide obesity management. Enrolled participants completed an online survey including the following measures: motivation for PA, general causality orientations for PA, TbPAI acceptability for the three selected technologies based on the UTAUT2 model (Venkatesh et al., 2012), and sociodemographic data. Ethical approval was gained by local committee, and informed consent were obtained from the participants before data collected. We used a Latent Profile Transition Analysis (LPTA) approach.ResultsA 2-class model (high and low acceptability) best described latent classes for each technology. Acceptability profiles changed over the technologies. Among our sample, only 8.0% (n = 25) of women have low acceptability of all technologies, and 57.7% (n = 180) have high acceptability of all technologies. The covariate effect estimates showed significant effects of: (a) age and control causality orientation on video games acceptability profiles, (b) intrinsic motivation and impersonal causality orientation on videoconferencing profiles, and (c) control and impersonal causality orientations on mobile applications profiles.ConclusionsA LPTA approach may prove usefulness in understanding TbPAI acceptability in the obesity treatment and have implications for implementation and dissemination of such technologies.

Prior autonomy frustration facilitates persistent behavior: The moderating role of autonomy causality orientation

Prior autonomy frustration facilitates persistent behavior: The moderating role of autonomy causality orientation

Self-determination mini-theories in second language learning: A systematic review of three decades of research

Self-determination theory is one of the most established motivational theories both within second language learning and beyond. This theory has generated several mini-theories, namely: organismic integration theory, cognitive evaluation theory, basic psychological needs theory, goal contents theory, causality orientations theory, and relationships motivation theory. After providing an up-to-date account of these mini-theories, we present the results of a systematic review of empirical second language research into self-determination theory over a 30-year period ( k = 111). Our analysis of studies in this report pool showed that some mini-theories were well-represented while others were underrepresented or absent from the literature. We also examined this report pool to note trends in research design, operationalization, measurement, and application of self-determination theory constructs. Based on our results, we highlight directions for future research in relation to theory and practice.

The influence of general causality orientations on self-esteem and perceived stress among undergraduate students in women-only colleges

PurposeGeneral causality orientation is a mini-theory within the self-determination theory (STD). The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of general causality orientations (autonomous, controlled, and impersonal) on perceived stress and self-esteem among students in a women-only college.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through a questionnaire administered to students (n = 132) of a small women-only university in Roanoke, Virginia, USA. The survey included questions on the three general causality orientations, perceived stress, and self-esteem; the survey also included questions on student satisfaction, financial resources, and academic performance, used as control variables in the study.FindingsAutonomous orientation was not significantly related to self-esteem or perceived stress. Controlled orientation negatively influences self-depreciation. Finally, impersonal orientation positively influenced self-depreciation and negatively affected self-confidence.Practical implicationsFaculty and administrators in women-only universities should be encouraged to implement programs that strengthen the sense of optimism among female students. Student support services that emphasize enhancing autonomous orientation could be even more helpful by offering interventions that help students overcome their impersonal orientation.Originality/valueWhile previous studies have concentrated on autonomous orientation, this study provides recommendations for overcoming impersonal orientation among female undergraduate students in women-only colleges to enhance self-esteem and reduce stress.

Perfectionistic Concerns and Mobile Phone Addiction of Chinese College Students: The Moderated Mediation of Academic Procrastination and Causality Orientations.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of perfectionistic concerns (PC) on mobile phone addiction (MPA) and the mediating role of academic procrastination (AP), as well as the moderating role of causality orientations (autonomous/controlled/impersonal orientation). A cross-sectional sample of 625 Chinese college students (20.8% male, mean age = 20.47 years old) completed measures of PC, AP, causality orientations, and MPA. We analyzed the survey data using structural equation modeling (SEM) in Mplus 8.0. PC was positively related to MPA. In addition, AP partially mediated this association. The hypothesized moderating effect of autonomous orientation and controlled orientation was not supported. Impersonal orientation moderated the second stage of the mediating effect of AP on the PC–MPA link in that the mediating effect was positive when impersonal orientation was high, while the mediating effect was not significant when impersonal orientation was low. The findings confirm the importance of investigating how individual difference (i.e., PC) contributes to MPA. The implications of the findings for relieving MPA or preventing college students from developing MPA are also discussed deeply and thoroughly.

Why Do We Feel Like Intellectual Frauds? A Self-Determination Theory Perspective on the Impostor Phenomenon in Medical Students

Theory: Impostor phenomenon (IP) refers to people’s feelings of intellectual fraudulence and fear of being “discovered,” despite contradicting evidence of success. Due to its association with burnout and distress, it is progressively being studied in medicine. While various explanations for IP have been discussed in the literature, the role of motivation has largely been neglected. Hypotheses: Using self-determination theory (SDT) as a lens, it was hypothesized that different general causality orientations (impersonal, control, autonomy), domain-specific types of motivation (autonomous vs. controlled) toward going to medical school, and levels of satisfaction of basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, relatedness) in the medical program, would each predict severity of IP symptoms. Method: A total of 1,450 medical students from three Canadian institutions were invited to complete a survey containing the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale and scales derived from SDT’s mini theories: basic psychological needs theory, causality orientations theory, and organismic integration theory. We explored the prevalence of IP among the students and used regression to capture variable relationships, accounting for gender effects. Results: Data from 277 (19.1%) students were assessed, 73% of whom reported moderate or worse IP symptoms. Having an impersonal general causality orientation, more controlled motivation toward going to medical school, and lower need satisfaction in the medical program, each related to increased IP severity. Together, these motivational factors accounted for 30.3%, 13.6%, and 21.8% of the variance in students’ IP severity, respectively. Conclusions: Findings from this study suggest that students who are more self-determined (both in general and in medical school), and whose basic psychological needs are more supported in their medical program, will experience less frequent and severe IP symptoms. Preliminary explanations and implications of these findings are discussed within the medical education context.

Dental hygienists' biopsychosocial beliefs and giving autonomy support in treatment of patients: A self-determination theory perspective.

ObjectivesSelf‐determination theory posits that managers’ autonomy‐supportive behaviour and employees’ autonomy causality orientation are motivation constructs to explain internalization of values, functioning and wellness at work. Hypothesis 1 tested whether profiles comprising perceived dental clinic managers’ autonomy‐supportive, as opposed to their controlling interpersonal style, and dental hygienists’ autonomy, as opposed to their control and impersonal, causality orientations at baseline, would be positively related to dental hygienists’ biopsychosocial (BPS) beliefs and giving autonomy support in treatment of patients after 18 months. Hypothesis 2 tested whether dental hygienists’ BPS beliefs in treatment of patients will be positively associated with their autonomy‐supportive behaviour given to patients after 18 months.Material and methodsA prospective cohort design with 299 (M age = 42.71; SD age = 12.62) dental hygienists completed an online survey at baseline and after 18 months.ResultsLatent profile and correlational analyses supported the hypotheses. Effect sizes were moderate to large.ConclusionsBoth perceived managerial styles and dental hygienists’ causality orientations are important for dental hygienists’ BPS beliefs and autonomy‐supportive behaviours when working with dental patients.

Linking Female College Students’ Causal Attribution Habits, Cultural Orientation, and Self-Efficacy: A Study on Cross-National Differences

The present research concerns the extent to which explanations for desirable or undesirable academic outcomes (grades) as well as cultural orientation could account for self-efficacy beliefs of female undergraduate students from two societies with dissimilar cultural traditions. The United States of America (U.S.) was selected for its individualistic culture, whereas the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) was chosen for its mix of traditional collectivist and individualistic values. A matched-pairs design ensured that students’ self-efficacy levels were equated between cultural groups (n = 560; 280 matched pairs). The research uncovered cultural differences in the choice of explanations and in the extent to which explanations might contribute to self-efficacy beliefs. These findings represent a blueprint for informing instructional interventions intended to effectively prepare students from different cultures for academic success.

Volunteers' resilience and motivation

The relevance of the problem under study is justified by the fact that in the modern world, it is increasingly necessary to ensure maintaining the stability of human life and activity in the circumstances contributing to its destabilization, in the context of a pandemic, the issue of the resilience of volunteers and the motivation of volunteer activities is exceptionally significant. The article aims to describe the results of resilience components' analysis and their correlation with the volunteers' motivation. The top methods in this study are the questionnaire "Adults' resilience", the questionnaire of causal orientations, the author's method of assessing the motivation of volunteer activity. As a result of the study, it was found that if the resilience of volunteers is at a high level, the predominance of self-efficacy indicates that they can mobilize their motivation, cognitive resources, and actions to influence events. During the pandemic, volunteers have been successfully applying mechanisms for organizing situation management, assessment of the effectiveness and results of their efforts, focusing on the meaning of active problem solving, turning to social support, the ability to transform the situation, achieving socially meaningful goals, and effective interaction with the ambient. The main motives of volunteers are a sense of service, compassion, and empathy; many volunteers note the importance of positive emotions, professional experience, and communication. The analysis of correlations between the indicators of resilience and motivation of volunteer activity showed the presence of significant positive correlations; the higher the motivation and interest in volunteer activities, the more developed such components of resilience as coping and adaptation, perseverance, family and social relationships and resilience as volunteers have. The materials of the article can be helpful in psychological support of individual groups of the population and improve psychological literacy, development of resilience in various groups of the population, volunteers, teachers, and psychologists to improve the adaptability and resilience of people who need help. The results can be used in the educational process to train future psychologists and other professionals to increase the motivation for helping activities in students.

Profiling Hoarding Within the Five-Factor Model of Personality and Self-Determination Theory

This study investigated the dispositional profile associated with hoarding symptoms by applying a personality and motivational trait perspective. A community sample oversampling high hoarding symptoms (N = 649, ages 18–74 years) completed an online questionnaire assessing hoarding, the five-factor model of personality, and general causality orientations drawn from self-determination theory. Personality aspects (10 traits), a level of measurement intermediate to factors (5 traits) and facets (30 traits), were assessed to provide greater specificity than a factor-level approach. Hoarding was correlated with neuroticism and conscientiousness. Aspects predicting hoarding were industriousness (C), orderliness (C), withdrawal (N), and assertiveness (E). Hoarding was significantly related to impersonal and control orientations, albeit with only slight (1.4%) incremental validity for general causality orientations above personality aspects in predicting hoarding. These findings may not generalize to a clinical treatment sample, and possible configurative interactions between traits were not assessed. This study extended the existing literature by reporting aspect-level personality and general causality orientation correlates of hoarding. These data may inform preventative monitoring and intervention programs, as well as predicting meaningful personality characteristics of hoarding clients.

Dehumanization of Hospitalized Patients and Self-Dehumanization by Health Professionals and the General Population in Greece.

IntroductionDehumanization is defined as the denial to people of their humanness. It is distinguished into animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization. The aim of this study is to examine whether professionals in a public hospital dehumanize the patient and self-dehumanize.MethodsWe used the Dehumanization Questionnaire, the Mechanistic Self-Dehumanization Scale, the Human Nature and Human Uniqueness Characteristics Questionnaire, the General Causality Orientation Scale and the Adult Attachment Questionnaire. The sample consisted of 135 mental health professionals (20 from a general hospital and 115 from a psychiatric hospital), 134 other health professionals from the general hospital and 84 people from the general population.Results Health professionals dehumanize the hospitalized patient more than the general population. The secure attachment acts protectively on self-dehumanization and negatively on the dehumanization of the hospitalized patient. Finally, autonomous people are not self-dehumanized.ConclusionsOur findings indicate that measures should be taken for health professionals so that they do not dehumanize the patient.

The salutogenic basis of an individual’s mental health and psychological well-being

Introduction. The stressfulness of modern society necessitates studying the factors in human positive functioning. As the practice of such research shows, the leading role in advancing toward an individual’s high-quality life belongs actually to his/her psychological resources, in particular his/her salutogenic orientation as a resource helping a personality remain stable in various circumstances of life. Aim. To identify salutogenic factors in an individual’s psychological well-being. Methods. J. Crumbaugh, L. Maholic’s Purpose-in-Life-Test; Maddi`s Hardiness Survey; the test-questionnaire of self-attitude proposed by V. Stolin, S. Pantileev; C. Riff’s model of psychological well-being; Wiesbaden Inventory (WIPPF) developed by N. Peseschkian and X. Deidenbach; R. Lazarus and S. Folkman method examining coping strategies of (the General Causality Orientation Scale of E. Deci, R. Ryan; A. Antonovsky’s Sense of Coherence scales. Results. Psychological resources maintaining and strengthening health and tolerance to stress, maintaining and developing personal opportunities are associated with the presence and awareness of life goals, positive self-acceptance, positive relationships with others and the ability to influence life events. An individual’s salutogenic orientation is based on a humanistic worldview, which is a sign of personal maturity, and such personal abilities as hope, love, trust, justice, politeness and others that are behavioural norms and ensure personal freedom and responsibility. Conclusions. From the standpoint of the salutogenic approach, human psychological health is considered as a state characterized by a certain position in the continuum between mental disorder and psychological well-being. An individual’s salutogenic orientation is the psychological basis for achieving the positive functioning states – psychological hardiness, life satisfaction and psychological well-being.

Role of Causality Orientations in Predicting Alcohol Use and Abstinence Self-Efficacy

ABSTRACT In the present study, we examined the ability of Self-Determination Theory’s causality orientations to predict alcohol use and abstinence self-efficacy. We also provided suggestions for counselors supporting client and student autonomy in clinical practice. Objectives: This study sought to answer the following questions: (a) Does a person’s causality orientation (autonomy, control, and impersonal) predict their alcohol use? (2) Does a person’s causality orientation (autonomy, control, and impersonal) predict their temptation to use drugs and alcohol? (3) Does a person’s causality orientation (autonomy, control, and impersonal) predict their confidence to use drugs and alcohol? Method: We utilized Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk), a crowdsourced online labor market approach to collect data from a community sample. Results: The results suggest heightened impersonal orientation was predictive of increased alcohol use and increased temptation to use while control orientation was also predictive of increased temptation. Higher autonomous orientation was predictive of increased confidence to not use while impersonal and controlled were not. Conclusion: This study’s findings underline the importance of SDT in substance use prevention, initiation, and treatment, and open the door to more empowering interventions. Through the intentional use of SDT, individuals may feel more empowered to set and achieve goals, feel a greater sense of control in their lives, strengthening their overall autonomy.

Personal internal sources of psychological well-being

Introduction. The problem of finding ways to preserve and improve individuals' mental health and effective means of promoting their psychological well-being and life satisfaction is a new promising area of research in psychology. From an empirical pointof view, this requires determining personal resources, which will be the basis for individuals' psychological well-being, happy life, realization of their potential, effective coping with difficulties, as well as good work performance.Aim: to identify factors in and internal sources of personal psychological well-being.Methods. J. Crumbaugh & L. Maholickʼs Purpose in Life Test, S. Maddi's Hardiness Survey, V. Stolina & S.Pantileevaʼs Personal Self-Assessment, The Ryff Scale of Measurement, N.PeseschkianʼsWIPPF, R. Lazarus &S.Folkmanʼs Ways of Coping Questionnaire, E. Deci & R. Ryanʼs General Causality Orientations Scale, andA.Antonovsky’s Sense of Affiliation.Results. Psychological well-being depends on the realism, structure, and integrity of individuals' system of attitudes as well as on their life perspective, which includes goals, plans, values, and aspirations. Individuals' ability torealize their potential and psychological well-being is ensured by the development of individuals' abilities related to self-identity, belief in their abilities and trust in others. The author's prognostic model of individuals' psychological well-being includes personal autonomy, personal growth and coherence as individuals' psychological well-being predictors.Conclusions. Promoting individuals' psychological well-being implies actualization of their internal resources, their understanding of their personal reserves and possibilities of self-realization.