Cognitive-affective Personality System Research Articles

Building skills in the context of digital transformation: How industry digital maturity drives proactive skill development

Digital transformation is changing the employee skills that organizations need to succeed. In this context, it is increasingly important for employees to proactively develop their skills. The emerging research on employee proactive skill development has largely ignored the possible role of employees’ perceptions of large-scale changes in organizations’ environments in their motivation to engage in such valuable behavior. We address this gap using cognitive-affective personality system theory to explain how macrolevel development affects employee behavior. Existing data on industry digital maturity were combined with survey data of 710 higher education graduates from various organizations and industries collected at two separate time points. The results support the hypothesized positive indirect effects of industry digital maturity on proactive skill development via employees’ interpretation of digitalization as controllable and as an opportunity for their organization. We discuss the implications for research and organizational practice.

Personality dynamics

Traditionally, personality psychology has been understood as the study of stability in people’s dispositions. However, a different strand of personality research has highlighted the importance of acknowledging and explaining the meaningful intraindividual variation in human thoughts, feelings, and behavior across different contexts and time. The goal of this paper is to review this strand, highlight current research, and outline key questions for future research. We summarize historical perspectives on the dynamic processes underlying the emergence of personality within and across individuals (e.g. the pioneering theorizing of Allport; the person-situation debate), recent theoretical and empirical advances in incorporating dynamic processes into the definition and assessment of personality (e.g., the study of personality states; dynamic approaches to personality including Cognitive Affective Personality System [CAPS], Whole Trait Theory, the Knowledge-and-Appraisal Personality Architecture [KAPA] framework, and Nonlinear Interaction of Person and Situation [NIPS]), and new directions in current research (e.g. idiographic approaches; understanding variability in narrative identity). We end with suggestions for future research.

How Does Organizational Compassion Motivate Employee Innovative Behavior: A Cross-Level Mediation Model.

This study aims to explore the mediating mechanisms between organizational compassion and employee innovative behavior by introducing perceived insider status and felt responsibility for constructive change (FRCC) as mediating variables. Drawing on cognitive-affective personality system theory, a cross-level mediation model was established. Data were collected via the online-based questionnaire from 420 employees of 12 enterprises in China. Multilevel path modeling was leveraged to examine hypotheses proposed in this study. The results indicate that FRCC mediates the relationship between organizational compassion and employee innovative behavior. Moreover, perceived insider status and FRCC serially mediate the relationship between organizational compassion and employee innovative behavior. This study has significant theoretical and practical implications as it is the first study to investigate the value of organizational compassion to employee innovative behavior at the workplace.

Sustaining motivation and academic delay of gratification: Analysis and applications

ABSTRACT To be academically successful, students need to delay gratification, sustain motivation, keep a high level of self-efficacy, and maintain an appropriate balance within their hot/cool cognitive-affective system. The cognitive-affective personality system includes 5 cognitive-affective mediating components (i.e., individuals’ way of encoding themselves and situations; expectancy for success and beliefs; affective responses, emotions, and feelings; goals and values; and competencies and self-regulatory plans), and it is the theoretical framework that guides this article. Consistent with the theme of this special issue and by focusing on college students, I present applications of motivational theory to educational practices for each of the 5 cognitive-affective mediating components with particular attention to a hot-cool system analysis of delaying gratification. The article describes specific motivational practices that could advance existing knowledge and enhance teaching, learning, and performance among college students. The article provides practical applications about how teachers could promote motivation when assigning long-term projects.

The Positive Impact of Spirituality on Humanity and Health: An Analytic Article Review

Since virtue is an excellent trait of the human that would be gained throughout one’s life, therefore, spiritual education may play a positive role in the development of the mentioned characters. The present study is carried out to find the effects of spiritual education on the achievement of virtues. This study is an analytic article review accomplished in 2020. The articles were searched through Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, and Google scholar. Based on this analytic article review, spirituality has a positive effect on health and wellbeing; therefore, ethical problems could be improved through spirituality which is the main part of recent psychological interventions. Peace, wellbeing, and happiness in the world are mostly related to the virtues of individuals. The scientific studies found a positive significant relationship between spiritual education and good behavior. The knowledge of two inner sources of thought, feelings, and beliefs in every human entity is a very important component of such education. The inner part (thoughts, feelings, and beliefs) of humans contains positive and negative aspects, also called Heart and Nafs respectively. The heart is responsible for virtues and Nafs is responsible for evils. Every person should look for strengthening oneself heart through spiritual ways. The heart strength mostly via spiritual education and activities conducted by spiritual persons, friends, or teachers. A spiritual person should have effective speeches and good moral characters that influence the heart and mind of people. The awaked heart can positively stimulate the cognitive-affective personality system to perform good characters. The Nafs also can negatively stimulate this system and lead to bad characters. Spiritual education must be available to children and adolescents within school or communities for gaining virtues. Spiritual education is one of the most effective ways of gaining a good moral character. The best spiritual education model described that every speech and activity rooted in the heart effectively activates the cognitive-affective personality system and established admirable behaviors. This kind of education is the best way to have a peaceful and happy world. It also would result in the unity of people of different ethnicities, races, nations, and religions.

A diary study of impulsive buying during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of this paper is to explore why impulsive buying happens under emergency and crisis situations, such as that of COVID-19. Drawing on the cognitive-affective personality system theory (CAPS), we tested the dynamic influence of daily perceived uncertainty on COVID-19 on daily impulsive buying via daily information overload and daily information anxiety in a two-wave experience sampling method (ESM) design. Through a multilevel structural equation model (MSEM) analysis, we found that the daily perceived uncertainty on COVID-19 affected daily information overload, which in turn stimulated daily information anxiety, ultimately determining the daily impulsive buying. Namely, daily information overload and daily information anxiety played a complete chain-mediating role between the daily perceived uncertainty on COVID-19 and daily impulsive buying. The present paper is the first to uncover the important dynamic effect of the perceived uncertainty on COVID-19 on impulsive buying with diary data. Specific implications of these findings are discussed.

Influence of Workplace Safety Climate on Presenteeism from the Perspective of Affect and Cognition

Based on the stimulus-organism-response theory and cognitive-affective personality system theory, this paper explores how the theoretical model of the workplace safety climate (WSC) influences presenteeism. Affect-based trust and cognition-based trust are assessed, and the situational role of organization formalization in this process is examined. Using a time-lagged research design, data from 396 healthcare employees were gathered and multiple regression and bootstrapping were used to test each hypothesis. The results show that: (1) WSC significantly reduces presenteeism. (2) Both affect-based trust and cognition-based trust mediate the relationship between WSC and presenteeism. Affect-based trust exerts a complete mediating role, while cognition-based trust exerts a partial mediating role. (3) Cognitive psychological path influences affective psychological path. Cognition-based trust completely mediates the relationship between affect-based trust and presenteeism. (4) Organization formalization exerts a positive moderating effect on the relationship between WSC and affect-based trust. However, it exerts no significant moderating effect on the relationship between WSC and cognition-based trust. This study overcame the single research perspective. Combined with organizational, work-related, and person-related factors the internal logic of the impact of WSC on the decision-making process in presenteeism was identified. The research results provide practical information for enterprises to create a sustainable organizational environment, reduce risks related to human resources, and effectively manage organizational health.

Gossip is a fearful thing: the impact of negative workplace gossip on knowledge hiding

PurposeThe crucial role of knowledge sharing in an organization has become even more crucial lately, resulting in garnering more attention by scholars. In reality, while several organizations expect their employees to share knowledge with colleagues actively, many choose to hide their knowledge when asked for help. This study aims to explore whether negative workplace gossip (NWG) affects employee knowledge hiding (KH), as well as analyzes whether relational identification (RI) and interpersonal trust (IT) play a chain mediating role between the two, and discusses whether forgiveness climate (FC) could be used as a boundary condition in the relationships mentioned above.Design/methodology/approachBased on the conservation of resource (COR) theory and the cognitive–affective personality system (CAPS) theory, the authors surveyed 326 employees in China at 2 time-points and explored the correlation between NWG and KH, as well as the underlying mechanism. Using confirmatory factor analysis, bootstrapping method and structural equation model, the authors validated the research hypotheses.FindingsThe findings revealed the following: NWG negatively correlates with KH; RI and IT play a mediation role between NWG and KH, respectively, and both variables also play a chain mediation role in the relationship mentioned above; and FC moderates the negative impact of NWG on RI, further moderating the chain mediation between RI and IT and between NWG and KH.Originality/valueFirst, this study established the correlation between NWG and KH, as well as analyzed the internal mechanism between the two. Besides, this study adds to scholars’ understanding of the underlying mechanisms by which these effects could occur. Second, this study demonstrated the moderating effect of FC – a situational feature that has been neglected in previous studies. Furthermore, this study can not only complement the situational factors ignored in previous studies but also broaden the application scope of CAPS. Finally, this study effectively combines COR and CAPS, which provides a basis for the application of these two theories in the future.

Offense is the best defense: the impact of workplace bullying on knowledge hiding

PurposeWorkplace bullying is a common negative event suffered by employees in the workplace. The harm it brings to the organization has become the focus of the field of organizational behavior. The purpose of this study was to explore whether workplace bullying has an impact on employee knowledge hiding and to discover the underlying mechanism between the two.Design/methodology/approachBased on the conservation of resource theory and the cognitive-affective personality system theory, this paper surveys 327R&D employees of Chinese technological corporations at two time points and explores the relationship between workplace bullying and knowledge hiding as well as the underlying mechanism. This study used confirmatory factor analysis, bootstrapping method and structural equation model to validate the research hypothesis.FindingsThe results show that workplace bullying positively correlates with knowledge hiding; emotional exhaustion and organizational identification play a mediation role between workplace bullying and knowledge hiding, and both variables play a chain mediation role in that relationship; and forgiveness climate moderates the positive impact of workplace bullying on emotional exhaustion, further moderating the chain mediation role of emotional exhaustion and organizational identification.Originality/valueThe findings of this study can not only complement the existing researches on the influence of negative workplace events on employees’ knowledge hiding behaviors but also strengthen scholars’ attention and understanding of the internal mechanism between workplace bullying and knowledge hiding.

Creating a Sustainable Workplace Environment: Influence of Workplace Safety Climate on Chinese Healthcare Employees’ Presenteeism from the Perspective of Affect and Cognition

Based on the stimulus-organism-response theory and cognitive-affective personality system theory, this paper explores how the theoretical model of the workplace safety climate (WSC) influences presenteeism. Affect-based trust and cognition-based trust are assessed, and the situational role of organization formalization is examined. Using a time-lagged research design, data from 396 healthcare employees were gathered and multiple regression and bootstrapping were used to test each hypothesis. The results show that: (1) WSC significantly reduces presenteeism. (2) Both affect-based trust and cognition-based trust mediate the relationship between WSC and presenteeism. Affect-based trust exerts a complete mediating role, while cognition-based trust exerts a partial mediating role. (3) Cognition-based trust completely mediates the relationship between affect-based trust and presenteeism. (4) Organization formalization exerts a positive moderating effect on the relationship between WSC and affect-based trust. However, it exerts no significant moderating effect on the relationship between WSC and cognition-based trust. This study overcame the single research perspective. Combined with organizational, work-related, and person-related factors, the internal logic of the impact of WSC on the decision-making process in presenteeism was identified. The research results provide practical information for enterprises to create a sustainable organizational environment, reduce risks related to human resources, and effectively manage organizational health.

Rejection sensitivity in borderline personality disorder and the cognitive-affective personality system: A meta-analytic review.

Rejection sensitivity (RS) is one the of core features of borderline personality disorder (BPD). The cognitive-affective personality system (CAPS) might represent an alternative framework for analyzing the relationship between RS and BPD. The current meta-analytic review (N = 39 studies) aims at evaluating how, and to what extent, CAPS-RS process dynamics (i.e., rejection expectancies, encoding processes, and affect reactions) are related to BPD. The results showed a large difference between BPD and non-BPD subjects in rejection expectancies across several situations. These findings were replicated when considering encoding processes and affective reactions, especially in relation to social inclusion situations. Therefore, it can be argued that RS process dynamics might reflect CAPS principles explaining personality pathology, especially BPD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Supplemental Material for Rejection Sensitivity in Borderline Personality Disorder and the Cognitive–Affective Personality System: A Meta-Analytic Review

Supplemental Material for Rejection Sensitivity in Borderline Personality Disorder and the Cognitive–Affective Personality System: A Meta-Analytic Review

DrugsandHugs: Stimulating Moral Dispositions as a Method of Moral Enhancement

AbstractAdvocates of moral enhancement through pharmacological, genetic, or other direct interventions sometimes explicitly argue, or assume without argument, that traditional moral education and development is insufficient to bring about moral enhancement. Traditional moral education grounded in a Kohlbergian theory of moral development is indeed unsuitable for that task; however, the psychology of moral development and education has come a long way since then. Recent studies support the view that moral cognition is a higher-order process, unified at a functional level, and that a specific moral faculty does not exist. It is more likely that moral cognition involves a number of different mechanisms, each connected to other cognitive and affective processes. Taking this evidence into account, we propose a novel, empirically informed approach to moral development and education, in children and adults, which is based on a cognitive-affective approach to moral dispositions. This is an interpretative approach that derives from the cognitive-affective personality system (Mischel and Shoda, 1995). This conception individuates moral dispositions by reference to the cognitive and affective processes that realise them. Conceived of in this way, moral dispositions influence an agent's behaviour when they interact with situational factors, such as mood or social context. Understanding moral dispositions in this way lays the groundwork for proposing a range of indirect methods of moral enhancement, techniques that promise similar results as direct interventions whilst posing fewer risks.

Unifying Vocational Psychology's Trait and Social–Cognitive Approaches through the Cognitive-Affective Personality System

Vocational psychology is divided between two conflicting paradigms: Trait-based, exemplified by Holland's (1997) theory, and social–cognitive, exemplified by Social-Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT). Scientifically, this division is problematic, as scientific truth is partially determined by consensus among experts ( Kuhn, 1970 ). We propose that the trait-based and social–cognitive perspectives can be integrated—not by subsuming SCCT into Holland's (1997) model as suggested by Armstrong and Vogel (2009 , 2010 ) but by reinterpreting traits in terms of social–cognitive units. SCCT lacks the scope and explanatory power to accomplish this task partially because, as we detail, the theory relies on many trait constructs itself. To accomplish our integration, we introduce an influential theory from the personality literature: The Cognitive-Affective Personality System (CAPS; Mischel & Shoda, 1995 ). We describe CAPS and highlight its parallels with SCCT. We then explain how trait-based accounts of vocational interests and cognitive abilities can be translated into CAPS units. We conclude by describing how trait constructs can still be viable within the CAPS framework and by calling for empirical research to put our propositions to the test.

Entrepreneurial Personality: A Configurational Approach

Entrepreneurial personality research can be said to be at crossroads as researchers are unable to formulate an approach that has predictive and explanatory powers. The developments in personality research have prompted entrepreneurial personality researchers to suggest a model that is capable of explaining the structure and processes of entrepreneurial personality. The configurational model suggested in this paper draws upon the trait dynamics and the Cognitive-Affective Personality System theory of personality reflecting the features of a total system view of entrepreneurial personality that clearly differentiates the patterns of entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial behaviours. Trait theory and the Cognitive-Affective Personality System theory variables delve into the deeper psychological processes to identify the basic structure and the processes of entrepreneurial personality. The configurational dynamics espouse the general pattern of entrepreneurial personality in an interactive and mediating relation among the intra-individual structures including the situation. The configurational dynamics further identify and differentiate the specific entrepreneurial personality constructs that researchers and practitioners frequently refer to.

Linking job-relevant personality traits, transformational leadership, and job performance via perceived meaningfulness at work: A moderated mediation model.

By integrating the fundamental principles of the theory of purposeful work behavior (TPWB; Barrick, Mount, & Li, 2013) with cognitive-affective personality system (CAPS) theory (Mischel, 1977; Mischel & Shoda, 1995), we examine how and when salespeople's job-relevant personality traits relate to their performance. We argue that individuals with personality traits that fit outdoor sales jobs (i.e., conscientious, extraversion, openness to experience) will perceive their work as more meaningful and as a result achieve heightened performance. Moreover, drawing from TPWB and CAPS theory, we expect that as an important element of the social context, transformational leadership moderates the indirect effect of salespeople's job-relevant personality traits on their job performance via enhanced perceptions of meaningfulness at work. Results based on data from 496 outdoor salespeople and their 218 supervisors and regional managers provide support for the hypotheses pertaining to conscientiousness and openness, but not extraversion. Specifically, the conditional indirect effects of conscientiousness or openness on performance through perceived meaningfulness are more positive under low, rather than high, levels of transformational leadership. Implications for research and practice are discussed along with study limitations and future research directions. (PsycINFO Database Record

Emotional Exhaustion in Offshore Call Centers: A Comparative Study

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study is to draw on a cognitive-affective personality system to test if the personality–emotional exhaustion–turnover intentions/perceived service quality relationships are valid among agents working in offshoring call centers. This is achieved by comparing these relationships between two groups' agents: (a) agents interacting with customers having the same national culture in a developed country (ACSC); and (b) agents in a developing country interacting with customers having a different national culture (ACDC). Data were collected from three call centers in Morocco, representing the ACDC group, and a call center in Canada which represented the ACSC group. Data was analyzed using two steps: (a) a paired-samples t-test; and (b) a path analysis using a bootstrap based on the Monte Carlo method. The findings reveal invariant measure of all our concepts, and significant differences between the two groups (ACDC and ACSC) with respect to some personality–emotional exhaustion–turnover intentions/perceived service quality relationships.

How Situational Cues and Mindset Dynamics Shape Personality Effects on Career Outcomes

The substantial literature on dispositional antecedents of career success (e.g., extraversion and conscientiousness) implies that being low in career-facilitating traits may hamper people’s careers. We develop a cognitive-affective personality system theory about the role of situational cues, personality, and mindsets regarding the plasticity of one’s attributes in determining when this will occur and how the related dysfunctional dynamics may be mitigated. We draw on trait activation theory to describe how the interaction of situational cues, personality, and mindsets may trigger an array of cognitive-affective units within a cognitive-affective personality system that influence subjective and objective career outcomes. The contributions of this article are to offer the largely between-person careers literature a within-person account of when and why people experience subjective and objective career success as a function of their personalities, situational cues, prevailing mindsets, and career contexts. A theoretical account of how personality predicts subjective career outcomes more strongly than objective career outcomes is thereby provided. Our intent is to also extend trait activation theory by considering the cognitive and affective dynamics whereby personality traits and situational cues have their effects. The conditions under which mindsets are likely to shape career outcomes are outlined. Finally, implications for mindsets, personality, and career theory, research, and practice are discussed.

Emotional intelligence and individual differences in affective processes underlying task‐contingent conscientiousness

SummaryOrganisational researchers have recently begun to focus on the more dynamic aspects of personality in the workplace. The present study examines individual differences in the affective processes that underlie one such dynamic construct, task‐contingent conscientiousness. Using experience sampling data collected over 3 weeks from 201 managers, we show (a) that individuals differ substantially from each other in the paths that connect task demand, positive and negative affect, and conscientious behaviour; (b) that these individual differences cohere to define person types or classes that represent meaningful differences in the extent to which task‐contingent conscientiousness is mediated affectively; and (c) that emotional intelligence increases the likelihood of membership in classes that are characterised by affectively mediated effects. Theoretical implications of the findings are discussed with reference to the cognitive‐affective personality system model, research on the consequences of affect in the workplace, and the literature on emotional intelligence. Practical applications are suggested for managers who wish to use personality assessment for developmental purposes, especially in relation to facilitating behavioural change.

Virtue Ethics is Empirically Adequate: A Defense of the Caps Response to Situationism

AbstractAccording to situationists, the available empirical psychological data show that prevalent conceptions of virtue are ‘empirically inadequate.’ The charge is ambiguous. I begin by differentiating four families of empirical inadequacy charges, explaining the conceptual connections among the families, and showing how different situationists press different versions of the charges from each family. Then I explain how the empirical psychological model known as the ‘cognitive affective personality system,’ or ‘CAPS model,’ enables distinct responses to these varied charges. The CAPS response has come under fire, though, and I close by responding to the five main challenges raised against it.