Psychological Theory Research Articles

Refining and expanding applications of Moral Foundations Theory in consumer psychology

AbstractWe set forth an agenda for Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) research in consumer psychology, focusing in particular on four pathways: (1) factoring in multiple identities, including moral identities, to account for contextual elevation or suppression of moral foundations in predicting which decisions consumers moralize and when; (2) broadening the methodological usage of MFT to include more targeted causal research as well as expanding the utility of correlational research; (3) increasing discriminant validity between MFT and other constructs by studying moral foundations as individually manipulable and focusing on their incremental predictive validity over and above demographics and related constructs; and (4) recognizing that researcher biases regarding morality can leak into the publication process, necessitating clear distinctions between prescriptive versus descriptive research. These pathways facilitate more precise and stronger predictive validity for applying MFT in consumer psychology, yielding greater theoretical and practical utility across researcher perspectives.

Predicting Acute Stress with Life Satisfaction and Psychological Resilience Scales during COVID-19 Pandemic in Greece

Background theories in positive psychology and mental health support that ‘Psychological Resilience’ (PR) and ‘Satisfaction with Life’ (SwL) are protective factors of psychological distress. On the other hand, ‘Acute Stress Disorder’ (ASD) is a condition related to the adaptation of sympathetic adaptation after a stressful stimulus in a period of less than a month. Regarding the stressful evident of COVID-19, little evidence is provided on the question of whether PR and SwL can predict ASD. To investigate, the present study received answers to three self-reported scales regarding ASD (Acute-Stress Disorder Scales [ASDS]; M= 38.67, SD= 15.51), PR (Nicholson-McBride Resilience Questionnaire [NMRQ]; M= 41.83, SD= 7.63) and SwL (Satisfaction-with-Life Scale [SWLS]; M= 23.3, SD= 6.31) from a sample of 1,158 Greeks from the general population during the spread of COVID-19 in the country. The results show that ASD is significantly negatively correlated to both PR [r= -.420, p< .001] and SwL [r= -.311, p< .001], while the predictive model (NMRQ and SWLS) predicted significantly ASDS [F(2, 1157) = 1155.06, p< .001, Adjusted R2 = .21]. The results of the study are overall confirmatory to previous studies although relevant literature may be limit as emphasis has been put on PTSD. Future studies may test the same research question in non-COVID conditions to the Greek or other populations. Keywords: Acute Stress Disorder; Psychological Resilience; Satisfaction with Life; COVID-19; Greece

Clustering methods: To optimize or to not optimize?

Many clustering problems are associated with a particular objective criterion that is sought to be optimized. There are often several methods that can be used to tackle the optimization problem, and one or more of them might guarantee a globally optimal solution. However, it is quite possible that, relative to one or more suboptimal solutions, a globally optimal solution might be less interpretable from the standpoint of psychological theory or be less in accordance with some known (i.e., true) cluster structure. For example, in simulation experiments, it has sometimes been observed that there is not a perfect correspondence between the optimized clustering criterion and recovery of the underlying known cluster structure. This can lead to the misconception that clustering methods with a tendency to produce suboptimal solutions might, in some instances, be preferable to superior methods that provide globally optimal (or at least better locally optimal) solutions. In this article, we present results from simulation studies in the context of K-median clustering where departure from global optimality was carefully controlled. Although the results showed that suboptimal solutions sometimes produced marginally better recovery for experimental cells where the known cluster structure was less well-defined, capriciously accepting inferior solutions is an unwise practice. However, there are instances in which some sacrifice in the optimization criterion value to meet certain desirable constraints or to improve the value of one or more other relevant criteria is principled. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

How Can Deep Neural Networks Inform Theory in Psychological Science?

Over the last decade, deep neural networks (DNNs) have transformed the state of the art in artificial intelligence. In domains such as language production and reasoning, long considered uniquely human abilities, contemporary models have proven capable of strikingly human-like performance. However, in contrast to classical symbolic models, neural networks can be inscrutable even to their designers, making it unclear what significance, if any, they have for theories of human cognition. Two extreme reactions are common. Neural network enthusiasts argue that, because the inner workings of DNNs do not seem to resemble any of the traditional constructs of psychological or linguistic theory, their success renders these theories obsolete and motivates a radical paradigm shift. Neural network skeptics instead take this inability to interpret DNNs in psychological terms to mean that their success is irrelevant to psychological science. In this article, we review recent work that suggests that the internal mechanisms of DNNs can, in fact, be interpreted in the functional terms characteristic of psychological explanations. We argue that this undermines the shared assumption of both extremes and opens the door for DNNs to inform theories of cognition and its development.

Extending speech emotion recognition systems to non-prototypical emotions using mixed-emotion model

In the conventional approach to speech emotion recognition (SER), the classifier is usually trained on acted emotional speech data to predict individual basic emotions. In this work, we extend the SER systems with the realistic assumption of the coexistence of multiple basic emotions in an utterance. We utilize the MSP-Podcast database for developing the SER system, which contains spontaneous speech utterances. From the primary and secondary emotion annotations of this database, we organize six prototypical and seven non-prototypical emotions. We then propose the mixed-emotion model and express the non-prototypical emotions as a linear combination of prototypical emotions. The combination weights of the mixed-emotion model are computed using a normalized dominance scale based algorithm inspired by the integration of basic emotion theory and dimensional emotion theory in human psychology. We first train a prototypical SER model using the ECAPA-TDNN architecture. The softmax predictions from this model serve as emotion profile inputs to the mixed-emotion model, which then predicts the non-prototypical emotions. Assuming the coexistence of multiple emotions, we only apply the utterances with uniform emotion profiles to the mixed-emotion model. The developed system continues with the conventional SER model if the emotion profile tends to delta function owing to the probable occurrence of a single prototypical emotion. We develop the proposed mixed-emotion model based SER framework using MFCC and wav2vec 2.0 extracted features. Further, we show that due to human perception variations, there exist prominent annotation variations in the non-prototypical emotion ground truths. To address that, we extend the supervised evaluation protocols in four different formulations that capture the subjective variability at different levels. The proposed system shows a best-case performance improvement of 7.10% and 8.39% over the conventional prototypical SER model for the MFCC and wav2vec 2.0 features, respectively.

Using Psychological Reactance and Bandwagon Cues to Explain High School Sports Coaches’ Resistance to Concussion Communication Policies

Sport-related concussions (SRC) are a significant health risk for athletes amalgamated by issues with underreporting. Coaches play a pivotal role in promoting safety and health, but coach-player SRC communication efforts have been insufficient at improving players’ reporting behaviors. This study considers coaches’ responses to a proposed mandate to engage in SRC communication with athletes via psychological reactance theory (PRT), with bandwagoning cues positioned as a form of social proof that heightens or mitigates persuasion. Two hundred five coaches from 20 distinct sports were exposed to one of four messages addressing a proposed SRC management policy mandating biweekly coach-player communication about SRCs. The message variations incorporated different bandwagon cues (positive, negative, absent, mixed), manipulated through user comments and emoji reactions on a simulated social media environment. Results demonstrate direct and mediated relationships between exposure to negative bandwagon cues, bandwagon perceptions, freedom threat, reactance, and opposition intentions. Our findings provide valuable insights into the dynamics of coaches’ attitudes towards SRC communication in a social media context, bridging gaps in the literature and introducing PRT to the SRC domain.

Harnessing the therapeutic effects of nature for chronic Pain: A role for immersive virtual reality? A narrative review.

There is a growing interest in the relationship between nature and pain relief. Evidence from environmental psychology, neuroscience and physiology-based studies point towards analgesic effects of nature being mediated through various cognitive, affective and/or autonomic factors. Being able to harness these therapeutic effects using immersive virtual reality (VR) could help to optimize and improve accessibility of nature-based environments as part of chronic pain management plans. In this narrative review, we present evidence supporting a new theoretical framework for nature-based analgesia and suggest ways for applying this through immersive VR. We provide an overview of the evidence on (1) the therapeutic effects of nature on pain, (2) environmental psychology theory that underpins the health benefits of nature, (3) key mechanistic evidence from nature neuroimaging and physiology-based studies, (4) previous studies that have used VR-based nature in pain research and (5) how to design effective VR interventions that can be used to integrate nature into immersive 360 environments. We have demonstrated how environmental psychology, neuroscience and physiology-based research can be used to form a novel theoretical framework for nature-based analgesia. Using this framework, we identify how key aspects of nature can act as analgesic and how this can be harnessed using immersive VR. Through developing this theoretical framework, we have provided a foundation on which to guide future experimental and clinical studies as well as helping to improve the accessibility of nature for chronic pain patients through immersive VR technologies. This review article summarizes key multidisciplinary evidence to help understand how nature exerts beneficial effects on pain processing. The use of this theoretical framework alongside advances in immersive VR technologies provides a springboard for future research and can be used to help develop new nature-based therapeutics using VR.

Zooming in and out of semantics: proximal-distal construal levels and prominence hierarchies.

We argue that the "Prominence Hierarchy" within linguistics can be subsumed under the "Construal Level Theory" within psychology and that a wide spectrum of grammatical phenomena, ranging from case assignment to number, definiteness, verbal agreement, voice, direct/inverse morphology, and syntactic word-order respond to Prominence Hierarchies (PH), or semantic scales. In fact, the field of prominence hierarchies, as expressed through the languages of the world, continues to be riddled with riddles. We identify a set of conundrums: (A) vantage point and animacy, (B) individuation and narrow reference phenomena, (C) fronting mechanisms, (D) abstraction, and (E) cultural variance and flexibility. We here propose an account for the existence of these hierarchies and their pervasive effects on grammar by relying on psychological Construal Level Theory (CLT). We suggest that both PH and CLT structure the external world according to proximity or distance from the "Me, Here and Now" (MHN) perspective. In language, MHN has the effect of structuring grammars; in cognition, it structures our lives, our preferences, and choices.

Explaining the penetrating role of technology in online foreign language learning achievement

AbstractThis study aims to integrate the technology acceptance model, classroom environment theory, and positive psychology theory to explore the relationships among learners' technology acceptance (TA), perceived online classroom environment (POCE), emotional states (enjoyment, anxiety, boredom, and burnout), and academic achievement in online classes. Six hundred and sixty‐two university students learning Chinese as a foreign language participated in the survey and completed the reading test. The results of partial least square‐structural equation modeling reveal that TA influences reading achievement directly and indirectly through anxiety (with the reversed mediating effect) and enjoyment, and the online classroom environment mediated the relationship between TA and learning emotions (except anxiety). These findings suggest that technology factors may shape the affordance of online classrooms and penetrate environmental and emotional variables to impact FL learning outcomes. Multigroup analysis with different self‐online learning time underscores that enjoyment and anxiety differ in two different effect paths (POCE‐enjoyment) and (TA‐anxiety), implying enjoyment may be more environment‐related while anxiety may be more technology‐related in the online foreign language classroom. This study provides both theoretical and pedagogical implications.

Генезис и современное состояние содержания совместной деятельности в условиях образования

<p>In the article we carried out a historical and psychological analysis of psychological and pedagogical research of joint activities (its genesis) from the 60s of the XX century to the present time. Research reference points have been identified/ The first one is the beginning of the 60s of the XX century with a primary study of the genesis of the subject of joint activity in groups of children of preschool and primary school age. The secon is the end of the 80s of the XX, early XXI centuries within the framework of the development of the theory of developmental education (V.V. Davydov, V.V. Rubtsov, D.B. Elkonin, etc.) based on the positions of cultural-historical psychology L.S. Vygotsky, who emphasizes joint activity as the most important sociocultural mechanism of development. The third point takes place in the second decade - the beginning of the third decade of the XXI century, it’s the study of the issues of promoting the ideas of sociogenesis in the traditions of cultural-historical psychology and activity theory, and an attempt to look differently at the key problems of joint activities in a modern school environment. The space of possibilities for modern children is analyzed. Current research shows that educational organizations today form and develop not only the abilities of students, but also their activities (from joint games, educational activities, to role-playing experimentation and project activities).</p>

The role of previous experience in the analysis of the psychological contract and its outcomes during the socialization process: a signalling theory perspective

Psychological contract theory has largely neglected the role of previous experience. In this study, we examine how previous work experience influences outcomes of communication with organizational insiders during organizational socialization among healthcare staff. We develop a model based on signalling theory, within which information acquisition during socialization is associated with psychological contract fulfilment, which is in turn is related to better health, happiness, and social relationships. Moderated mediation analysis based on data collected at entry and three months later confirms indirect effects between three types of information acquisition and three employee outcomes via the mediating role of psychological contract fulfilment. Importantly, these indirect effects are present only for inexperienced newcomers. Our findings build on signalling theory and add to knowledge about how the psychological contract forms during early socialization. They also suggest that organizations should pay particular attention to inducting inexperienced newcomers.

People have different expectations for their own versus others' use of AI-mediated communication tools.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance human communication, for example, by improving the quality of our writing, voice or appearance. However, AI mediated communication also has risks-it may increase deception, compromise authenticity or yield widespread mistrust. As a result, both policymakers and technology firms are developing approaches to prevent and reduce potentially unacceptable uses of AI communication technologies. However, we do not yet know what people believe is acceptable or what their expectations are regarding usage. Drawing on normative psychology theories, we examine people's judgements of the acceptability of open and secret AI use, as well as people's expectations of their own and others' use. In two studies with representative samples (Study 1: N = 477; Study 2: N = 765), we find that people are less accepting of secret than open AI use in communication, but only when directly compared. Our results also suggest that people believe others will use AI communication tools more than they would themselves and that people do not expect others' use to align with their expectations of what is acceptable. While much attention has been focused on transparency measures, our results suggest that self-other differences are a central factor for understanding people's attitudes and expectations for AI-mediated communication.

Psychometric Testing of an Instrument Assessing Family Knowledge, Contemplation, Confidence and Readiness for Engaging in Early Mobilisation of Critically Ill Patients: A Multi-Site Cross-Sectional Design.

Early mobilisation is beneficial to support recovery among critically ill patients. The literature highlights the benefits of family engagement in early mobilisation, yet this practice remains underutilised. Effective implementation depends on understanding the key antecedents that influence family engagement in early mobilisation, specifically families' knowledge, contemplation, confidence and readiness. However, no measurement tools currently exist to assess these. Therefore, developing a psychometrically supported instrument is essential to understanding and enhancing families' factors influencing their engagement in early mobilisation. To develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of an instrument to assess families' knowledge, contemplation, confidence and readiness to engage in early mobilisation. A multi-site cross-sectional survey design. Based on established psychological theory (Social Cognitive Theories and Behaviour Change Theories), an item pool was developed to assess families' knowledge, contemplation, confidence and readiness to participate in early mobilisation. To psychometrically evaluate the new tool, a multi-site cross-sectional survey was undertaken from May 2020 to June 2022 across five intensive care units in Australia. Data from 370 families of critically ill patients were used to evaluate the structural, convergent and discriminant validity as well as the reliability of the new instrument. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated good model fit, supporting the proposed structure. All items displayed high standardised factor loadings except one, which improved upon freeing an error covariance. Positive inter-factor correlations were moderate to strong and were substantially lower than the square root of the average variance extracted, supporting both convergent and discriminant validity, respectively. Additionally, all subscales demonstrated well to excellent reliability. The findings provide preliminary support for the multiple types of validity evidence and the reliability of the instrument. This new instrument is suitable for use in clinical and research applications to assess families' knowledge, contemplation, confidence and readiness for their engagement in early mobilisation. Family engagement in early mobilisation activities may have multiple benefits but it is not commonly implemented in the ICU. Factors influencing family engagement in early mobilisation are poorly understood. Influential psychological theories highlight the likely importance of knowledge, contemplation, confidence and readiness. A readily available instrument designed to assess these constructs among family members is needed to deepen research understanding and guide clinical practice. The proposed instrument is designed to measure factors influencing family engagement in early mobilisation, which may support healthcare professionals and health services to identify and tailor strategies to support family engagement in early mobilisation. Recommendations for reporting the results of studies of instrument and scale development and testing was followed to report this study. Family members of adult critically ill patients participated in this study, and they provided the data through the survey.

The Effect of Construction Workers’ Work Resilience on Their Leisure Sports Participation: The Mediating Role of Safety and Health Awareness

This study, grounded in psychological capital theory and the work resource model, investigates the impact of construction workers’ work resilience on their leisure sports participation. An interdisciplinary integration model was developed, incorporating work resilience, safety and health awareness, and leisure sports participation, providing empirical evidence for enhancing the well-being of the construction workforce. The study specifically examines the roles of physiological resilience, psychological resilience, social support, and occupational engagement in this context. A survey conducted with 663 construction workers in China and Korea revealed the following: (1) physiological resilience, psychological resilience, social support, and occupational engagement significantly and positively influence workers’ leisure sports participation; (2) safety and health awareness serves as a significant mediator between work resilience and leisure sports participation among construction workers. These findings underscore the importance of improving the work environment and creating semi-natural restorative landscapes to promote the physical and mental health of construction workers, as well as their engagement in leisure sports. The study calls for governmental and community initiatives, including policy support and resource allocation, to comprehensively enhance the overall well-being of construction workers.

Navigating Morality in Parasocial Relationships. Exploring the Dynamics of Affective Disposition, Moral Foundations, and Expectancy Violations in Mediated Relationships

ABSTRACT The morality of a media character’s behavior and its influence on viewers’ parasocial relationships (PSRs) are analyzed based on different theoretical perspectives on media entertainment and psychological theories. Affective disposition theory is used to explain the relationship between moral judgments and character liking. Viewers’ connections with media characters are analyzed in the context of longer-term PSRs. Accordingly, morality is treated as a multidimensional construct that consists of care, fairness, authority, loyalty, and purity. These five moral domains are applied to viewers’ moral foundations and to the behaviors of media characters. Additionally, viewers’ moral expectations and their influence on viewers’ PSRs are considered based on the expectancy violations theory. In an experimental study, the morality of a character’s behavior was manipulated (moral vs. ambiguous vs. immoral), and the effect on viewers’ PSRs based on their moral foundations and moral expectations in the five moral domains was analyzed. The results show that while moral behavior generally strengthens viewers’ PSRs, different effects emerge when viewers’ moral foundations and expectations are considered. The different patterns that emerged between the five moral domains underline the importance of a multidimensional approach to morality in this mediated setting.

Using a Positive Psychology Lens to Understand How Veterinary Medicine Learning Contexts Promote Student Thriving and Inhibit Frustration.

To develop a veterinary workforce equipped for long-term professional success, educational institutions must prioritize their students' well-being. Most approaches focus on building assets within the individual, like stress management, to limit negative outcomes, like burnout. Our research proposes a positive psychology-based model of student thriving that instead emphasizes the pervasive role of the social climate within a context. Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT) posits that social relationships at the institutional, faculty and staff, and peer levels will promote student thriving and limit frustration through the satisfaction or frustration of the three psychological needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Veterinary medical students across the United States (N = 202) completed a survey, and we used structural equation modeling to test how their institution's social climate predicted positive student outcomes (i.e., hope and life satisfaction) and a negative outcome (i.e., burnout) mediated by psychological need satisfaction and frustration. Students' perceptions of positive aspects of their institution's social climate ubiquitously predicted each variable in the model. Overall, the model positively predicted psychological need satisfaction (R2 = .44), hope (R2 = .67) and life satisfaction (R2 = .51), and negatively predicted psychological need frustration (R2 = .34) and burnout (R2 = .87). Findings emphasize the role veterinary medicine peers, faculty, and staff play in creating learning environments that support student thriving while limiting their frustration. By leveraging the interpersonal qualities posited by BPNT's parent theory, self-determination theory, veterinary medical colleges can build a culture of student support that benefits all within their system.

Resisting to Exist and the Subtle Invisible Protest: Six Solution Focused Tactics about Challenging Behaviour

According to Young Minds, ‘everyone gets angry sometimes’. Their website offers a number of de-escalating strategies, including staying calm, managing responses, and setting limits to help young people who most deem resistive. Yet, Young Minds are not alone because such logical advice is ubiquitous in the literature about challenging behaviour despite the fact that in our experience when faced with high states of arousal, most young people tend to act first and deal with the consequences later. It is not that they are stupid or non-caring, but they are human, capable of great feats as well as stupidity. The same is true for any claims that solution focused (SF) conversations can put right the several decades of psychological theory suggesting resistance requires logic and better cognition. By giving the correct thinking skills, young people will walk away from risk, avoid physical confrontation, handle challenging situations like logical thinkers, and generally discount that the process of growing up is part of the challenge. It is with this in mind that over recent years in our current SF practice (with staff group supervision), we have examined the concept of ‘resistance’ and how it can be put to use as a process of collaboration. To do this, we have revisited SF theory that preoccupied many of its pioneers during the 1980s and 1990s and attempted to make it useful for the early 2020s for professionals having conversations with young people, who, in traditional models, are labelled challenging. We want to introduce key differences of solution focused practice and how our research started to formulate a 6D-SF model (details, dynamics, dimensions, dispositions, dislocations, descriptions) for contemplating how groups of professionals relate to each other and are triggered by challenging behaviour. We do not claim to have proof, logic, or exactness on our side, but we are happy to suggest how our resistance mirrors what many of the staff teams feel and describe when working through their work.

Religious Myths and the Internalization of Non-Leadership Identities in Nigerian Women: A Symbolic Interactionist Analysis

Despite concerted efforts to promote gender equity in the global space, women remain underrepresented in leadership. This trend is most observed in Nigeria, where of the 49.99 percent of women in the population, only 6.7 percent are in elective and appointive political positions. Research suggests that men are usually seen as more capable leaders, even when women have higher qualifications. This paper attempts to investigate the etymology of this notion within the postcolonial framework and feminist research while drawing on a social psychology theory. Using the symbolic interactionist theory, I examine why/how the gender in which divinity is conceptualized sets the stage for stereotypes that inform a people's perception and conception of reality, thereby influencing how the attributes associated with the feminine and masculine are perceived in society. My argument is that the functionality of the symbolization process in religious myths is connected to the conscious and unconscious processes of human thought, perception, imagination, and intuition; therefore, it relates to epistemology as a means of knowledge. This makes it function dialectically and interpretively with the social processes, enabling outcomes such as the masculinization of the social reality and the internalization of non-leadership identities in women.

ЛАНДШАФТ ДЕЗІНФОРМАЦІЇ ЩОДО ЗМІНИ КЛІМАТУ: ПРОАКТИВНИЙ ПІДХІД ДО БОРОТЬБИ З НЕЮ

Failure to counter climate disinformation has the consequence of undermining public support for climate action and creating difficulties in strategic communi- cations as part of climate diplomacy. The author assumes that there are two ways to protect people from disinformation: firstly, to make them resistant to disinfor- mation before they encounter it; secondly, to debunk it after it is heard by society. The article examines the problem of applying the psychological theory of vac- cination to climate disinformation as a means of building resistance to manipula- tion. It is suggested that similar to medical vaccines, climate change vaccination can protect against negative impacts. The factors that can be used to vaccinate against climate disinformation may include climate literacy, critical thinking, media literacy, climate change awareness, encouragement of environmental ac- tion, collaboration with and use of celebrities and gamification and contests, as well as continuous monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of vaccination strategies, selection of appropriate approaches and adjustments to raise aware- ness of climate change and reduce the spread of false information. The author claims that vaccination against climate disinformation is possible through prior informing (prebunking), which is effective when backed by sci- entific support. It is important to be aware of the scientific consensus on climate change and to combat common climate myths to build an informed and resilient public. Climate organisations specialising in the dissemination of scientific infor- mation on climate change, as well as organisations specialising in identifying al- ready prevalent climate myths and misconceptions, can play a key role in provi- ding reliable climate information. This allows us to understand the landscape of climate disinformation and to respond effectively to the emergence of new false information about climate change, as well as global and national climate policies.

Rethinking empathy: professional work with persons with PIMD

This article combines ethnographic interpretations with analyses of the conceptual history of empathy. Moving beyond the more common notions, which often rely in psychological theories and terminologies, the conceptual-historical analyses...