Social Psychological Constructs Research Articles

The General Confidence Scale: Coping With Environmental Uncertainty and Threat

We investigated general confidence as a psychological buffer for coping with environmental uncertainty and threat. In Study 1, a new scale to measure general confidence was developed and cross-validated with different samples. Study 2 examined general confidence as a moderator of the influence of environmental stress on individual strains. Two groups of participants were presented with photographs either of terrorist attacks or of neutral scenes. We found a significant interaction between presented scenes and general confidence. Study 3 examined the effect of general confidence on acceptance of mobile phone stations while controlling for relevant variables. The results showed good incremental validity for the General Confidence Scale over related personality and social psychological constructs.

Integrating immigrant minorities: Developing a scale to measure majority members’ attitudes toward their own proactive efforts

The present study is based on the premise that the integration of ethnic minorities may involve more than the majority's expression of tolerance. In order to promote inclusion, the majority may have to play a more active role in the integration process. We describe the development and validation of a new psychometric scale which assesses majority members' attitudes toward their own proactive contribution to the integration of immigrants within three domains: cultural and structural efforts, and openness to diversity. The scale is investigated by analyses of internal structure and exploration of construct validity in relation to relevant social psychological and personality constructs in a sample of 486 Norwegian university students (28% male, mean age = 26.5, SD = 6.08). Factor analyses supported a unidimensional structure and the estimated reliability of an additive scale was satisfactory (Cronbach's α = 0.91). The scale correlated negatively with measures of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, and positively with global identity. It was weakly related to the personality traits agreeableness, intellect, extraversion, and conscientiousness. The potential utility of the scale in both applied and experimental social psychological studies are discussed.

Personality and Social Psychology Factors Explaining Sexism

Previous research has almost exclusively examined sexism (negative attitudes toward women) from either a personality or a social-psychology perspective. In two studies (N = 379 and 182, respectively), we combine these perspectives and examine whether sexism is best explained by personality (Big-Five factors, social dominance orientation, and right-wing authoritarianism) or by social-psychological (group membership and group identification) variables – or by a combination of both approaches. Causal modeling and multiple regression analyses showed that, with the present set of variables, sexism was best explained by considering the combined influence of both personality- and social-psychology constructs. The findings imply that it is necessary to integrate various approaches to explain prejudice.

Language Learning Motivation in Early Adolescents: Using Mixed Methods Research to Explore Contradiction

This mixed methods study with an Explanatory Design is an exploration of students’ language learning motivation as it relates to their attrition from a language immersion program. A total of 131 students who had graduated from five public elementary immersion schools responded to surveys, and 33 of those students were interviewed. Data analysis procedures included a theme analysis of the interview data, a statistical analysis of the survey data, and an integrated consideration of the qualitative and quantitative findings. It was found that mixed methods research can be uniquely revealing about social psychological constructs such as motivation, it can offer new perspectives where previous studies were contradictory, and it can accommodate multiple theoretical frameworks.

Students’ goal orientations and perceptions of professional competencies

This study was conducted with Thai students enrolled in undergraduate programs for industrial and technical education. Volunteer participants responded to surveys designed to elicit their personal goal orientations and their preferences regarding the thinking style of a competent professional, that is, a manager or supervisor. Participants (N = 729) completed an achievement goal survey and a Ways of Knowing survey, modified and translated from English into Thai. Statistical analysis of data showed several significant findings. Thai male students were more performance‐oriented than Thai female students. An increase in mastery orientation among both males and females was associated with an increased preference for the development of both ‘separate’ or ‘argumentation’ and ‘connected’ or ‘empathic’ thinking styles in a professional. An increase in performance orientation among students was not associated with a preference for the development of these competencies. These findings are interpreted in terms of socio‐cognitive theory and they establish a link between motivational constructs in social psychology and concepts of competency in vocational and technical education.

The Concept of Ego Threat in Social and Personality Psychology: Is Ego Threat a Viable Scientific Construct?

Although widely invoked as an explanation for psychological phenomena, ego threat has been conceptualized and induced in a variety of ways. Most contemporary research conceptualizes ego threat as a threat to a person’s self-image or self-esteem, but experimental operationalizations of ego threat usually confound threats to self-esteem with threats to public image or decreased control over negative events, leading to an inability to distinguish the effects of threats to people’s personal egos from threats to public image or threats to feelings of control. This article reviews research on ego threat, discusses experimental manipulations that confound ego threat with other processes, and makes recommendations regarding the use of ego threat as a construct in personality and social psychology.

Manufacturers' intention to extend the relationships with distributors

PurposeToday, it is becoming increasingly important for manufacturers to develop cooperative relationships with distributors and obtain customized distribution services. Previous research has suggested that, with specified assets, manufacturers might “hold up” distributors and that such a relationship would not be sustainable. In contrast, the purpose of this paper is to develop a causal model to explain why and how manufacturers intend to extend cooperative relationships with distributors.Design/methodology/approachTo propose a causal model, two approaches – relationship marketing and transaction cost analysis – are examined. To complement the defects of the two approaches, a repeated game theoretic approach was applied in the causal model. The proposed model is empirically tested with 144 strategic business units of manufacturers and the structural equation modelling. Also, a case from the US and Japanese automobile industries is proffered to discuss the validity of the model.FindingsThe results of the empirical analysis show that asset specificity by distributors increases manufacturers' long‐term orientation, which increases manufacturers' intention to extend the relationship. It was also found that the intention to extend the relationship is reduced by distributors' opportunism. These findings are supported by a case study of the automobile industry in the USA and Japan.Originality/valueWhile most previous relationship marketing literature has focused on social psychological constructs, the present paper introduces the viewpoints of a game theoretic approach. The paper proposes a causal model regarding the relationship among asset specificity, opportunism, long‐term orientation and intention to extend the relationship, which successfully explains why manufacturers do not hold up distributors with their specified assets.

Imitation, Empathy, and Mirror Neurons

There is a convergence between cognitive models of imitation, constructs derived from social psychology studies on mimicry and empathy, and recent empirical findings from the neurosciences. The ideomotor framework of human actions assumes a common representational format for action and perception that facilitates imitation. Furthermore, the associative sequence learning model of imitation proposes that experience-based Hebbian learning forms links between sensory processing of the actions of others and motor plans. Social psychology studies have demonstrated that imitation and mimicry are pervasive, automatic, and facilitate empathy. Neuroscience investigations have demonstrated physiological mechanisms of mirroring at single-cell and neural-system levels that support the cognitive and social psychology constructs. Why were these neural mechanisms selected, and what is their adaptive advantage? Neural mirroring solves the "problem of other minds" (how we can access and understand the minds of others) and makes intersubjectivity possible, thus facilitating social behavior.

Social psychology: handbook of basic principles

Part I: Biological System. Caporael, Evolutionary Theory for Social and Cultural Psychology. Blascovich, Seery, Visceral and Somatic Indexes of Social Psychological Constructs: History, Principles, Propositions, and Case Studies. Ochsner, Social Cognitive Neuroscience: Historical Development, Core Principles, and Future Promise. Part II: Cognitive System. Dunning, Prediction: The Inside View. Roese, Sherman, Expectancy. Kruglanski, Sleeth-Keppler, The Principles of Social Judgment. Andersen, Moscowitz, Blair, Nosek, Automatic Thought. Fiedler, Information Ecology and the Explanation of Social Cognition and Behavior. Forster, Liberman, Knowledge Activation. Hilton, Causal Explanation: From Social Perception to Knowledge-Based Causal Attribution. Petty, Brinol, Tormala, Wegener, The Role of Metacognition in Social Judgment. Wyer, Jr. Principles of Mental Representation. Biernat, Eidelman, Standards. Shafir, Decisions Constructed Locally: Some Fundamental Principles of the Psychology of Decision Making. Liberman, Trope, Stephan, Psychological Distance. Part III: Personal Motivational System. Schwarz, Clore, Feelings and Phenomenal Experiences. Strack, Deutsch, The Role of Impulse in Social Behavior. Oyserman, Social Identity and Self-Regulation. Higgins, Value. Pittman, Zeigler, Basic Human Needs. Fishbach, Ferguson, The Goal Construct in Social Psychology. Baumeister, Schmeichel, Vohs, Self-Regulation and the Executive Function: The Self as Controlling Agent. Van Lange, De Cremer, Van Dijk, Van Vugt, Self-Interest and Beyond: Basic Principles of Social Interaction. Part IV: Interpersonal System. Maio, Haddock, Attitude Change. Simpson, Foundations of Interpersonal Trust. DeDreu, Beersma, Steinel, Van Kleef, The Psychology of Negotiation: Principles and Basic Processes. Semin, Grounding Communication: Synchrony. Shaver, Mikulincer, Attachment Theory and Research: Core Concepts, Basic Principles, Conceptual Bridges. Fiske, Berdahl, Social Power. Part V: Group and Cultural System. Brewer, The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations: Social Categorization, Ingroup Bias, and Outgroup Prejudice. Hogg, Social Psychology of Leadership. Vallacher, Nowak, Dynamical Social Psychology: Finding Order in the Flow of Human Experience. Levine, Kerr, Inclusion and Exclusion: Implications for Group Processes. Chiu, Hong, Cultural Processes: Basic Principles. Part VI: Applications of Social Psychology. Tyler, Jost, Psychology and the Law: Reconciling Normative and Descriptive Accounts of Social Justice and System Legitimacy. Rothman, Salovey, The Reciprocal Relation between Principles and Practice: Social Psychology and Health Behavior. Strauman, Costanzo, Jones, McLean, Merrill, Contributions of Social Psychology to Clinical Psychology: Three Views of a Research Frontier. Johnson, Pham, Johar, Consumer Behavior and Marketing. Tetlock, Psychology and Politics: The Challenges of Integrating Levels of Analysis in Social Science. Thompson, Pozner, Organizational Behavior. Snyder, Omoto, Social Action.

Unconditional respect for persons: A social psychological analysis

It has been suggested that unconditional respect for persons, i.e. respect that is due to everyone simply as a function of their being persons, is the most fundamental kind of respect. Showing unconditional respect towards someone involves recognizing their integrity as a person and their status as an autonomous rational actor. This idea is a cornerstone of much moral, social and political theory. While the idea implicitly underlies some contemporary psychological work on respect, for the most part this fundamental moral orientation has been neglected in psychology. The concept needs clear explication and measurement if its explanatory and predictive value is to be fully realised. This paper will explore the concept of unconditional respect, describe a scale for measuring individual differences in this attitude, and then go on to position unconditional respect, both conceptually and empirically, amongst other relevant social psychological constructs such as Social Dominance Orientation, Right-Wing Authoritarianism, Empathy and Perspective-taking. We then provide some evidence on, as well as speculation about, the role of unconditional respect in interpersonal and intergroup relations.

Are there such things as “Narcissists” in social psychology? A taxometric analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory

Narcissism is typically viewed as a dimensional construct in social psychology. Direct evidence supporting this position is lacking, however, and recent research suggests that clinical measures of narcissism exhibit categorical properties. It is therefore unclear whether social psychological researchers should conceptualize narcissism as a category or continuum. To help remedy this, the latent structure of narcissism—measured by the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI)—was examined using 3895 participants and three taxometric procedures. Results suggest that NPI scores are distributed dimensionally. There is no apparent shift from “normal” to “narcissist” observed across the NPI continuum. This is consistent with the prevailing view of narcissism in social psychology and suggests that narcissism is structured similar to other aspects of general personality. This also suggests a difference in how narcissism is structured in clinical versus social psychology (134 words).

National images and intercultural dialogue in Southeast Europe

AbstractOn the basis of the constructivist and discourse approaches, this paper views national image as a multifaceted socialpsychological construct, representing both the self-concept of nationality and the attitudes of non-members towards it. National self-image is stored in collective memory and crystallized in collective self-narratives. In Southeast Europe, these are the three major discourses of self, other and the Balkans. Strong prejudices towards neighbouring nationalities are paradoxically combined with a sense of Europeanness and Eurocentrism in the peninsula. This means that European identity does not necessarily rival national identity, but under certain circumstances may even underline and strengthen it. Finally the paper sees intercultural education and intercultural marketing as the two main goals of intercultural dialogue in the region.

Differences between Male and Female Students' Confidence, Anxiety, and Attitude toward Learning Jazz Improvisation

The purpose of this study was to examine the gender differences in the social-psychological constructs of confidence, anxiety, and attitude as they relate to jazz improvisation participation. Three subscales of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Survey (1976) were modified for this task, and surveys (N = 332) were given to students of various ages participating in jazz programs. Returned surveys (N = 137, 41 % return rate, 83 men, 54 women) were analyzed using a MANOYA design with gender, school level, and instrument choice as the independent variables. A main effect was found for gender, and a subanalysis revealed significant differences between men and women on all three dependent variables confidence, anxiety, and attitude at the level of p < .05. Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficients were. 93 for confidence, . 93 for anxiety, and .88 for attitude. Results suggest that social-psychological issues are influencing female participation in jazz improvisation.

Introduction

Abstract This Special Issue contributes to current conceptualizations of politeness as a discursive phenomenon. Although earlier theories of politeness differ in some important respects, the most influential proposals, those of Brown and Levinson (1987) and Leech (1983), rest on one or more of the following assumptions. 1. Politeness is grounded either in a set of social maxims or the social psychological construct of face. Either way, the theories adopt a rational actor model of politeness, focusing on speakers' goals and social motivations. 2. Social acts are understood as endowed with inherent relational properties and hence categorized as ‘face threatening’ and ‘face supportive’, or as ‘competitive’, ‘convivial’, ‘conflictive’, and ‘collaborative’, in abstractu, outside of activities in natural settings. 3. Likewise, the linguistic resources serving to ‘encode’ politeness are seen as having fixed relational values. Nonverbal and nonvocal resources are not examined for their possible politeness-implicative functions. 4. Social context, viewed as configurations of discourse-external social variables, is the determining force in speakers' selection of politeness strategies. 5. Context factors assumed to have a bearing on politeness are understood as prespecified and static. Typically such factors are confined to power relations, social distance, and the culturally variable degree of ‘imposition’ inherent in a social act. 6. Politeness results from an actor's internal assessment of context variables in relation to the social act she or he is planning to perform. In other words, politeness as a form of linguistic behavior is conceptualized as a dependent variable, determined by the values of the context factors as independent variables.

Irrational categorization, natural intolerance and reasonable discrimination: Lay representations of prejudice and racism

This paper explores how the constructs of 'prejudice' and 'racism' were used and understood by respondents in an interview study concerning the settlement of Albanian refugees in Greece. Analysis indicated the existence of multiple, potentially contradictory, common sense understandings of prejudice and racism, analogous to some accounts of the prejudice construct in academic social psychology. However, notwithstanding the fact that respondents displayed multiple understandings of racism or prejudice in theory, these abstract formulations were rarely employed to account for actual instances of discrimination. Specific discriminatory acts against Albanian people were framed instead as matters of fear and risk. By virtue of being cast within a problematic of in/security rather than within the discursive frame of prejudice, particular hostile actions against the Albanian refugees could be glossed as reasonable and understandable.

Tendency to Conform: A New Measure and its Relationship to Psychological Reactance

This study assessed the relationship between two important constructs in social psychology, conformity and psychological reactance, which are suggested to be negatively related, i.e., a person higher in the tendency to conform will score lower on psychological reactance and vice versa. The two constructs were measured by multi-item self-report scales, the Therapeutic Reactance Scale of Dowd, et al. and a new tendency to conform scale constructed for this study. Data from a survey of 423 undergraduate students were used to test the hypothesis that scores on the scales were negatively correlated. The hypothesized relationship was positively supported by a significant but only moderately sized correlation (r =-.32, p <.001).

Evolution of Cross-Cultural Analysis in the Study of Leisure: Commentary on “Culture, Self-Construal, and Leisure Theory and Practice”

In a 1997 review of the social psychology of leisure literature, Doug Kleiber and I concluded that there was no comprehensive social psychology of cultural differences in leisure (Mannell & Kleiber, 1997, p. 27). A number of researchers at the time had raised this issue, arguing that leisure research had focused primarily on members of the dominant culture in North America and ignored cultural and ethnic differences (e.g., Floyd & Gramann, 1993). As noted by Walker, Deng, and Dieser in their paper, this issue has since been taken up by other leisure scholars (e.g., Floyd, 1998; Hutchison, 2000; Stodolska, 2000). However, I believe that the authors' paper goes some way toward correcting this lack of theory. It is important for its development of leisure theory on cultural differences and as a potential stimulant for future theory development and research.Theory and research in cross-cultural psychology has until quite recently remained on the periphery of mainstream social psychology (Matsumoto, 2000), and this is certainly the case in its application to the study of leisure. However, the importance and contributions of cross-cultural psychological analysis is gaining in recognition in mainstream social psychology, and the conceptual analysis provided by the Walker, Deng, and Dieser paper makes its contribution by introducing this type thinking to the field of leisure studies. In their paper, they illustrate this perspective by providing a highly relevant example of how an important social psychological and leisure construct, like intrinsic motivation, might operate as a basic psychological process across cultures but affect experiential and behavioral outcomes, including leisure, differently depending on cultural context.Though there has been a steady increase in interest in the ethnic and cultural dimensions of leisure in recent years, research has been largely descriptive of differences among various cultural, ethnic, and racial groups (Floyd, 1998). Researchers have focused on identifying differences in leisure constraints (e.g., Tsai & Coleman, 1999), meanings, needs and motives (e.g., Toth & Brown, 1997; Walker & Dieser, 2001; Yuan & McDonald, 1990), preferences (Shinew, Floyd, McGuire, & Noe, 1995), and behaviors (e.g., Floyd & Shinew, 1999), and how these vary in relation to recreational settings (e.g., Virden & Walker, 1999; Williams & Carr, 1993). Though some theory has been developed and tested to explain and predict these differences in leisure behavior, basic research on the actual social psychological mechanisms underlying ethnic and cultural differences in leisure remains to be done (Hutchison, 2000). It is here where I believe Walker and associates make their greatest contribution to our thinking about the cross-cultural dimensions of leisure. They illustrate how cross-cultural analysis can be used to acquire a detailed picture of not only how but why the meaning of leisure and people's reaction to it might differ from one culture to another. This development is important for two reasons. First, as the authors have noted, it is important to move beyond a description of differences to an understanding of why these differences exist. Second, the type of analysis and research discussed in the paper is a way of determining the extent to which various social psychological processes, including those involved in leisure, are culturally universal or culturally relative. Even though differences in leisure behavior, motives, and preferences for activities and settings may be found to exist, the psychological foundations of leisure (e.g., freedom of choice and intrinsic motivation) may be shown to be important regardless of culture once it is discovered how cultural values influence the underlying basic social psychological processes themselves. For example, as the authors suggest, intrinsic motivation is important to leisure for both Euro-North Americans and East Asians. …

The influence of place attachment on recreation demand

The travel cost model is a common tool economists use to estimate non-market values associated with recreation. Very rarely are social psychological variables used in the estimation of these models. Recent recreation literature proposes an important role for psychological attachment to place in recreation settings. The model developed in this paper combined typical variables used in travel cost models with place attachment attitudinal constructs in a structural equation model. The information used in the analysis came from a sample of recreationists who were interviewed at camping sites and completed a mail survey. The combination of these two approaches to study recreation demands resulted in a richer empirical treatment of recreation economic behaviour. The results suggest that recreation habits and social psychological constructs such as place attachment formed through previous trips influence recreation demand and have potential impacts on consumer surplus estimates.

"Selfobject" Needs in Kohut's Self Psychology: Links With Attachment, Self-Cohesion, Affect Regulation, and Adjustment.

Seven studies examined the validity and usefulness of central constructs in Kohut’s self psychology: selfobject needs for mirroring, idealization, and twinship and avoidance of acknowledging these needs. These constructs were assessed with a new self-report measure that was found to be reliable, valid, and empirically linked with a variety of constructs in contemporary personality and social psychology. The findings supported and refined Kohut’s ideas about the independence of the 3 selfobject needs, the orthogonality between these needs and defensive attempts to avoid acknowledging them, the motivational bases of narcissism, and the contribution of selfobject needs to problems in interpersonal functioning, mental health, self-cohesion, and affect regulation. The findings reveal mutually beneficial conceptual links between Kohut’s self psychology and attachment theory and suggest ways in which Kohut’s theory can be studied empirically.

Multiple Perspectives of Parent-Adolescent Sexuality Communication: Phenomenological Description of a Rashoman Effect*

Empirical evidence regularly demonstrates that parents influence adolescent sexuality, but we know much less about the processes associated with these influences (Werner-Wilson & Fitzharris, 2001). Communication seems to be one process that is associated with parent influence. The present article investigates the different perceptions of mothers, fathers, adolescent girls, and adolescent boys about sexuality communication. Research suggests that parents and adolescents differ in their perception of the amount of communication that occurs between parents and adolescents about sexuality. Theoretically, the difference in perception about sexuality communication can be understood as representing a Rashoman effect, a social-psychological construct, which suggests that interpretation of events is an inherently subjective experience. We analyzed focus-group data for the presence of a Rashoman effect and discuss implications for sexuality education and future research. *This research was supported, in part, by a grant from the Western Michigan University Faculty Research and Creative Activities Support Fund, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan.